Clement XII
(born April 7, 1652, Florence?died Feb. 6, 1740, Rome) was the
pope
from 1730 to 1740.
A member of the influential Florentine princely family of Corsini, he became papal ambassador to Vienna in 1691, cardinal deacon in 1706, and pope on July 12, 1730.
Britannica Quiz
Pop Quiz: 19 Things to Know About Christianity
Despite ill health and total blindness (from 1732), he sought to halt the decline of papal influence but was far from successful. Although his protests against the spread of Gallicanism (an essentially French doctrine advocating restriction of papal power) to Spain were fruitless, his enforcement of Pope
Clement XI’s
bull
Unigenitus
of 1713 sustained the suppression of
Jansenism
(a heretical doctrine deemphasizing freedom of the will and teaching that redemption through
Christ’s
death is open to some but not all).
Clement aided large missionary enterprises, as exemplified in his sending
Franciscans
to Ethiopia, but he continued Clement XI’s ban on the Chinese and Malabar rites?i.e., those Far Eastern ceremonies honouring Confucius and one’s forefathers. In
Rome
he erected the Trevi fountain.
On April 28, 1738, he
promulgated
his bull
In Eminenti,
which condemned
Freemasonry
, the beliefs and observances of which were considered pagan and unlawful by the
Roman Catholic Church
. The Masons were often hostile to the church, and Clement threatened to excommunicate any Catholic who joined.