CLEMENT
27
CLEMENT
ing the French king at Marseilles, lodged his appeal to
a future general council on the divorce question.
In the more ecclesiastical aspects of his pontificate Clement was free from reproach. Two Franciscan reforms, that of the Capuchins and that of the Recol- lects, found in him a sufficiently sympathetic patron. He was genuinely in earnest over the crusade against the Turks, and he gave much encouragement to foreign missions. As a patron of art, he was much hampered by the sack of Rome and the other disastrous events of his pontificate. But he was keenly interested in such matters, and according to Benvenuto Cellini he had excellent taste. By the commission given to the last-named artist for the famous cope-clasp of which we hear so much in the autobiography, he became the founder of Benvenuto's fortunes. (See Cellini, Benvenuto.) Clement also continued to be the patron of Rajjliael and of Michelangelo, whose great fresco of the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel was undertaken by his orders.
In their verdict upon the character of Pope Clement VII almost all historians are agreed. He was an Itahan prince, a de' Medici, and a diplomat first, and a spiritual ruler afterwards. His intelligence was of a high order, though his diplomacy was feeble and irres- olute. On the other hand, his private life was free from reproach, and he had many excellent impulses, but despite good intention, all qualities of heroism and greatness must emphatipally be denied him.
Pastor, Geschichle der Papste (Freiburg. 1907), IV pt. 11; FR.tiKEN, NoTicialures de Clement VII (Paris, 1906—); Idem in Melanges de Vecole francaisc de Rome (1906); G.\irdner, The English Church in thr Sixteenth Century (London. 1902); Idem. Xew Light on the Divorce of Henry VIII in English Histor. Rev. (1896-1897); Ehses, Rumische Dokumente zur Geschichle der EhescJieidung Heinrichs I'///.(Paderbom, 1893); Thur.ston. The Canon Law of the Divorce in Eng. Hisfor. Rev. (Oct., 190t); .4m. Cath. Quart, (.\pril, 1906); Hemmer in Dict.dc thcol. cath., in which and in Pastor a fuller bibliography will be found.
Herbert Thurston.
Clement VIII, Pope (Ippolito Aldobrandini), b. at Fano, March, 1536. of a distinguished Florentine family; d. at Rome, 5 March, 1605. He was elected pope 30 Januarj', 1.592, after a stormy conclave graphically described by Ranke (Geschichte der roinischen Papste, 9th ed., II, 1.50 sqq.). In liis youth he made excel- lent progress in jurisprudence under the direction of his father, an able jurist. Through the stages of con- sistorial advocate, auditor of the Rota and the Datarj', he was ad- vanced in 1585 to the dignity of Cardinal-Priest of the Title of St. Pancratius and was made grand peni- tentiary. He won the friendship of the Hapsbiirgs by his successful efforts, during a legation to Poland, to obtain the release of the imprisoned Arcliduke Maximilian, the defeated claimant to the Polish throne. During the conclave of 1592 he was the unwilling candidate of the compact minority of cardinals who were determined to deliver the Holy See from the prepotency of Philip II of Spain. His election was greeted with boundless enthusiasm by the Italians and by all who knew his character. He possessed all the quah- fications needed in the Vicar of Christ. Blameless in morals from childhood, he had at an early period placed himself under the direction of St. Philip Neri, who for thirty years was his confessor. Upon Clement's elevation to the papacy, the aged saint gave over this important office to Baronius, whom the pope, notwithstanding his reluctance, created a cardinal, and to whom he made his confession ever}' evening. The fervour wnth which he said his daily Mass filled all present with devotion. His long asso- ciation with the Apostle of Rome cau.sed him to imbibe the saint's spirit so thoroughly, that in him
St. Philip himself might be said to have ascended the
papal chair. Though vast political problems clam-
oured for solution, the pope first turned his attention
to the more important spiritual interests of the Church.
He made a personal visitation of all the churches
and educational and charitable institutions of Rome,
everywhere eliminating abuses and enforcing dis-
cipline. To him we owe the institution of the Forty
Hours' Devotion (q. v.). He founded at Rome the
Collegio Clementino for the education of the sons of
the richer classes, and augmented the number of
national colleges
in Rome by open-
ing the Collegio
Scozzese for the
training of mis-
sionaries to
Scotland. The
" BuUarium Ro-
nianum " contains
man}' important
con.stitutions of
Clement, notably
one denouncing
duelling and one
providing for the
inviolability of
the States of the
Church. He is-
sued revised edi-
tions of the Vul-
gate (1598), the
Breviar}', the Mis-
sal, alsothe'^Csre-
moniale, andthe Pope Clement VIII
"Pontificale".
The complicated situation in France presented no insuperable difficulties to two consummate statesmen like Henry of Navarre and Clement VIII. It was clear to Henry that, notwithstanding his victories, he could not peacefully retain the French Crown without adopting the Cathohc Faith. He abjured Calvinism 25 Jul}'. 1.593. It was equally clear to Pope Clement that it was his duty to brave the selfish hostility of Spain by acknowledging the legitimate claims of Henry, as soon as he had con\inced himself that the latter's conversion was something more than a polit- ical manoeuvre. In the autumn of 1.505 he solemnly absolved Henry IV, thus putting an end to the thirty years' religious war in France and winning a powerful ally in his struggle to achieve the independence of Italy and of the Holy See. Henry's iriendship was of essential importance to the pope two years later, when Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara, died childless (27 Oct., 1597), and Pope Clement resolved to bring the stronghold of the Este dynasty under the immediate jurisdiction of the Church. Though Spain and the empire encouraged Alfonso's illegitimate cousin, Cesare d'Este, to withstand the pope, they were deterred from giving him aid by Henry's threats, and the papal army entered Ferrara almost unopposed. In 159S Pope Clement won still more credit for the papacy by bringing about a definite treaty of peace between Spain and France in the Treaty of Ver\-ins and between France and Savoy. He also lent valu- able assistance in men and money to the emperor in his contest with the Turks in Hungar}'. He was as merciless as Sixtus V in crushing out brigandage and in punishing the lawlessness of the Roman nobihty. He did not even spare the youthful patricide Beatrice Conci, over whom so many tears have been shed. (Bertolotti, Francesco Cenci e la sua famiglia, Flor- ence. 1879.) On 17 Feb., 1600. the apostate Gior- dano Bnmo (q. V.) was burned at the stake on the Piazz.a dei Fiori. The jubilee of 1600 was a brilliant witness to the glories of the renovated papacy, three million pilgrims visiting the holy places. In 1595
