Pope Clement X

Head of the Catholic Church from 1670 to 1676

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Pope

Clement X

Bishop of Rome
File:Portrait of Pope Clement X, by Giovanni Battista Gaulli (Baciccio) - Metropolitan Museum of Art.jpg

Portrait by Giovanni Battista Gaulli, c. 1671
(Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC)

Church| Catholic Church
Papacy began| 29 April 1670
Papacy ended| 22 July 1676
Predecessor| Clement IX
Successor| Innocent XI
Orders
Ordination| 6 April 1624
Consecration| 30 November 1627
by Scipione Caffarelli-Borghese
Created cardinal| 29 November 1669
by Clement IX
Personal details
Born|

Emilio Bonaventura Altieri

(1590-07-13)13 July 1590

Rome, Papal States

Died| 22 July 1676(1676-07-22) (aged 86)
Rome, Papal States
Previous post(s)|

* Bishop of Camerino (1627–1666)
* Apostolic Nuncio to Naples (1644–1652)
* Secretary of the S.C. of Bishops and Regulars (1657–1667)

Coat of arms| Clement X's coat of arms
Other popes named Clement
Papal styles of
Pope Clement X

File:C o a Clementem X.svg
Reference style| His Holiness
Spoken style| Your Holiness
Religious style| Holy Father
Posthumous style| None

Pope Clement X (Latin: Clemens X; Italian: Clemente X; 13 July 1590 – 22 July 1676), born Emilio Bonaventura Altieri, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 29 April 1670 to his death in 1676. Elected pope at age 79, he has since been ranked as the oldest pope at the time of his election.

## Contents

* 1 Early life
* 2 Early work
* 3 Pontificate
* 3.1 Canonizations and beatifications
* 3.2 Foreign affairs
* 3.3 Local administration
* 3.4 Jubilee
* 3.5 Cardinals
* 4 Death
* 5 Other accomplishments
* 6 See also
* 7 References

## Early life[edit | edit source]

Emilio Boneventura Altieri was born in Rome in 1590, the son of Lorenzo Altieri and Vittoria Delfin, a noble Venetian lady, sister of Flaminio Delfin, commander general of the Papal Armies, and of Gentile Delfin, Bishop of Camerino. His brother was Giambattista Altieri. The Altieri family belonged to the ancient Roman nobility and had enjoyed the highest consideration at Rome for several centuries; they had occasionally contracted alliances with the Colonnas and the Orsinis. During earlier pontificates, the Altieri held many important offices and had been entrusted with several delicate missions.[1]

## Early work[edit | edit source]

Altieri received a doctorate in law from the Roman College in 1611. After finishing his studies, he was named auditor of Giovanni Battista Lancellotti in 1623, in the nunciature of Poland. He was ordained April 6, 1624. On his return to Rome, he was named Bishop of Camerino, then governor of Loreto and of all Umbria. Pope Urban VIII (1623–44) gave him charge of the works designed to protect the territory of Ravenna from the unruly Po River.[1]

Pope Innocent X (1644–55) sent him as nuncio to Naples, where he remained for eight years. He is credited with the re-establishment of peace after the stormy days of Masaniello.[1] Pope Alexander VII (1655–67) confided to him a mission to Poland.

Pope Clement IX (1667–69) named him Superintendent of the Papal Exchequer (in charge of the Church's finances), and in 1667 his maestro di camera, and he was made Secretary of the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars.[1] Just before his death, Clement IX made him a cardinal. He was then about seventy-nine years of age; and Clement IX, when making him a member of the Sacred College, said to him: "You will be our successor."

After the funeral of Pope Clement IX, sixty-two electors entered into conclave on 20 December 1669. Forty-two votes were necessary, and due to the rivalry between the French and Spanish factions, heated discussion prevailed for four months. Giovanni Cardinal Conti was supported by twenty-two votes; Cardinal Rospigliosi, nephew of the late pope, had thirty, or, as some say, thirty-three, with two at the accesso, so that he needed only seven more votes to gain the tiara. Cardinal Cerri obtained twenty-three votes.

At length the cardinals agreed to resort to the old expedient of electing a cardinal of advanced years, and proposed Cardinal Altieri, almost an octogenarian, whose long life had been spent in the service of the Catholic Church, and whom Clement IX, on the eve of his death, had raised to the dignity of the purple. The reason a prelate of such transcendent merits received the cardinalate so late in life seems to have been that he had waived his claims to the elevation in favour of an older brother.[1]

## Pontificate[edit | edit source]

Main article: 1669–1670 papal conclave

On 29 April 1670, the papacy was offered to him by fifty-nine cardinals present at the election; only two being against him. He, however, objected because of his age, for he was almost eighty, and exclaimed, "I am too old to bear such a burden." Pointing to Cardinal Brancaccio, Altieri said he was the cardinal whom they ought to elect. He persisted in refusing, protesting that he no longer had strength or memory; eventually, with tears he accepted, and out of gratitude to his benefactor, by ten years his junior, he assumed the name of Clement X.[1] He was crowned on 11 May.

File:Gianlorenzo bernini, busto di Clemente X 02.JPG

Bust of Pope Clement X by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

On 8 June Clement X took possession of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran. On 11 June, he confirmed the Minor Observantines in the Holy Land in the privileges and indulgences granted to those who visit the holy places, according to the decrees of Alexander VII and Clement IX. In the same month, he granted to the prelate-clerks of the chamber the use of the violet-coloured band around their hats. Occasionally forgetful, he sometimes promised the same favors to different people and came to rely on his cardinal-nephew, Cardinal Paluzzo Paluzzi Altieri.[2]

All but one of the male scions of the Altieri family had chosen the ecclesiastical career. On his accession to the papacy, Clement X, in order to save the Altieri name from extinction, adopted the Paoluzzi family, and proposed that one of the Paluzzi should marry Laura Caterina Altieri, the sole heiress of the family. In exchange for adopting the Altieri surname, he would make one of the Paoluzzi a cardinal. Following the wedding, which he officiated, he appointed his niece's uncle-in-law Cardinal Paluzzi Altieri to the office of cardinal nephew to take on the duties which he was prevented from doing by age. The main activity was to invest the Church's money, and with advancing years gradually entrusted to him the management of affairs, to such an extent that the Romans said he had reserved to himself only the episcopal functions of benedicere et sanctificare, resigning in favour of the cardinal the administrative duties of regere et gubernare.[1]

Clement X advised the Christian princes to love each other and to prove it by generous measures, and by a prudent and scrupulous conduct. It was especially between Spain and France that the pope desired to witness a renewal of feelings of good understanding.

In 1671, the Pope published an edict by which he declared that a noble might be a merchant without loss of his nobility, provided always that he did not sell by retail. In 1676, Gianlorenzo Bernini sculpted one of his final statues, a bust of Clement X.

### Canonizations and beatifications[edit | edit source]

On 12 April 1671, Clement X canonised five new saints:

* Saint Gaetan of Thiene, founder of the Clerks of Divine Providence, better known by their other title of Theatines.
* Saint Francis Borgia, fourth Duke of Gandia, Marquis of Lombay, and viceroy of Catalonia, born in 1510. He took the habit of the Jesuits in 1547, and became general and one of the most illustrious ornaments of that religious order.
* Saint Philip Benizi, a noble Florentine, a religious of the order of the Servants of Mary, of which he was the reviver, and not, as has been stated by some, the founder. Pope Leo X (1513–21) had beatified him in 1516.
* Saint Louis Beltran, or Bertrand, a Spaniard, of the family of Saint Vincent Ferrer, and like him a Dominican.
* Saint Rose of Lima, of the third order of Saint Dominic, born at Lima, Peru in 1586. Saint Rose, beatified by Clement IX, was the first American saint of the Americas.
* Fernando III called El Santo (the Saint), (1198/1199 – 30 May 1252) was a king of Castile (1217–1252) and Leon (1230–1252). He was the son of Alfonso IX and Berenguela of Castile, daughter of Alfonso VIII. In 1231 he united Castile and León permanently. Fernando was canonized by Pope Clement X in 1671. Several places named San Fernando were founded across the Spanish Empire.

In 1673, he had Pope Leo III's name entered in the Roman Martyrology.[3]

He beatified Pope Pius V (1566–72), Francis Solano, and John of the Cross, all subsequently canonized by Clement XI and Pope Benedict XIII (1724–30). Clement X also declared Venerable one of the famous Spanish mystics, Sister María de Jesús de Ágreda.

Clement X, on 24 November 1673, beatified nineteen Martyrs of Gorkum, who had been taken prisoner at Gorcum, the Netherlands, and put to death in Brielle on 9 July 1572, in hatred of the Catholic faith, of the primacy of the Pope, and of the Roman Church. Of the nineteen Gorcum martyrs, Peter Ascanius and Cornelius Vican were laymen; eleven were Franciscan priests; one a Dominican, two Premonstratensians, one a regular canon of Saint Augustine, and four were secular priests.

On 13 January 1672, Clement X regulated the formalities to be observed in removing the relics of saints from sacred cemeteries. No one was to remove such relics without the permission of the cardinal-vicar. They were not to be exposed for the veneration of the faithful unless previously examined by the same cardinal. The principal relics of the martyr – that is to say, the head, the legs, the arms, and the part in which they suffered – were to be exposed only in the churches, and they were not to be given to private persons, but only to princes and high prelates; and even to them but rarely, lest the too great profusion should deprive relics of the respect which they ought to inspire. The Pope decreed severe penalties against all who gave a relic any name but that given by the cardinal-vicar. The pain of excommunication was pronounced against all who should demand any sum whatever for sealed and authentic relics. These decrees, and others made by preceding Popes were confirmed by Pope Clement XI (1700–21) in 1704.

Clement X confirmed the exemptions granted by Pope Gregory XIII (1572–85) to the German College at Rome in 1671; and then, on 16 October 1672, he ordered the pupils to swear that at the close of their studies they would set out for Germany without a day's delay.

### Foreign affairs[edit | edit source]

Clement X, seeing the results of the apostolic labours of the early French missionaries in Canada, the number of the faithful, and the wide field of labour, resolved to give the Church an independent organisation, and erected a see at Quebec, the bishop to depend directly on the Holy See; this provision would later secure its permanence after Quebec passed into the hands of England. The first bishop was Monsignor Francois de Montmorency-Laval.[4]

In 1673, there arrived at Rome ambassadors from the Grand Duke of Muscovy, Alexei not John Basilowitz. He solicited from the Pope the title of Czar, which, however, he had already conferred upon himself. At the same time it could not be forgotten that he gave strong financial aid to King John Sobieski of Poland in their fight against the Turkish invaders. But Paul Menesius, a Scotsman, who was the ambassador, could not obtain the grant or sanction of that title, though he was received with great magnificence and had many precious gifts to carry back to his master. The Grand Duke of Muscovy did not profess the Catholic faith in such a manner as to give any assurance of his intentions, and the King of Poland had looked upon the embassy with displeasure.

### Local administration[edit | edit source]

Meantime Rome had reason to fear trouble. Cardinal Paluzzi Altieri, who was at the head of the government, determined to increase the revenues, and he established a new tax of three percent upon all merchandise entering the city, including even goods for cardinals and ambassadors. Although the government complained that ambassadors had abused their privilege, the diplomatic corps showed discontent that they were not expressly exempted in the new tax law.

Another edict confirmed the first and ordered the confiscation without distinction of all goods that did not pay the new tax. The cardinals at first complained, though with moderation. But the ambassadors didn't speak Clement X's language.

The Cardinal nephew maintained that Clement X, within his own State, might make what rules he pleased. Then the ambassadors of the empire, of France, Spain, and Venice, sent their secretaries to demand an audience of the Pope. The chief chamberlain replied that the Pope was busy that day. And for four days in succession, the chamberlain gave the same answer to the same applicants. Clement X, learning at length what had occurred, declared that he had given no such order. The ambassadors then sent their secretaries to ask an audience of Cardinal Paluzzi Altieri. Not only did he refuse to admit them, but closed his doors and increased the guard at the pontifical palace, so that the offence could go no further. Subsequently, the Cardinal nephew wrote to the nuncios who resided in the courts of Europe, stating that the excesses committed by the ambassadors had induced the pope to publish the edict. The ambassadors, on the contrary, assured their sovereigns that the accusation was a pretext.

The conflict lasted for more than a year; and Clement X, who loved peace, at length referred the matter to a congregation. Sometime after, Cardinal Paluzzi Altieri declared that he had not intended to comprise the ambassadors among those for whom the edict was intended, and that the pope had never contemplated subjecting them to it.

Queen Christina of Sweden, who had become a Catholic and moved to Rome in December 1655, made Clement X prohibit the custom of chasing Jews through the streets during the carnival. In 1686 she issued a declaration that Roman Jews stood under her protection, signed la Regina – the queen.[5]

### Jubilee[edit | edit source]

In 1675 Clement X celebrated the fourteenth jubilee of the holy year. Notwithstanding his age, he visited the churches, regretting that the gout prevented him from making that holy visit more than five times. He went twelve times to Trinity hospital to wash the feet of the pilgrims, and after the ceremony gave them liberal alms. A commemorated silver piastra was issued on the occasion of the Holy Year.[6]

### Cardinals[edit | edit source]

Main article: Cardinals created by Clement X

Clement X created 20 cardinals in six consistories including Pietro Francesco Orsini, who would become Pope Benedict XIII several decades later.

## Death[edit | edit source]

File:ClementeX.jpg

Tomb of Clement X, St. Peter's Basilica, designed by Mattia de' Rossi

On 22 July 1676, the agonies of the gout became so violent that Clement X died under them that afternoon. He was eighty-six years old and had governed the Church six years, two months, and twenty-four days. His tomb is in St. Peter's Basilica.[7]

## Other accomplishments[edit | edit source]

He laboured to preserve the peace of Europe even though he was menaced by the ambition of Louis XIV of France (1643–1715), an imperious monarch over ecclesiastical matters (the struggle concerned the régale, or revenues of vacant dioceses and abbeys, which resulted in continued tension with France). He decorated the bridge of Sant'Angelo with the ten statues of angels in Carrara marble still to be seen there.[1]

Pope Clement X had the two fountains located in Piazza of St. Peter's church built near the tribune, where a monument has been erected to his memory.[1] During his papacy, the Palazzo Altieri in central Rome was refurbished.

Clement X appointed Francesco Lorenzo Brancati di Lauria head of the Vatican library.

## See also[edit | edit source]

* Cardinals created by Clement X

## References[edit | edit source]

File:Commons-logo.svg

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Clemens X.

Wikisource has original works by or about:
[[:s:|]]

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Loughlin, James (1908). "Pope Clement X". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4\. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
2. ^ Williams, George L. (2004-08-11). Papal Genealogy: The Families and Descendants of the Popes. p. 119\. ISBN 9780786420711.
3. ^ Baring-Gould, Sabine (1874). The Lives of the Saints. J. Hodges. p. 156. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
4. ^ ""Bull of Pope Clement X erecting into a diocese the Vicariate Apostolic of New France", Virtual Cathedral".
5. ^ Elisabeth Aasen: Barokke damer, edited by Pax, Oslo 2003, ISBN 82-530-2817-2
6. ^ ""Silver piastra of Pope Clement X", British Museum".
7. ^ ""Monument to Clement X", St. Peter's Basilica - A Virtual Tour, Our Sunday Visitor".

* Nyborg, Chris (2000). "Churches of Rome: S Agnese in Agone". roma.katolsk.no. Archived from the original on 13 February 2006. (source of the interment information)

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Preceded by

Clement IX

|  Pope
29 April 1670 – 22 July 1676  | Succeeded by

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* Good Shepherd Sisters
* Hieronymites
* Jesuits
* Mercedarians
* Minims
* Olivetans
* Oratorians
* Piarists
* Premonstratensians
* Redemptorists
* Servites
* Theatines
* Trappists
* Trinitarians
* Visitandines

Associations
of the faithful|

* Confraternities
* Lay
* Marian
* Youth
* Workers
* Third orders
* Saint Dominic
* Lay Carmelites
* Discalced
* Saint Francis
* Secular
* Military orders
* Fimcap
* Catholic Action
* Charismatic Renewal
* Communion and Liberation
* Sant'Egidio
* Focolare
* International Alliance of Catholic Knights
* Scouting
* Legion of Mary
* Neocatechumenal Way
* Opus Dei
* Schoenstatt

Charities|

* Aid to the Church in Need
* Caritas
* Catholic Charities USA
* Home Missions
* Relief Services
* CIDSE
* Pax Christi
* Society of Saint Vincent de Paul

* See also:
* Health care
* Schools
* Universities

*   * Category

* v
* t
* e

History of the Catholic Church

General|

* History of the Catholic Church
* By country or region
* Ecclesiastical history
* Timeline
* Papacy
* Papal primacy
* Catholic ecumenical councils
* First seven
* Catholic Bible
* Biblical canon
* Vulgate
* Crusading movement
* History of the Roman Curia
* Religious institutes
* Christian monasticism
* Catholic culture
* Art
* Role in civilization
* Vatican City
* Papal States
* Latin Church
* Eastern Catholic Churches

Early Church
(30–325/476)|

| Origins and
Apostolic Age (30–100)|

* Jesus
* Ministry
* Crucifixion
* Resurrection
* Great Commission
* Holy Spirit
* Mary
* John the Baptist
* Apostles in the New Testament
* Commissioning
* Peter
* John
* Paul
* Stephen
* Council of Jerusalem
* Split with Judaism
* New Testament
* Background
* Gospels
* Acts
* Pauline epistles
* General epistles
* Revelation

|

Ante-Nicene period (100–325)|

* Persecution
* Church Fathers
* Apostolic Fathers
* Pope Clement I
* Polycarp
* Ignatius
* Irenaeus
* Justin Martyr
* Canon
* Tertullian
* Origen

Late antiquity
(313–476)|

| Great Church
(180–451)
Roman
state church
(380-451)|

* Constantine the Great
* Christianity
* Arian controversy
* Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran
* Old St. Peter's Basilica
* First Council of Nicaea
* Pope Sylvester I
* First Council of Constantinople
* Biblical canon
* Jerome
* Vulgate
* Council of Ephesus
* Council of Chalcedon

|

Early Middle Ages|

* Benedict of Nursia
* Monasticism
* Second Council of Constantinople
* Pope Gregory I
* Gregorian chant
* Third Council of Constantinople
* Saint Boniface
* Byzantine Iconoclasm
* Second Council of Nicaea
* Charlemagne
* Pope Leo III
* Fourth Council of Constantinople
* East–West Schism

High Middle Ages|

* Pope Urban II
* Investiture Controversy
* Crusades
* Universities
* Scholasticism
* First Council of the Lateran
* Second Council of the Lateran
* Third Council of the Lateran
* Pope Innocent III
* Latin Empire
* Francis of Assisi
* Fourth Council of the Lateran
* Inquisition
* First Council of Lyon
* Second Council of Lyon
* Bernard of Clairvaux

Late Middle Ages|

* Thomas Aquinas
* Pope Boniface VIII
* Western Schism
* Avignon Papacy
* Pope Clement V
* Council of Vienne
* Knights Templar
* Catherine of Siena
* Pope Alexander VI
* Age of Discovery

Reformation
Catholic Reformation

* Reformation
* Catholic Reformation
* Thomas More
* Pope Leo X
* Society of Jesus
* Ignatius of Loyola
* Francis Xavier
* Dissolution of the monasteries
* Council of Trent
* Pope Pius V
* Tridentine Mass
* Teresa of Ávila
* John of the Cross
* Peter Canisius
* Philip Neri
* Robert Bellarmine
* Thirty Years' War

Baroque Period to the
French Revolution

* Pope Innocent XI
* Pope Benedict XIV
* Suppression of the Society of Jesus
* Age of Enlightenment
* Anti-clericalism
* Pope Pius VI
* Shimabara Rebellion
* Edict of Nantes
* Dechristianization of France during the French Revolution

19th century|

* Pope Pius VII
* Pope Pius IX
* Dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary
* Our Lady of La Salette
* Our Lady of Lourdes
* First Vatican Council
* Papal infallibility
* Pope Leo XIII
* Mary of the Divine Heart
* Prayer of Consecration to the Sacred Heart
* Rerum novarum

20th century|

* Pope Pius X
* Our Lady of Fátima
* Persecutions of the Catholic Church and Pius XII
* Pope Pius XII
* Pope Pius XII 1942 consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
* Dogma of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary
* Lateran Treaty
* Nazism
* Pope John XXIII
* Second Vatican Council
* Pope Paul VI
* Pope John Paul I
* Mother Teresa
* Communism
* Pope John Paul II
* World Youth Day
* 1995

21st century|

* Sexual abuse scandal
* Islam
* World Youth Day
* 2000
* 2002
* 2005
* 2008
* 2011
* 2013
* 2016
* 2019
* Pope Benedict XVI
* Pope Francis
* COVID-19 pandemic

*   *

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