Yvon Beaudoin narrates the events that Eugene was connected with as a seminarian in Paris and the Roman cardinals, who had been stripped of their insignia and who were only allowed to wear black cassocks:
In June 1810, Napoleon exiled to the provinces, stripped them of their purple and confiscated the goods of at least thirteen cardinals who refused to attend his marriage to Marie-Louise, archduchess of Austria. Eugene worked in conjunction with several seminarians to replenish the coffers of these confessors of the faith. In a June 19, 1810 letter to this mother, he wrote:
The Emperor, after imprisoning the Pope, exiling the Cardinals, dispersing them in pairs in different towns of the Empire, stripping them of their insignia as Cardinals and confiscating all their property, has turned his attention to the Congregation of St. Sulpice which he drove out of the seminary… (EO XIV n 70)
The Pope steadfastly refused canonical recognition of the bishops appointed by Napoleon. Many sees remained vacant. In 1811, the Emperor summoned the bishops of France and Italy to an imperial council with a view to legislating that canonical recognition could be granted by the metropolitan or the dean of the bishops of a region. The council held only one plenary session, the session of June 17, at which Eugene was present as one of the masters of ceremonies…. The bishops resisted the views of the Emperor and he dissolved the council on July 10.