CLEMENT VIII, Pope. - Ippolito, son of Silvestro Aldobrandini, an illustrious jurist, and of Lisa Deti, b. at Fano on 24 Feb. 1536, was raised to the pontificate on 30 Jan. 1592; d. on 5 March 1605. He studied law at Padua, Perugia and Bologna, where he took his degree. His upright and exemplary life from his youth won him the favor of Pius V, protector of his family, opening for him access to the Roman prelature; he filled with honor the offices of consistorial advocate and auditor of the Rota; by Sixtus V he was promoted datary on 15 May 1585 and in that same year, on 18 Dec., also cardinal of St. Pancras. He was major penitentiary in 1596 and then extraordinary legate in Poland
(1588-1589), where with great tact he succeeded in settling the very grave dispute between Poland and the house of Austria and, with particular care, in averting the Turkish danger. In the three conclaves that followed the death of Sixtus V, his name appeared among those papabile, but the court of Spain, which considered him a Francophile, was opposed to him. Elected pope, he took up again the governing directives and the resolute spirit of Sixtus V, with a gentler temperament. Opposed to nepotism in principle, he could not avoid calling as his immediate collaborators his nephews Cinzio and Pietro Aldobrandini, who were soon raised to the cardinalate and appointed secretaries of State. He had at heart the work of reform of the Church; in this he often had the counsel of St. Philip Neri; he was therefore solicitous for the re-establishment of discipline in the Palace and in the papal Curia and for the repression of every abuse; with the constitution of 12 March 1596, integrated by decrees of the years 1599, 1602, 1603, he provided for restoring good government and fidelity to the rule in religious communities; he recalled bishops and clergy to the observance of the Tridentine canons and in particular to the obligation of residence; he created as cardinals the best men (Baronio, Bellarmino, Tarugi, Toledo, Antoniano); he tempered the severity of the tribunal of the Inquisition; he removed irregularities in the procedure of trials (on 17 July 1600 Giordano Bruno, a heretic, suffered the extreme penalty); he pursued heresy and heretics, urging the Catholic princes to this end as well, especially in preventing the spread of books or pamphlets contrary to the Catholic faith; for the same purpose he ordered a new edition, more up to date and clearer in its provisions, of the Index of Prohibited Books. Since the Bible printed by order of Sixtus V had been the object of grave criticism among the learned, C. VIII prevented its circulation and had another, more correct one prepared (Vulgate Clementine); he resolved upon a modern collection of the pontifical Constitutions and himself collaborated in the studies for these; thus were printed the S. D. N. D. Clementis papae Decretales (Rome 1598); but the work remained in the state of a project, because doubts, opposition and resistance put up from various quarters dissuaded its publication. C. was a most zealous supporter and promoter of the missions, already everywhere, in the old and the new world, splendidly provided for through the work of Jesuits, Franciscans and other religious Orders. In the heated debate over the doctrine of Grace between Jesuits (Molina) and Dominicans (Báñez), with the aim of putting an end to the disputes that had become too heated, he arranged that they be submitted to the examination of a special commission, which was the celebrated Congregatio de Auxiliis, but he did not succeed in obtaining the reconciliation of minds.
In the religious war of France, in which Spain also had a part, C. VIII avoided taking part, not wishing to come into conflict with either of the two powers; but when Henry of Bourbon abjured Calvinism and was therefore recognized as king (v. ENRICO IV), he gave his sanction to this solution and was able afterward to reconcile the two crowns (Peace of Vervins, 1598) and to provide for the reform of the Church in France; in fact only then could the Tridentine canons effectively be introduced into France, with a prompt reflowering of religious life. Precisely with a view to concord among Catholics and peace in the kingdom, C. tolerated the edict of Nantes of 1598, by which that king granted freedom of worship and of conscience and special political guarantees to the Huguenots, still very powerful in the kingdom itself. With the support of Henry IV the devolution of Ferrara to the Holy See had a happy outcome. Already as cardinal, in the face of the assiduous efforts of Alfonso II d'Este, duke of Ferrara, to ensure the succession of that domain to the house of Este, although he lacked legitimate male descendants, Aldobrandini had maintained that such solicitations should not be entertained, in obedience to a well-known bull of Pius V, which forbade any further alienation of fiefs of the Church; in the early days of his pontificate he had also confirmed the bull; at the death of the duke, Cesare d'Este, his nephew, designated heir, wished to succeed him also in the domain of Ferrara, trusting in the aversion of the Italian powers to an aggrandizement of the Papal State. But in reality, not having the hoped-for favor of Spain, Venice and the Empire, while C. VIII could count on the help not only diplomatic but eventually also military of Henry IV, the Este was induced to submit to the will of the Pope; thus, peacefully, Ferrara was devolved to the Holy See. C. VIII wished to enjoy this political triumph of his by going pompously to Ferrara and ordering there, among other things, the construction of a fortress.
The Pope had lesser successes in other fields of his political-ecclesiastical government: the Spanish power, which was always strong in Italy and pressed rudely upon the papal Court itself, became more tenacious, on the pretext of a supposed preference of C. for France; the Pope's effort to organize a Christian league against the Ottomans had no serious result, nor did the sending of army corps to Hungary, paid by him, meet with success. If C.'s solicitudes for the Catholic restoration in Germany and in the Spanish Netherlands were considerable, the results in reality were not adequate. The hopes conceived regarding James I, king of England, for the re-establishment of Catholicism in England and the attempts in that regard produced nothing but disappointments. Few consolations came to him concerning the fortunes of Catholicism in Poland and in Russia; comforts, but not lasting, he had from the jubilee, proclaimed for the holy year 1600, which drew to Rome pilgrims in great number from the various parts of Christian Europe. His body, in 1646, was transferred from St. Peter's to St. Mary Major into the tomb built by order of Paul V. - See Plate CXVI.
