CLEMENT VIII

This article appears in Volume V06, Page 486 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: CHR-CLI

CLEMENT VIII . (Ippolito Aldobrandini),

pope

from 1592 to 1605, was born at Fano,'in 1,535. He became a jurist and filled several important offices. In 1585 he was made a cardinal, and subsequently discharged a delicate mission to Poland with skill. His moderation and experience commended him to his fellow cardinals, and on the 3oth of January 1592 he was elected

pope

, to succeed Innocent IX. While not hostile to Philip II., Clement desired to emancipate the papacy from undue Spanish influence, and to that end cultivated closer, relations with France. In 1595 he granted absolution to

Henry

IV., and so removed the last objection to the acknowledgment of his legitimacy. The peace of Vervins (1598), which marked the end of Philip's opposition to

Henry

, was mainly the

work

WORK

of the pope. Clement also entertained hopes of recovering England. He corresponded with James I. and with his queen, Anne of Denmark, a convert to Catholicism. But James was only half in

earnest

EARNEST (probably a corruption of the obsolete arles or erles, adapted from Lat. equivalent arrha, due to a confusion with the adjective " earnest," serious, O. Eng. eornust, cognate with Ger. ernst)

, and, besides, dared not

risk

RISK

a breach with his subjects. Upon the failure of the line of Este, Clement claimed the reversion of Ferrara and reincorporated it into the States of the Church (1598). He remonstrated against the exclusion of the

Jesuits

JESUITS

from France, and obtained their readmission. But in their doctrinal controversy with the Dominicans (see MOLINA, LUIS) he refrained from a decision, being unwilling to offend either party. Under Clement the publication of the revised edition of the

Vulgate

VULGATE (from Lat. vulgus, the common people)

, begun by Sixtus V., was finished; the Breviary, Missal and Pontifical received certain corrections; the Index was expanded; the Vatican library enlarged; and the Collegium Clementinum founded. Clement was an unblushing nepotist; three of his nephews he made cardinals, and to one of them gradually surrendered the

control

CONTROL (Fr. contrdle, older form contre rolle, from Med. Lat. contra-rotulus, a counter roll or copy of a document used to check the original; there is no instance in English of the use of " control " in this, its literal, meaning)

of affairs. But on the other hand among those whom he promoted to the cardinalate were such men as Baronius, Bellarmine and Toledo. During this pontificate occurred the burning of Giordano Bruno for heresy; and the tragedy of the Cenci (see the respective articles). Clement died on the 5th of March 1605, and was succeeded by Leo XI.
See the contemporary life by Ciaconius, Vitae et res gestae summorune Pontiff. Rom. (Rome, 1601-1602) ; Francolini, Ippolito
Aldobrandini, eke fu Clemente VIII. (Perugia, 1867); Ranke's, excellent sketch, Popes (Eng. trans. Austin), ii. 234 seq. ; v. Reumont, Gesch. der Stadt Rom, iii. 2, 599 seq. ; Breech, Gesch. des Kirchenstaates (1880), i. 301 seq. (T. F. C.)

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