Clement XIV, Pope

CLEMENT XIV, Pope. - Giovanni Vincenzo Antonio, son of Lorenzo Ganganelli, b. 31 Oct. 1705 at Sant'Arcangelo di Romagna in the district of Rimini, where his father practiced medicine, but the family was originally from S. Angelo in Vado (Urbania). He entered the Friars Minor Conventual at Mondaino in May 1723, taking the name Fra' Lorenzo, and made his profession on 18 May 1724. He completed his studies at the college of St. Bonaventure in Rome and took his doctorate in 1731. After devoting himself to teaching in the various convents of the Order, he became rector of the college of St. Bonaventure in May 1740; at Easter 1746 Benedict XIV appointed him consultor of the Holy Office. Called in 1753 and 1759 to the generalship of his Order, Ganganelli declined the appointment, until on 24 Sept. 1759 Clement XIII created him cardinal of St. Lawrence in Panisperna, a title he later exchanged for that of the Holy Apostles. Of a jovial and facetious character, inclined to compromises and accommodations, before his pontificate he had no occasion to show a courageous and combative spirit, nor to face difficult situations by resolutely embracing a party.

The struggle that the European courts were waging against the rights of the Church and the authority of the Pope on the one hand, and the need to check the progressive spread of irreligion among the upper classes on the other, must have induced in his mind the conviction that in order to remedy worse evils it was necessary to reach the extreme limit of compliance with the public powers, and this particularly in the question of the Jesuits, on which Portugal and the Bourbon courts of Spain, France, Naples and Parma especially insisted. From all these countries the Jesuits had by then been expelled in those years. But now it was desired that the entire Society should be suppressed by the supreme pontifical authority, for its alleged faults and for being an occasion of continual disturbances and suspicions in the Church.

Clement XIII had, on the contrary, resolutely taken up its defense, seconded by cardinals, bishops and princes, even heterodox ones, who admired in the Jesuits integrity of life and ability in teaching, but at the same time provoking clamors and reprisals in the opposing camp. When he died suddenly on 3 Feb. 1769, the maneuvers for the Conclave on the part of the Bourbon courts were based on the intention of having a pope favorable to their alleged royal rights, disturbed, they said, during the previous pontificate, and in particular disposed to officially suppress the Society. To this very end Cardinal Domenico Orsini as representative of the king of Naples, the Marquis of Aubeterre, ambassador of Louis XV, later seconded by Cardinal Francesco Gioacchino de Pierre de Bernis, Tommaso Azpuru y Jiménez, auditor of the Rota and representative of Charles III of Spain, at whose side stood Giuseppe Niccolò Azara, general agent and confidant of the former ambassador Manuel de Roda, a great enemy of the Jesuits, committed themselves in agreement; toward the end of the Conclave the Marquis de Almada, ambassador of Portugal, also reappeared in Rome. Among the cardinals some were favorable to the Jesuits, such as those who looked to Cardinal Rezzonico, others unfavorable, others doubtful; therefore in the lists that were made of them they were listed as contrary, good, indifferent; but these lists did not agree on the names, because judgments on the tendencies of each differed; certainly there was lacking among them a man of energy and ability; according to Joseph II, who was in Rome during the Conclave, there was so little difference among them that the pope could have chosen himself by drawing lots.

Joseph II leaned toward Ganganelli, who was endowed with uncommon learning which was not restricted solely to the sacred sciences; as a friar he had shown admiration for the Jesuits, but later, probably because of the contradictions to which they were subject in the Curia itself, he had somewhat detached himself from them, yet without thereby placing himself among their open adversaries; he would have wished to avoid that on their account greater damages and dangers should threaten the Church. The cardinals entered the conclave on 15 Feb. 1769, but the French and Spanish cardinals had to be awaited before reaching a definitive action, because the ambassadors threatened that otherwise their sovereigns would not recognize the election as valid; a threat they repeated also afterward when the danger of an unwelcome election presented itself. The maneuvers had the twofold purpose of excluding undesirable candidates and of favoring one who appeared favorable to their aims, and went so far that they seemed to coerce the freedom of the electors, though without using the open exclusive. Judgments on the person of Ganganelli were not in agreement, and even the attempts to raise him to the tiara met at first with grave difficulties. Only after the Spanish cardinals succeeded in persuading Cardinal de Bernis in his favor was it possible to induce the pro-Jesuit cardinals as well to give him their vote.

Naturally he had been sounded out regarding the question of the Jesuits, and it would have been wished that he put in writing a commitment for their suppression; but the Spanish cardinals succeeded in obtaining from him only a declaration in which he set forth his opinion as a theologian: that is, that the Pope with a tranquil conscience could suppress the Society, provided that the canonical prescriptions and the dictates of prudence and justice were observed. After this Ganganelli was elected unanimously on 19 May with the name of C. XIV; on the 28th he was consecrated bishop and on 4 June he was solemnly crowned. The representatives of the courts were concerned above all that there be around the Pontiff persons of their confidence; for his part C. XIV always nourished great distrust of the persons of the Court and of the cardinals themselves, and resolved to conduct affairs with great secrecy; it may be said that the only one who enjoyed his confidence was the Conventual friar Innocenzo Bontempi. He knew only too well what interests were being woven thickly around his person. Indeed he was immediately besieged to wrest from him the suppression of the Jesuits, and to come to a showdown Cardinal de Bernis on 22 July presented him with a memorial on the matter drawn up together with Azpuru and Cardinal Orsini. C. XIV resolved to drag things out as long as possible: unfortunately, however, in a letter to Charles III of 30 Nov. 1769 he let slip the promise that he wished to satisfy him, but that until then he had been distracted by the multiplicity of affairs, and he added that he would communicate to him in due time a plan on the matter. He was no longer left in peace, although, to gain time, he showed himself favorable to the resumption of the cause of beatification of Giovanni Palafox de Mendoza, bishop of Angelopolis in Mexico and later of Osma, much desired by Charles III, because Palafox, who had died as early as 1 Oct. 1659, had been in conflict with the Jesuits. That cause had been introduced in 1726 under Benedict XIII, Ganganelli had been its ponente during his cardinalate, and for it all the adversaries of the Jesuits busied themselves, hoping that they would be discredited if it came to fruition. Since it seemed that the affair of the suppression was dragging on too long, to replace the ailing Azpuru, reputed not energetic enough, there arrived in Rome on 4 July 1772 Giuseppe Moñino, a layman, as ambassador of Spain, with the precise task of bringing it to completion.

The pressures on the Pope therefore became ever stronger and more resolute; he was harshly demanded to honor his commitment; yet he did not yield so quickly, pleading the danger of scandal for the peoples and the respect owed to Empress Maria Theresa and to the other powers that raised no objections against the Jesuits. Only after the Empress too had yielded to the promptings of France did the Pontiff decide to proceed with a draft of a brief that he had already communicated to Moñino on 7 February 1773 so that he might transmit it to Charles III. The brief Dominus ac Redemptor, however, was signed by C. XIV, with the date of 21 July, only at the beginning of August; and it was immediately published and measures were taken for its execution. Moreover, already in Rome and in Bologna measures had been taken against the Jesuits, taking from them the institutions they directed and limiting their apostolic activity. It is certain that the Pope yielded only to the tenacious pressure exerted upon him and remained embittered by it for the rest of his life; he did, however, leave the persons of the individual Jesuits at the mercy of the cardinalatial commission charged with the execution of the brief.

Another act of compliance with the princes, which aroused painful surprise among right-thinking people, was the omission on Holy Thursday of 1770 of the solemn reading of the bull In Coena Domini, which contained the list of ecclesiastical censures incurred ipso facto for certain grave offenses; this, however, did not signify its suppression. It had been proscribed in almost all Catholic states because it included censures against violators of the rights of the Church.

The diplomatic negotiations of C. XIV were directed at reestablishing relations with Portugal, interrupted in the preceding pontificate, and for which he had to grant the cardinalate to Paulo Carvalho (brother of the Marquis, minister of Pombal), who was not worthy of it; and at securing the return of the pontifical domains of Benevento with Pontecorvo and of Avignon with the Comtat Venaissin, occupied by Naples and by France as blackmail to obtain the suppression of the Jesuits.

To considerable solicitude for the advancement of the Missions in Asia, Africa and America, C. XIV added concerns that were anything but negligible with regard to the fine arts and the sciences. It suffices to recall, among other things, the creation of the magnificent Clementine Museum at the Vatican, the acquisition of distinguished works, the enrichment of the Library and of the numismatic collections, the protection granted to artists, scientists and men of letters: much, moreover, he also spent from his own means for improvements and public works in the territories subject to his civil government.

He died on 22 September 1774, after having refused to accede to the insistent pleas for the publication of the eleven cardinals whom he had reserved in petto since 16 April 1773; he left no will, and whatever personally belonged to him was handed over to his sister's son; none of his relatives had wished to benefit during his lifetime, thus keeping himself far from any shadow of nepotism. The rumor that circulated shortly afterward that he had died of poison is groundless; while, especially during the last year of his life, he had been tormented by illnesses. In 1802 the body was transferred to the SS. Apostoli, where since 1787 Canova's superb funeral monument had been installed.

WORKS

In Paris in 1853 Fr. Agostino Theiner printed the Epistolae et Brevia selectiora of Clement XIV, a documentary source of the first order. The collection edited by Luigi Antonio Caracciolo is instead very suspect: Lettere interessanti del pontefice C. XIV

Ganganelli (1776) in 5 vols., the last of which, printed in Venice in 1779, also contains the Diatriba theologica dedicated in honor of St. Ignatius in 1743. There is also a French version: Lettres intéressantes etc., printed in Paris, in 2 vols., in 1776. Some of these letters are perhaps invented out of whole cloth, others interpolated. An edition of Florence 1829, in 2 vols., has as its title: Lettere ed altre opere di C. XIV Ganganelli, and to it are added the Notti in morte di C. XIV Ganganelli of Aurelio de Giorgi Bertola, a short poem in sestinas divided into four nights. Finally: Lettere bolle e discorsi di fra' Lorenzo Ganganelli (Apr. 1740–Sept. 1769) edited by Cosimo Frediani, printed a first time in 1845 and then in Florence in 1849 in one volume; then in Turin in 1852, in 2 vols., with a laudatory life published first separately in Rome in 1847 and in Florence in 1848.

Pio Paschini