The Election of Pope Benedict XIV

Today marks the anniversary of the election in 1740 of Pope Benedict XIV, who is rightly regarded as one of the most learned men ever to sit on the throne of St Peter. He was born in 1675 as Prospero Lambertini, to a noble family of Bologna, the second city of the Papal States. When he was 13, he was sent to Rome to pursue the typical course of ecclesiastical studies, including Latin, philosophy and theology; by the age of 19, he had obtained his doctorate in theology, and the prestigious laurea utriusque, a doctorate in both canon and civil law. In 1698, he was ordained a priest, and soon after began his career as a canon lawyer in the Roman Curia, where he would serve for over a quarter of a century. He was also the “Promotor Fidei” (popularly known as “the devil’s advocate”) for the causes of various Saints, whose job was to raise every possible objection to a canonization, so as to guarantee its credibility when every possible objection had been answered. This led him to write a massive treatise called “Doctrina de servorum dei beatificatione et beatorum canonizatione – the teaching on the beatification of the servants of God, and the canonization of blesseds”, still to this day considered an essential work on the subject.

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Portrait of Benedict XIV, 1741, by the French artist Pierre Subleyras (1699-1749). Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.

In 1727, he was made bishop of Ancona in the Italian Marches, a major Adriatic port, then also part of the Papal States. The following year he was made a cardinal, and thus participated in the conclave of 1730 that saw the election of Clement XII, who transferred him to his native Bologna ten months later. During his time as archbishop, he wrote another major treatise on diocesan synods, which has been as influential as his work on canonizations.

Clement XII died in February of 1740, leading to one of the longest conclaves in history (six months), long enough for four of the fifty-five participants to die, including the initial favorite. After several different candidates had failed to reach the necessary two-thirds majority of votes, Cardinal Lambertini was proposed as a compromise candidate unlikely to offend any of the political interests that had thus far blocked all others. He is famously supposed to have clinched his own election by saying to his fellow cardinals, “If you wish to elect a Saint, choose Gotti; if you want a statesman, choose Aldrovandi; and if you want an honest man, choose me.” (This statement is also reported with the cardinal describing himself rather more colorfully; Lambertini was known all his life for the use of language not wholly befitting his clerical station.) He was elected on the 255th ballot, and took the name Benedict in honor of his predecessor-but-one, Benedict XIII, who had made him a bishop.

The popes of that era had to govern not only the Church as a whole in matters spiritual, but also rule as the sovereigns of the Papal States. On both fronts, Benedict XIV had many difficulties to confront: the papacy was in conflict with several of the Catholic states of Europe over matters pertaining to the governance of the Church; anti-clericalism and anti-Christian sentiment were on the rise, fueled by the so-called Enlightenment; and the finances of the Papal States were in very rough shape. (In regard to this last matter, he once said of Benedict XIII that “he simply had no idea how to govern.”) On all these fronts, over the course of his nearly 18-year reign, he served very well. He restored peace between the Church and the Catholic states, and achieved a tremendous amount by way of stabilizing the finances and improving the civil administration of the Papal States, thus earning the admiration and good-will of his temporal subjects. The arts and sciences flourished in Rome during his pontificate: he established two important new collections of the Vatican Museums, and another of Apostolic library.

He was well-known as a cheerful and talkative man, and respected by many non-Catholics, with whom he enjoyed very good relations. Exemplary of this is the Latin epigram composed for him by the most notorious Church-hater of the era, Voltaire:

“Lambertinus hic est, Romae decus et pater orbis, / qui mundum scriptis docuit, virtutibus ornat. ~ This is Lambertini, the glory of Rome and father of the globe, who taught the world by his writing, and adorned it with his virtues.”

The Centenary of St Thérèse of Lisieux’s Beatification

Today marks the centenary of the beatification of St Thérèse of Lisieux, who passed into eternal life on September 30, 1897. Pope Benedict XV permitted the opening of her cause in August of 1921, when less than half the traditional waiting period after a proposed Saint’s death (fifty years) had elapsed; Pius XI had the honor of beatifying her, and then of canonizing her just over two years later, in May of 1925.

Here is a video from the archives of the newsreel service British Pathé, which shows the laying of the cornerstone of the basilica built to honor Thérèse at Lisieux, in 1929. The bishop is H.E. Alexis-Armand Cardinal Charost, archbishop of Rennes. We also see her relics carried in procession on a massive palanquin. - Sancta Theresa, ora pro nobis!

The Beatification of Pope Innocent XI

After I posted a video of the canonization of St Pius X on September 3rd, his EF feast day, YouTube came up with a useful “you might like” suggestion, a similar report on the beatification of Pope Innocent XI, who was elected on this day in 1676, and reigned for just shy of 13 years. His cause was begun more than once, but stalled at the objections of the French monarchy, with whom he had several clashes over matters of Church-State relations. (These clashes were so severe that at one point, the Pope placed the French royal church in Rome under interdict.) By the 20th century, the controversies had largely passed, and he was beatified on October 7, the feast of the Holy Rosary, in 1956. In the translation below, I have taken a few liberties with the excessively purple prose of the Italian commentary.

“A day of great rejoicing and faith for the Catholic religion; Benedict Odescalchi, who, on ascending to the pontifical throne, was called Innocent, eleventh of that name, is today raised to the glory of the altars. Thick crowds approach the largest church in Christendom, many foreigners among them, especially increased by the presence of the Hungarians. [note] (0:30) And now, everyone’s the gaze is concentrated on the ascetic figure of the Supreme Pastor, who comes forward on the sedes gestatoria. The acclamations of the multitude rise loud and clear, as the Pontiff raises his hand in fatherly blessing. The successor of Peter, kneeling before the altar of the Chair, concentrates a long while in prayer; the brief and solemn ceremony is celebrated by Mons. Bonomini, bishop of Como (where Pope Innocent was born in 1611). Thus, as Pius XII affirmed in his radio discourse, the deep holiness of Innocent XI’s great soul is revealed in the sacred halo of the blessed which shines around his head, and the glorifies the triple diadem of the Popes, as if to symbolize his three greatest works: as reformer of the Church, vindicator of its rights, and defender of Christendom.”

[note] Pope Innocent was the principal organizers of the Holy League between the Papal States, the Holy Roman Empire, then headed by the Hapsburg monarch Leopold I, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, ruled by King Jan III Sobieski, and the Venetian Republic. This was the alliance that led to the great defeat of the Ottoman Turks outside the gates of Vienna on September 12, 1683, in thanksgiving for which the Pope instituted the feast of the Holy Name of Mary. Over the next 16 years, the Ottomans suffered a dramatic series of defeats, and were almost entirely driven out of the territories of the Kingdom of Hungary which they had overrun in the previous century. The large presence of Hungarians noted by the commentator is due to this fact.

The Beatification of Pope Innocent XI

After I posted a video of the canonization of St Pius X on September 3rd, his EF feast day, YouTube came up with a useful “you might like” suggestion, a similar report on the beatification of Pope Innocent XI, who was elected on this day in 1676, and reigned for just shy of 13 years. His cause was begun more than once, but stalled at the objections of the French monarchy, with whom he had several clashes over matters of Church-State relations. (These clashes were so severe that at one point, the Pope placed the French royal church in Rome under interdict.) By the 20th century, the controversies had largely passed, and he was beatified on October 7, the feast of the Holy Rosary, in 1956. In the translation below, I have taken a few liberties with the excessively purple prose of the Italian commentary.

“A day of great rejoicing and faith for the Catholic religion; Benedict Odescalchi, who, on ascending to the pontifical throne, was called Innocent, eleventh of that name, is today raised to the glory of the altars. Thick crowds approach the largest church in Christendom, many foreigners among them, especially increased by the presence of the Hungarians. [note] (0:30) And now, everyone’s the gaze is concentrated on the ascetic figure of the Supreme Pastor, who comes forward on the sedes gestatoria. The acclamations of the multitude rise loud and clear, as the Pontiff raises his hand in fatherly blessing. The successor of Peter, kneeling before the altar of the Chair, concentrates a long while in prayer; the brief and solemn ceremony is celebrated by Mons. Bonomini, bishop of Como (where Pope Innocent was born in 1611). Thus, as Pius XII affirmed in his radio discourse, the deep holiness of Innocent XI’s great soul is revealed in the sacred halo of the blessed which shines around his head, and the glorifies the triple diadem of the Popes, as if to symbolize his three greatest works: as reformer of the Church, vindicator of its rights, and defender of Christendom.”

[note] Pope Innocent was the principal organizers of the Holy League between the Papal States, the Holy Roman Empire, then headed by the Hapsburg monarch Leopold I, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, ruled by King Jan III Sobieski, and the Venetian Republic. This was the alliance that led to the great defeat of the Ottoman Turks outside the gates of Vienna on September 12, 1683, in thanksgiving for which the Pope instituted the feast of the Holy Name of Mary. Over the next 16 years, the Ottomans suffered a dramatic series of defeats, and were almost entirely driven out of the territories of the Kingdom of Hungary which they had overrun in the previous century. The large presence of Hungarians noted by the commentator is due to this fact.