his bulls from Rome, and then Pius VII became a prisoner of the French government. Dejean served as Vicar Capitular, though without proper credentials, governing the Church of Asti and Alba until 1814. With the end of the French Empire, Dejean was expelled from Asti, which he had been holding illegitimately; he was sent to Ivrea, where he remained for a year before being repatriated to France, where he died in 1820. After Waterloo, the Congress of Vienna agreed to the restoration of the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Papal States, both of which were in a state of disarray because of French political and administrative actions. The confused situation of the dioceses in Piedmont was addressed by Pope Pius VII in his bull Beati Petri (17 July 1817), as far as the redrawing of diocesan boundaries was concerned. Following the restoration, the new Bishop of Asti, Antonio Faà di Bruno, fell afoul of the forces of reaction and of constitutionalism by making imprudent remarks about Constitutionalism in Spain. Pope Pius VII had him relegated to a monastery, and Faà never took possession of his diocese, as he records in his own memorial inscription in the Gesù in Rome.<ref>Cappelletti, XIV, p. 128: Episcopus Asten(sis) et Princeps, quam vivens non adeptus, hic requiem delegit, die X Novembr. MDCCCXXIX.</ref> Asti was thus without a bishop for two decades. Synods A diocesan synod was an important legislative and disciplinary tool available to a bishop. In the company of his priests he could introduce new legislation from outside the diocese, from provincial councils, from general church councils, and from the Papacy. He could issue his own decrees, and publicly require cooperation with church policies. The earliest synod of which there is any record is that held by Bishop Guido de Valperga (1295–1327) on 7 May 1316. Another was held by Bishop Arnaldus de Roseto (1327–1348) in May 1328. Bishop Scipio Damiani (1469–1473) held his first synod in 1471, and Bishop Basinus Malabaila (1473–1475) on 21 August 1474. Another was held by Bishop Pietro Damiani (1475–1496) at the beginning of his episcopate; he held a second synod in the Episcopal Palace on 8 March 1485. Bishop Domenico della Rovere (1569–1587) published the Constitutions of his fourth diocesan synod of 15 April 1578, and of his eighth diocesan synod of 1584. Bishop Franciscus Panicarola (1587–1594) published the decrees of his first diocesan synod of 30 August