Christ's Faithful People
Christ's Faithful People
1592 - 1605 AD
Among the popes there have been poor men in plenty, but Clement VIII was the first bank clerk to obtain the tiara. Ippolito Aldobrandini was born in 1536 at Fano. His father was a political exile from Florence. Ippolito, rescued from the bank by Cardinal Farnese's kindness, studied law at Padua, Perugia, and Bologna. He entered the service of the Church, but his advancement was slow until the reign of Sixtus V. That energetic Pope promoted him rapidly. A cardinal in 1585, Ippolito made a great reputation as legate to Poland in 1588. Thereafter he was considered a possibility for the papacy. Elected on January 30, 1592, he took the name Clement VIII.
Clement was above all a spiritual pope. For years Philip Neri had been his confessor, and now every night the great Oratorian Baronius came to hear the Pope's confession. As zealous as he was devout, the busy Clement would often take a confessional in St. Peter's so that anyone who wished could go to the Pope himself. He did much to promote the forty hours' devotion. He often visited hospitals, not only to comfort the sick and distribute alms, but to check on the food. He was a truly humble man who could accept criticism. His only defect was nepotism.
Clement's great achievement was the settlement of the French problem. Henry of Navarre was gaining steadily. Now that he had accepted Catholicism, opposition melted away. French bishops absolved him, but still at Rome the Spaniards grimly struggled to prevent the Pope from granting Henry absolution. Influenced by spiritual men like St. Philip Neri, the historian Baronius, the theologian Toledo, Clement at last on September 17, 1595, solemnly absolved Henry IV. The way was open for peace in France and men felt that the danger of Spanish domination over the papacy was on the wane.
Clement was a great mission pope. Under his vigorous leadership, the enterprising Ricci entered China, the Japanese withstood the first shock of persecution, and Franciscans, Dominicans, and Jesuits reaped rich harvests in the Philippines, Mexico, and South America. The Pope sent missionaries to Persia and Abyssinia and even to the court of the Great Mogul. He strove to reunite the Copts of Egypt and the schismatics of Serbia. He succeeded in bringing some Ukrainians back to the Church by the Union of Brest in 1598. And at home in Europe the tide of Catholic reform was winning back much that had been lost in the bad days. It was a great outpouring of zeal, and to channel and control it Clement set up a congregation of cardinals.
Two famous executions took place in Clement's reign--that of the parricide Beatrice Cenci about whom legend and Shelley have woven an unmerited spell, and that of Giordano Bruno. Clement forbade dueling, revised the breviary, and found time to encourage the poet Tasso and set on foot many works of art. To judge the case of the great Jesuit theologian Luis Molina, whose doctrine on grace had been assailed by Dominicans, the Pope set up a special congregation. Clement took great interest in this matter, but before it could be settled, he was struck down by apoplexy, March 5, 1605.
