Pope Benedict XIV

Pope Benedict XIV
Oil painting by Pierre Subleyras
Papacy began	17 August 1740
Papacy ended	3 May 1758
Predecessor	Clement XII
Successor	Clement XIII
Orders
Ordination	2 July 1724
Consecration	16 July 1724 by Benedict XIII
Created Cardinal	9 December 1726 by Benedict XIII
Personal details
Birth name	Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini
Born	(1675-03-31)31 March 1675 Bologna, Emilia-Romagna Papal States
Died	3 May 1758(1758-05-03) (aged 83) Rome, Papal States
Previous post	Assessor of the Congregation of Rites (1712-1713) Secretary of the Congregation of the Council (1718-1722) Titular Archbishop of Teodosia (1724-1727) Archbishop of Ancona e Numana (1727-1731) Cardinal-Priest of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme (1728-1740) Archbishop of Bologna (1731-1754)
Coat of arms
Other popes named Benedict

Papal styles of Pope Benedict XIV
Reference style	His Holiness
Spoken style	Your Holiness
Religious style	Holy Father
Posthumous style	None

Pope Benedict XIV (Latin: Benedictus XIV; 31 March 1675 – 3 May 1758), born Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini, was pope from 17 August 1740 to his death in 1758.^[1]

In life, Benedict XIV was loved by the people of the Papal States who praised him. He was incredibly intelligent and witty, had a sense of humour and was dubbed the "Pope of Concordats" during his papacy. He was known to be a proud patron of the arts and of science. He was well known for visiting major edifices and monuments in Rome by carriage and sedan chair to make public appearances.

Perhaps one of the greatest scholars in Christendom, he promoted scientific learning, the baroque arts, and the study of the human form. In terms of the governance of the Papal States, he reduced taxation and also encouraged agriculture. He also supported free trade. A scholar, he laid the groundwork for the present Vatican Museum. Benedict XIV, to an extent can be considered a polymath due to his numerous studies of ancient literature, the publishing of ecclesiastical books and documents, the study of the human body, and his great devotion to art.

Early life

Birth and studies

Lambertini was born into a noble family of Bologna to Marcello Lambertini and Lucrezia Bulgarini, the third of five children. At the time of his birth, Bologna was the second largest city in the Papal States. At the age of thirteen, he began attending the Collegium Clementianum in Rome, where he studied rhetoric, Latin, philosophy, and theology. During his studies as a young man, he often studied the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, who was his favorite author and saint. While he enjoyed studying at Collegium Clementianum, the bent of his mind was well towards ecclesiastical and civil law, and actively enforcing it. Soon after, in 1694 at the young age of nineteen, he received the degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology and Doctor Utriusque Juris, (both ecclesiastical and civil law).^[2]

Ecclesiastical Career

On the death of Innocent XII, he was made a consistorial advocate by Clement XI, a Pope with whom he worked closely. Shortly after, he was created a Consultor of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition, then in 1708, Promoter of the Faith; in 1712 a theologian of canon law and assessor of the Sacred Congregation of Rites; in 1713 he was named monsignor; in 1718 secretary of the Sacred Congregation of the Council; and in 1725, titular bishop of Theodosia.^[2]

He was made Bishop of Ancona in 1727. He was created a cardinal in pectore, his name being published on 30 April 1728, and was subsequently made the Cardinal-Priest of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme on 10 May 1728. He also served as the Archbishop of Bologna. ^[2]

Ascension to the papacy

After the death of Pope Clement XII, Lambertini attended the papal conclave to choose a successor. It would last for six months. After long deliberation, Lambertini was put forth to the cardinal electors as a compromise candidate, and it is reported that he said to the members of the College of Cardinals "If you wish to elect a saint, choose Gotti; a statesman, Aldrovandi; an honest man, me".^[3] (Vincenzo Ludovico Gotti (1664–1742) was professor of philosophy at the College of Saint Thomas, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum,^[4][5] and perhaps the leading Thomist of his time. Aldrovandi was a canon lawyer and Cardinal of the Catholic Church).

This appears to have assisted his cause for winning the election, which also benefited from his reputation for deep learning, gentleness, pomp, wisdom, and piety in policy. On August 17, 1740, he was elected in the evening and took his new pontifical name of Benedict XIV in honour of Pope Benedict XIII. He was crowned on August 21, 1740, and by August 30, 1740, the famous ephemeral baroque structures of the Festival of the Chinea and the triumphal arch of Benedict XIV were erected by Charles III of Spain, who was then a Pontifical vassal and monarch of the Kingdom of Naples.

Pontificate

Lambertini's papacy as Pope Benedict XIV began in a time of great difficulties, chiefly caused by the disputes between Catholic rulers and the papacy about governmental demands to nominate bishops rather than leaving the appointment to the Church. He managed to overcome most of these problems — the Holy See's disputes with the Kingdom of Naples, Sardinia, Spain, Venice, and Austria were settled.

Reforms

He had a very active papacy, reforming the education of priests, the calendar of feasts of the Church, and many papal institutions. Perhaps the most important act of Benedict XIV's pontificate was the promulgation of his famous laws about missions in the two bulls, Ex quo singulari and Omnium solicitudinum. In these bulls he ruled on the custom of accommodating non- Christian words and usages to express Christian ideas and practices of the native cultures, which had been extensively done by the Jesuits in their Indian and Chinese missions. An example of this is the statues of ancestors – there had long been uncertainty whether honour paid to one's ancestors was unacceptable 'ancestor worship,' or if it was something more like the Catholic veneration of the saints. This question was especially pressing in the case of an ancestor known not to have been a Christian. The choice of a Chinese translation for the name of God had also been debated since the early 17th century. Benedict XIV denounced these practices in these two bulls. The consequence of this was that many of these converts left the Church.

The Apostolic Constitution Sacramentorum Poenitentiae of 1741 assigned to the Holy Office the responsibility of safeguarding the sanctity of the sacrament of penance.

Other activities

On 22 December 1741, Benedict XIV promulgated the papal bull "Immensa Pastorum Principis" against the enslavement of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and other countries.

On 18 May 1743, Benedict XIV signed a document addressed to the Archbishops and Bishops of the Kingdom of Poland regarding marriage,^[6] communicating his dissatisfaction with the dissolution of Christian marriages, even long-stable ones, by the Ecclesiastical Courts of Poland without due cause or in violation of canon law.

Benedict XIV was also responsible, along with Cardinal Passionei, for beginning the catalogue of the Vatican Library. Benedetto, Duke of Chablais, a military commander of the French Revolution and member of the House of Savoy (rulers of the kingdom of Sardinia) was named after him. Infanta Benedita of Portugal was also named after him.

In 1750, Benedict XIV declared a Holy Year.^[7]

In the apostolic constitution Pastoralis Romani Pontificis, which was promulgated on March 30, 1741, he is one of many popes to enforce and declare that he, his predecessors, and all his successors hold Papal Infallibility and that ecumenical councils should be discouraged, as they can undermine the one of the principle pillars of the papacy - infallibility.

During his papacy, Benedict XIV commissioned a team of architects lead by Nicola Salvi and Luigi Vanvitelli to design a large palace that was to be 'more complex and with greater baroque style than the box of a palace Vanvitelli designed in Caserta'. The palace was to be built south of St. Peter's Basilica, but was never built, as the plans were quietly ignored by Benedict's successor, Clement XIII. They were brought up once more by Pius VI late in his papacy, but had to stop due to the possibility of invasion.

Benedict XIV consecrated the expensive gilded baroque chapel (Chapel of St. John the Baptist), on 15 December 1744 in Sant'Antonio dei Portoghesi. The chapel was designed by Nicola Salvi and Luigi Vanvitelli, and was then shipped to Portugal to be placed in the Igreja de Sāo Roque.^[8]

Death and burial

Benedict XIV's health worsened in 1758 and after a battle with gout, he died on 3 May 1758 at the age of 83. His final words to those surrounding him on his deathbed were, "I leave you in the hands of God." ^[9] Following this, he was interred in Saint Peter's Basilica and a large catafalque was erected in his honor.

See also

• Chinese Rites controversy
• Suppression of the Jesuits
• Castrato – Benedict XIV was one of the first popes to voice displeasure regarding the use of castrated males in Church choir services.
• Vix pervenit
• Cardinals created by Benedict XIV
• Apostolicae Servitutis

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Benedictus XIV.

Footnotes

External links

• Pope Benedict XIV Portrait at the Vatican Museum.

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Jacopo Cardinal Boncompagni	Archbishop of Bologna 30 April 1731 – 17 August 1740	Succeeded by Vincenzo Malvezzi
Preceded by Clement XII	Pope 17 August 1740 – 3 May 1758	Succeeded by Clement XIII

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