 Bishop Giovanni Negri held a diocesan synod on 6–8 September 1843.In spring 1799, Pope Pius VI, who had been driven from Rome and compelled to live at Siena and then in the Certosa near Florence, was under arrest and being conducted by the troops of the French Directory to imprisonment in France.The Austrian army in the Po Valley was advancing toward Piacenza, and the French were anxious to avoid the capture of their hostages.