lands. Several reforms were made in the French-controlled regions, where much property of the Church was confiscated. Some factors led to the complete occupation of Rome by the French. Firstly, the entrance of the Russian army into Northern Italy pushed the French back. Secondly, on 28 December 1797, in a riot created by some Italian and French revolutionists, the French general Mathurin-Léonard Duphot of the French embassy was killed and a new pretext furnished for invasion. Louis Alexandre Berthier marched to Rome, entered it unopposed on 13 February 1798, and, proclaiming a Roman Republic, demanded of the pope the renunciation of his temporal authority. His actions were at the direction of the French Government, at that time the Directory. Pius refused and was taken prisoner. On 20 February he was escorted from the Vatican to Siena, and thence to the Certosa near Florence. The French declaration of war against Grand Duke Ferdinand III of Tuscany led to Pius' removal, though by this time deathly ill, by way of Parma, Piacenza, Turin and Grenoble to the citadel of Valence, where he died six weeks later, on 29 August 1799. Napoleon was not directly involved. He was in the Near East, and did not return to France until November 1799, when he conducted the coup-d'état of 9 November (18 Brumaire). The Conclave With the loss of the Vatican and the pope's other temporal power, the cardinals were left in a remarkable position. All had been expelled from the city of Rome by the French occupying authorities. They were forced to hold the conclave in Venice. This followed an ordinance issued by Pius VI in 1798, which established that when a conclave could not be held in Rome it would be held in the city with the greatest number of cardinals. The Benedictine San Giorgio Monastery in Venice was chosen as the location for the conclave, and the voting would be held in its night chapel. The city, along with other northern Italian lands, was held by the Archduchy of Austria, whose ruler Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, agreed to defray the costs of the conclave. Since the Secretary of the College of Cardinals was unable to leave Rome to attend, the cardinals elected, in an almost unanimous vote, Msgr. Ercole Consalvi as Secretary in his place. Consalvi would prove an influential figure in the election. The conclave began on 30 November 1799