Is this quote really attributable to Napoleon? “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for him.”

by dplhollands

It's an amazing quote, but this history.stackexchange discussion had some doubts about its authenticity. I appreciate there might not be any way to have a firm yes/no but are there any Napoleon experts who can weigh in with a more likely/less likely view?

The stackexchange question points to Conversations avec General Bertrand à St. Helena as the source.

Hotblack_Desiato_

The earliest example of that quote that I could find was in the book "Our Christian Heritage" by James Gibbons, published in 1889, and he gives no source, which is a shame and a pain, because he seems pretty good about sources, otherwise.

Allegedly, the quote appears in at least one text at an earlier date (1845), "Sentiment de Napoleon sur la Divinite de Jesus Christ," by Robert-Augustin Antoine de Beauterne, but I cannot easily verify the contents, as it's in French.

Supposedly this book comprises testimony of people who were close to Napoleon, on religious ideas ALLEGEDLY expressed by Napoleon during his exile in St. Helena, and possibly earlier. Two of the people mentioned in the books (again, as far as I can tell), Generals Montholon and Bertrand, were with him for some portion of his exile there.

A third publication, records in a footnote that General Montholon read "Sentiment," and wrote a letter to the author saying "I do not think it is possible to better express religious beliefs of the emperor." However, it seems that Motholon had some honesty issues, so who knows?

So, based on this, I think it is POSSIBLE that Napoleon MIGHT have held an opinion SORT OF like the quote, but I think it unlikely, bordering on a certainty, that he SAID those EXACT words.