Many were shocked; but none could resist his assumption of imperial power. A popular vote showed that only 2,500 people opposed the new government. Pope Pius VII accepted Napoleon’s request to take part in the coronation ceremony on December 2, 1804. The event occurred at Notre Dame Cathedral. The pope poured the mystic oil on the head of the kneeling sovereign. It was ten centuries since any pope had left Rome for a coronation, and in the minds of the Latin peoples this was a consecration of a monarch that put him on an equal plane with the proudest rulers of Europe, whose power reposed on the basis of Divine Right. When the pope lifted the crown Napoleon performed an act so striking in its originality that the people held their breath. He took the crown from the pope’s hands and placed it on his own head. He then crowned Empress Josephine. A few months later Napoleon journeyed to Milan, the capital of what was called the Cisalpine Republic, and there proclaimed the kingdom of Italy. He crowned himself then with “the iron crown of the Lombards” and named Prince Eugène, his stepson, heir to the throne. During the ceremonies the republic of Genoa sent ambassadors to Paris with the request to be incorporated into the French empire. This offended Austria, and led to the third war with that empire since 1792, when the republic of France was proclaimed. [Illustration: FRIEDLAND--“1807”--BY MEISSONIER] FRIEDLAND--“1807,” from the painting by Meissonier, is the subject of one of the intaglio-gravure pictures illustrating “Napoleon Bonaparte.” WEDNESDAY DAILY READING IN THE MENTOR COURSE PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION FRIEDLAND--“1807” Emperor Napoleon’s brilliant victory at Friedland was the event that placed him at the topmost height of his military power. In a fierce battle, noted for the strategy characteristic of Bonaparte, he defeated a large Russian army. This was on June 14, 1807. Czar Alexander of Russia had refused to comply with the demands of Napoleon regarding trade with England. England would not recognize Napoleon as emperor, and he retorted by forcing several of the European nations to sever commercial connections with England. Czar Alexander held out. The forces of both emperors met at a small town called Heilsberg, near Friedland. Napoleon disposed his army in such a way that he led the Russian general, Bennigsen, to believe that he had to conquer only a small number at Friedland. Part of the French army was hidden in the semi-circle of wooded hills that surrounded Friedland.