Clement VIII

Ippolito Aldobrandini was born on February 24, 1536 in Fano, near Florence . Following the example of his father, he received a law degree, becoming an auditor (expert) of the Holy See. He was ordained a priest only at the age of 45 years and over the next 12 years he rose to the papal throne. He was an effective, and sometimes ruthless, administrator.

In 1585, Ippolito was appointed cardinal and served as a papal legate in Poland , where he supported the Hapsburg candidacy after the death of Stefan Batory - Archduke Maximilian of Austria - and even secured his release from arrest ^[2] .

After the death of Pope Innocent IX ( 1591 ), a conclave followed. The election of the new pope was difficult: the Italian cardinals who were in the minority prevented the election of the favorites of the King of Spain Philip II. As a result, they got their way, and on January 30, 1592, Hippolito Aldobrandini was elected Pope, taking the non-politicized name Clement VIII. The new pope proved himself to be a wise statesman whose main goal was the liberation of the papacy from Spanish dependence ^[2] .

Theological Disputes

In the doctrinal field, the pope tried unsuccessfully to resolve the dispute between Jesuit theologians and Dominicans , who debated the limits of the influence of God's mercy on the will of a sinful and saved person. After a long debate and confrontation of different points of view, the pope, whose knowledge in theology was very limited, decided not to announce the final decision. The question remains open.

1600 Year Anniversary

In 1600, Clement VIII opened with great fanfare the Jubilee Year , for which almost 3 million pilgrims arrived. The then chroniclers noted the splendor of the festivities ^[2] .

Canonization and Beatification

Clement VIII canonized Saint Hyacinth ( April 17, 1594 ), Julian of Cuenca ( October 18, 1594 ) and Raymond of Penafort ( 1601 ).

Relations with France and Spain

Relations with Spain were somewhat weakened, and the apostolic capital again became close to France . The steps taken by the pope allowed the expansion of the territory of the Papal State .

The most remarkable event of the reign of Clement VIII was his reconciliation with the church of Henry IV of France (1589–1610), after long negotiations conducted by Cardinal Arnaud d'Ossath. Heinrich accepted Catholicism on July 25, 1593 . After a pause made to appreciate the sincerity of Henry IV, Clement VIII, in spite of the Spanish protests, in the autumn of 1595 solemnly blessed Henry IV, putting an end to the thirty-year religious war in France.

The friendship with Henry IV helped the papacy two years later, when Alfonso II , the Duke of Ferrara, died childless ( October 27, 1597 ), and the pope decided to annex the lands of the Este family to the Papal States. Although Spain and the emperor Rudolph II recognized his cousin Cesare d'Este’s heir to Alfonso, they were forced to acknowledge the annexation of Ferrara to the Papal States, fearing a conflict with Henry IV.

In 1598, Clement VIII also secured the conclusion of a peace treaty between Spain and France, which put an end to their long rivalry.

War with the Ottoman Empire

In 1595, Clement VIII initiated an alliance of Christian powers for war with the Ottoman Empire. The outbreak of the Thirteen Years War in Hungary (“The Long War”) continued for the rest of Clement's life. With the assistance of the Pope, the allied treaty was signed in Prague by the Emperor Rudolph II and the Governor of Transylvania, Zhigmond Bathory . The rulers of Moldova and Wallachia, Aron Tiran and Mihai the Brave, joined the alliance later. Clement VIII himself rendered valuable assistance to the emperor with soldiers and money.

Brest Union

In 1596, the Brest Union was concluded, which led to the emergence of Catholics of the Eastern rite in the east of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth . The Union of Brest only partially met the hopes that the Pope had placed on it, since it did not lead to conversion to Catholicism of all Russia.

Enforcement

He severely condemned the practice of nepotism , but, becoming a pope, he appointed four of his relatives as cardinals . One of them was Pietro Aldobrandini , who received purple at 22 and replaced his father in all important matters. The pope and his nepot carried out co-management in both political and religious affairs.

Clement VIII showed energy in suppressing banditry in the papal provinces of Umbria and Marche and punishing the crimes of the Roman nobility. In 1592 several noble criminals were executed. The most famous of them are Trojo Savelli, the scion of a powerful Roman family, and the young Beatrice Cenci , who killed her father-senator. The latter case led to numerous requests for pardon, but the pope rejected them and appropriated the confiscated property of Chenchi.

In the religious field, the Inquisition dominated, quenching any manifestation of progressive thought and the development of a free, non-subordinate science theology. In 1599, the pope sent the miller Menocchio to the fire for stating that God is not eternal and was created from the original chaos. In 1600, an outstanding Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno (born in 1548 ) was burned at the stake.

Anti-Jewish policy

Clement VIII tightened measures against the Jews who lived in the papal lands. In 1592, the papal bull “Cum saepe accidere” banned the Jewish community of Comte-Venezsen , the papal enclave, to sell goods. In 1593, the bull “Caeca et Obdurata” confirmed the decision of Pope Pius V of 1569 , which forbade Jews to reside in the Papal States outside the cities of Rome, Ancona and Avignon . The goal was to evict Jews who returned to the Papal States after their expulsion in 1569 , and expel Jewish communities from cities such as Bologna ^[3] . Bulla also claimed that Jews in the Papal States were engaged in usury and abused the hospitality of Clement VIII's papic predecessors ^[4] . Bull “Cum Hebræorum malitia”, published a few days later, banned the reading of the Talmud ^[5] .

By the age of 60, Clement VIII was hit by gout and was forced to spend most of his remaining life bedridden. He died in March 1605 , leaving a reputation as a prudent, generous, but tough manager. Clement was buried in the Basilica of St. Peter. Subsequently, Pope Paul V (1605–1621) built a tomb for him in the chapel of Santa Maria Maggiore , where his remains were transferred in 1646 .

Among other things, Clement VIII appreciated the taste of coffee brought from the Ottoman Empire, and contrary to the advice of the environment to declare the drink "unclean" blessed it, which to some extent contributed to the spread of coffee in Europe. After trying the drink, he allegedly said: "This devilish drink is so delicious ... we must fool the devil and bless him." However, there is no historical evidence for this ^[6] .

Clement VIII appears in Percy Bysshe Shelley 's drama Chenchi, where he appears as a cruel and venal tyrant.

He is also one of the characters in the rock opera Avantasia . His role was played by Oliver Hartman from the At Vance group. In the opera, Pope Clement is a negative character, a gullible and superstitious fanatic who is manipulated by demonic force in the guise of an angel.

• Aldobrandini - Italian dynasty.

• Clement, the popes and antipapy // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : 86 t. (82 t. And 4 extra.). - SPb. , 1890-1907.

• From the bulla Pope Clement VIII about the adoption of the union by the Orthodox bishops of Western Russia (inaccessible link)
• Clement VIII (Ippolito Aldobrandini) on allvatican.ru (inaccessible link)