Pope Clement XIII

Pope Clement XIII (Latin: Clemens XIII ; 7 March 1693 2.1 Election to the papacy
2 February 1769), born Carlo della Torre di Rezzonico, was Pope from 6 July 1758 to his death in 1769. He
Main article: Papal conclave, 1758
was consecrated on 16 July 1758.[1]
His ponticate was overshadowed by the constant pressure to suppress the Society of Jesus but despite this, he Pope Benedict XIV died of gout in 1758 and the College
championed their order and also proved to be their great- of Cardinals gathered at the papal conclave in order to
elect a successor. Direct negotiations between the riest defender at that time.
val factions resulted in the proposal for the election of
Rezzonico. On the evening of 6 July 1758, Rezzonico
received 31 votes out of a possible 44, one more than
the required amount. He selected the pontical name of
1 Biography
Clement XIII in honor of Pope Clement XII, who elevated him to the cardinalate.

1.1

Early life

Rezzonico was crowned as ponti on 16 July 1758 by the

protodeacon, Cardinal Alessandro Albani.

Carlo della Torre di Rezzonico was born in 1693 to a recently ennobled family of Venice, the second of two children of the man who bought the unnished palace on the
Grand Canal (now Ca' Rezzonico) and nished its construction. Born to Giovanni Battista Rezzonico and Vittorio Barbarigo, his brother was Aurelio.

In the same year, the Rezzonico family celebrated

Ludovico Rezzonico's marriage into the powerful
Savorgnan family. Rezzonico was notorious for his
rampant nepotism throughout his ponticate.

He received a Jesuit education in Bologna and later studied at the University of Padua where he obtained his doctorate in canon law and civil law. From there, he travelled to Rome where he attended the Pontical Academy
of Ecclesiastical Nobles.
Rezzonico became the Referendary of the Apostolic Signatura and remained in that position from 1716 to 1718
when he was appointed as the Governor of Fano. He was
then ordained to the priesthood on 23 December 1731
in Rome. Pope Clement XII appointed him to the cardinalate in 1737 as the Cardinal-Deacon of San Nicola
in Carcere and also lled various important posts in the
Roman Curia.
Rezzonico was chosen as Bishop of Padua in 1743 and he
received episcopal consecration in Rome by Pope Benedict XIV himself. Rezzonico visited his diocese on frequent occasions and reformed the way that the diocese
ran, paying attention to the social needs of the diocese.
He was the rst to do this in ve decades.[2] He later opted
to become the Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria in Aracoeli
in 1747 and later to become the Cardinal-Priest of San
Marco in 1755.[3]

Cardinal Rezzonico between 1737 to 1744

Ponticate
1

2.2

2 PONTIFICATE

Actions

Quantum ornamenti, which approved the request of King

Charles III of Spain to invoke the Immaculate ConcepNotwithstanding the meekness and aability of his up- tion as the Patroness of Spain, along with its eastern and
right and moderate character, he was modest to a fault western territories, while continuing to recognize Saint
(he had the classical sculptures in the Vatican provided James the Greater as co-patron.
with mass-produced g leaves) and generous with his ex- In France, the Parlement de Paris, with its strong upper
tensive private fortune.
bourgeois background and Jansenist sympathies, began

2.3

The Jesuits

Clement XIIIs ponticate was repeatedly disturbed by

disputes respecting the pressures to suppress the Jesuits
coming from the progressive Enlightenment circles of the
philosophes in France.

its campaign to expel the Jesuits from France in the spring

of 1761, and the published excerpts from Jesuit writings,
the Extrait des assertions, provided anti-Jesuit ammunition (though, arguably, many of the statements the Extrait contained were made to look worse than they were
through judicious omission of context). Though a congregation of bishops assembled at Paris in December 1761
recommended no action, Louis XV of France (171574)
promulgated a royal order permitting the Society to remain in France, with the proviso that certain essentially
liberalising changes in their institution satisfy the Parlement with a French Jesuit vicar-general who would be
independent of the general in Rome. When the Parlement
by the arrt of 2 August 1762 suppressed the Jesuits in
France and imposed untenable conditions on any who remained in the country, Clement XIII protested against
this invasion of the Churchs rights and annulled the arrts. Louis XVs ministers could not permit such an abrogation of French law, and the King nally expelled the
Jesuits in November 1764.

Clement XIII placed the Encyclopdie of D'Alembert and

Diderot on the Index, but this index was not as eective as
it had been in the previous century. More unexpected resistance came from the less progressive courts of Spain,
the Two Sicilies, and Portugal. In 1758 the reforming
minister of Joseph I of Portugal (175077), the Marquis
of Pombal, expelled the Jesuits from Portugal, and transported them all to Civitavecchia, as a gift for the Pope.
In 1760, Pombal sent the papal nuncio home and recalled
the Portuguese ambassador from the Vatican. The pamphlet titled the Brief Relation, which claimed the Jesuits
had created their own sovereign independent kingdom in
South America and tyrannised the Native Americans, all Clement XIII warmly espoused the Jesuit order in a papal
in the interest of an insatiable ambition and avarice, did bull Apostolicum pascendi, 7 January 1765, which disdamage to the Jesuit cause as well.
missed criticisms of the Jesuits as calumnies and praised
the orders usefulness; it was largely ignored: by 1768
the Jesuits had been expelled from France, the Two Sicilies and Parma. In Spain, they appeared to be safe,
but Charles III of Spain (175988), aware of the drawnout contentions in Bourbon France, decided on a more
peremptory eciency. During the night of 23 April
1767, all the Jesuit houses of Spain were suddenly surrounded, the inhabitants arrested, shipped to the ports
in the clothes they were wearing and bundled onto ships
for Civitavecchia. The Kings letter to Clement XIII
promised that his allowance of 100 piastres each year
would be withdrawn for the whole order, should any one
of them venture at any time to write anything in selfdefence or in criticism of the motives for the expulsion,
motives that he refused to discuss, then or in the future.

Clement XIIIs tomb in St. Peters Basilica

Much the same fate awaited them in the territories of the

Bourbon Duke of Parma and Piacenza, advised by the liberal minister Guillaume du Tillot. In 1768, Clement XIII
issued a strong protest (monitorium) against the policy of
the Parmese government. The question of the investiture
of Parma aggravated the Popes troubles. The Bourbon
Kings espoused their relatives quarrel, seized Avignon,
Benevento and Pontecorvo, and united in a peremptory
demand for the total suppression of the Jesuits (January
1769).
Driven to extremes, Clement XIII consented to call a

On 8 November 1760, Clement XIII issued a Papal bull

3
consistory to consider the step, but on the very eve of the
day set for its meeting he died, not without suspicion of
poison, of which, however, there appears to be no conclusive evidence.

2.4

The pope approved the cultus for several individuals: Andrew of Montereale and Vincent Kadlubek on 18 February 1764, Angelus Agostini Mazzinghi on 7 March 1761,
Antoine Neyrot on 22 February 1767, Augustine Novello in 1759, Elizabeth Achler on 19 July 1766, James
Bertoni in 1766, Francesco Marinoni on 5 December
1764, Mattia de Nazarei on 27 July 1765, Sebastian
Maggi on 15 April 1760 and Angela Merici on 30 April
1768. He formally beatied Beatrix of Este the Elder
on 19 November 1763, Bernard of Corleone on 15 May
1768 and Gregorio Barbarigo on 6 July 1761.
Clement XIII canonized four saints in his ponticate:
Jerome Emiliani, Joseph Calasanz, Joseph of Cupertino
and Serano of Montegranaro on 16 July 1767.

Death

Clement XIII died during the night of 2 February 1769 in

Rome of an apoplexy. He was laid to rest on 8 February
1769 in the Vatican but his remains were transferred on
27 September 1774 to a monument in the Vatican that
had been sculpted by Antonio Canova at the request of
Senator Abbondio Rezzonico, the nephew of the late ponti.
From the Annual Register, for 1758: Pope Clement XIII
was the honestest man in the world; a most exemplary
ecclesiastic; of the purest morals; devout, steady, learned,
diligent...

See also
Cardinals created by Clement XIII

This article incorporates text from a publication

now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed.
(1911). "Clement XIII". Encyclopdia Britannica
(11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Other activities

Clement XIII created 52 new cardinals in seven consistories in his ponticate.

2.5

5 References

Notes

[1] http://www2.fiu.edu/~{}mirandas/bios1737.htm#
Rezzonico
[2] L'Osservatore Romano (6 July 2008)
[3] Rezzonico, senior, Carlo (1693-1769)". Cardinals of the
Holy Roman Church. 2015. Retrieved 6 February 2015.

6 External links
"Pope Clement XIII" in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia.
Monument to Clement XIII in St Peters Basilica by
Canova

7 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.1

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Pope Clement XIII Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Clement_XIII?oldid=664730300 Contributors: Malcolm Farmer, Danny,

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7.3

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