1769 conclave

Election of Catholic Pope Clement XIV February–May 1769 15 February – 19 May 1769 Apostolic Palace, Papal States Carlo Cavalchini Federico della Rovere Carlo Rezzonico Giacomo Oddi Alessandro Albani Giovanni Ganganelli Clement XIV Vincenzo Milione - Portrait of Pope Clement XIV.jpg 1758 1758 conclave 1774–75 1774–1775 conclave The 1769 papal conclave (15 February – 19 May) was convoked after the death of Pope Clement XIII on 2 February 1769 and ended with the election of Cardinal Giovanni Ganganelli, who took the name Clement XIV. Death of Pope Clement XIII thumb|Pope Clement XIII (portrait by Anton Raphael Mengs, 1760) Pope Clement XIII died suddenly on 2 February 1769, a day before the date of the consistory that he had convoked to examine the demands for the general suppression of the Society of Jesus. The various courts under the House of Bourbon and the Kingdom of Portugal (under the House of Braganza) had exerted strong pressure on the Holy See to suppress this order through almost the whole of his pontificate. In 1759, Jesuits were expelled from Portugal and all its possessions, in 1764 from the Kingdom of France, in 1767 from Spain and in 1768 from the Kingdom of Naples, the Kingdom of Sicily and the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza. Clement XIII strongly defended the Society (e.g. in the bull Apostolicum pascendi in 1765), but without success. In January 1769 France and Naples seized the papal territories around Avignon, Benevento, and Pontecorvo to force the pope to issue a decree for the suppression of the order. The sudden death of 75-year-old Clement XIII left this difficult decision to his successor.Smith, Sydney Pope Clement XIII yes Divisions among the cardinals The papal conclave in 1769 was almost completely dominated by the problem of the Society of Jesus. The Sacred College of Cardinals was divided into two blocs: pro-Jesuits and anti-Jesuits, but several cardinals were neutral. The pro-Jesuit faction, called zelanti, grouped Italian curial cardinals who opposed the secular influences on the Church. Their leaders were Gian Francesco and Alessandro Albani and cardinal-nephew of the deceased pope Carlo Rezzonico. The anti-Jesuit bloc (called also "court faction") grouped crown-cardinals of the Catholic Powers: France, Spain and Naples. Respectively ruled at the time by Louis XV of France, Charles III of Spain and Ferdinand III of Sicily/Ferdinand IV of Naples. In spite of the national divisions they worked together for the main goal – suppression of the Society of Jesus. The Bourbon courts had decided to put the official leadership of this bloc in the hands of the French Cardinal de Bernis. He and his colleagues were instructed to block every pro-Jesuit candidature, even with the official exclusion if necessary. Several cardinals, among them Lorenzo Ganganelli, did not belong to either faction.About the factions and their leaders: Littell's Living Age, pp. 597-599The English Review, p. 12 (court faction) and 21 (zelanti) The French government was more fastidious than Spanish and Neapolitan. Only three cardinals were considered good candidates: Conti, Durini, and GanganelliSede Vacante 1769; these cardinals were mentioned in the report of French ambassador dated August 29, 1765; this report mentioned also a fourth "good" candidate, Cardinal Galli, who died in 1767. Out of these 43 cardinals, only 27 or 28 were actually considered papabile, while the remaining 15 were excluded due to their age or health.Pope Clement XIV yes yes Beginning of the conclave left|thumb|Cardinal de Bernis was one of the leading figures in the conclave. The conclave began on 15 February 1769. Initially, only 27 cardinals participated.Sede Vacante 1769 zelanti, taking advantage of the small number of the electors and the absence of the French and Spanish cardinals, tried to achieve a quick election of Cardinal Flavio Chigi. In one ballot, he was only two votes short of being elected. The efforts of the zelanti were met with strong protests from the ambassadors of France and Spain, and Cardinal Orsini, protector of the Kingdom of Naples and the only crown-cardinal present in the early ballots, was able to join some neutral cardinals to block Chigi's candidature.Littell's Living Age, p. 597 An unprecedented event was the visit of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, who arrived incognito in Rome on 6 March and was allowed to enter the conclave. He stayed there two weeks, freely debating with the electors. He did not press them but only expressed the wish for the election of a pope who would be able to carry out his duties with the proper respect for the secular rulers.A. Piazzoni, p. 287-288 Cardinal de Bernis entered the conclave at the end of March and took the leadership of the anti-Jesuit faction from the hands of Cardinal Orsini, who could have blocked the zelanti'''s actions only with the great difficulties. Bernis immediately established a regular correspondence with French ambassador Marquis d'Aubeterre, which was in violation of the fundamental law of the conclave.Littell's Living Age, p. 598 Ambassadors of France and Spain urged Bernis to insist that the election of the future pope be made to depend on his written engagement to suppress the Jesuits. Bernis refused, answering that demanding from the future pope a written or oral promise to destroy the Society of Jesus would be in violation of the canon law. In spite of this refusal, during the next few weeks Bernis consecutively rejected all candidates proposed by the zelanti as too devoted to the Jesuits. In this way twenty-three out of twenty-eight papabile were eliminated, among them strongly pro-Jesuit Cardinal Fantuzzi, who at some point was very close to achieving election to the papal throne,Littell's Living Age, p. 600 as well as Cavalchini, Colonna, Stoppani, Pozzobonelli,Artaud de Montor, p. 79 Sersale,K. Dopierała, p. 366 and several others. The arrival of Spanish cardinals Solis and de la Cerda on 27 April strengthened the anti-Jesuit party. They also violated the law of the conclave by establishing regular correspondence with Spanish ambassador Azpuru. The Spaniards had fewer scruples than Bernis and, supported by Cardinal Malvezzi, took the matter into their own hands. They paid attention to the only friar in the Sacred College, Cardinal Lorenzo Ganganelli, O.F.M.Conv. The attitude of Ganganelli towards the Jesuits was a great mystery – he had been educated by the Jesuits and it was said that he received the red hat at the instance of Father Lorenzo Ricci, general of the Society of Jesus, but during the pontificate of Clement XIII he did not engage himself in the defence of the Order. Cardinal Solis began by sounding him out as to his willingness to give the promise required by the Bourbon princes as an indispensable condition for election. Ganganelli answered that "he recognized in the sovereign pontiff the right to extinguish, with good conscience, the Society of Jesus, provided he observed the canon law; and that it was desirable that the pope should do everything in his power to satisfy the wishes of the Crowns". It is not certain whether it was a written or only an oral promise,Pope Clement XIV yes yes The article indicates that there is some evidence that such a document had actually been written and signed by Ganganelli. K. Dopierała, p. 366 denies it but this declaration fully satisfied the ambassadors. In the same time, the zelanti, also began to incline to give their support to Ganganelli, looking upon him as indifferent or even favourable to the Jesuits. It seems that the attitude of the zelanti was decided by the secret negotiations between their leaders Alessandro and Gian Francesco Albani and the Spanish cardinals.Littell's Living Age, p. 601 Cardinal de Bernis, the nominal leader of the court faction, probably did not play any role in the appointment of Ganganelli and only followed the instructions of Marquis d'Aubeterre when all had been already known.The English Review, pp. 25-26 Election of Pope Clement XIV In the final ballot on 19 May 1769, Cardinal Lorenzo Ganganelli was elected to the papacy, receiving all votes except of his own, which he gave to Carlo Rezzonico, nephew of Clement XIII and one of the leaders of the zelanti''. He took the name of Clement XIV, in honour of Clement XIII, who had elevated him to the cardinalate. References Sources Pope Clement XIV true Joseph Wilhelm Ambrogio Piazzoni Historia wyboru papieży History of Papal Elections Wydawnictwo M Kraków 2003 pl Originally published as: Storia delle elezioni pontificie 2003 Casale Monferrato it Kazimierz Dopierała Księga papieży Wyd. Pallotinum Poznań 1996 Lexicon summorum pontificum pl Jacques Crétineau-Joly Jacques Crétineau-Joly Clément XIV et les Jésuites Paris 1847 https://books.google.com/books?id=_0b_k-Nqf3EC&q=Jacques+Crétineau-Joly Librairie Religieuse de Mellier Frères fr Review of 'Clément XIV et les Jésuites' (1847) https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924079596825;view=1up;seq=3;skin=mobile Littell's Living Age XVIII E. Littell & Company Boston July–September 1848 590–608 Review of 'Clément XIV et les Jésuites' (1847) The English Review https://books.google.com/books?id=FutAAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA1 VIII London September 1847 Francis & John Rivington 1–34 Alexis François Artaud de Montor Alexis-François Artaud de Montor The Lives and Times of the Popes c. 1836 7 The Catholic Publication Society of America 1911 https://archive.org/stream/thelivesandtimes07artauoft#page/n7/mode/2up John Paul Adams http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/SV1769.html Sede Vacante 1769 July 4, 2015 California State University Northridge collapsed Catholicism Christianity Vatican City y Biblical Studies/Christianity/Roman Catholicism/History y Category:Papal conclave y Category:Roman Catholic Church y Category:Popes y Category:Popes y Category:Christian History y Pope y Category:1760s in the Papal States Category:1769 in Europe 1769 Category:1769 in politics Category:18th century in Catholicism Category:1769 in Christianity Category:18th-century elections in Europe Category:Charles III of Spain Category:Louis XV Category:Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies