Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/836

Rh 822 CLEMENT Clement may have acted conscientiously in his suppression of an order which had heretofore been regarded as a main bulwark of Christianity, but there can be little doubt that his principal motive was complaisance towards the king of France, or that the latter was mainly actuated by jealousy and cupidity. Clement s pontificate was also disastrous for Italy. The Emperor Henry VII. entered the country, established the Visconti in Milan, and was crowned by Clement s legates in Rome, but was unable to maintain himself there, and died suddenly, leaving great part of Italy in a condition of complete anarchy. The dissensions of the Roman barons reached their height, and the Lateran palace was destroyed in a conflagration. Other remarkable incidents of Clement s reign are his sanguinary repres sion of the heresy of Fra Dolcino in Lombardy and his promulgation of the Clementine Constitutions in 1313. He died, leaving an inauspicious character for nepotism, avarice, and cunning, in April 1314. He was the first Pope who assumed the triple crown. CLEMENT VI. (Pierre Roger, archbishop of Rouen), the fourth of the Avignon popes, was elected in May 1342. Like his immediate predecessors, he was devoted to France, and he further evinced his French sympathies by refusing a solemn invitation to return to Rome, and by purchasing the sovereignty of Avignon from Joanna, queen of Naples, for 80,000 crowns. The money was never paid, but Clement may have deemed that he gave the queen a full equivalent by absolving her from the murder of her husband. The other chief incidents of his pontificate were his disputes with Edward III. of England on account of the latter s encroachments on ecclesiastical jurisdiction, his excommunication of the Emperor Louis of Bavaria, his negotiations for reunion with the Eastern Church, and the commencement of Rienzi s agitation at Rome. He died in December 1352, leaving the reputation of &quot; a fine gentleman, a prince munificent to profusion, a patron of the arts and learning, but no saint&quot; (Gregor- ovius ; see also Gibbon, chap. 66). CLEMENT VII. (Giulio ds Medici), the most unfortunate of the Popes, was the son of Giuliano de Medici, assassinated in the conspiracy of the Pazzi, and consequently nephew of Lorenzo the Magnificent and cousin of Pope Leo X. Upon the latter s accession to the Papacy, Giulio became his principal minister and confidant, especially in the mainten ance of the Medici interest at Florence. At Leo s death, Cardinal Medici, though unable to gain the Papacy for himself or his ally Farnese, took a leading part in determining the unexpected election of Adrian VI., to whom he succeeded in the next conclave (November 1523). He brought to the Papal throne a high reputa tion for political ability, and possessed in fact all the accomplishments of a wily diplomatist, but the circum stances of the times required a man of far different mould. His worldliness and lack of insight into the tendencies of his age disqualified him from comprehending the great religious movement which then convulsed the church; while his timidity and indecision no less disabled him from following a consistent policy in secular affairs. At first attached to the imperial interest, he was terrified by the overwhelming success of the emperor in the battle of Pavia intojoining the other Italian princes in a league with France. This policy in itself was sound and patriotic, but Clement s zeal soon cooled ; by his want of foresight and unseasonable economy he laid himself open to an attack from the turbu lent Roman barons which obliged him to invoke the media tion of the emperor. When this danger seemed over he veered back to his former engagements, and ended by drawing down upon himself the host of the imperialist general, the Constable Bourbon, who, compelled to satisfy his clamorous mercenaries by pillage, embraced the opportunity of leading them against Rome. The city was assaulted and sacked on May 5, 1527, and Clement, who had displayed no more resolution in his military than in his political conduct, was shortly afterwards obliged to surrender himself together with the castle of St Angelo, where he had taken refuge. After six months captivity he was released upon very onerous conditions, and for some years subse quently followed a policy of subserviency to the emperor, endeavouring on the one hand to induce him to act with severity against the Lutherans in Germany, and on the other to elude his demands for a general council. One momentous consequence of this dependence on Charles V. was the breach with England occasioned by Clement s refusal, justifiable in point of principle, but dictated by no higher motive than his fear of offending the emperor, to sanction Henry VIII. s divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Towards the end of his reign Clement once more gave indications cf a leaning towards a French alliance, which was prevented by his death in September 1534. As a man he possessed few virtues and few vices ; as a pontiff he did nothing to disgrace the church and nothing to restore its lustre ; his adroitness and dexterity as a statesman were counteracted by his suspicion and irresolution ; his administration affords a proof that at eventful crises of the world s history mediocrity of character is more disastrous than mediocrity of talent. CLEMENT VIII. (Ippolito Aldobrandini) was elected in January 1592. The most remarkable event of his reign was the reconciliation to the church of Henry IV. of France after long negotiations carried on with great dexterity by Cardinal D Ossat. Europe is principally indebted to this Pope for the peace of Vervins (1598), which put an end to the long contest between France and Spain. Clement also annexed Ferrara to the States of the Church upon the failure of the line of Este, the last addition of importance to the Pope s temporal dominions. The execution of Giordano Bruno, February 17, 1600, is a blot upon an otherwise exemplary pontificate. Clement was an able ruler and a sagacious statesman, the general object of whose policy was to free the Papacy from its undue dependence upon Spain. The conferences to determine the questions of grace and free will, controverted between the Jesuits and Dominicans, were commenced under him, but he wisely abstained from pronouncing a decision. He died in March 1605, leaving a high character for prudence, munificence, and capacity for business. His reign is especially distinguished by the number and beauty of his medals. CLEMENT IX. (Giulio Rospigliosi) was elected Pope in June 1667. Nothing remarkable occurred under his short administration beyond the temporary adjustment of the disputes between the Roman see and those prelates of the Gallican church who had refused to join in condemning the writings of Jansenius. He died in December 1GG9. CLEMENT X. (Emilio Altieri) was elected in April 1 670, at the age of eighty. His years and infirmities led him to devolve the charge of the government upon his nephew, Cardinal Altieri, whose interference with the privileges of ambassadors occasioned disputes in which the Pope was obliged to yield. Little else of importance occurred during his reign, which terminated in July 1 676. CLEMENT XI. (Giovanni Francesco Albani) was elevated to the pontificate in November 1700, and died in March 1721. The most memorable transaction of his adminis tration was the publication in 1713 of the bull Unigenitus, which so greatly disturbed the peace of the Gallican church. By this famous document 101 propositions extracted from the works of Quesnel were condemned as heretical, and as identical with propositions already condemned in the writings of Jansenius. The resistance of many French ecclesiastics and the refusal of the French parliaments to