CLEMENT DISBANDS THE SOCIETY 317
state. It is, of course, true that both were influenced also by Sonnen- feis, a Jewish writer, and other theoreticians of political liberalism.
The Conclave, which now met under pressure of brazen intrigues especially on the part of the Bourbons, finally succeeded in surmount- ing all difficulties and electing on the twenty-second ballot Lorenzo Ganganelli, a simple, pious Franciscan. He took the name of Cle- ment XIV; the year was 1769, and the new Pope reigned until 1774. He was the son of a physician, was well educated in theology and natural history, and loved to stroll in the woods with a book. When he received the purple he wrote: "I regard these honours as an addition to the letters on my tombstone, powerless to aid him who lies be- neath." Once crowned he spent the nights which intervened be- tween stormy days, sighing for the peace of his monastic celL His favourite recreation was the trucco> a kind of bowling game played on the billiard table, or a dashing ride through the environs of Rome. He rode his horse so hard that the guard of nobles were scarce able to follow. He devoted himself with the greatest seriousness to the duties of his office. Art and science owe him a real debt. He began to arrange and exhibit in a museum the long since accumulated antique sculptures and the priceless stone tablets bearing more than 5000 heathen and Christian inscriptions. Like Benedict XIV who had befriended him and had made a place for him in the Papal administra- tion, he sought to foster peace with the States. The custom of read- ing the belligerent bull Ccena Domini once a year was abandoned* But now the Courts demanded no less than the dissolution of the Society of Jesus as a whole by the Pope. During four years he hesi- tated, anxious and shaken. It seemed to him that the danger of a schism could be warded off only if he sacrificed the Society. Spies of Pombal and Tanucci, agreements between cabinets and great prel- ates, and a hectic agitation fomented among the people by means of pamphlets and pictures, hemmed in the Pope more and more.
There was a Jansenistic strain in his soul, but he by no means lacked a feeling of responsibility for the loss of so powerful an organ of the Church and the Papacy as the Society was. In addition the joint demands of the Bourbon crowns were only partly or not at all in con- formity with the wishes of the courts of Austria, Poland, Prussia, Russia and Piedmont.
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