Alphabetical list of Popes

The Popes, in chronological order

AD 1700-1800

242. Clement XI. b. Urbino as Giovanni Francesco Albani; elected 8 Dec, 1700; d. 19 March, 1721, aged 71. Nominated after a contentious six-week conclave, he  delayed acceptance  for a week because of his self-doubt. (He was "an unqualified disaster for the papacy--S&S).  Once elected he found himself impotent to affect the outcome of the lengthy war that ensued over succession to the Spanish throne. After Leopold's death and his successor Emperor Joseph I  invaded Italy, the pope was obliged to accept his choice of the Hapsburg archduke Charles as king of Spain. Similarly, Clement was unable to prevent territorial gains by the Turks in Greece and the assumption of imperial control over such papal territories as Sicily and Sardinia. Condemning Jansenism, he tangled with France which protested "papal encroachment in the internal discipline of French Catholicism". The pope's subsequent lengthy Unigenitus  condemned "those lying teachers and mockers...who privily insinuating erroneous principles under the specious pretence of piety, set abroach pernicious principles under color of holiness..." Jansenites in Holland formed a breakaway sect. In a dispute between  Dominicans and Jesuits over whether  missionaries in China could incorporate Confucian practices, Clement unsurprisingly supported the Dominicans who opposed this. During his 20-year papacy, he greatly expanded the Vatican Library.
Portrait by Carlo Maratta in the Villa Albani

243. Innocent XIII. b.Rome as Michelangelo dei Conti; elected 18 May, 1721; d. 7 March, 1724, aged 68.  A descendant  of Pope Innocent III, he had been bishop of Viterbo before resigning through ill health, a condition that continued through his papacy.  Making peace with the emperor, he ratified what had been a forcible "transfer" of Naples and Sicily to  the imperial domain and financially assisted the Knights of Malta in their continuing struggle with Turks. An implacable foe of the Jesuits, he put them on probation over their Chinese missionaries' continuing tolerance for unacceptable practices.
Bust by Joseph Claus in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

244. Benedict XIII. b. Puglia as Pietro Francesco Orsini; elected 4 May, 1724; d. 2 March, 1730, aged 80. As a simple (and elderly) Dominican monk he came from a  family which had provided two popes, Celestine II and Nicholas III, four centuries earlier. He  had resigned a dukedom to become a friar. As pope, Benedict continued his parochial duties as archbishop of Benevento making the rounds of the poor and sick and administering sacraments.but he  angered Europe with some irksome proclamations and banned the popular public lottery within the papal states. Benedict inaugurated Rome's Trinita dei Monti steps. Austere and unaffected himself, he carelessly delegated disproportionate power to his assistant Cardinal Niccolo Coscia ("an unscrupulous scoundrel" -ODP), a corrupt bribe-taker who with his Benevento cronies instituted disastrous economic and political policies. "Now the church had all the evils of nepotism without the nephew" (S&S) .
Bust by Pietro Bracci in the Palazzo Venezia.

245. Clement XII. b. Florence as Lorenzo Corsini; elected 16 July, 1730; d. 6 Feb, 1740, aged 87. Renouncing the family wealth in his early 30s, he entered the church and after being made cardinal by Clement IX he was a candidate for the papacy at several conclaves, being finally chosen four months after the death of his predecessor.  His efforts to regain papal prestige and restore the church's finances included lifting the ban that had been imposed by Benedict XIII on the lottery and imposing new taxes. But although he had Niccolo Coscia tried and imprisoned, his own choice of assistant--his nephew, Neri Corsini--was not well received. And restoration was hampered by Clement's own infirmities (he was blind and often bedridden by gout) as well as a Spanish invasion of papal states. A longstanding conflict between the papacy and Portugal's king John V over the status of the papal nuncio in that country, was finally settled when Clement  raised the Lisbon nuncio to equal status with Paris, Vienna and Madrid. He excommunicated the masons whom he saw as a religious threat, expanded the Vatican library and left a lasting memorial in the form of  Nicola Salvi's  glorious reconstruction of the Trevi Fountain.
Bust by Joseph Claus in Oxford's Ashmolean Museum.

246. Benedict XIV. b.Bologna as Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini; elected 22 Aug, 1740; d. 3 May, 1758, aged 82. An academic who authored various ecclesiastical treatises and who was archbishop of Bologna, he was a compromise candidate after six months of a deadlocked conclave. As pope, he strengthened the rule requiring  bishops to report to Rome every four years, amd wrote a standard thesis on canon law. A skilled diplomat, Benedict compromised   when he had to, but readily  made peace with neighboring states including Spain and Portugal. He condemned usury, urged that churches be kept clean and orderly and prevented further quarrying of the Coliseum,  after declaring it sanctified by blood of the early martyrs. "Of unusually sympathetic personality" (ODP), he was unassuming and when a visiting sailor laughed at the pomp of papal ceremonies, he is said to have good-humoredly responded: "Never mind, it is true I am a pope but I have no power to prevent Frenchmen from laughing". Admired by Voltaire and England's Hugh Walpole, who declared him to be "a priest without indolence or interest, a prince without favorites, a pope without nephews". Bust by Joseph Claus in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

247. Clement XIII. b. Venice as Carlo della Torre Rezzonico; elected 16 July 1758; d. 2 Feb 1769. aged 70. He had been bishop of Padua. Although he had studied under the Jesuits in  his teens, he was powerless as pope to deflect hostility to them. There had been overt accusations about their political maneuvering and alleged trading practices, first in Portugal then in France. The latter country's 1764  royal decree abolished the Order. Later the Jesuits were expelled from Spain, Naples and Sicily. Clement called them, an order "which breathes to the highest point piety and holiness" and, with the bull Coena Domini  he threatened. anathema over these encroachments on papal authority. Europe's animosity towards him was expressed by Voltaire who suggested that  "he should not rule a state at all" --S&S). Clement was affronted by the spread of Rationalist ideas which he sought to curb, condemning publications which differed from Catholic dogma and covering up nude statues and paintings even including  the Sistine Chapel frescoes.  He died suddenly and mysteriously after only six months in office.
Monument by Canova in St Peter's; portrait by Anton Raffael Mengs in the Ambrosiana Gallery, Milan.

248. Clement XIV. b. Rimini as Giovanni Vincenzo Anonio Ganganelli; elected 4 June 1769; d. 22 Sept 1774, aged 69. Son of a rural doctor, he joined the Franciscans in  his teens.  For the first four years of his pontificate  he staved off continuing attacks against the Society of Jesuits who,  to enlightened Europe, says S&S, were "symbols of churchy obscurantism and clerical presumption". When, under extreme pressure from France and Spain, Clement signed the bull which dissolved the Order, he declared: "This dissolution will cost me my life". He was also obliged to commit  to Castel Sant'Angelo (for life), the Society's Jesuit General. Calling it "the papacy's most shameful hour", S&S bemoans the pope's "lack of moral fibre".
   Many observers agreed that the move weakened the church, and ODP comments that "the resulting damage to the Catholic school system in Europe and its missionary work overseas cannot be exaggerated". This pope preserved his name in the  Vatican's Museum of Inscriptions, the Clementine Museum. Clement abolished Urban's bull condeming heretics. "His benevolence and humanity were unbounded...out of 200 popes he was the best" (PRW). Conversely, ODP declares that his reign "saw the prestige of the papacy sink to its lowest level for centuries" He died "perhaps from poisoning" (ISPR).
Bust by Christopher Hewerson in London's Victoria & Albert Museum.

249. Pius VI. b. Cesena as Giovanni Angelo Braschi;  elected 22 Feb 1775; d. 29 Feb 1799, aged 79. He had been private secretary to Benedict XIV and appointed a cardinal  by Clement XIV. On his election after five months of argument, he said: "Venerable Fathers, your meeting is at an end but how unfortunate is the result for me".  On Pius' visit to Vienna, in an attempt to modify Emperor Joseph II who had closed convents and Monasteries and seized their revenues,  the emperor proffered gifts but shook the papal  hand but eschewed the custom of kissing it. "The state", the emperor had decreed, "is entitled to everything about the Church that is not of divine but of human invention and institution". Although unpopular, the emperor's Toleration Edict diminished papal influence, infringed on various church rights  and suppressed certain religious orders. German archbishops also asserted their independence from Rome, also the French whose king, Louis XIV in 1682 induced the clergy to pass the Gallican Articles which overrode papal authority.
   A state-backed Constitutional Church in France caused a schism in that country and after the French Revolution of 1789 the pope found himself at odds with the Declaration of the Rights of Man. His condemnation of this and of the French nation which "seems entirely seduced by this species of vain liberty and is enslaved by this council of philosophers who insult and attack each other" prompted a 1796 invasion of the papal states by Napoleon  Bonaparte who delared his intention to "free the Roman people from their long slavery:" Monastries were closed and church property confiscated. Napoleon  backed off only after Pius  turned over a huge ransom including most of the Vatican's art  which  became the basis for the Louvre collection. Nevertheless,  the following year  French iroops re-entered Rome,  brutally deposing the man described in French documents as "Citizen Pope"  imprisoning him and carrying him across the Alps to  Valence where he died.
Monument by Canova in St Peter's.