Christ's Faithful People
Christ's Faithful People
1769 - 1774 AD
The powers balked by courageous Clement XIII were determined that this time they would get a pope they could handle. The pressure put on the conclave was overwhelming. Lists were prepared rating the cardinals according to their acceptability to the kings. And pressure was necessary, for most of the cardinals were independents who thought first of the good of the Church. The man who emerged from all this as pope was the Conventual Franciscan, Cardinal Lorenzo Ganganelli. As the only religious in the college of cardinals, and a man who had been fond of the Jesuits, Ganganelli was acceptable to the independents. But he had also won the favor of the Crowns by assuring them that in his opinion a pope could suppress the Jesuits with a good conscience and that a pope should try to please the Powers.
Giovanni Vincenzo Ganganelli was born October 31, 1705, at Sant' Arcangelo near Rimini. In 1723 he became a Friar Minor Conventual, taking the name Lorenzo. Fra Lorenzo showed excellent talent and rose to a high position in his order. He was made a consultor of the Holy Office by Benedict XIV and a cardinal by Clement XIII.
Clement XIV, as Ganganelli chose to be called, promptly threw over the firm policy of Clement XIII. He fairly rained concessions on the greedy despots. But though mildly pleased, the courts were not satisfied with the new Pope, because Clement showed no eagerness to suppress an order so devoted to the Pope, so praised by popes down to his predecessor, Clement XIII. Years went by--no suppression. Now the Bourbon courts had made it a point of honor to force the Pope to prove that they were justified in their tyrannical acts against the Jesuits by suppressing them. Charles III of Spain was especially insistent, and in 1772 to bring about the suppression he sent the aggressive and capable Jose Monino as ambassador to the Holy See. This determined driver was given one task--to secure the suppression of the Jesuits. Coldly, insistently, he cajoled, badgered, and bullied poor Clement until the harried Pope cried out in distress. When Maria Teresa, busy marrying off her daughters to Bourbons, abandoned the Jesuits, Clement gave in.
In the words of Pius XII: "Under the pressure of the unjust and envious secular forces of the times in a sea of dark forebodings, a Father's hand sacrificed it [the Society of Jesus] for the tranquillity of the bark of Peter."
By the brief Dominus ac Redemptor, Clement suppressed the Society of Jesus. Appeasement rarely works, and though France restored Avignon and Naples Benevento, Clement soon found that the monarchs' arrogant interference with Church rights only mounted after the destruction of the Jesuits.
Clement did enjoy some gleams of consolation, especially when Mar Simeon, a Nestorian patriarch, led six bishops back to Catholic unity.
Clement XIV felt his unhappy position keenly and under the strain his health gave way. He died September 22, 1774.
