Pope Clement XIII
Pope Clement XIII reigned from 1758 to 1769 and spent almost the whole of it defending the Jesuits against the Catholic monarchies determined to destroy them. Born Carlo della Torre di Rezzonico in Venice in 1693 to a wealthy family, he was educated by the Jesuits at Bologna, took a doctorate in law at Padua, and served as governor of Rieti and Fano before becoming Bishop of Padua, where he was noted for pastoral diligence and personal austerity. He was elected in 1758 after a conclave in which France vetoed the leading candidate. The Society of Jesus had made enemies across Catholic Europe: it was wealthy, internationally organised, answerable directly to Rome, influential as confessor to kings, and its Paraguay reductions defied colonial authority. The Portuguese minister Pombal expelled the order in 1759, France followed in 1764, Spain and Naples in 1767, and Parma in 1768. Clement resisted each time. He issued Apostolicum pascendi in 1765, a formal endorsement of the order and its constitutions, and refused every demand for suppression, reportedly saying that they should be as they are or not be at all. The powers retaliated against him directly, seizing the papal enclaves of Avignon, Benevento and Pontecorvo, and in 1769 the Bourbon courts jointly demanded that the order be dissolved. He summoned a consistory for 3 February 1769 to answer them and died the night before, of a stroke. His successor Clement XIV suppressed the Society in 1773. He also condemned Enlightenment works, placing the Encyclopédie on the Index, and ordered fig leaves applied to nude statues in the Vatican.
- Lived: 1693 CE – 1769 CE
- Nationality: Italian
- Roles: pope, cleric
