On September 24, 1759, he wu appointed cardinal- priest hy Clement XIII upon the recommendation of the general of the Jesaits. The pope intrusted to him seTeral important missions; hot when it was found that he disapproved the uncompromising opposition of the pope to the Bourbon courts, he fell into dis- favor, and was deprived of all influence. The con- dave, after the death of Clement XIII, lasted over three months. Tlte ambassadors of the Bourbon courts, aided by the youthful Archduke Joseph of Austria (subsequently Joseph II), made the utmost exertions *'o secure the election of a liberal pope. Ganganelli finally was agreed upon by a compromise of the two parties. The one regarded him as suffi- ciently flexible and liberal, while the Jesuits' party held that, though opposed to the late pope's policy, he was not hostile to the order of the Jesuits. Thus he was elected by both parties on May 19, 17$9. As he was not yet a bishop, he received the episcopal conse- cration on the 28th of May, and was crowned pope on the 4th of June. He opened his pontificate by malung reforms in the administration of the papid states, showed himself a patron of science and art, and endeavored to gain the confidence of the Roman peo- ple. But lus chief care was to restore the good re- lations between the papal and the Bourbon courts. He opened a personal correspondence with the Bour- bon princes, and carefully avoided everything that could give offence. He abandoned the papal claims to the duchy of Parma ; offiBred himself to the court of Madrid as godfather for the new-bom son of the princess of Asturia ; conciliated the king of Portu- gal and his prime minister Pombal (who threatened a complete separation of Portugal firom the Church of Rome) by appointing Pombal's brother a cardinal, and confirming the episcopal nominations which had been made by the king. This conciliatory policy se- cured the restoration to the papal government of Avignon, Yenaissin, Benevento, and Pontecorvo. But the chief demand of the Bourbon courts, the suppres- sion of the order of the Jesuits, he tried to escape as long as possible. He had held himself aloof from the Jesuits fh>m the first day of his pontificate, and had forbidden the admission of the General of the order to the Vatican. He appointed a committee of jurists to examine the subject; acquainted himself personally with all that had been written for or against the order; and took great care to prepare public opin- ion gradually for its suppression. In a letter to the lung of Spidn he publicly admitted the necessity of suppressing the order, as the members had deserved this fate by their intrigues. The bishops of the pa- pal states were authorized to examine the houses of the Jesuits, and to secularise those members who de- sired it. On June 25, 1773, the seals were put on the archives of the novitiate of the order at Rome, and the cardinal of Aragon was directed to possess him- self of all their possessions within his legation. A simUar order was given to the bishop of Montalto. Finally, on July 21, 1778, the famous brief ^'DofTMnus ae Redemptor NbUer^^* by which the whole order was suppressed, was signed.. It was published on the 16th of Augpist. On the whole, the decree was car- ried out with great regard to the individual mem- bers, but the general, father Ricci, was arrested. The brief states, as a reason for the suppressioii, that the Church no longer derived fh>m the order the ad- vantages which were expected from it at the time of its foundation ; it refers to the suppression of oth- er monastic orders by former popes; claims for the pope the right of suppressing an order without pre- vious trial, and explains his long hesitation to take this step from his earnest desire of thoroughly consid- ering the matter. The measure naturally produced an extraordinary excitement ; the Jesuits everywhere submitted, but some violent books against the acts of 'he pope were published by the members or friends of
the order, and prophedes from a Dominican mm, Anna Theresa Poll, and from a certain Bemardiiu Benzi, announcing the imminent death of the pope, wreov wide- ly circulated. Some months after the anppreaalon of the order the health of the pope began to fiail, and Ik died September 19, 1774. An opinion that he had been poisoned found many believers, and is still de- finded by a number of writers, but a majority of tht best historians have declared it not sufficiently sup- ported. Special works on Clement are, Caraccioll, IFk de ClemeiU XIV (1776 ; German translation, Frank- fort, 1776); Lehm det P. ddmeuM XIV (Berlin, in4 -75, 8 vols.) ; Crethieau-Joly, CUmaU XIV et let Jtm^ itet (Paris, 1847, on the side of the Jesuits) ; Gat^pa- nelU, Paptt CUment XIV; seme BrUfe tmd seme Zek (Berlin, 1847) ; Theiner, HitUrire dm PomUJUxU de aem- mU XIV (Pi^ 1863, 8 vols. ; German edit. Leipnc). Father Theiner, who was a prefect-coa^jutM- of the archives of the Vatican, consultor of the Con^reigatioa of the* Index^ and other congregations, a member of the special Congregation on the Immaculate Cooeep- tion, etc., at Rome, made use of many onprinted doc- uments in the archives of the Vatican. He tried to exalt Clement as one of the greatest popes, and, in order to achieve this, came out very severely against the Jesuits of that time. His woric led to a lively con- troversy. The French historian of the order, Creti- neau-Joly, undertook the defence of the Jesaits, bnt his book was put on the Index. The geneiml of the order, P. Rootban, fearing that the controversy might turn out badly for the order, declined all responslbflity for Cretineau-Joly's work, but at the same time in- duced P. de Ravignan, the celebrated Jesuit preacher at Paris, to take up the defence of the order. Bavig^ nan accordingly wrote and published CUmeni XIII a aimeni XIV (Paris, 1864, 2 vols., p. 674 and 502), ii which he tries to justify both the Jesuits and the pope who suppressed them. See Herzog, Real-Encjftlcp, n, 740-742; Wetzer u.Welte, ii, 618^22; Hoefer, JBSo^ GMeraUy x, 770-776; Ranke, jErisl."Pqp. bk. viii; Hase, Church ffitt. § 626; Hook, Ecclet, Did. s. v. Ganga- neUl.