His predecessor, Pope Pius VI, had seen the Papal States occupied by the French and died a prisoner in France in 1799. Pius VII restored papal fortunes by signing a Concordat with Napoleon I in 1801, which re-established the Roman Catholic faith as the national religion of France. However, his attempts to increase papal influence by refusing to support the Continental System against Britain led to the annexation of the Papal States in 1808–09. He, too, was imprisoned by Napoleon in France, but returned in triumph after Napoleon’s downfall. He renounced his earlier liberalism, condemned revolution and secret societies, and re-established the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1814.