CLEMENT X, Pope. - Emilio Altieri, b. in Rome of the ancient Altieri family on 12 July 1590; a doctor of both laws, he was in 1623 auditor at the nunciature of Poland, then on 26 Nov. 1627 he was appointed bishop of Camerino upon the resignation of his brother Giovanni Battista and held this see until 1666. He was nuncio at Naples, but was created cardinal by Clement IX only on 24 Nov. 1669. On the latter's death, after five months of conclave, at the age of 80, he was elected pope (29 Apr. 1670), and because he had no close relatives he entrusted the dispatch of business to Cardinal Paluzzi degli Albertoni, who assumed the surname of the Altieri. A great concern of C. was the internal discord of Poland, of which Mohammed IV took advantage to seize the fortresses of the kingdom; he favored the moves of John Sobieski, his victory at Chocim on the Dniester (11 Nov. 1673) and his election as king on 20 May 1674.
Also in the war that was simultaneously (1673-1675) being waged between France and Spain, C. worked as a mediator of peace, and he had already appointed as plenipotentiary Fabio Guinigi, archbishop of Ravenna (5 Oct. 1675), when on 26 July 1676 he died. A few years later a monument was erected to him in St. Peter's after a design by Mattia De Rossi.
The pontificate of C. was fruitful in works aimed at ensuring the well-being of his subjects and the embellishment of the seat of the papacy. He gave a strong impulse to agriculture, promoted the progress of industries, subsidized hospices and hospitals, and set aside funds for alms.
The arts too were favored. Carlo Rainaldi, appointed court architect in place of the aged Bernini, carried out the arrangement of the steps and the tribune of St. Mary Major, and there erected the monument to Clement IX. Bernini completed with four statues the decoration of the Ponte S. Angelo and executed the bronze ciborium for the chapel of the Sacrament in St. Peter's. In the same basilica the mosaic of Giotto's "navicella" was reassembled, and in the square the fountain corresponding to the one placed there by Maderno was erected; in the church of the Minerva the chapel of the Altieri family was embellished. - See Pl. CXVIII.
C. canonized Luigi Bertrán, Gaetano Thiene, Francesco Borgia, Filippo Benizi and Rose of Lima (1671).