Pope Clement XI
pope|English name=Clement XI|Latin name=Clemens PP. XI|image=
|birth_name=Giovanni Francesco Albani|term_start=
November 23,
1700|term_end=
March 19,
1721|predecessor=
Innocent XII|successor=
Innocent XIII|birth_date=
July 23,
1649|birthplace=
Urbino,
Italy|dead=dead|death_date=
March 19,
1721|deathplace=
Rome,
Italy|other=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 estabilished itself there from northern
Albania in the 15th century.
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Medal depicting Clement XI. |
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.
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Coat of Arms of Pope Clement XI |
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 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.
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.
*Initial text from the 9th edition (1876) of an unnamed encyclopedia
Clementine Library at The Catholic University of America
