In some of his last words, whispered to his nephew, he said, “See how all the honors of this world come to an end. Only that is great which is great in God’s sight. Make it your endeavor to become a saint.” He had spent his extraordinarily difficult pontificate of 21 years attempting to enact those very sentiments.
Like many popes of the early modern period, Giovanni Albani showed promise from his early youth and advanced steadily through his studies.
He obtained a doctorate in both canon and civil law, but his real talent lay in linguistics and in the classics. He rose to become one of the most prominent Latinists of his age, eventually running the office of papal briefs — the curial post charged with composing and dispatching the letters of the pope. To this end he became, and long remained, an ordained deacon. He retained this rank even when he was appointed a cardinal. Indeed the venerable practice of the Roman Church was to ordain professional administrators only as deacons, even those who ran curial offices. In this way they would be freed from pastoral care and be able to dedicate the whole of their efforts to the good of the Church.
Close to Pope Innocent XII (r. 1691-1700), he proved himself an invaluable counselor. The Cardinal-Deacon was critical in drafting that pope’s declaration against nepotism, the final nail in the coffin of that practice which — while occasionally fruitful — had been the source of terrible corruption. He was known in Rome as kind and open handed to such an extent that he often exceeded his own income in charitable outlays. When Innocent died in 1700, Albani was not even on the list of potential popes, indeed he had only been ordained a priest (at age 51) two months before the conclave.
Europe in 1700 was poised on the brink of bitter war.
The Spanish throne had become vacant, and was used as a political pawn in the battle between the powerful French king Louis XIV and the German emperor. Being Catholic powers, they retained the right to exclude candidates from the papal chair who could be antithetical to their interests. A whole slate of Cardinals found themselves excluded. Eventually the party of the zelanti (so-called because they were zealous for the independence of the papacy from these secular powers) coalesced around the young priest who was relatively unknown outside of Rome.
In a rare unanimous election, Giovanni was raised to the chair of Peter. He delayed for three days, but was finally convinced by a delegation of theologians to accept. He did so on 23 November 1700, the feast of St. Clement I, from whom he took his papal name.
He was rapidly consecrated bishop and crowned as pope, only to realize that such a crown was often one of thorns. His entire reign was bounded by the competing demands of various secular powers. He seemed to be able to please no one, and had to endure invasion and occupation of the Papal states by the Catholic nations. When the War of Spanish Succession finally concluded in 1713, he was faced with a resurgence of the Ottoman Muslims in the east. When they were driven back, with papal assistance, he extended the feast of the Holy Rosary to the universal Church in Thanksgiving.
He was also able to give some support to the Old Pretender in the rising of 1715.
In the midst of political pressures, Clement also had to deal with tumult within the Church. Each of the Catholic kings tried to menace the pope with the threat of schism to obtain their desires. For the good of Catholics in those kingdoms, the pope often gave way as much as he could. In particular he had to deal with a new eruption of the heresy of Jansenism in France, a pessimistic set of ideas about human nature. It was Calvinism inflected with a patina of external Catholicism. Such a theory demanded perfect contrition for forgiveness, and near sinlessness for the reception of communion. It endangered the universality of Christ’s will for salvation. The Church had condemned it in the 1600s but Clement issued a final, definitive decree against it in 1713. It was greeted in France in the usual Gallican manner. The bull was mocked and many refused to publish it.
Though most of the clergy was behind the pope, it took decades for the matter finally to be settled in the Holy See’s favor.
Unfortunately Clement is also responsible for one of the worst decisions in Catholic missionary history. For over a century, Jesuit missionaries in China had been ministering with success by eliding traditional practices of ancestor worship into rituals that more closely approximate the veneration of saints. To an outsider, these could appear superstitious, as indeed the later Dominican and Franciscan missionaries argued.
The so-called “Chinese rites” were denounced at Rome.
Clement spent weeks pondering and studying the problem, but eventually acquiesced to a commission of Cardinals to suppress them. The Chinese mission was essentially destroyed. It is quite possible that had it continued, China might be a Catholic nation today. In 1940 Pope Pius XII approved the Chinese rites, but by then all of the damage had been done. Clement certainly acted out of a desire for the purity of Catholic ritual and belief, but in hindsight it proved to be a grave mistake.
In spite of all that Clement was a patron of arts and culture. As a linguist he enthusiastically sought new manuscripts for the library, in particular extending the Syriac collection. He worked tenaciously to improve the infrastructure of the papal states, and began the excavations of the catacombs. Yet his most lasting achievement was his simple “Universal Prayer for all things Necessary to Salvation.”
This moving composition has found devotees throughout history, and serves as his best epitaph.
Universal Prayer for all things Necessary to Salvation by Pope Clement XI
O My God, I believe in thee; do thou strengthen my faith. All my hopes are in thee; do thou secure them. I love thee; teach me to love thee daily more and more. I am sorry that I have offended thee; do thou increase my sorrow.
I adore thee as my first beginning; I espouse after thee as my last end. I give thee thanks as my constant benefactor; I call upon thee as my sovereign protector.
Vouchsafe, O my God, to conduct me by thy wisdom, to restrain me by thy justice, to comfort me by thy mercy, to defend me by thy power.
To thee I desire to consecrate all my thoughts, works, actions, and sufferings; that henceforward I may think of thee, speak of thee, refer all my actions to thy greater glory, and suffer willingly whatever thou shalt appoint.
Lord, I desire that in all things thy will may be done, because it is thy will, and in the manner that thou willest.
I beg to thee to enlighten my understanding, to inflame my will, to purify my body, and to sanctify my soul.
Give me strength, O my God, to expiate my offences, to overcome my temptations, to subdue my passions, and to acquire the virtues proper for my state.
Fill my heart with tender affection for Thy goodness, hatred of my faults, love of my neighbor, and contempt of the world.
May Thy grace help me to be submissive to my superiors, condescending to my inferiors, faithful to my friends, and charitable to my enemies.
Assist me to overcome sensuality by mortification, avarice by almsgiving, anger by meekness, and tepidity by devotion.
O my God! make me prudent in my undertakings, courageous in dangers, patient in affliction, and humble in prosperity.
Grant that I may be ever attentive at my prayers, temperate at my meals, diligent in my employments, and constant in my resolutions.
Let my conscience be ever upright and pure, my exterior modest, my conversation edifying, and my comportment regular.
Assist me, that I may continually labor to overcome nature, to correspond with Thy grace, to keep Thy Commandments, and to work out my salvation.
Make me realize, O my God! the nothingness of this world, the greatness of Heaven, the shortness of time, and the length of eternity.
Grant that I may prepare for death; that I may fear Thy judgments, and in the end obtain Heaven; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
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