XI, pope. - Giovanni Francesco Albani, born in Urbino on 23 July 1649, was educated in Rome and was not a stranger to the circle of Queen Christina of Sweden. Appointed secretary of briefs in 1687, he was created cardinal of S. Maria in Aquiro by Alexander VIII on 10 April 1690.
He was elected pope on 23 November 1700. His pontificate was troubled, for with the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession, each of the two opposing powers, France and the Empire with their allies, claimed to have the Pope on their side. Emperor Joseph and Philip V of Spain recalled their ambassadors from Rome, severing relations with the Pope; indeed, the emperor had the Papal States harassed by his troops.
The Treaties of Utrecht, Rastatt, and Baden (1712–14) broadly established the political order of Europe without regard for the Pope’s rights; indeed, the new emperor Charles VI did not fail to advance fresh claims. Better fortunes, however, marked the victories achieved for Christendom by Prince Eugene and the Venetians under Corfu and in the Peloponnese, to which the Pope contributed. Throughout Clement XI’s pontificate, a heated debate raged over Jansenist questions. It began in 1701 with the famous case of conscience: whether one who professed merely to observe respectful silence regarding the condemnations of Jansenism could be absolved without also requiring internal assent. The Pope condemned this assertion with the bull *Vineam Domini* of 16 July 1705. On 8 September 1713 he issued the bull *Unigenitus*, by which
101 propositions from Quesnel’s *Réflexions morales* were condemned; in France this provoked passionate polemics, even forming a party known as the “Appellants” (1717), who were soon excommunicated by the new bull *Pastoralis* of 1718.
Under Clement XI’s pontificate, missionary activity received strong impetus, particularly in the eastern Mediterranean, Persia, India, and China. The disputes over the Chinese and Malabar rites (q.v.), which Pope Clement sought to settle with his bull of 9 March 1715, provoked lengthy controversies and dissensions and were the cause of persecutions for the rest of that century.
Clement XI’s pontificate also saw effective administrative measures and enlightened patronage. A special Congregation, called the *Sollicito*, was established to carry out provisions for the relief of the poor; public granaries, hospitals, colleges, and hospices arose even in the provinces.
Clement XI died on 19 March 1721 and was buried in St Peter’s. — See Pl. CXIX.