CLEMENT XIV. (Lorenzo Ganganelli), pope from 1769 to son of a physician of St. Arcangelo, near Rimini, was born on Oct. 31, 1705, joined the Franciscans, and as regent of the college of S. Bonaventura, Rome, came under the notice of Ben edict XIV., who made him consultor of the Inquisition. Clement XIII. made him a cardinal, and in May 1769 he was elected pope.
The outlook for the papacy was dark; Portugal was talking of a patriarchate; France held Avignon; Naples held Ponte Corvo and Benevento; Spain was ill-affected; Parma, defiant ; Venice, aggressive; Poland meditating a restriction of the rights of the nuncio. Clement realized the imperative necessity of conciliating the Powers. He suspended the public reading of the bull In Coena Domini, so obnoxious to civil authority; resumed relations with Portugal; revoked the monitorium of his predecessor against Parma. But the Powers were bent upon the destruction of the Jesuits, and they had the pope at their mercy. Clement looked abroad for help, but found none. Even Maria Theresa, his last hope, suppressed the Order in Austria. Convinced that the peace of the Church demanded the sacrifice, Clement signed the brief Dominus ac Redemptor, dissolving the Jesuit Order, on July 21, The Powers at once gave proof of their satisfaction; Bene vento, Ponte Corvo, Avignon and the Venaissin were restored to the Holy See. But it would be unfair to accept this as evidence of a bargain. Clement had formerly indignantly rejected the sugges tion of such an exchange of favours. Whatever the guilt or inno cence of the Jesuits, and whether their suppression were ill-advised or not, there appears to be no ground for impeaching the peace motives of Clement, or of doubting that he had the approval of his conscience.
The suppression of the Jesuits bulks so large in the pontificate of Clement that he has scarcely been given due credit for his praiseworthy attempt to reduce the burdens of taxation and to reform the financial administration, nor for his liberal encourage ment of art and learning, of which the museum Pio-Clementino is a lasting monument.
Clement's was a deeply religious, refined and benevolent nature. He cherished high purposes, but instinctively shrank from con flict ; he lacked the resoluteness and the stern courage that grap ples with a crisis. He died from natural causes on Sept. 22, 17 74.
See Theiner, Clementis XIV. Epistolae et Brevia (1852) ; Caraccioli's Vie de Clement XIV. (1775) (freq. trans.), is uncritical. St. Priest's Hist. de la chute des Jesuites (1846), represents Clement as lamentably weak ; Cretineau-Joly's Hist. . . . de la Comp. de Jesus (1844) and his Clement XIV. et les Jesuit es (1847) , was outspoken and bitter and provoked Theiner's Gesch. des Pontificats Clemens' XIV. (Leipzig and Paris, 1852) , a vigorous defence based upon original documents of the Vatican; Cretineau-Joly replied with Le Pape Clement XIV.; Lettres au P. Theiner (1852) . See also v. Reumont, Ganganelli, Papst Clemens XIV. (Berlin, 1847) ; and Reinerding, Clemens XIV. u. d. Aufhebung der Gesellschaft Jesu (Augsburg, 1854) . Hergenrother, Allg. Kirchengesch. (188o) , iii. 510 seq. gives an extended bibliography.