Glimpses of Church History

Clement XI

Gian Francisco Albani became Pope Clement XI in November 1700 at the age of 51. He slept and ate little, confessed his sins daily and said Mass daily - unusual for a pope of that time. Clement was fond of issuing anathemas and excommunications.

 

In 1705 he condemned the Jansenists, Catholic religious reformers of the time who believed only a chosen few were destined to be saved. In 1713, under pressure from the French King Louis XIV, Clement’s bull Unigenitus condemned the 101 propositions advanced by the Jansenists. Not all of these were unreasonable, such as the following: “The reading of the Holy Scriptures is for all men... Christians must sanctify the Lord’s Day by reading godly books, especially the Holy Scriptures ... to disallow Christians (the reading of) the new Testament is to shut the mouth of Christ against them...”

In that bull, the pope wrote: “We declare, condemn and disallow all and each of these propositions. They are false, offensive to pious ears, pernicious, rash, seditious, blasphemous, savouring of heresy... and lastly also heretical...”

 

Jesuits in China

Christian missionaries began to visit China soon after the death of Francis Xavier in 1552 off China’s coast. In 1582, Jesuit Matthew Ricci came to the Inperial Court at Peking and was honoured as a ‘wise man of the West’. He was impressed by Chinese traditions - especially the respect for elders and ancestors. His Jesuit team felt the Christian message had to inculturate itself with these traditions. This approach was successful: after 30 years of labour, he had left behind him 300 churches in Peking alone. At first Rome allowed only the Jesuits missionaries to China but in 1631 the Dominicans were allowed to join them.

The Jesuits were soon accused of permitting the Chinese to continue with their ‘idolatrous’ customs of ancestor worship. In 1643 a formal complaint was lodged against the Jesuit methods. The Inquisition, always headed by the Dominicans, upheld the complaint. However, the popes of the time advised further investigation. The Jesuits defended their policies vigorously. Then in 1692 Emperor Kang Hi permitted the Jesuits to preach the Christian message freely and convert whom they wished.

 

China Bans all Missions
In 1704 Pope Clement despatched Archbishop Charles de Tournon (Patriarch of Antioch) to China to investigate. Tournon promptly condemned the Chinese rites as idolatrous. The emperor was not pleased and jailed the bishop. Not to be outdone, the pope made him cardinal and gave the Inquisition the go-ahead to act against the Jesuits. (What would the emperor have thought of the Catholic custom of kissing the pope’s feet and venerating statues?)

 

In 1715, the pope issued his bull Ex IIIa Die. It required every missionary to swear not to tolerate the Chinese rites. All churches in China had to have Roman trappings. When the emperor heard of the bull two years later, he issued a decree banishing all missionaries, ordered their churches destroyed and forced converts to renounce their Christian faith.

 

Benedict XIV rejects the cause of Fr Joseph Vaz (1651-1711)

It was Pope Benedict XIV (1740-58) who in 1742 set out the rules for beatification and canonisations of candidates for sainthood. The first Cause for the beatification of Fr Vaz was started in 1713 by the Jesuit Bishop of Cochin, just two years after his death. This appears to be the first Cause undertaken for a non-European. It was presented to the Pope in due course but he rejected it on petty grounds, that evidence could not be taken by members of Vaz's own religious Congregation. The ruling was contested because Sri Lanka was under foreign persecution and only the Indian Oratorians of Fr Vaz were allowed to enter the island.

A new Cause was started for him but by then his first companions had died and testimony for miracles was hampered by the repressive work conditions imposed on the Oratorians. The Jesuit Order was suppressed in 1773 (see below) followed by other religious Orders in Goa including the Oratorians and the Cause had to be abandoned. It was not revived until the end of the 19th century.

 

Jesuit Order dissolved

An attempt to assassinate King Joseph I of Portugal was blamed on the Jesuits. Their alleged leader (Fr Malagrida) was hanged and 53 others burnt at the stake. In 1759 the rest were expelled them from Portugal and in 1761 all Jesuit property was confiscated. When the pro-Jesuit Pope Clement XII protested, the King broke off diplomatic relations with the Holy See. France in turn banished the Jesuits in 1764 and Spain followed in 1767, rounding up 6000 Jesuits and shipping them to Italy. Naples and Corsica did likewise.

 

The above countries asked the pope to dissolve the Society of Jesus and re-petitioned the next pope, Clement XIV. In August 1773, this pope issued the fatal bull, dissolving the Society. The principal reason given: “It is hardly possible to restore a true and lasting peace to the Church as long as the society remains in existence”.

 

Pius VI deposed
European rulers increasingly opposed the popes’ secular powers, pointing out that these were not Christ given nor claimed by the early Church. The German archbishops warned the pope to keep out of their affairs. After the French Revolution (1789), the French clergy were ordered to swear an oath of loyalty to the State. Pope Pius VI condemned this ruling and relations between church and state deteriorated. In 1796, Napoleon invaded Italy via Milan to take over the Papal States and forced the pope to accept a humiliating treaty. A year later, Pius VI was deposed and a Roman Republic declared. He was forced to flee to Florence and was held a virtual prisoner until his death in 1799.