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Benedict XIV
1740-1758

Prospero Lambertini born 1675

Benedict XIV was born at Bologna on the 31st of March, 1675, and was the son of Marcellos Lambertini, senator, of illustrious family, and of Lucrezia Bulgarini.

Prospero went to Rome in 1688, as a pupil in the Clementine College, on leaving which he applied himself to jurisprudence. Pope Clement XI frequently consulted him in difficult controversies, and at length made him consistorial advocate and promoter of the faith, and then domestic prelate.

In 1712 he made him a canon of Saint Peter's. After obtaining many and various dignities, Prospero was named secretary of the Congregation of the Council. In 1722 Innocent XIII made him canonist to the penitentiary. Benedict XIII, in 1724, named him Archbishop of Theodosia in partibus, on the 9th of December in that year created him cardinal, reserving him in petto until the 30th of April, 1728. Clement XII, in the consistory of the 30th of April, 1731, named him archbishop of his native Bologna; and Prospero, after becoming pope, would not renounce that archbishopric until twelve years later.

After the death and funeral of Clement XII, the cardinals, to the number of thirty-two, entered into conclave with the intention of giving the tiara to Cardinal Ottoboni, dean of the Sacred College; but an opposition was raised on account of the cardinal being protector of France. Meanwhile Cardinal Ottoboni died, and other cardinals arriving, the conclave consisted of fifty-five, of whom forty-six were Italians. Two died, and two more were so ill as to be obliged to leave the conclave; the number was thus reduced to fifty-one, requiring thirty-four votes for an election. Thirty-one votes, including the French and Spaniards and Cardinal Corsini, supported Cardinal Aldovrandi during forty days. Twenty were for Lanfredini; these were headed by Cardinal Annibal Albani.

The author of the life of Benedict XIV says that all the factions within and without the conclave wanted to elect Aldovrandi, but were always three votes short. Lambertini, in mere pleasantry, said: "If you wish a saint, take Gotti; if you wish a politician, take Aldovrandi; if you wish a good man, take me." If this anecdote is true, it proves how far Lambertini was from desiring the dignity; for those who really desire it never joke.

During this canvass it was noticed that fifteen votes were constantly given to Cardinal Corradini. But he, being eighty-two years old, represented to the electors that he did not wish to be again named, on account of his advanced age.

Occasionally some of the ballots bore the name of Father Barberini, ex-general of the Capuchins, and apostolic preacher, notwithstanding his not being a cardinal.

The cardinals grew weary; the heat inconvenienced them in their cells, and they offered up prayers for a speedy election. At length the minds of most centered so completely on Lambertini, who previously had not been spoken of, that when his old friend Cardinal Aquaviva, then minister from Spain, pronounced his name, he was on the instant unanimously elected. On the 16th of August, Lambertini had not a vote; on the 17th he obtained all but his own, which he gave to Cardinal Aldovrandi.

When Lambertini was formally asked whether he would accept the pontificate, he replied: "I accept for three reasons—the first is, that I am unwilling to disdain your kindness, the second, because I will not resist the will of God, which I know this to be, because I have never desired so high a dignity; the third is my desire to put an end to our conclave, which has already lasted so long as to cause general scandal."

Lambertini on the instant was invested with the pontifical habit.

In memory of the pontiff Benedict XIII, who had given him the purple, and to show his gratitude to the Orsini family, he took the name of Benedict XIV. On the 22nd of August he was solemnly crowned in the Vatican Basilica by Cardinal Marini, first deacon. On the following day he went to reside in the palace of Monte Cavallo. On the 30th of August, 1740, he took possession of Saint John Lateran, and the benediction from the summit of the new facade by Clement XII. It had previously been given from facade of the other lateral portion.

In the first consistory of this pontificate, held on the 29th of August, for the purpose of thanking the cardinals, Benedict granted the legation of Bologna to Cardinal Alberoni, and showed his clemency to Cardinal Coscia by absolving him from the censures under which he labored, and restoring to the liberty of which he had again been deprived at the close of the conclave. Clement XII, when dying, had ordered that Coscia should be released from prison, so as to take his position in the conclave, but confined again as soon as the conclave should close. That was showing great respect for the rights of the cardinalate, and no less respect for a sentence which had been justly pronounced.

Benedict lost none of his old kindliness and well-known courtesy. He proved to every one that it would be difficult to equal him in sentiments of liberality; but his family were deprived of it forever. The Portuguese Jesuit, Manuel Azevedo, admired that fortitude and strictness of Benedict towards his family, and his generous affection to all others, whom he treated as though they were his own. Benedict had a nephew, Egano Lambertini, a senator of Bologna, to whom he wrote: "You will not come to Rome till summoned"; but though the pope had an excellent memory, he never, during his long reign, thought of inviting his nephew. He, however, permitted John, Egano's eldest son, a boy only nine years old, to study in the Clementine College.

The vacancy of the Holy See having lasted past the eve of Saint Peter, the Neapolitan tribute could not be presented at the proper time, but on the 8th of September, Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, Benedict, with the usual solemn escort, repaired to the Church of Saint Mary del Popolo, and received from the constable Colonna the accustomed tribute. After sending the golden rose to the Queen of Naples, Benedict informed the Sacred College of the death of the Emperor Charles VI, and, after the example of many of his predecessors, published a universal jubilee to ask from the divine goodness a prosperous and salutary pontificate. He at the same time declared that all who wished to obtain the blessings of the jubilee should yield both interior and exterior obedience to the bull Unigenitus.

Benedict at once turned his attention to the due administration of the Church, without neglecting the political advantage of his States. He found that excessive outlays had exhausted the treasury. He instantly reduced the expenses of his palace and table, as well as the allowances granted to the pontiff, surrendering to the apostolic chamber certain dues which had entered the private treasury of his predecessors. At his accession the chamber owed two hundred thousand crowns; in a short time it had that amount In hand, after payment of every debt. The reforms were especially in military expenses, a private soldier in the pontifical force receiving more than an officer in France or Germany.

When there was a surplus in the treasury, Benedict awarded a portion of it to reduced noble families. At the time he reformed the luxury of the more wealthy nobles. The pope, himself so learned, and aware of the value of knowledge, exhorted the Roman prelates to strengthen themselves still more by study. He declared that he would give employments only to those who should distinguish themselves by consummate ability, zeal, and good morals. In the whole of the Pontifical States, Benedict was the best judge of such matters, and Benedict was now master there.

To that end he established four academies—at the Capitol, the academy of Roman history and profane antiquity; in the house of the priests of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri, the academy of sacred history and ecclesiastical learning; in the college of the Propaganda, the history of the councils; and Our Lady de' Monti, the academy of liturgy.

On Monday in each week the Holy Father, unless unavoidably prevented, presided, in the Quirinal Palace, over each of those academies in its turn; while one of the academicians pronounced a discourse on the respective subjects. In the entire world it is only at Rome that the sovereign gives such an example.

It is to be regretted that these discourses, pronounced by men selected for their learning, and in presence of a learned pope, were not collected and published. Still, twenty-two, by Gaetan Cenni, were published at Pistoja in 1778—79, in two quarto volumes. Ten of them are upon ecclesiastical and twelve upon Roman history.

We may repeat what John the Deacon said of Saint Gregory the Great, that the science of things had erected a temple at Rome for all to visit, and that the portico of the Holy See appeared to be supported by seven arts, as by seven noble columns. The study of the various sciences there reflourished; and Latinity, clad in the purple, found all Latium again in the real palace of the Latin tongue.

On the 23rd of September the pope authorized the abbreviators of the major park—that is to say, the twelve prelates forming the tribunals of the chancery—even after quitting office, to wear a violet cord in the hat.

These abbreviators abridge the rescripts of the popes upon memorials to which favors are granted. Those officials are divided into abbreviators of the major park and abbreviators of the minor park, because the site of the office in which they assemble is called Parco. The prelates of the major park form a tribunal. They decide upon doubts which arise upon the formulas and the clauses of bulls, upon the decrees and emoluments; the prelates of the minor park draw up the bulls, which they submit to the prelates of the major park for examination before they go to the copyists.

In the first of these colleges seven of the senior members receive a more considerable stipend. They enjoy the same privileges as the referendaries of both signatures, and they had their portion of the bread and wine which are distributed to those employed in the palace of the pope. In fact, they enjoyed many privileges now suppressed.

By a motu proprio of the 24th of November, the Holy Father confirmed the decrees of Innocent XIII, of the 23rd of January, 1722, and of Clement XII, of the 20th of July, 1733, By which all regulars except the Fate bene Fratelli were forbidden to practice pharmacy beyond their respective orders, To sell or to give medicines to laymen, except treacle and apoplectic balsam, which they were freely permitted to sell or give.

The Holy Father soon afterwards sent Monsignor Merlini Turin as apostolic nuncio to deliver to the sovereign a brief which established the nuncio as vicar of the fiefs which Holy See possessed in the States of Piedmont and Montferrato, as had been agreed with Clement XII. The prince was to recognize those fiefs as dependents of the Apostolic See, and to pay to the pontifical chamber an annual tribute of two thousand crowns. The King of Sardinia, by virtue of this decree, solemnly made the oath in the presence of nuncio, and sent to the pope, for the first time, a golden chalice, with the promise to do the same annually, in acknowledgment of the right due to the legitimate possessor of those fiefs, which was regularly performed until the armies of the French Revolution invaded Piedmont.

On the 20th of October, 1740, Charles VI had died. Benedict learned that Maria Teresa, daughter of that prince, and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, heiress of the house of Austria, had, by a new formula of promise, required from the deputies from the duchy of Parma and Piacenza the oath of fidelity to her as duchess of those two States; but they, in fact, were fiefs of the Holy See. The pope stated the case to the cardinals in a consistory, and declared that he would never cease to maintain the rights in the patrimony of the Church which had been intrusted to him, and that in that he would follow the example of his predecessors, who had been the firm defenders of those undoubted rights of the Holy See.

On the 3rd of November, 1741, Benedict gave the bull Dei miseratione, to maintain the validity of marriages. In some Christian countries abuses had crept in upon that subject; judges had dissolved marriages without having ascertained the propriety of that measure by sufficient preliminary inquiry. The pope strongly opposed the abuse, and reminded the judges, "Whom God hath joined, let no man put asunder." He ordered the appointment, in each diocese, of a defender of marriage, who should labor for the indissolubility of the marital contract and be present at all proceedings upon that subject. The Parliament of Paris and the official of Soissons, however, did not conform to the decision of a pope who, to his authority as sovereign pontiff, added such profound acquaintance with canon law and theology.

A council assembled on Mount Lebanon. It was composed of the patriarch, fourteen archbishops and bishops, two abbots, many missionaries of various orders, and some princes and magnates, who had obtained the honor of being allowed to support, by their influence, the decisions of that august assembly. Many useful decrees were adopted which Benedict approved.

By virtue of a direct bull of the 11th of July, 1742, Benedict confirmed the constitution of Clement XI upon the rites in China. Benedict gave an account, even to the minutest details, of the whole controversy, and then annulled and condemned eight concessions made by Mezzabarba, Patriarch of Alexandria and apostolical commissioner in the vast empire of China. By the same bull an oath was prescribed to be taken by all engaged in those missions.

Previous to reaching the highest dignities Benedict XIV had held the post of consistorial advocate. By a bull he definitively organized that college, which consisted of twelve subjects. The pope recognized their right to propose to the pontiff three advocates whenever a vacancy in the college should occur. These superior officials, he urged, are the true familiars of the pope. It is by them that consistorial causes are treated. In the causes of beatifications and canonizations they write in jure, and support them verbally before the consistory. They have also the right to propose instances in the solemnities of the canonizations, and to solicit pallium for the archbishops and other dignitaries entitled to it. They govern the University of Rome, with the title of rectors; enjoy the privilege of receiving doctors in either law, in consequence of a decision upon a question which was mooted between them and the apostolical prothonotaries. To that college belong, in perpetuity, the offices of Promoter of the Faith, Advocate of the Poor, Advocate of the Fisc, Advocate of the Apostolical Chamber, Advocate of the Building of Saint Peter's, Advocate of the Roman Senate and People, and Commissioner of the Conclave while the Holy See is vacant. They can fix statutes and discharge the officers of the college. In the collegiate acts the dean takes precedence of all his colleagues, even though they personally enjoy a higher dignity than he. The advocates of the fisc, the apostolic chamber, and the poor can never defend any other cause.

A year earlier, Benedict had prepared a decree, which he afterwards published, against several works of the modern philosophy. These works were: Letters on the Religion essential to Man, Distinguished from that which is only Accessory; the Cabalistic Letters; the Chinese Letters; and the Jewish Letters. The first of those works was from the pen of Mary Huber, of Geneva, a Protestant, who died at Lyons on the 13th of June, 1753. The Cabalistic Letters, the Chinese Letters, and the Jewish Letters were written by the Marquis d'Argens.

All the decrees issued by Benedict XIV were founded upon his own personal observations. He read over and over the works that were to be judged; and then, placed in a separate part of the private library, they for some time awaited a third examination. They thus underwent three judgments.

On the 28th of December, I 743, the pope was informed of a decree made by Philip V, concerning the missions of Paraguay. It is known that those establishments were formed by the Jesuits; and known, too, are the zeal and the hereditary wisdom with which they had civilized the Indians. No reading man can be unaware of the obstacles those courageous soldiers of Christ encountered in their labors. At length Rome blessed the religious who carried their generous persistence so far as to brave the most cruel martyrdoms.

Those hardships, zeal, and the continual offer of their blood did not, however, prevent that great enterprise from being painted in the most unfavorable colors. Some enemies of the society accused it of ambition and avarice. In vain did just and upright men justify alike its intentions and its conduct. There is a letter extant, written on the 20th of March,1721, to the King of Spain by Faxardo, Bishop of Buenos Ayres. That prelate, who had made a visit of general inspection to the reductions (the name given to the various missions in those countries), acquits the Jesuits of the charges brought against them. His successor, Joseph Peralto, a Dominican, was no less favorable, and in that spirit he wrote to his court. To these testimonies there was added yet another. Philip V was a reflecting prince, and he loved the Spaniards; he would not on slight grounds condemn any of his subjects; he always desired to know the truth; in fact, that prince, who was not as fortunate as he deserved to be, possessed a precious quality—he inquired into the conduct of the accuser as well as into that of the accused.

Philip sent a commissioner to observe on the spot what was really going on, and it was upon his report, founded on the closest observations, that Philip, on the 28th of December, 1743, issued a long decree by which he specified in detail all the accusations brought against the Jesuits. He no less particularly specified the heads of their defense; and he closed by ordering that everything with respect to the Jesuits should remain on the same footing as before, and that they should be left in control of those establishments which their society had created.

It may be said, at the same time, that that decree was more in favor of the Indians than of the Society of Jesus. There were thirty reductions, or subdivisions of the country, peopled by about thirty thousand Indians subject to tribute besides all those Indians who were exempt from tribute The Jesuits maintained order and promoted piety among their converts; and the value of their labors was afterwards felt when the viceroys endeavored to introduce different systems of administration.

The decree of Philip V only a few years preceded his death, which occurred on the 3rd of July, 1746, in the sixty-third year of his age.

With a pope like Benedict XIV, whose vast erudition enabled him to decide properly upon all questions, and who especially kept careful watch upon proceedings in distant countries, that he might encourage and aid that great work of civilization which is the cherished duty of the Roman pontiffs, requests for advice reached Rome from all parts of the World. Many pious, sincere, and courageous spirits solicited a measure directed against the Malabar rites. Cardinal de Tournon had proscribed them in his pastoral of the 23rd of June, 1704, but it had met with much opposition. The mission of India, like that of China, had had its trials and its crosses, and peace was disturbed there also by disputes upon peculiar rites. The Archbishop of Goa and the Bishop of Saint Thome resisted the decree. The superior Council of Pondicherry declared it abusive, and the Jesuits disregarded it.

The Holy See had repeatedly to confirm the legate's pastoral. At Pondicherry, long altercations ensued between the Capuchins and the Jesuits. Each party obtained attestations from Hindu Brahmins, who certified, some that the disputed rites were purely civil, and others that they were religious. Visdelon, Bishop of Claudiopolis, who for a long time resided at Pondicherry, declared against the rites, although he was a Jesuit, and, consequently, was charged with various missions by the Propaganda.

On the 12th of December, 1727, Benedict XIII, in a brief to the bishops and missionaries of the Indian peninsula, confirmed the decrees of his predecessors, and especially that of Cardinal deTournon.

A new brief of Clement XII, of the 13th of May, 1739, contained a formula of the oath by which the missionaries promised to execute the decree of 1704. It was urged that these various measures did not put a stop to the disobedience, and it was to remove all these pretexts that Benedict XIV– who, even when only a promoter of the faith as consistorial advocate, had very zealously urged the execution of the apostolical decrees—issued the bull Omnium Solicitudinum in which, as in that on the Chinese rites, he summed up all that had taken place. He solved all doubts, explained and confirmed the modifications granted by Clement XII, and omitted nothing which might tend to terminate the differences that had arisen about those Malabar rites. Mean time there still remained some of the old leaven of discord between the other missionaries and the Jesuits, the former reproaching the latter with not fully and frankly observing the bull. These disputes lasted till the dissolution of the Society of Jesus. Then the mission to Malabar was intrusted to the Bishop of Trabaca and to the missionaries of the seminary of Paris. At this time the Holy See was again consulted upon the rites. The reply was that whatever seemed tolerable of what had usually been practised might, at least for the time, be allowed.

On the 15th of September, 1744, came to Rome the sad tidings of the martyrdom of Father Castanarez, a Spanish Jesuit and missionary to Paraguay. He was put to death by a cacique who had invited him to the country to give instruction in the Christian religion. The Father is spoken of as one of the most intrepid preachers in that country. A pious Spaniard named Francis Atocha, his companion, perished with him.

On the 22nd of May, 1745, a decree was issued at Rome against Mandeville's Fable of the Bees (London, 1714). Mandeville made a very poor defense in saying that his book was a mere jeu d'esprit. His publishers also affirmed that the book was ironical and intended to turn vice into ridicule. And, accordingly, though Mandeville, in a second edition, in 1723, tried to give a less unfavorable turn to his system, sensible and truth-loving men readily perceived its consequences.

The grand jury of Middlesex denounced the book to the court of King's Bench, together with several other books, nearly like it, which had been published in England. It was translated into French about the year 1740, and it was in that translation sent to Rome.

Chubb, another English writer, at first an Arian and then a deist, distinguished himself in both characters. He combated, in succession, Revelation, the inspiration of the holy books, and the eternity of punishments, and published several works, the boldest of which is his Farewell to his Readers, in which he throws doubts upon the truth of a future and travesties the doctrine of Christ.

Another Englishman, named Morgan, who also was a physician, obtained notoriety by his book entitled "Moral Philosophy" In it he entirely rejected the Old Testament, and spoke of Catholics as "Christian Jews, having only a Faith and a Mechanical and Political Religion."

On the 6th of July, 1745, a report was made to the assembly of the clergy upon a book entitled "The Legitimate Power of the First and of the Second Order of the Clergy," by Travers. It maintained that there should be the most entire equality between the clergy and the bishops, and went so far as to claim the association of the former in all the functions of the episcopacy, not excepting even that of ordination. The faculty of Nantes gave, in 1746, a detailed censure. Of the ninety-nine propositions censured, twenty-seven were condemned as heretical. Travers died in 1750.

France, rejoiced by her victory at Fontenoy, sustained the pretensions of the Stuarts to the throne of England.

Charles Edward, son of James, made an effort to regain his rights. In 1745, deeming that the war between France and Great Britain presented a favorable opportunity, he entered Scotland, and soon found himself at the head of a small army. The French auxiliaries who accompanied Charles Edward were not sufficiently numerous. The English government set a price of thirty thousand pounds sterling upon the head of the young prince. Charles, faithful to the Catholic doctrines, displayed more generosity, and by a manifesto prohibited any attempt upon the life of George. That eloquent language needed the support of at least apparent victory, for we cannot give life to the enemy who is not yet prostrate before us. Charles Edward, having defeated General Cope at Prestonpans, marched into England as far Derby, and everything seemed to promise him complete success, when the Scotch chiefs suddenly lost heart and determined to retreat.

The English forces, under the Duke of Cumberland, pursued, and the war continued with fury. On the one hand, Charles Edward gained the battle of Falkirk; on the other, on the 16th of April, 1746, the English, under the command of the Duke of Cumberland, won the victory of Culloden, and crushed the Jacobite party by a series of executions which obtained for him the surname of "the butcher" Charles Edward for a long time wandered from place place. But nothing could shake the fidelity of the Highlanders to the unfortunate man.

At this period occurred a correspondence between Voltaire and Benedict XIV, which we insert more as a literary curiosity than for any general importance in the history the popes. Among other works, Voltaire composed the tragedy of Mahomet, and sent a copy to the pope, with the folIowing respectful letter:

Most Holy Father:

"Your Holiness, I venture to believe, will pardon the liberty taken by one of the humblest, but also one of the warmest, admirers of the virtues of Your Holiness, to consecrate to the head of the true religion a piece written against the founder of a false and barbarous sect. To whom can I more fittingly address a satire upon the cruelty and errors of a false prophet than to the vicar and the imitator of a God of truth and mercy? Permit, then, Your Holiness, to lay both the book and its author at your feet, and to venture to ask your protection for the one and your benediction for the other. It is with those sentiments of a profound veneration that I prostrate myself and that I kiss your sacred feet.

Arouet de Voltaire.

"Paris, 17th August, 1745."

The pope replied as follows:

"Benedict XIV, Pope, to his dear son, Arouet de Voltaire,
health and apostolic benediction:"

" Dear Sir: A few weeks since there was presented to us, from you, your very fine tragedy of Mahomet, which we have read with great pleasure. Cardinal Passionei subsequently presented to us, also in your name, your very excellent poem Fontenoy; and still more recently Monsignor Leprotti laid before us the distich composed by you, to be placed beneath our portrait."

"Yesterday morning Cardinal Valenti presented us your letter of the 17th of August."

"Each of these acts deserves our thanks: we thank you for them together, and acknowledge your singular affection towards us. Doubt not of the esteem we feel for your much and deservedly applauded merits."

"Since your distich was published in Rome, we learn that a French scholar remarked, in a public conversation, that there was a fault in it—that you had made the word hic short instead of long. We replied that the scholar was himself in error, and that hic may be, at option, either long or short. Virgil makes it short in the verse,"

"'Solus hic reflexit sensus animumque labentem'; And long in this one:

'Haec finis Priami fatorum, hic exitus illum.'"

"Our answer was, we think, apt enough for one who not read Virgil for fifty years. Although you are the interested party in the dispute, we have so high an opinion of your frankness that we do not hesitate to make you the arbiter between ourselves and the critic. It only remains for us, dear son, to send you our apostolic benediction."

"Given at Rome, at Saint Mary Major, this 19th of September, in the year 1745, and of our pontificate the sixth."

"Benedict XIV, PP."

Voltaire replied in the following letter of thanks:

"Most Holy Father:"

"The features of Your Holiness are not better expressed in the medals with which your great kindness has favored me, than those of your heart and mind in the letter with which you have deigned to honor me. I lay at Your Holiness' feet my most fervent and humble thanks. I am truly obliged to confess your infallibility in the decisions of literature, as in other and far more important matters. Your Holiness is far superior in Latinity to that critic whose error you have deigned to correct, and I confess my surprise that our Holiness can so readily cite the verses of Virgil. Among the princely amateurs of letters the sovereign pontiffs have always been distinguished; but I believe that none them has equaled Your Holiness in the union of the Severest and the most elegant learning. Agnosco rerum dominos, gentemque togatam."

"If the French scholar who so unjustly accused my hic had known hisVirgil as thoroughly as Your Holiness does, he would have quoted a verse in which hic is both long and short:"

"'Hic vir hic est, tibi quem promitti saepius audis.'"

"Rome must have re-echoed this verse when Benedict XIV ascended the throne. With feelings of the most profound veneration and the most fervent gratitude, I kiss your sacred feet."

"Arouet de Voltaire."

At the commencement of the year 1746, by the constitution Urbem Romam, the Holy Father prescribed the order and the number of the noble Roman families to be entered upon the registers of the senate at the Capitol, and he established a method to be followed in future. Among these noble families he rightly included all those of Roman pontiffs.

From time to time disturbances broke out in Syria in regard to the cultus of Saint Maro. Cyril, the Greek patriarch, determined upon the suppression of this devotion, and proceeded to destroy the engravings of Saint Maro published at Rome, forbidding him to be counted among the saints, on the ground that he had both lived and died a heretic.

The ignorant patriarch was unaware that Theodoret, in the lives of the Fathers, and Saint John Chrysostom, in his thirty-sixth epistle, both of them contemporaries of Saint Maro, recognized him as a saint; that his cultus had continued for centuries, even at Rome; and in the church of the Maronites, that the missals of the same people, approved by Clement VIII, and the testimonies of innumerable writers, given before that learned pontiff, openly spoke of Maro under the title of saint. The inconsiderate patriarch confounded him with a second Maro, or Marone, a heretical abbot who lived in the time of the Emperor Mauritius, in 602, whereas Saint Maro lived in the year 395, under the Emperor Arcadius. Due distinction must be made between the two, even as we distinguish between the two Raymond Lullys—the one a heretic and the other venerated as a martyr; two John Canzis—the one a heretic and the other canonized by Clement XIII; and two bishops of Ypres— Cornelius Jansen, Bishop of Ypres, a heretic in his writings, and the other, Bishop of Ghent, and deserving well of the Church for his piety and his virtues.

Leonard Chizzola, archdeacon of Brescia, a very aged man, having suddenly left that cathedral, went to Bologna, where he became a Jesuit, without announcing his intention to Cardinal Quirini, his bishop. The cardinal lost in that archdeacon a noble ornament of the Church, and a man very serviceable to the poor; and he solicited Benedict to decree that thenceforth no priest, without the knowledge and consent of his ordinary, could enter the regular orders. Benedict, with his usual erudition, replied, as Saint Gregory the Great had replied to Desiderius, Bishop of Vienne, in France, when Pancratius, deacon of that diocese, had embraced the monastic life—namely, that the bishop should excite the zeal of Pancratius, that he might not cool in the fervor of his desire. Not content with this reply, Benedict urged yet other reasons to appease the cardinal. He endeavored to convince him that an apostolic constitution would be useless in such cases; and he concluded thus: "Out of any hundred archdeacons, scarcely one will abandon the high position he enjoys for the sake of entering an order, while scarcely one in a hundred religious would hesitate to abandon his order tome an archdeacon."

Benedict had ordered some benevolent works at Civita Vecchia, and determined to see, in person, how they were executed. First, he went to serve food and medicaments to patients in the hospital of the Fate bene Fratelli; and ;he gave a crown to each of the patients. He next ordered I that he should be shown the hospital of the sick convicts where he did the same. It does not appear that this spectacle of a pontiff visiting and relieving the most depraved of offenders had ever before been witnessed in Christendom.

The pope considered that a Corsican guard might be reestablished to suppress smuggling; and he took precautions against any abuse ensuing from the return of that force, who usually did their duty with a zeal and courage the pope loved often to reward.

Benedict was much concerned at the situation of the Catholics of Prussia. Learning that the king had permitted them to erect a church in Berlin and had laid the corner-stone, that he had funds for continuing the enterprise, and that he had solemnly promised that that temple should never be granted excepting to the faithful of the Roman Church, the pope, by an allocution of the 20th of November, called upon the cardinals to imitate so good a work, and himself appropriated a very considerable sum towards the completion of the church.

On the 17th of July, 1746, Benedict learned by communications from his nuncio, Monsignor Durini, Archbishop of Rhodes, and from De la Rochefoucauld, Archbishop of Bourges, ambassador from France to Rome, that the Parliament of Paris, at that time attentive to the wishes of the Holy See, had prosecuted two impious works, The Natural History of the Soul and Philosophical Thoughts.

The Natural History of the Soul was written by La Mettrie, a physician, who professed the plainest and most unmitigated materialism. The sentence of the Parliament caused the author to fly from France. He first went to Holland, where his book was burned as it had been France, and then he went to Prussia.

He published, at Berlin, a complete edition of his irreligious works, which edition was condemned by Clement XIV on the 1st of March, 1770. He died at Berlin.

The second work condemned to the flames was Pensees Philosophiques, attributed at the time to Voltaire, but written by Diderot. Ardent and impetuous, Diderot was the most active in the warfare carried on against Christianity.

Benedict XIV made his second promotion on the 10th of April,1747.

It included, among others: (I) John Francis Albani, a nobleman of Urbino, born at Rome on the 26th of February 1720; died at Rome, as the dean of the Sacred College, on the 15th of September, 1803.

(2) Charles Victor Amadeus delle Lanze, a Piedmontese,of the family of the counts of Sales. He was born at Turin on the 1st of September, 1712, was for six months a regular canon of Sainte Genevieve at Paris, almoner to Emmanuel III, and created cardinal at the request of that prince. He died in 1784.

On the 3rd of July, in the same year, Benedict made his promotion. It consisted only of Henry Benedict Mary Clement, Duke of York, second son of James III, "King of England." He was born at Rome on the 6th of March, 1725, and died at Frascati, dean of the Sacred College, on the 13th of July, 1807.

Previous to announcing to the English prince his elevation to the cardinalate, Benedict said to him: "Prince, your dignity, our right, and ancient custom, especially in regard to sovereign families, would have justified us two years since in making you a cardinal of the Roman Church. But we always considered that after your father James III, and your brother who will be James IV, you will have undoubted right to the English throne, and that therefore it was not necessary, determined though you were to take holy orders, so publicly and so completely to cut yourself off from the world and the English throne. Take even yet a few days of reflection. We know that your family leaves you free to choose, and that you desire to enter the Sacred College only from a firmness peculiar to yourself. Nevertheless, consider well; We should not like that either ourself or you should be accused of a precipitation which, through other ordinances of Heaven, might place us both in an embarrassing situation. Consider well, and if, on the 30th of June, you are still of the same mind, we, three days later, will announce your appointment."

The Duke of York kissed the pope's hand and replied:

"There is nothing in this world that I so much desire as to enter the Sacred College; and once there, I should never regret my lost chance of royalty." Benedict replied: "Well, we shall create you only cardinal-deacon, so that you will still have time to consider whether you absolutely will take holy orders. We shall do nothing that may be contrary to the will of God, which is unknown to us. If hereafter, when you are cardinal-deacon, circumstances should make it advisable, you can resign the hat, marry, and thus avoid destroying the hopes of Ireland, that firm friend of the Stuarts, and of that portion of Scotland which has remained pious and faithfuL"

On the 8th of June, 1748, the pope confirmed the privileges of the military order of Saint Stephen in Tuscany, of which the Emperor Francis I, husband of Maria Teresa, had been made grand master. To those privileges Benedict added another, authorizing the knights to appear before the sovereign pontiff girt with their swords. It was the custom that, with the exception of princes, members of the diplomatic corps, and knights of the order of Charles III, all persons presented to the pope should leave their swords in the ante-chamber.

The college of the Sapienza was also to receive new favors from Benedict. He founded in that university two new chairs, one of mathematics and one of chemistry.

The further reduction of holidays of obligation led to discussions which now excited the attention of Benedict. In a special dissertation he examined methods of abolishing these various feasts of obligation. Their multiplicity did not excite less fervent Christians to the necessary sanctification of these holidays, as ordered by the cardinal, while they prevented the poor from working and thus providing for their temporal needs.

The Fathers of the Council of Tarragona had pointed out those inconveniences to Benedict XIII, in 1727. The King of the Two Sicilies had also expressed a desire for a reduction of holidays, which the Bishop of Bamberg and other prelates also solicited. Benedict XIV then obtained the written opinion of forty learned men. Of these, thirty-three declared the reduction of holidays useful, fifteen of the thirty-three advising His Holiness to publish a general bull for the whole Church; while eighteen were of opinion that the Holy Father should await petitions from the respective dioceses, and decide according to the necessity of the case, and the reasons adduced by the supplicants.

Benedict praised the piety of the seven opposing doctors, but approved the substance of the opinion of the thirty-three. As to the question of a general or a special bull, he agreed with the opinion of the eighteen approvers, who, however, considered that an indult, giving permission to work on certain holidays, should be granted only as asked for in the dioceses. The indult specified the days which were not included in the concession. In no case was the hearing of Mass to be dispensed with.

Thus, from the year 1742 to the year 1748, the Holy Father granted that indult for a very great number of cities in Spain, Poland, Germany, Sicily, in the Ecclesiastical states, in Tuscany, and in the county of Nice.

At that time a discussion arose between Cardinal Quirini and the historian Muratori, concerning the diminution or preservation of holidays. Muratori, under the signature of Lamindo Pritanio, had published, at Lucca, a book in which he advocated the reduction of holidays, and which was answered by Cardinal Quirini.

The Holy Father, by a constitution of the 14th of November, forbade any one, under penalty of excommunication reserved to the sovereign pontiff, thereafter to print anything for or against the holidays of obligation already prescribed by Urban VIII, and thus closed the controversy.

Saint Pius V, to reward the eminent services of Sebastian, King of Portugal, had allowed him to choose, at his own pleasure, any title that should be an indication of the glorious actions of that prince, assuring him that the Holy See would instantly ratify that title. The generous prince replied that he prided himself solely upon constantly showing that he was the most obedient son of the sovereign pontiff, Benedict, still further recognizing the honorable merits of the King of Portugal, without notice to King John or awaiting his consent, conferred upon him, by a bull dated on the 23rd of December, 1748, the title of Most Faithful, which was to be inherited with the crown by his successors. Then, having assembled a consistory, the pope communicated to him his determination in an allocution replete with eloquence, in which he specified the great sacrifices that had been made by the kings of Portugal; and at the same time he sent to John a copy of the edition of the Roman Martyrology, which the pope had just, with prodigious research and erudition, issued to the world.

At the commencement of the year 1749, Benedict prepared notifications for the great jubilee of 1750.

On the 19th of February the pope recommended to the bishops in his States a becoming care of their churches, the duty of having them thoroughly cleansed; and he at same time forbade such music as by its levity and elegance was fitted only for the theatre. Benedict authorized only grave harmonies, calculated to dispose to devotion.

Like his predecessors, Benedict reminded those whom he addressed that the churches by their order and purity should proclaim the holy year, and he urged the cardinals to repair and adorn their churches and those under their protection. He set the example in restoring so many places of prayer, which made Rome the finest Catholic city in the world.

In the Basilica of Saint Paul without the walls, the pope caused the repair of the mosaics and the paintings. He continued the chronological series of the sovereign pontiffs down to his own time, and the series was exposed to the view of the public on the 9th of December in that year. To secure the fitting exactitude to the representation of that series of the popes, he intrusted it to the superintendence of two learned prelates, Furietti and Costanzi, under the general supervision of Canon Marangoni, who published the series in a fine work, and of Capeci, abbot of that monastery. The execution of the painting was intrusted to the painter Minosili.

One hundred and forty-five thousand pilgrims were received at the hospital of the Trinity between December, 1749, and July, 1750.

Shortly afterwards, Benedict had to deplore a cruel persecution against the Catholics of China. The aged Bishop de Moncastro, who for thirty years had been at the head of that mission, was condemned to be beheaded, and four Dominicans and two Jesuits were quartered. The most rigorous of the ancient Chinese edicts were renewed. The numerous missionaries who were at Peking only escaped death owing to the earnest entreaties of some Jesuits whom the emperor's ministers had thus far regarded with favor. Those ministers represented to their master that the Jesuits who implored mercy for their brethren were skilled in astronomy, painting, architecture, and even in the art of fortification. The emperor, reminded of so many services, which he knew and had received, allowed his anger to be appeased. Let us ever do full justice to those bold missionaries who braved death with so much courage. It was only from other orders that Christendom learned the services which they had rendered to their brethren and to Catholicism.

On the 6th of July, 1751, Benedict XIV suppressed the patriarchate of Aquileia and erected two new sees. The patriarchate of Aquileia had long been a subject of dispute between Austria and Venice. It was agreed between those two courts and Rome that Cardinal Delfini, Patriarch of Aquileia, should retain for life the patriarchal title and prerogatives. Neither the bull nor the allocution mentioned the consent of the Cardinal Delfini to the extinction of his see. Benedict XIV supported his action in his bull only upon "the plenitude of his apostolic power, in virtue whereof he can, when lawful causes require it, erect, transfer, suppress, and extinguish patriarchal, archiepiscopal, and episcopal churches, and separate and divide their dioceses, as he shall deem useful in the Lord."

On the 13th of November, 1751, Benedict pronounced the beatification of Blessed Jane Frances Fremyot de Chantal, who was canonized in 1767, by Clement XIII.

On the 11th of January, 1753, a concordat was signed at Rome between the pope and Ferdinand VI, King of Spain. It was the custom in that country that the king nominated to archbishoprics and bishoprics; that for the kingdom of Granada he named to all benefices; and that as to the rest the benefices of his other States, excepting those of which the founders had reserved the right of patronage, the popes should name to them during eight months of the year, the bishops and chapters during the other four months.

By the new treaty Benedict abandoned that custom and granted to the king: (1) the right of nomination, during the eight months, to benefices situated in Europe; (2) the revenues of vacant bishoprics, and the property of deceased bishops. Only it was specified that such revenues should be used according to the canons. The pope reserved the nomination only to fifty-two benefices, which he specified in detail. To recompense Rome for the advantages which she surrendered, the king assured certain sums agreed upon, on condition that a part of the revenues thus abandoned by Rome should be assigned to the nuncio resident at Madrid, the king engaging to pay him annually ten thousand dollars. benedict on that occasion, as on so many others, manifested his love of peace and his disinterestedness as to the merely pecuniary interests of the Holy See.

In the years immediately preceding the death of the pope, Paris was agitated by the useless and almost always exact monstrances of the Parliament, and especially by the ill treatment of the noble Archbishop of Paris, Christopher de Beaumont. In concert with Rome, that worthy prelate, a pattern to the well-instructed and uniformly courageous clergy of France, had raised his voice in defense of the rights of the Church, which were so persistently attacked by the Protean enemies who, in all forms and under all masks, not seldom sprang from the higher orders of society.

The prelate, while in exile at Conflans, published a pastoral on the teaching of the faith, the administration of the sacraments and submission to the bull; and he forbade the reading of certain works of immoral tendency, which he designated. He established the rights of the first pastors, proved their independence, alike for the teaching of the faith and the administration of the sacraments; and he based those principles upon the Scripture itself, upon the uniform language of tradition, and upon the orders of the sovereigns. He showed that the contrary opinion was newfangled, dictated by party spirit, party need, and party greed, and he showed that it was rejected by the most famous appellants— Quesnel, Colbert, and by Van Espen; and he further showed that the last, in his earlier writings, had replied to the wornout objections of the innovators. The prelate said, with Bossuet, to those who boasted of the piety of the appellants:

"They talk only about living aright, as though believing aright were not the very foundation of their doing so."

He concluded by forbidding works tending to encroachment upon the authority of the Church, and especially nine sentences of the Parliament, and forbidding, also, the ministration or reception of sacraments by order of secular judges.

The Parliament of Paris, in prohibiting the publication of that instruction, consigned by the common hangman to the flames destined for the execution of malefactors a pastoral instruction in which their archbishop, in unison with the sentiments of the entire Church, eloquently warned his flock what to reject and taught them what to believe.

The position of the Church in England had not for an instant ceased to interest the heart of Benedict. His brief Apostolicum, of 1753, organized missions in that country. As early as 1688 the Holy See had established four bishops in England. In 1695 Rome made the authority of these bishops in all things superior to that of the secular chapter and the religious. The latter resisted the decree, as contrary to their existing privileges. The Benedictines and the Jesuits were most zealous in maintaining their pretensions. The latter were very numerous in England, where, as elsewhere, they endeared themselves to the faithful. The English Benedictines, the remnant of a congregation that had formerly held a very brilliant place in the British Islands, were exclusively devoted to the office of missionaries. They had a house at Paris to train members for London and other places in England. Benedict appointed some Benedictines as bishops, and concord was insensibly established by the profound sagacity with which Benedict perceived the evil and applied to it the practical and possible remedy, which restored excited minds to obedience and true evangelical fraternity.

Other acts testified both the watchful and paternal spirit of Benedict over Catholicism in America.

We now proceed to give details upon the publication of the Eucology of the united Greeks.

The Greeks have their Eucology, a ritual or pontifical containing the ecclesiastical prayers and the benedictions of the Church.

The Greek schismatics, in 1631, printed one which contained errors. Philip IV of Spain, informed of the fact by some Greek Catholics, referred the case to Urban VIII, who confided the examination to John Morin of the Oratory of France, and to the famous Jesuit, Denis Petavius, whose age prevented his visiting Paris. Eighty-two meetings took place in 1645, without arriving at a conclusion of the examination. It was continued under Innocent X, and slowly dragged on as far as the reign of Benedict XIV. That pontiff enfused a new activity into the proceedings of the congregation; and at length a corrected Eucology came from the presses of the Propaganda. Then the pope proposed it as the rule for all bishops and ecclesiastics of the Greek rite. The sacred erudition that was contained in that work proved how worthy the pontiff who then wore the tiara was of that sovereign dignity.

Meantime, frequent attacks of gout had weakened the health of the pope. At the beginning of the year 1758 they became more severe. His agonies were insupportable, but when they gave him some respite, his serenity of mind returned as completely as though he had never suffered and should never suffer again. But the disease speedily increased.

On the 3rd of May, 1758, the pontiff died, at the age of eighty-three, and after governing the Church seventeen years, eight months, and six days. On the following day his remains were removed from the Quirinal to the Sistine Chapel, and thence to the basilica, where his obsequies we performed.

Benedict XIV, a great prince and a very learned scholar was a rare example of the studious and the monarchical intellect combined with constant affability and purity of life. Such a character is necessarily appreciated and admired by all. The gentleness of his voice, whether in replying or instructing or commanding, and even when he reproved or found himself obliged to punish, was by no means his Ieast remarkable ornament; and he always manifested the same equanimity even under the most difficult circumstances. His conversation was very agreeable, and was occasionally livened by lively repartees, full of the Attic salt of mingled wit, grace, and gaiety. His magnanimous enterprises for the grandeur of the Church place him in the ranks of the most glorious pontiffs. Forgetful of his family, his thoughts were ever solely upon the public weal, which he fostered with a rare ability and vigilance.

With respect to his embellishments of Rome, we must mention the restoration of the hospital of the Holy Ghost; the improvement of the road leading from Saint John Lateran to Holy Cross of Jerusalem; the marvellous cupola of Saint Peter's, secured against the fears of ruin entertained by all acquainted with architecture; the port of Ancona enlarged, and the cathedral of Bologna perfected.

"Prosper Lambertini," says Walpole, "Bishop of Rome under the name of Benedict XIV, although an absolute prince, always reigned inoffensively. He restored the luster the tiara. By what art did he achieve that glory? Solely by his virtues. Honored by the friends of the papacy and esteemed by Protestants, he was an ecclesiastic free from interestedness and insolence; a prince without a favorite; a pope without nepotism; an author without vanity; a man whom neither intellect nor power could corrupt. Such is the deserved homage that the favorite son of a minister who never courted any prince, or venerated any churchman, presents to the excellent Roman pontiff."

Nor is that all: John Pitt, a relative of the great English minister of that name, having procured the bust of Benedict XIV, engraved the following inscription upon the pedestal: " John Pitt, who has never spoken well of any prince of the Roman Church, raises this monument in honor of Benedict XIV, sovereign pontiff."

The works of Benedict were printed at Venice in sixteen volumes. In all those writings there is evidence of vast learning and a profound acquaintance with both civil and canon law, and history, both sacred and profane. Benedict XIV also gave the world an edition of the Martyrology of Benedict XIII (Rome, 1748), and of some other writings.

This biographical data is from "The Lives and Times of the Popes" by The Chevalier Artaud De Montor. Published by The Catholic Publication Society of New York in ten volumes in 1911. The pictures, included in the volumes, were reproduced from " Effigies Pontificum Romanorum Dominici Basae."