Pope Clement XI

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Clement XI
Image:Clement XI.jpg
Birth name	Giovanni Francesco Albani
Papacy began	November 23, 1700
Papacy ended	March 19, 1721
Predecessor	Innocent XII
Successor	Innocent XIII
Born	July 23, 1649 Urbino, Italy
Died	March 19, 1721 Rome, Italy
Other Popes named Clement

Pope Clement XI (July 23, 1649 – March 19, 1721), born Giovanni Francesco Albani, was Pope from 1700 to 1721. He was from an eminent family of Urbino that had established itself there from northern Albania in the 15th century.

1 Pontificate
2 Chinese Rites controversy
3 Personal library
4 Decoration of San Giovanni Laterano
5 References

[edit] Pontificate

Image:ClemensXI.jpg

The most memorable event of Clement XI's administration was the publication in 1713 of the bull Unigenitus, which so greatly disturbed the peace of the church in France, sometimes called the Gallican church. In this famous document one hundred and one propositions from the works of Quesnel were condemned as heretical, and as identical with propositions already condemned in the writings of Jansen.

The resistance of many French ecclesiastics and the refusal of the French parlements to register the bull led to controversies extending through the greater part of the 18th century. Because the local governments did not officially receive the bull, it was not, technically, in force in those areas – an example of the interference of states in religious affairs common before the 20th century.

[edit] Chinese Rites controversy

Image:Clemente XI.jpg

Styles of Pope Clement XI
Image:Emblem of the Papacy.svg
Reference style	His Holiness
Spoken style	Your Holiness
Religious style	Holy Father
Posthumous style	none

Another important decision of Clement XI was in regard to the Chinese Rites controversy: the Jesuit missionaries were forbidden to take part in honors paid to Confucius or the ancestors of the Emperors of China, which Clement XI identified as "idolatrous and barbaric", and to accommodate Christian language to pagan ideas under plea of conciliating the heathen.

The political troubles of the time greatly embarrassed Clement XI's relations with the leading Catholic powers, and the moral prestige of the Holy See suffered much from his compulsory recognition of the Archduke Charles of Austria as King of Spain. His private character was irreproachable; he was also an accomplished scholar, and a patron of letters and science.

[edit] Personal library

Clement XI's family library was sold between 1864 and 1928, and part of it was purchased by The Catholic University of America. This collection contains a large section concerning the Jansenist controversy and the Chinese Rites controversy, as well as Canon Law, and other related topics. The manuscript material purchased in 1864 by Theodor Mommsen on behalf of the Prussian government was lost at sea on its way to Germany.

[edit] Decoration of San Giovanni Laterano

Clement established a committee, overseen by his favorite artists, Carlo Maratta and Carlo Fontana, to commission statuary of the apostles to complete the decoration of San Giovanni in Laterano.