,
Museum of Grenoble Benedict XIV's pontificate began in a time of great difficulties, fueled by
anti-clericalism and 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.
Pastoralis Romani Pontificis The apostolic constitution
Pastoralis Romani Pontificis, which was Benedict's revision of the traditional
In Coena Domini anathematization, was
promulgated on 30 March 1741. In it Benedict again excommunicated all members of Protestant sects, including
Lutherans,
Calvinists,
Zwinglians, and
Huguenots. It ordered that ecumenical councils not be resorted to by opponents of papal decisions. Its most stringent clause was §20: We excommunicate all those who shall by themselves or others, directly or indirectly, under whatever title or pretext, presume to invade, destroy, occupy and detain, wholly or in part, the City of Rome, the
Kingdom of Sicily, the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, the territories on this side of Lesina, the patrimony of St. Peter in Tuscany, the
Duchy of Spoleto, the Counties of
Venaissin, and
Sabina, the
March of Ancona, Massa Trebaria,
Romagna,
Campagna, and the maritime provinces and their territories and places, and the territories under special commission of the Arnulfi, and our cities of Bologna,
Cesena,
Rimini,
Benevento,
Perugia,
Avignon,
Citta di Castello,
Todi,
Ferrara,
Comachio, and other cities, territories and places, or rights, belonging to the Roman Church, and mediately or immediately subject to the said Roman Church; and likewise those who presume to usurp de facto, to disturb, to retain, or in various ways to trouble, the supreme jurisdiction, belonging in them to Us and to the said Roman Church; and likewise their adherents, patrons, and protectors, or those who aid, counsel or abet them in any way whatsoever. This clause, if applied, excommunicated the governments of Spain, France, and the Habsburg monarchy, in addition to lesser princes who held, without papal grant or investiture, territory claimed by the Papacy. The papal bull was smiled at even by Benedict himself, who once said, "I like to leave the Vatican lightning asleep." Its application to the
Duchy of Parma by
Pope Clement XIII in 1768 had major consequences, including the beginning of expulsions of Jesuits from European states.
Finances At the beginning of his reign, the papal government was heavily in debt, to the amount of 56,000,000
scudi, and was running an annual deficit of more than 200,000 scudi. Benedict attempted to improve the finances of the Papal States, but even at his death the administration was still running a deficit. His greatest economic action was the reduction in the size of the Papal army, which had become ineffectual in terms of contemporary military practice, even in keeping order inside the Papal States; and he severely reduced the pay of both officers and soldiers. He instituted economies in his own household and in the bureaucracy, but these were insignificant in terms of the debt and deficit. In 1741, on the advice of Cardinal Aldovrandini (who had nearly been elected pope instead of Benedict), he instituted a new tax, a duty on stamped paper on legal documents; it did not produce the revenue expected, and it was abolished in 1743. He reduced taxes on imported cattle, oil, and raw silk, but imposed new taxes on lime, china clay, salt, wine, straw, and hay. In 1744 he raised taxes on land, house rents, feudal grants to barons, and pensions derived from prebends. Despite these fiscal problems, the Papacy was able to buy two frigates in Britain, and in April 1745 Benedict personally christened a galley, named the
Benedetta, which he had ordered constructed. He also ordered the modernization of the harbor of
Anzio, but the work was so expensive that it had to be abandoned in 1752. He encouraged agriculture and free trade and drastically cut the military budget, but was unable to completely reform the administration, still corrupt from previous papacies. At the
University of Bologna he revived the practice of anatomical studies and established a chair of surgery. He had a clear view of ecclesiastical problems, had respect for differing opinions and an ability to distinguish between dogma and theory.
Slavery On 22 December 1741, Benedict XIV issued the Bull
Immensa Pastorum Principis addressed to the Bishops of
Brazil against the enslavement of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and other countries, calling on the support of King
John V of Portugal towards this cause. It excommunicated any person who, for whatever motive, enslaved a native Brazilian. It did not address the case of black Africans. The Bull ordered the Jesuits to cease engaging in commerce, which was strictly forbidden by their own statutes, and meddling in politics. The bull went unenforced in Brazil.
Other activities The
Apostolic constitution Sacramentum Poenitentiae of 1741 assigned to the
Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition the responsibility of safeguarding the sanctity of the
sacrament of penance. On 18 May 1743, Benedict XIV signed a document addressed to the Archbishops and Bishops of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth regarding marriage, communicating his dissatisfaction with the dissolution of Christian marriages, some even long-stable ones, by the
Ecclesiastical Courts of Poland without due cause or in violation of
canon law. Troubles arose from what are called "clandestine marriages", a secret arrangement between partners, usually for the purpose of marrying a person of choice rather than entering into an "arranged marriage". Benedict XIV was also responsible, along with Cardinal
Domenico Silvio Passionei, for beginning the catalogue of the oriental manuscripts in the
Vatican Library. The Pope added some 3,300 of his own books to the collection. In 1741 the collection of manuscripts relating to Chinese religion and history were left to the Vatican Library by bequest of Fouchet, a one-time missionary. During his reign the library of Marchese Alessandro Capponi was acquired through bequest. The collection of the antiquarian
Filippo Stosch of Florence also came to the Vatican Library after his death, including a large collection of manuscripts that went back as far as the twelfth century. In 1747, Benedict promulgated the bull
Postremo mense superioris anni, which summarised and restated certain aspects of Catholic teaching on
infant baptism, in particular that 1) it is generally not licit to baptise a child of a Jewish family without parental consent, 2) it is licit to baptise a Jewish child in danger of death without parental consent, 3) once such a baptism had occurred (whether licit or not), the ecclesiastical authorities have a duty to remove the child from its parents' custody in order to provide it with a Christian education.
Oriental rites Since his days as a Consultor at the Holy Office (Inquisition), Benedict had been involved in issues pertaining to the missions, both those seeking to convert non-Christians, and those seeking to reconcile heretics and schismatics to the Roman Church. One concern was the
Coptic Christians in upper Egypt, where efforts to seek union with the Coptic Patriarch had not been successful. Numbers of Coptic priests and laity had entered into union with Rome, but had no bishop to serve their needs. In the Bull
Quemadmodum ingenti of 4 August 1741, Benedict entrusted their care to the one Coptic bishop who was in union with Rome, the Patriarch Athanasius of Jerusalem, who was given extensive powers to supervise uniate Copts in Egypt. On 7 August the same year, he supervised a commission of cardinals discussing the acts of the
Lebanese Council of 1736 against some of which (such as the prohibition of mixed monasteries) one part of the Maronite clergy had brought forward some complaints. The Lebanese Council was declared legitimate by the commission and on 1 September 1741, Benedict XIV approved the acts of the Lebanese Council. In his encyclical
Allatae Sunt, promulgated on 26 July 1755, and sent to missionaries working under the direction of the Congregation
de propaganda fide, Pope Benedict addressed the numerous problems arising in dealing with the clergy and laity belonging to various eastern rites, particularly the
Armenian and
Syriac Rites. He reminded the missionaries that they were converting people from schism and heresy: We also wanted to make clear to all the good will which the Apostolic See feels for Oriental Catholics in commanding them to observe fully their ancient rites which are not at variance with the Catholic religion or with propriety. The Church does not require schismatics to abandon their rites when they return to Catholic unity, but only that they forswear and detest heresy. Its great desire is for the preservation, not the destruction of different peoplesin short, that all may be Catholic rather than all become Latin. Benedict XIV, however, echoing the words of
Pope Gelasius I, universally banned the practice of females serving the priest at the altar, noting that the practice had spread to certain Oriental Rites. ====
Chinese rites and
Indian rites==== , later the Duc de Choiseul. 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 (11 July 1742), and
Omnium sollicitudinum (12 September 1744). 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. During his papacy, Benedict XIV commissioned a team of architects, led 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. On 15 December 1744, Benedict XIV blessed the baroque chapel (Chapel of St. John the Baptist) in
Sant'Antonio dei Portoghesi in Rome, which featured mosaics on the sides, floor, and wall behind the altar made of semi-precious stones. The chapel, which had been commissioned by King John V of Portugal in 1740, was designed by Nicola Salvi and Luigi Vanvitelli. When complete, it was then shipped to Portugal to be placed in the
Igreja de São Roque, the Jesuit church in Lisbon. The
Capuchins, under the leadership of Italian priest
Giuseppe Maria Bernini, grew the community of
Bettiah Christians in colonial India.
Consistories Benedict XIV created 64 cardinals in seven consistories; among the new cardinals he elevated into the cardinalate was
Henry Benedict Stuart (1747). The pope also reserved one cardinal and revealed that name at a later time, therefore validating the creation.
Canonizations and beatifications The pope canonized seven saints during his pontificate including
Camillus de Lellis and
Fidelis of Sigmaringen. He also beatified several individuals, including
Charlemagne and
Niccolò Albergati.
Jubilee On 5 May 1749, Pope Benedict XIV declared a
Holy Year, to begin on Christmas Eve, 1749 and to extend throughout the next year until Christmas 1750. During the month of April 1750, 43,000 meals were served to the poor at the Trinita Hospital. Later that year, the Pope banned
card games. With the
papal bull Peregrinantes, Benedict XIV convoked a
Jubilee in 1750. Furthermore, the pope called upon Saint
Leonard of Port Maurice to preach; both had a close relationship and the year previously saw Benedict XIV ask him to give sermons on penance and conversion in Rome. Among the initiatives that the pope designed for the Jubilee were the call for Christian unity and organizing for proper accommodation for those pilgrims who flocked to Rome. Upon the advice of Saint Leonard, the pope was the first to institute the
Via Crucis at the
Colosseum, which he consecrated as a site of martyrdom for the early Christians. The pope placed the stations of the Cross in the arena, however, these were removed in 1874 before being restored in 1925.
Personality Benedict XIV was considered one of the best scholars to have sat on the papal throne, noted for his keen intellect and his consistent morals. Noted for his modesty,
Horace Walpole procured for the pope a statue of him with an accompanying plaque. When the copy of the inscription was forwarded to Rome for approval, Benedict XIV smiled upon reading it and, shaking his head, exclaimed: "Alas! I am like the statues of the
Piazza San Pietro – admirable at a distance but monstrous when seen at close quarters!" Benedict XIV was an avid gambler. He frequently used profane language, which one of his early biographers called "unfortunate phraseology." He had a crucifix placed in every room, and it is said that seeing it helped restrain his colorful language. Benedict XIV was jovial and was lucid until the very end. To those who knew him, his blue eyes seemed to sparkle with humor and cordiality. ==Death and burial==