Pius’s serious troubles began with the accession of that misguided but well-meaning monarch, Joseph II. of Austria. This Emperor’s intentions were excellent, nor was he impious or irreligious, yet by his exorbitant pretensions to sovereignty in every department of the State, and his avowed intention to re-organise on his own responsibility the spiritual affairs of his Empire, he was a powerful agent to the enemies of Christianity. After having continued for some time a correspondence with the Emperor which led to no satisfactory understanding on either side, Pius VI. determined to seek a personal interview with him. Leaving on February 27, 1782, he arrived on March 22 at Vienna. The Emperor received the Pope with the utmost courtesy, but remained inflexible, and Pius VI. soon perceived that his long journey had been in vain. However, Joseph II. treated the Pope with the greatest outward magnificence, and endeavoured to appease him by offering the brevet of a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire to Count Louis Braschi, the Pontiff’s nephew and heir. This the Pope refused, saying: “We are not occupied with the advancement or grandeur of our family, our interests are concentrated on those of the Church.” The following year Joseph II. returned the Pope’s visit, but on his way to Rome he appointed a new Archbishop of Milan without consulting the Holy See; but gave way, however, on this point later, and the result of the visit was the signature of a Concordat between the Pope and Austria, which put an end to the principal misunderstandings, although, until his death, Joseph never ceased to be a source of anxiety and annoyance to his Holiness. The French Revolution brought more trouble to Pius VI. After the measures taken against the clergy, attacks began to be levelled at the Roman Curia. The Assembly introduced the “Constitution Civile du Clergé,” which, by abolishing the various hierarchical degrees, destroyed the ancient Gallican Church; and Avignon, a part of the Papal States since mediæval times, was formally united to France. The Pope was powerless, and the storm of war began to descend on Italy: Savoy and Nice were invaded, the clergy compelled to fly before the persecutions of the Republic, and the States of the Church were crowded by destitute ecclesiastics of every condition, who were hospitably entertained by the Pope, whose own turn of misfortune was at hand; the French Government accused him of being “an enemy of the changes in the French Government”; they invaded the Pontifical territory, and Pius signed in 1797 the treaty of Tolentio, by which he gave up Bologna, Ferrara, and Romagna, and renounced all claims to the sovereignty over Avignon.