Cardinal Consalvi (1757 -1824) is considered by historians to be one of the most important political figures in the Catholic Church. In 1800, he promoted the election of the future Pius VII. Appointed by the latter as Secretary of State of the Holy See, he negotiated the Concordat of 1801 with Bonaparte. During his tenure, he also transformed Rome, protecting it from the flooding of the Tiber, cleaning it up after a plague epidemic and, later, implementing some useful reforms inherited from the French occupation. At the Congress of Vienna, this Anglophile attracted the sympathy of the great powers, including Protestant nations, to restore the Papal States and put the Church back at the center of European politics. Today, his name is associated with a modern, pragmatic approach to the Church’s relations with states.