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Giovanni Vincenzo Antonio (in religion Lorenzo ) Ganganelli (Sant' Angelo in Vado, close to Rimini, October 31st 1705 - Rome, September 22nd 1774), elected pope the May 19th 1769 under the name of Clement XIV (in Latin Clemens XIV , in Italian Lenient XIV ).

Biography

Wire of a modest surgeon, Clément XIV had received his education among Jesuits. In 1724, it had entered to the brothers Mineurs at which it taught theology and philosophy. On the recommendation of Ricci, general of the Jesuits, Clément XIII did it cardinal, in 1759; but, as he disapproved the policy of the pope, he found himself without occupation and influence.

In 1762, he became the guard and the friend of the young philosopher Giovanni Cristofano Amaduzzi, of thirty-five years its junior, originating like him in the Emilie-Romagna, more precisely of Savignano, close to Rimini, which arrived at Rome to continue its studies and of which he will make, once become pope, the inspector of the “ printing works of Propaganda ”.

The Conclave which opened with dead of Clement XIII found the Church in a difficult, attacked situation interior by the Gallicanisme and the Jansénisme, of outside by the Fébronianisme and the Rationalisme. Portugal spoke about a Patriarcat; France occupied Avignon; Naples occupied Pontecorvo and Bénévent; Spain was in revolt; Parma was hostile and Venice aggressive; Poland planned to restrict the rights of the Nonce. But the extreme question was that of the Jésuites: in France and in the Iberian peninsula their order had been removed and it was wished that the new pope abolish it officially. Enormous pressures were thus exerted on the conclave, joined together the February 15th 1769, to obtain that the next pope carried out this suppression. As the majority of the forty seven cardinals was favorable to the Society of Jesus, one had recourse to the threats and the kings of France, Spain and Portugal used of their right of exclusive to draw aside twenty-three cardinals. And one threatened to recognize only one pope who would accept in advance and written the suppression of the Order haï. Finally, the Ganganelli cardinal was elected, the May 18th, after a conclave of more than three months. He was not a declared enemy of his former Masters, he was simply the least unbearable with the various factions. Hatred that the Jesuits carried to him was worth to him the charge of Simonie, without there being no proof that Ganganelli formally promised anything as for their suppression.

With price of small concessions, which turned the back on the policy of its intractable predecessor, it succeeds initially to reconcile with crowns of Spain and of Portugal, but France, if it accepted to restore Avignon that it had occupied, as it did it with each crisis who opposed it to the pope, remained intractable as for the removal of the Jesuits. Even Marie-Therese, her last hope, removed the order in Austria.

Finally the pressures were too strong and Clement XIV abolishes the Society of Jesus the July 21st 1773. But it took care well not to publish a bubble: it published simple a Bref Dominus ac redemptor of form much less constraining and than it was easier to revoke thereafter. The Jesuits were restored besides by Pie VII in 1815 (Encyclique Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum ).

It was claimed that the pope had been taken of faintness after having signed the bubble, that this act had thrown it in despair at the point to lose the reason of it. They are undoubtedly only rumors.

No pope was the object of judgments more different than Clément XIV; its most virulent detractors show it ingratitude, of cowardice and double language. It would have been instinctively concealed in front of the conflict, would have missed resolution and courage necessary in such a crisis. Its admirors point out its virtues and see in him that which returned peace to the Church. In any case, it was a deeply religious nature, range towards poetry, a refined and raised spirit. Softness, the equality and the benevolence were innate in him. It worked towards the noblest ends and obeyed the orders of its conscience.

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