Pope Clement VIII ( la, Clemens VIII; it, Clemente VIII; 24 February 1536 – 3 March 1605), born Ippolito Aldobrandini, was head of the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
and ruler of the
Papal States
The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...
from 2 February 1592 to his death in March 1605.
Born in Fano, Italy to a prominent
Florentine family, he initially came to prominence as a
canon law
Canon law (from grc, κανών, , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. It is t ...
yer before being made a
Cardinal-Priest in 1585. In 1592 he was
elected Pope and took the name of Clement. During his papacy he effected the reconciliation of
Henry IV of France
Henry IV (french: Henri IV; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monar ...
to the Catholic faith and was instrumental in setting up an alliance of
Christian nations to oppose the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University ...
in the so-called
Long War. He also successfully adjudicated in a bitter dispute between the
Dominicans and the
Jesuits
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders = ...
on the issue of
efficacious grace and
free will
Free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded.
Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to ac ...
. In 1600 he presided over a
jubilee which saw many pilgrimages to
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus ( legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
. He presided over the trial and execution of
Giordano Bruno and implementing strict measures against Jewish residents of the Papal States. He may have been the first pope to drink coffee.
Clement VIII died at the age of 69 in 1605 and his remains now rest in the Rome city church of
Santa Maria Maggiore.
Early life
He was from a
Florentine family, and followed his father as a
canon law
Canon law (from grc, κανών, , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. It is t ...
yer, becoming an
Auditor (judge) of the
Roman Rota, the highest
ecclesiastical court constituted by the
Holy See
The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...
. He was only ordained as a priest on 31 December 1580 at the age of 45 and became pope on 2 February 1592 when he was not yet 56. He was an effective, if sometimes rigorous, administrator.
Cardinal
He was made
Cardinal-Priest of
S. Pancrazio in 1585 by
Pope Sixtus V, who named him
major penitentiary
The Apostolic Penitentiary (), formerly called the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Penitentiary, is a dicastery of the Roman Curia and is one of the three ordinary tribunals of the Apostolic See. The Apostolic Penitentiary is chiefly a trib ...
in January 1586 and in 1588 sent him as legate in
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
. He placed himself under the spiritual direction of the reformer
Saint Philip Neri
Philip Romolo Neri ( ; it, italics=no, Filippo Romolo Neri, ; 22 July 151526 May 1595), known as the "Second Apostle of Rome", after Saint Peter, was an Italian priest noted for founding a society of secular clergy called the Congregation of th ...
, who for thirty years was his confessor. Aldobrandini won the gratitude of the
Habsburgs by his
successful diplomatic efforts in Poland to obtain the release of the imprisoned
Archduke Maximilian, the defeated claimant to the Polish throne.
After the death of
Pope Innocent IX (1591),
another stormy conclave ensued, in which a determined minority of Italian Cardinals were unwilling to be dictated to by
Philip II of Spain. Known to be very intelligent, disciplined, and in tune with the inner workings of the Church, Cardinal Aldobrandini was elected on 30 January 1592, as a portent of more balanced and liberal Papal policy in European affairs. He took the non-politicised name Clement VIII. He proved to be an able Pope, with an unlimited capacity for work, and a lawyer's eye for detail. He was a wise statesman, the general object of whose policy was to free the Papacy from its dependence upon
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, ...
.
[
]
Ecclesiastical matters
Clementine Vulgate
In November 1592, he published the Clementine Vulgate. It was issued with the Bull
Cum Sacrorum
' (9 November 1592) which asserted that every subsequent edition must be assimilated to this one, that no word of the text could be changed, and that not even variant readings could be printed in the margin. This new official version of the Vulgate, known as the Clementine Vulgate'' ''or Sixto-Clementine Vulgate'','' became and remained the official Bible of the Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
until the '' Nova Vulgata'' replaced it in 1979.'
''De Auxiliis'' controversy
In 1597, he established the Congregatio de Auxiliis
The ''Congregatio de Auxiliis'' (Latin for "Congregation on help (by Divine Grace)") was a commission established by Pope Clement VIII to settle a theological controversy regarding divine grace that had arisen between the Dominicans and the Jes ...
which was to settle the theological controversy between the Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of ...
and the Jesuits
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders = ...
concerning the respective role of efficacious grace and free will
Free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded.
Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to ac ...
. Although the debate tended toward a condemnation of Molinism's insistence on free will to the detriment of efficacious grace, the important influence of the Jesuit Order — among other considerations — which, beside important political and theological power in Europe, had also various missions abroad ( Misiones Jesuiticas in South America, missions in China, etc.), led the Pope to abstain from an official condemnation of the Jesuits. In 1611 and again in 1625 a decree prohibited any discussion of the matter, although it was often informally avoided by the publication of commentaries on Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, Dominican Order, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino, Italy, Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest who was an influential List of Catholic philo ...
.
Jubilee of 1600
During the jubilee of 1600, three million pilgrims visited the holy places. The Synod of Brest was held 1595 in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...
, by which a great part of the Ruthenian clergy and people were reunited to Rome.[
]
Canonisations and beatifications
Clement VIII canonised Hyacinth (17 April 1594), Julian of Cuenca
Julián of Cuenca ( 1127 – 28 January 1208), also known as Saint Julián, was a Spanish Roman Catholic prelate who served as the Bishop of Cuenca from 1196 until his death. He also served as a professor and preacher in addition to being a si ...
(18 October 1594), and Raymond of Peñafort (1601). He beatified 205 individuals, 200 of them being group martyrs; notable individuals he named as Blessed included Carlo Borromeo.
Consistories
The pope created 53 cardinals in six consistories during his pontificate; he named his two nephews Pietro
Pietro is an Italian masculine given name. Notable people with the name include:
People
* Pietro I Candiano (c. 842–887), briefly the 16th Doge of Venice
* Pietro Tribuno (died 912), 17th Doge of Venice, from 887 to his death
* Pietro II ...
and Cinzio Passeri as cardinals. Notable cardinals named during his reign included Camillo Borghese (his successor Pope Paul V) as well as the noted theologians Roberto Bellarmino and Cesare Baronio.
Foreign relations
Relations with France and Spain
The most remarkable event of Clement VIII's reign was the reconciliation to the Church of Henry IV of France
Henry IV (french: Henri IV; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monar ...
(1589–1610), after long negotiations, carried on with great dexterity through Cardinal Arnaud d'Ossat, that resolved the complicated situation in France. Henry embraced Catholicism on 25 July 1593. After a pause to assess Henry IV's sincerity, Clement VIII braved Spanish displeasure, and in the autumn of 1595 he solemnly absolved Henry IV, thus putting an end to the thirty years' religious war in France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
.[
Henry IV's friendship was of essential importance to the papacy two years later, when Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara, died childless (27 October 1597), and the pope resolved to attach the stronghold of the Este family to the states of the Church. Though Spain and the Emperor Rudolf II encouraged Alfonso II's illegitimate cousin, Cesare d'Este, to withstand the pope, they were deterred from giving him any material aid by Henry IV's threats, and a papal army entered Ferrara almost unopposed.][
In 1598 Clement VIII won more credit for the papacy by bringing about a definite treaty of peace between Spain and France in the Peace of Vervins,][ which put an end to their long contest; he negotiated peace between France and Savoy as well.
]
Long War
In 1594, Clement VIII initiated an alliance of Christian European powers to take part in the war with the Ottoman Empire, fought mainly in Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...
, which would become known as the " Long Turkish War" and continue past Clement's own lifetime. Facilitated by the pope, a treaty of alliance was signed in Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
by Emperor Rudolf II and Sigismund Báthory of Transylvania. Aron Vodă of Moldavia
Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and former principality in Centr ...
and Michael the Brave of Wallachia joined the alliance later that year. Clement VIII himself lent the Emperor valuable assistance in men and money.[
]
Internal policies
Law enforcement
Clement VIII was as vigorous as Pope Sixtus V (1585–90) in crushing banditry in the papal provinces of Umbria and the Marche and in punishing the lawlessness of the Roman nobility.[ Upon his ascension to the papal throne in 1592, he immediately had several noble troublemakers put to death. These included most famously Troio Savelli, scion of a powerful ancient Roman family, and the youthful and noble Beatrice Cenci, who had murdered her father – probably as a consequence of his repeated abuses. The latter case prompted many requests of clemency – rejected by the Pope, who passed the confiscated Cenci property to his own family.
Clement's strict ways also concerned philosophical and religious matters. In 1599 he had the Italian miller Menocchio – who had formed the belief that God was not eternal but had Himself once been created out of chaos – tried by the Inquisition and burnt at the stake. A more famous case was the trial for ]heresy
Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important relig ...
of Giordano Bruno, who was burned at the stake in 1600. Pope Clement VIII participated personally in the final phases of the trial, inviting the Cardinals in charge of the case to proceed with the verdict.
Anti-Jewish measures
Clement VIII tightened measures against the Jewish inhabitants of his territories. In 1592, the papal bull '' Cum saepe accidere'' forbade the Jewish community of the Comtat Venaissin
The Comtat Venaissin (; Provençal: , Mistralian norm: , classical norm: ; 'County of Venaissin'), often called the for short, was a part of the Papal States (1274‒1791) in what is now the region of France.
The entire region was an enclav ...
of Avignon, a papal enclave, to sell new goods, putting them at an economic disadvantage. In 1593, the bull '' Caeca et Obdurata'' reiterated Pope Pius V's decree of 1569 which banned Jews from living in the Papal states outside the cities of Rome, Ancona
Ancona (, also , ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region in central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region. The city is located northeast of Rome, on the Adriatic ...
, and Avignon. The main effect of the bull was to evict Jews who had returned to areas of the Papal States (mainly Umbria) after 1586 (following their expulsion in 1569) and to expel Jewish communities from cities like Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different na ...
(which had been incorporated under papal dominion since 1569). The bull also alleged that Jews in the Papal States had engaged in usury
Usury () is the practice of making unethical or immoral monetary loans that unfairly enrich the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is c ...
and exploited the hospitality of Clement VIII's predecessors "who, in order to lead them from their darkness to knowledge of the true faith, deemed it opportune to use the clemency of Christian piety towards them" (alluding to ''Christiana pietas''). With the bull ''Cum Hebraeorum malitia'' a few days later, Clement VIII also forbade the reading of the Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...
.
Later life and death
Clement VIII was afflicted by gout
Gout ( ) is a form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by recurrent attacks of a red, tender, hot and swollen joint, caused by deposition of monosodium urate monohydrate crystals. Pain typically comes on rapidly, reaching maximal intens ...
, using a wheelchair by the late 1590s, and was forced to spend much of his later life immobilized in bed. He suddenly became ill on 10 February 1605 and his condition rapidly deteriorated over the next few weeks. He died on 3 March 1605 around midnight, leaving a reputation for prudence, munificence, ruthlessness and capacity for business. Clement was buried in St. Peter's Basilica, and later Pope Paul V (1605–21) had a mausoleum built for him in the Borghese Chapel of Santa Maria Maggiore, where his remains were transferred in 1646.
His reign is especially distinguished by the number and beauty of his medals. Clement VIII founded the Collegio Clementino
The Collegio Clementino is a palace in Rome, central Italy, sited between the Strada del'Orso and the banks of the Tiber. It was founded by Pope Clement VIII in 1595, to host Slavonian refugees. Giacomo della Porta was commissioned to erect a su ...
for the education of the sons of the richer classes, and augmented the number of national colleges in Rome by opening the Collegio Scozzese for the training of missionaries to Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...
.[
]
Coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world.
Seeds of ...
aficionados often claim that the spread of its popularity among Catholics is due to Pope Clement VIII's influence. Responding to opposition to coffee as "Satan's drink", with the pope's advisers asking him to denounce the beverage. However, upon tasting coffee, Pope Clement VIII declared: "Why, this Satan's drink is so delicious that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it." Clement allegedly blessed the bean because it appeared better for the people than alcoholic beverages. The year often cited is 1600. It is not clear whether this is a true story, but it may have been found amusing at the time.
See also
* Giovanni Aldobrandini
Giovanni Aldobrandini (1525 – 7 September 1573) was an Italian Roman Catholic bishop and cardinal.
A member of the Aldobrandini family, Giovanni Aldobrandini was born in Fano in 1525, the son of Salvestro Aldobrandini, governor of Fano, and L ...
, his older brother, who was a cardinal
* Sixto-Clementine Vulgate
* Cardinals created by Clement VIII
References
External links
*
Mons. Jouin, "The Holy See and the Jews", from ''Révue International des Societés,'' 1918
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clement 08
1536 births
1605 deaths
People from Fano
Italian popes
16th-century Italian jurists
Major Penitentiaries of the Apostolic Penitentiary
Apostolic Nuncios to Poland
Popes
16th-century popes
17th-century popes
Burials at Santa Maria Maggiore