Pope Clement XIV (Latin:Clemens XIV;Italian:Clemente XIV; 31 October 1705 – 22 September 1774), bornGiovanni Vincenzo Antonio Ganganelli, was head of theCatholic Church and ruler of thePapal States from 19 May 1769 to his death in September 1774. At the time of his election, he was the onlyFranciscan friar in theCollege of Cardinals, having been a member of theOrder of Friars Minor Conventual. He is the most recent pope to take the pontifical name of "Clement" upon his election.
Ganganelli was born inSantarcangelo di Romagna in 1705[1] as the second child of Lorenzo Ganganelli, born in 1647, a physician originary fromBorgo Pace in theDuchy of Urbino, and Angela Serafina Maria Mazzi (or Macci), a noblewoman fromPesaro, and paternal grandson of Alessandro Ganganelli and wife Porzia Franceschi. He received the sacrament ofbaptism on 2 November 1705 at the parish church of Sant'Agata.
Ganganelli initially studied atVerucchio but later received his education from theSociety of Jesus atRimini from 1717. He also studied with thePiarists ofUrbino. Ganganelli entered theOrder of Friars Minor Conventual on 15 May 1723 inForlì, taking the nameLorenzo Francesco. He did his novitiate in Urbino where his cousin Vincenzo was afriar. He was professed as a full member of that order on 18 May 1724. He was sent to the convents ofPesaro,Fano, andRecanati from 1724 to 1728 where he did his theological studies. He continued his studies inRome underAntonio Lucci and obtained hisdoctorate intheology in 1731.[2]
Ganganelli was ordained around this time after he received his doctorate and he taught philosophy and theology for almost a decade inAscoli,Bologna, andMilan. He later returned to Rome as the regent of the college that he studied at and was later elected as theDefinitor General of the order in 1741.[1] In the general chapters of his order in 1753 and 1756, he declined the generalship of his order and some rumored it was due to his desire of a higher office.[2]
Ganganelli became a friend ofPope Benedict XIV, who in 1758 appointed him to investigate the issue of the traditionalblood libel regarding theJews, which Ganganelli found to be untrue.[3]
The papal conclave in 1769 was almost completely dominated by the problem of the Society of Jesus. During the previous pontificate, the Jesuits had been expelled fromPortugal and from all the courts of theHouse of Bourbon, which includedFrance,Spain,Naples &Sicily, andParma. In January, 1769, these powers made a formal demand for the dissolution of the Society.Clement XIII had planned a consistory to discuss the matter, but died on 2 February, the night before it was to be held.[5]
Now the generalsuppression of the order was urged by the faction called the "court cardinals", who were opposed by the diminished pro-Jesuit faction, theZelanti ("zealous"), who were generally opposed to the encroachingsecularism ofthe Enlightenment.[1] Much of the early activity waspro forma as the members waited for the arrival of those cardinals who had indicated that they would attend. The conclave had been sitting since 15 February 1769, heavily influenced by the political maneuvers of the ambassadors of Catholic sovereigns who were opposed to the Jesuits.
Some of the pressure was subtle. On 15 March,Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (1765–90) visited Rome to join his brotherLeopold, theGrand Duke of Tuscany, who had arrived on 6 March. The next day, after touringSt. Peter's Basilica, they took advantage of the conclave doors being opened to admit Cardinal Girolamo Spinola to enter as well. They were shown, upon the Emperor's request, the ballots, thechalice into which they would be placed, and where they would later be burned. That evening Gaetano Duca Cesarini hosted a party. It was the middle ofPassion Week.[5]
The minister of KingLouis XV (1715–74), theduc de Choiseul, had extensive experience dealing with the church as the French ambassador to the Holy See and was Europe's most skilled diplomat. "When one has a favour to ask of a Pope", he wrote, "and one is determined to obtain it, one must ask for two".[citation needed] Choiseul's suggestion was advanced to the other ambassadors and it was that they should press, in addition to the Jesuit issue, territorial claims upon thePatrimony of Saint Peter, including the return ofAvignon and theComtat Venaissin to France, the duchies ofBenevento andPontecorvo to Spain, an extension of territory adjoining thePapal States to Naples, and an immediate and final settlement of the vexed question of Parma and Piacenza that had occasioned a diplomatic rift betweenAustria and Pope Clement XIII.
By 18 May, the court coalition appeared to be unravelling as the respective representatives began to negotiate separately with different cardinals. The French ambassador had earlier suggested that any acceptable candidate be required to put in writing that he would abolish the Jesuits. The idea was largely dismissed as a violation of canon law. Spain still insisted that a firm commitment should be given, though not necessarily in writing. However, such concessions could be immediately nullified by the pope upon election. On 19 May 1769, Cardinal Ganganelli was elected as a compromise candidate largely due to support of the Bourbon courts, which had expected that he would suppress theSociety of Jesus. Ganganelli, who had been educated by Jesuits, gave no commitment, but indicated that he thought the dissolution was possible.[6] He took the pontifical name of "Clement XIV". Ganganelli first receivedepiscopal consecration in the Vatican on 28 May 1769 by Cardinal Federico Marcello Lante and wascrowned as pope on 4 June 1769 by thecardinal protodeaconAlessandro Albani. He was replaced as Cardinal-Priest byBuenaventura Fernández de Córdoba Spínola.[7]
Clement XIV's policies were calculated from the outset to smooth the breaches with the Catholic crowns that had developed during the previous pontificate. The dispute between the temporal and the spiritual Catholic authorities was perceived as a threat by Church authority, and Clement XIV worked towards reconciliation with the European sovereigns.[1] By yielding the papal claims toParma, Clement XIV obtained the restitution of Avignon and Benevento and in general he succeeded in placing the relations of the spiritual and the temporal authorities on a friendlier footing. The pontiff went on tosuppress the Jesuits, writing the decree to this effect in November 1772 and signing it on 21 July 1773.[9]
His accession was welcomed by theJewish community who trusted that the man who, as councilor of the Holy Office, declared them, in a memorandum issued 21 March 1758, innocent of the slanderous blood accusation, would be no less just and humane toward them on the throne of Catholicism. Assigned by Pope Benedict XIV to investigate a charge against the Jews of Yanopol, Poland, Ganganelli not only refuted the claim, but showed that most of the similar claims since the thirteenth century were groundless. He deferred somewhat on the alreadybeatifiedSimon of Trent, in 1475, andAndreas of Rinn, but took the length of time before their beatifications as indicative that the veracity of the accusations raised significant doubts.[10]
The Jesuits had been expelled fromBrazil (1754), Portugal (1759), France (1764),Spain and its colonies (1767), andParma (1768). With the accession of a new pope, the Bourbon monarchs pressed for the Society's total suppression. Clement XIV tried to placate their enemies by apparent unfriendly treatment of the Jesuits: he refused to meet thesuperior general,Lorenzo Ricci, removed it from the administration of theIrish andRoman Colleges, and ordered them not to receive novices, etc.[11]
The pressure kept building up to the point that Catholic countries were threatening to break away from the Church. Clement XIV ultimately yielded "in the name of peace of the Church and to avoid a secession in Europe" and suppressed the Society of Jesus by the briefDominus ac Redemptor of 21 July 1773.[12] However, in non-Catholic nations, particularly inPrussia andRussia, where papal authority was not recognized, the order was ignored. It was a result of a series of political moves rather than a theological controversy.[13]
Pope Clement XIV and the customs of the Catholic Church in Rome are described in letters ofWolfgang Amadeus Mozart and of his fatherLeopold Mozart, written from Rome in April and May 1770 during their tour of Italy. Leopold found the upper clergy offensively haughty, but was received, with his son, by the pope, where Wolfgang demonstrated an amazing feat of musical memory. The papal chapel was famous for performing aMiserere mei, Deus by the 17th-century composerGregorio Allegri, whose music was not to be copied outside of the chapel on pain ofexcommunication. The 14-year-old Wolfgang was able to transcribe the composition in its entirety after a single hearing. Clement made the young Mozart a knight of theOrder of the Golden Spur.[14]
Similarly, in 1774 German composer,Georg Joseph Vogler was also made a Knight of the Order of the Golden Spur.[15]
The last months of Clement XIV's life were embittered by his failures and he seemed always to be in sorrow because of this. His work was hardly accomplished before Clement XIV, whose usual constitution was quite vigorous, fell into a languishing sickness, generally attributed to poison.[21] No conclusive evidence of poisoning was ever produced. The claims that the Pope was poisoned were denied by those closest to him, and asThe Annual Register for 1774 stated, he was over 70 and had been in ill health for some time.[22]
On 10 September 1774, he was bedridden and receivedExtreme Unction on 21 September 1774. It is said that St.Alphonsus Liguori assisted Clement XIV in his last hours by the gift ofbilocation and was during two days inextasis in his bishopric inArienzo.[23][24]
Clement XIV died on 22 September 1774,[25] execrated by theUltramontane party but widely mourned by his subjects for his popular administration of the Papal States. When his body was opened for the autopsy, the doctors ascribed his death toscorbutic andhemorrhoidal dispositions of long standing that were aggravated by excessive labour and the habit of provoking artificial perspiration even in the greatest heat.[1] HisNeoclassical style tomb was designed and sculpted byAntonio Canova, and it is found in the church ofSanti Apostoli, Rome. To this day, he is best remembered for his suppression of the Jesuits.[26]
TheMonthly Review spoke highly of Ganganelli.[27] In a review of a "Sketch of the Life and Government of Pope Clement XIV", the 1786English Review said it was clearly written by an ex-Jesuit and noted the malignant characterization of a man it described as "...a liberal, affable, ingenious man; …a politician enlarged in his views, and equally bold and dexterous in the means, by which he executed his designs."[28]
[N]o Pope has better merited the title of a virtuous man, or has given a more perfect example of integrity, unselfishness, and aversion to nepotism. Notwithstanding his monastic education, he proved himself a statesman, a scholar, an amateur of physical science, and an accomplished man of the world. AsPope Leo X (1513–21) indicates the manner in which the Papacy might have been reconciled withthe Renaissance hadthe Reformation never taken place, so Ganganelli exemplifies the type of Pope which the modern world might have learned to accept if the movement towards free thought could, asVoltaire wished, have been confined to the aristocracy of intellect. In both cases the requisite condition was unattainable; neither in the 16th nor in the 18th century has it been practicable to set bounds to the spirit of inquiry otherwise than by fire and sword, and Ganganelli's successors have been driven into assuming a position analogous to that of PopesPaul IV (1555–59) andPius V (1566–72) in the age of the Reformation. The estrangement between the secular and the spiritual authority which Ganganelli strove to avert is now irreparable, and his pontificate remains an exceptional episode in the general history of the Papacy, and a proof how little the logical sequence of events can be modified by the virtues and abilities of an individual.
^Markus Friedrich,The Jesuits: A History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2022), pp. 575-76, 605-06.
^Roehner, Bertrand M. (1997). "Jesuits and the State: A Comparative Study of their Expulsions (1590–1990)".Religion.27 (2):165–182.doi:10.1006/reli.1996.0048.
^Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,Mozart's Letters, Mozart's Life: Selected Letters, transl. Robert Spaethling, (W. W. Norton & Company Inc., 2000), 17.
^ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Ott, Michael (1911). "Pope Pius VI". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
McCoog, Thomas M. (2015). ""Lost in the Title": John Thorpe's Eyewitness Account of the Suppression". In Burson, Jeffrey D.; Wright, Jonathan (eds.).The Jesuit Suppression in Global Context: Causes, Events, and Consequences. Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-1107030589.
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