Pope Clement XIII (Latin:Clemens XIII;Italian:Clemente XIII; 7 March 1693 – 2 February 1769), bornCarlo della Torre di Rezzonico, was head of theCatholic Church and ruler of thePapal States from 6 July 1758 to his death in February 1769. He was installed on 16 July 1758.
His pontificate was overshadowed by the constant pressure to suppress theSociety of Jesus but despite this, he championed their order and also proved to be their greatest defender at that time. He was also one of the few early popes who favoured dialogue withProtestants and to this effect hoped to mend theschism with the Catholic Church that existed inEngland and theLow Countries. These efforts ultimately bore little fruit.
Portrait engraving of Carlo Rezzonico (c. 1737 – 44)
Carlo della Torre di Rezzonico was born on 7 March 1693 to a recentlyennobled family of Venice,[1] the second of two children of the man who bought the unfinished palace on theGrand Canal (nowCa' Rezzonico) and finished its construction. His parents were Giovanni Battista della Torre di Rezzonico and VittoriaBarbarigo.
In 1716 Rezzonico became the Referendary of theApostolic Signatura and in 1721 was appointed Governor ofFano.[2] He was ordained to the priesthood on 23 December 1731 in Rome.Pope Clement XII appointed him to the cardinalate in 1737 as the Cardinal-Deacon ofSan Nicola in Carcere. He also filled various important posts in theRoman Curia.[3]
Rezzonico was chosen asBishop of Padua in 1743 and he receivedepiscopal consecration in Rome byPope Benedict XIV himself,[3] in the presence ofGiuseppe Accoramboni and Cardinal Antonio Saverio Gentili asco-consecrators.[4] Rezzonico visited his diocese on frequent occasions and reformed the way that the diocese ran, paying attention to the social needs of the diocese. He was the first to do this in five decades.[5] He later opted to become the Cardinal-Priest ofSanta Maria in Aracoeli in 1747 and later still to become the Cardinal-Priest ofSan Marco in 1755.[6]
Pope Benedict XIV died of gout in 1758 and theCollege of Cardinals gathered at the papal conclave in order to elect a successor. Direct negotiations between the rival factions resulted in the proposal for the election of Rezzonico. On the evening of 6 July 1758,[7] Rezzonico received 31 votes out of a possible 44, one more than the required amount. He selected the pontifical name of "Clement XIII" in honor ofPope Clement XII, who had elevated him to the cardinalate. Rezzonico wascrowned as pontiff on 16 July 1758 by theprotodeacon, CardinalAlessandro Albani.
Notwithstanding the meekness and affability of his upright and moderate character, he was modest to a fault (he had the classical sculptures in the Vatican provided with mass-producedfig leaves)[8] and generous with his extensive private fortune. He also permitted vernacular translations of the Bible in Catholic countries.[8]
Clement XIII's pontificate was repeatedly disturbed by disputes respecting the pressures tosuppress the Jesuits coming from the progressiveEnlightenment circles of thephilosophes in France.
Clement XIII placed theEncyclopédie ofD'Alembert andDiderot on theIndex, but this index was not as effective as it had been in the previous century. More unexpected resistance came from the less progressive courts ofSpain,Naples &Sicily, andPortugal. In 1758 the reforming minister ofJoseph I of Portugal (1750–77), theMarquis of Pombal, expelled the Jesuits from Portugal, and transported them all toCivitavecchia, as a "gift for the Pope." In 1760, Pombal sent thepapal nuncio home and recalled the Portuguese ambassador from the Vatican. The pamphlet titled theBrief Relation, which claimed the Jesuits had created their own sovereignindependent kingdom in South America and tyrannised theNative Americans, all in the interest of an insatiable ambition and avarice,[2] did damage to the Jesuit cause as well.
In France, theParlement of Paris, with its strong upperbourgeois background andJansenist sympathies, began its campaign to expel the Jesuits fromFrance in the spring of 1761, and the published excerpts from Jesuit writings, theExtrait des assertions, provided anti-Jesuit ammunition (though, arguably, many of the statements theExtrait contained were made to look worse than they were through judicious omission of context). Though a congregation of bishops assembled at Paris in December 1761 recommended no action,Louis XV (1715–74) promulgated a royal order permitting the Society to remain in France, with the proviso that certain essentially liberalising changes in their institution satisfy the Parlement with a French Jesuit vicar-general who would be independent of the general in Rome. When the Parlement by thearrêt of 2 August 1762 suppressed the Jesuits in France and imposed untenable conditions on any who remained in the country, Clement XIII protested against this invasion of the Church's rights and annulled thearrêts.[2] Louis XV's ministers could not permit such an abrogation of French law, and the King finally expelled the Jesuits in November 1764.
Clement XIII warmly espoused the Jesuit order in a papal bullApostolicum pascendi, 7 January 1765, which dismissed criticisms of the Jesuits as calumnies and praised the order's usefulness; it was largely ignored: by 1768 the Jesuits had been expelled from France, Naples & Sicily andParma. In Spain, they appeared to be safe, but Charles III (1759–88), aware of the drawn-out contentions inBourbon France, decided on a more peremptory efficiency. During the night of 2–3 April 1767, all the Jesuit houses of Spain were suddenly surrounded, the inhabitants arrested, shipped to the ports in the clothes they were wearing and bundled onto ships for Civitavecchia. The King's letter to Clement XIII promised that his allowance of 100piastres each year would be withdrawn for the whole order, should any one of them venture at any time to write anything in self-defence or in criticism of the motives for the expulsion,[2] motives that he refused to discuss, then or in the future.
Much the same fate awaited them in the territories of the BourbonPhilip, Duke of Parma, who was advised by the liberal ministerGuillaume du Tillot. In 1768, Clement XIII issued a strong protest (monitorium) against the policy of the Parmese government. The question of theinvestiture of Parma (technically a Papal fief), aggravated the Pope's troubles. The Bourbon kings espoused their relative's quarrel, seizedAvignon,Benevento andPontecorvo, and united in a peremptory demand for the total suppression of the Jesuits (January 1769).[3]
Driven to extremes, Clement XIII consented to call aconsistory to consider the step, but on the very eve of the day set for its meeting he died, not without suspicion of poison, of which, however, there appears to be no conclusive evidence.[3]
Clement XIII created 52 new cardinals in seven consistories in his pontificate. The pope created his nephewCarlo as a cardinal in his first consistory and later created Antonio Ganganelli—who would succeed him asPope Clement XIV—as a cardinal.
Clement XIII died during the night of 2 February 1769 in Rome.[10] He had participated in the solemnities to mark theFeast of the Purification of Mary, and was noted to have participated with much fervor that would indicate good health. After lunch, he had a series of audiences, though did not leave the palace due to the exceptionally cold weather that had marred that week. He later received his nephew in an audience and then met with theCardinal Secretary of State before he would dine with his nephew, Abondio Rezzonico, the senator of Rome. However, as the pope was getting ready for bed after reciting the evening prayers with his aide drawing off his stockings, he suddenly collapsed on his bed, exclaiming, "O God, O God, what pain!" The doctor, immediately summoned, triedblood-letting, but Clement XIII died quickly with blood gurgling in his mouth at around 5:15pm. It is generally believed that the pope experienced ananeurysm of ablood vessel near the heart.[11][12]
He was laid to rest on 8 February 1769 in the Vatican but his remains were transferred on 27 September 1774 to a monument in the Vatican that had been sculpted byAntonio Canova at the request of Senator Abbondio Rezzonico, the nephew of the late pontiff.
He was described in theAnnual Register for 1758 as "the honestest man in the world; a most exemplary ecclesiastic; of the purest morals; devout, steady, learned, diligent..."[13]
^abcd One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Smith, Sydney (1908). "Pope Clement XIII". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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