Clement IX

Clement IX

Clement IX coat of arms

Clement IX (* January 28, 1600 in Pistoia ; † December 9, 1669 in Rome ), real name Giulio Rospigliosi , was Pope of the Catholic Church from 1667 to 1669 .

family

Giulio Rospigliosi came from a family that is said to have moved from Milan to Lamporecchio near Pistoia at the time of Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa . Here she was involved in the wool trade and drew her wealth from it, which enabled her to acquire property. This in turn enabled her to work in the municipal offices of Pistoia without, of course, developing any further intentions. This only changed with the rise of Giulio Rospigliosi in the middle of the 17th century.

Career

Clerical career

Giulio Rospigliosi studied theology and philosophy in Pisa and obtained a doctorate in theology, philosophy and both rights here in 1623. After moving to Rome in 1632 he became a trainee lawyer in the curia in the department of justice and then held other offices, where he was the protection pleased the Barberini family , who belonged to Pope Urban VIII . In 1635 he was therefore appointed secretary of the papal letters to the secular princes; his correspondence conveys intimate knowledge about it. On March 29, 1644 he was made titular Archbishop of Tarsus and then held the post of papal nuncio in Spain until 1653 , when he helped bring about the end of the Thirty Years' War . After a two-year period of seclusion, at the end of which the College of Cardinals appointed him governor of the city of Rome after the death of Innocent X during the vacancy , Alexander VII appointed him papal secretary of state in 1655. On April 9, 1657 he was finally created Cardinal by S. Sisto , with which he was promoted to real Cardinal Secretary of State .

Cultural work

Giulio Rospigliosi made a name for himself as a curia official and cardinal as the librettist of the early Roman opera buffa . He wrote the librettos for Chi soffre speri (1639; music by Virgilio Mazzocchi and Marco Marazzoli ) and Dal male il bene (1654; music by Antonio Maria Abbatini and Marco Marazzoli). He also wrote the texts for eight other operas, including: Il Sant'Alessio (1631, music by Stefano Landi ), Erminia sul Giordano (based on Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata , 1633 in the Palazzo Barberini), San Bonifacio (1638, music by Virgilio Mazzocchi) and Sant'Eustachio (1643). The literary activity was continued with the libretti La vita umana 1655 and Le armi e gli amori 1656, but the now Pope wrote the last work in 1668 with the title La comica dal cielo . Some of the works were premiered in the theater of Palazzo Barberini . Taken as a whole, the cardinal's poems contributed to greater dramatization and more musical design of the operas.

Giulio Rospigliosi was also a patron and friend of the famous singer Leonora Baroni and the soprano and diplomat Atto Melani , who like him came from Pistoia.

Pope election

When Alexander VII died on May 2, 1667, 61 and 64 cardinals entered the conclave in the Vatican on June 2 . After 18 days, Giulio Rospigliosi was elected the new Pope on June 20, 1667, whereby the French and Spanish parliamentary groups within the College of Cardinals agreed on him with the profound influence of the Grand Duke of Tuscany . Like his predecessor, he obtained the pontificate from the position of State Secretary; this happened much later for the third and so far last time in 1939 with Pius XII. On June 26th he was crowned and enthroned Pope . He chose for himself the motto aliis non sibi clemens (everyone just not gentle on himself) and therefore the name Clemens IX. His election was welcomed in both Spain and France . The choice of name should indicate a program of gentleness and peace.

politics

Church politics

Clemens was in his endeavor, the u. a. Reorganizing the Vatican's finances, ruined by the brisk construction activity of his predecessor, was quite successful by lowering taxes and promoting the linen industry. He also used to invite thirteen poor or sick Romans to his palace almost every day, who he then served there himself, and often visited the sick at the Ospedale di Santo Spirito . Twice a week he took confession from those who came to him and personally celebrated many masses . In the long-simmering dispute over Jansenism , he issued a brief of February 2, 1669, decreing a temporary peace, the Pax Clementina , which, however, showed a manifest influence by the French politics of Louis XIV . With a motu proprio of July 6, 1669, Clement established a new congregation for indulgences and holy relics ( Congregatio Indulgentiarum et Sacrarum Reliquiarum ), and on June 17 of the same year he reorganized the tasks of the missionaries. The Spaniard Pietro de Alcantara and the Italian nun Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi were canonized in 1669 . In three consistories he created a total of 12 cardinals.

Foreign policy

During his pontificate Clemens always tried to make the European princes aware of the danger of an invasion by the Turks , which threatened the last bastion of the Republic of Venice in the Aegean Sea , the island of Crete with its capital Candia . However, he was largely unheard and therefore the city fell into the hands of the Ottomans on September 4, 1669 . In 1668, Clemens brokered the Peace of Aachen between France and Spain , which ended the so-called war of devolution .

Construction activity

In his homeland, Clemens had a country villa built by his pupil Mattia de Rossi based on a design by Gianlorenzo Bernini . However, when construction began, the Pope died, but it was completed. After the transition to private ownership, the building now serves as an event center. What is now known as the Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi in Rome near the Quirinal Palace , on the other hand, is a building from earlier times that was only acquired by the Pope's descendants in 1704. The family's extensive art collection, one of the largest private ones in Rome, is now located here. She owns only one half of the palace, the other half is owned by an Italian industrial association.

nepotism

In the usual way, Clemens IX took care of them. his relatives immediately after the papal election with traditional offices in Rome and the Papal States . His brother Camillo was appointed Gonfaloniere della Santa Chiesa, commander of the papal army. His first son Tommaso (1642–1669) was appointed castellan of Castel Sant'Angelo. The next brother, Giambattista (1646–1722), succeeded his father as Army Commander, while the third, Giacomo Camillo (1628–1684), rose to become Cardinalnepot in the ministry . The fourth brother, Vincenzo, became admiral of the papal galleys, and the youngest, Felice (1639–1687), was made cardinal in 1673 by Pope Clement X. However, the short pontificate prevented an expansion of family support, which was already at a low level.

Giambattista became the founder of the family estate: in 1670 he married Maria Camilla Pallavicini, the heir to the property of her family from Genoa, who had acquired the towns of Gallicano and Colonna in Lazio, east of Rome . For the couple, Cardinal Lazzaro Pallavicini, Clement IX. in his last consistory on November 29, 1669 to the honor of the purple, a majorate that belonged to the family for a long time: It included the Duchy of Zagarolo , the Principality of Gallicano and the Marchesat of Colonna as well as a large art collection. Giambattista Rospigliosi acquired the former place in 1670 from the Ludovisi family. He embellished the local palace, which had been taken over from the penultimate owners, the Colonna , with a magnificent gate decorated with several ancient fragments, which his son Clemente Domenico completed in 1732, as indicated by an inscription inserted there. After the death of Maria Camilla in 1710 and that of Giambattista in 1722, the first-born son inherited the Rospigliosi estates, the second those of Pallavicini. After a long joint ownership, after the death of Giulio Cesare Rospigliosi-Pallavicini, the entire property was finally divided in the middle of the 19th century. Due to great financial difficulties, the properties under the name Rospigliosi Gioeni were gradually sold between 1927 and 1932, while theirs remained with the Pallavicini branch. The archive of the Rospigliosi family is now in the Archivio Segreto Vaticano.

Aftermath

The death of Clement IX. After only two years of the pontificate, the Romans deeply mourned his efforts for the welfare of the Papal States and especially of the people of Rome. He found his grave in a monument completed by Carlo Rainaldi in 1671 in the church of S. Maria Maggiore in Rome. He is still well known in music history for his librettos. The Pope's family maintained their status in the Papal States for a long time and still exists today with the honorary title of Dukes of Zagarolo. The left half of the palace on Quirinals Hill, including the art collection, now belongs to the branch of the family named Pallavicini.

literature

• Darricau, Robert: Une heure mémorable dans les rapports entre la France et le Saint-Siège: le pontificat de Clément IX , in: Bulletino di Storia Pistoiese 71, 1969, pp. 73-98
• Lutz, Georg: On the papal finance of Clement IX. , in: Römische Quartalsschrift 74, 1979, pp. 32–90
• Cristofori, Roberto: Le opere teatrali di GC Rospigliosi , in: Studi Romani 27, 1979, pp. 302-316
• Osbat, Luciano: Clemente IX, papa , in: Dizionario biografico degli Italiani 26, 1982
• Carpaneto, Giorgio: I palazzi di Roma, Rome 1993, ISBN 88-7983-191-7
• Nenci, Giacomina: Aristocrazia romana verso il Novecento; i Rospigliosi , in: Roma moderna e contemporanea 8, 2000 (2001), 399-426
• This: Aristocrazia romana tra '800 e' 900: i Rospigliosi , Ancona / Senigallia 2004
• Negro, Angela: La collezione Rospigliosi: la quadreria e la committenza artistica di una famiglia patrizia a Roma nel Sei e Settecento , 2nd edition Rome 2007, ISBN 88-85897-78-9

Web links

Commons : Clemens IX  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Works by and about Clemens IX.  in the German Digital Library
• Publications by and about Clemens IX. in VD 17 .
• Entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia , Robert Appleton Company, New York 1913.

predecessor	Office	successor
Alexander VII	Pope 1667–1669	Clement X.