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CLEMENT XIV

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 487 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CLEMENT XIV . (Lorenzo Ganganelli), See also:pope from 1769 to 1774, son of a physician of St Arcangelo, near See also:Rimini, was See also:born on the 31st of See also:October 1705, entered the Franciscan See also:order at the See also:age of seventeen, and became a teacher of See also:theology and See also:philosophy. As See also:regent of the See also:college of S. See also:Bonaventura, See also:Rome, he came under the See also:notice of See also:Benedict XIV., who conceived a high See also:opinion of his talents and made him consulter of the See also:Inquisition. Upon the recommendation of See also:Ricci, See also:general of the See also:Jesuits, Clement XIII. made him a See also:cardinal; but, owing to his disapproval of the pope's policy, he found himself out of favour and without See also:influence. The See also:conclave following the See also:death of Clement XIII. was the most momentous of at least two centuries. The See also:fate of the Jesuits hung in the See also:balance; and the See also:Bourbon princes were determined to have a pope subservient to their hostile designs. The struggle was prolonged three months. At length, on the Igth of May 1769, Ganganelli was chosen, not as a declared enemy of the Jesuits, but as being least objection-able to each of the contending factions. The See also:charge of See also:simony was inspired by Jesuit hatred; there is absolutely no See also:evidence that Ganganelli pledged himself to suppress the order. The outlook for the papacy was dark; See also:Portugal was talking of a patriarchate; See also:France held See also:Avignon; See also:Naples held See also:Ponte Corvo and See also:Benevento; See also:Spain was See also:ill-affected; See also:Parma, defiant; See also:Venice, aggressive; See also:Poland meditating a restriction of the rights of the See also:nuncio. Clement realized the imperative See also:necessity of conciliating the See also:powers.

He suspended the public See also:

reading of the See also:bull In Coena Domini, so See also:obnoxious to See also:civil authority; resumed relations with Portugal; revoked the monitorium of his predecessor against Parma. But the powers were See also:bent upon the destruction of the Jesuits, and they had the pope at their See also:mercy. Clement looked abroad for help, but found none. Even Maria See also:Theresa, his last See also:hope, suppressed the order in See also:Austria. Temporizing and partial concessions were of no avail. At last, convinced that the See also:peace of the See also:Church demanded the See also:sacrifice, Clement signed the brief See also:Dominus ac Redemptor, dissolving the order, on the 21st of See also:July 1773. The powers at once gave substantial See also:proof of their See also:satisfaction; Benevento, Ponte Corvo, Avignon and the' Venaissin were restored to the See also:Holy See. But it would be unfair to accept this as evidence of a bargain. Clement had formerly indignantly rejected the See also:suggestion of such an See also:exchange of favours. There is no question of the legality of the pope's See also:act; whether he was morally culpable, however, continues to be a See also:matter of See also:bitter controversy. On the one See also:hand, the suppression is denounced as a See also:base surrender to the forces of tyranny and irreligion, an act of See also:treason to See also:conscience, which reaped its just See also:punishment of remorse; on the other hand, it is as ardently maintained that Clement acted in full See also:accord with his conscience, and that the order merited its fate by its own mischievous activities which made it an offence to See also:religion and authority alike. But whatever the See also:guilt. or innocence of the Jesuits, and whether their suppression were ill-advised or not, there appears to be no ground for impeaching the motives of Clement, or of doubting that he had the approval of his conscience.

The stories of his having swooned after See also:

signing the brief, and of having lost hope and even See also:reason, are too absurd to be entertained. The decline in See also:health, which set in shortly after the suppression, and his death (on the 22nd of,See also:September 1774) proceeded from wholly natural causes. The testimony of his physician and of his See also:confessor ought to be sufficient to discredit the oft-repeated See also:story of slow poisoning (see Duhr, Jesuiten Fabeln, 4th ed., 1904, pp. 69 seq.). The suppression of the Jesuits bulks so large in the pontificate of Clement that he has scarcely been given due See also:credit for his praiseworthy See also:attempt to reduce the burdens of See also:taxation and to reform the See also:financial See also:administration, nor for his liberal encouragement of See also:art and learning, of which the museum Pio-Clementino is a lasting See also:monument. No pope has been the subject of more diverse judgments than Clement XIV. Zealous defenders credit him with all virtues, and bless him as the See also:instrument divinely ordained to restore the peace of the Church; virulent detractors charge him with in-gratitude, cowardice and See also:double-dealing. The truth is at neither extreme. Clement's was a deeply religious and poetical nature, animated by a lofty and refined spirit. Gentleness, equanimity and benevolence were native to him. He cherished high purposes and obeyed a lively conscience. But he instinctively shrank from conflict; he lacked the resoluteness and the sterner sort of courage that grapples with a crisis.

Caraccioli's See also:

Vie de Clement XIV (See also:Paris, 1775) (freq. translated), is incomplete, uncritical and too laudatory. The See also:middle of the 19th See also:century saw quite a spirited controversy over Clement XIV. ; St See also:Priest, in his His'. de la chute See also:des Jesuites (Paris, 1846), represented Clement as lamentably, almost culpably, weak; Cretineau- Joly, in his Dist. . de la Comp. de Jesus (Paris, 1844-1845, and his Clement XIV et See also:les Jesuites (Paris, 1847), was outspoken and bitter in his condemnation; this provoked Theiner's Gesch. des Pontificals Clemens' XIV. (See also:Leipzig and Paris, 1852), a vigorous See also:defence based upon See also:original documents to which, as custodian of the Vaticah archives, the author had freest See also:access; Cretineau-Joly replied with Le Pape Clement XIV; Lettres au P. Theiner (Paris, 1852). Ravignan's Clem. XIII. e Clem. XIV. (Paris, 1854) is a weak, See also:half-hearted See also:apology for Clement XIV. See also v. See also:Reumont, Ganganelli, Pepsi Clemens XIV.

(See also:

Berlin, 1847); and Reinerding, Clemens XIV. u. d. Aufhebung der Gesellschaft Jesu (See also:Augsburg, 1854). The letters of Clement have frequently been printed; the genuineness of Caraccioli's collection (Paris, 1776; freq. translated) has been questioned, but most of the letters are now generally accepted as genuine; see also Clementis XIV. Epp. ac Brevia, ed. Theiner (Paris, 1852). An extended bibliography is to be found in Hergen- rother, Allg. Kirchengesch. (188o), iii. 510 seq. (T. F.

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