Clement XI

Clement XI 1649-1721, pope (1700-1721), an Italian (b. Urbino) named Giovanni Francesco Albani; successor of Innocent XII. He was known in his youth for his prodigious learning and brilliance. He became cardinal in 1690. As pope he was involved in the struggle between France and Austria over the throne of Spain; he recognized Philip V but later was forced into recognizing Charles of Hapsburg, the other claimant. The chief spiritual concern of his pontificate was that of Jansenism (see under Jansen, Cornelis ). The brief Vineam Domini (1705) condemned the Jansenist ideas on papal infallibility, and in 1713 he issued the bull Unigenitus, which condemned certain other Jansenist propositions. He was succeeded by Innocent XIII.

Clement XI (1649–1721), Pope from 1700. In the political sphere he met with little success, and in the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) his rights in Sardinia and elsewhere were ignored. His condemnation of Jansenism in ‘Vineam Domini Sabaoth’ (1705) was followed by the condemnation of P. Quesnel's work in 1708 and by ‘Unigenitus’ (1713). In the dispute between the Dominicans and the Jesuits over the Chinese Rites, he supported the Holy Office which censured the opinion of the Jesuits. In 1708 he made the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the BVM one of obligation throughout the Church.