Quick Facts
Biography
Pope Benedict XIV (Latin: Benedictus XIV; 31 March 1675 – 3 May 1758), born Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini, served as the Pope of the Catholic Church from 17 August 1740 to his death in 1758.
Perhaps one of the greatest scholars in Christendom, yet often overlooked, he promoted scientific learning, the baroque arts, reinvigoration of Thomism, and the study of the human form. Firmly established with great devotion and adherence to the Council of Trent and authentic Catholic teaching, Benedict removed changes previously made to the Breviary, sought peacefully to reverse growing secularism in certain European courts, invigorated ceremonies with great pomp, and throughout his life and his reign, published numerous theological treatises. In terms of the governance of the Papal States, he reduced taxation and also encouraged agriculture. He also supported free trade. A scholar, he laid the groundwork for the present Vatican Museum. Benedict XIV, to an extent can be considered a polymath due to his numerous studies of ancient literature, the publishing of ecclesiastical books and documents, the study of the human body, and his great devotion to art and theology.
Horace Walpole described him as "a priest without insolence or interest, a prince without favorites, a pope without nephews."
Early life
Birth and studies
Lambertini was born into a noble family of Bologna to Marcello Lambertini and Lucrezia Bulgarini, the third of five children. At the time of his birth, Bologna was the second largest city in the Papal States. At the age of thirteen, he began attending the Collegium Clementianum in Rome, where he studied rhetoric, Latin, philosophy, and theology. During his studies as a young man, he often studied the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, who was his favourite author and saint. While he enjoyed studying at Collegium Clementianum, the bent of his mind was well towards ecclesiastical and civil law, and actively enforcing it. Soon after, in 1694 at the age of nineteen, he received the degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology and Doctor Utriusque Juris, (both ecclesiastical and civil law).
Ecclesiastical career
On the death of Innocent XII, he was made a consistorial advocate by Clement XI, with whom he worked closely. Shortly after, he was created a Consultor of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition, then in 1708, Promoter of the Faith; in 1712 a theologian of canon law and assessor of the Sacred Congregation of Rites; in 1713 he was named monsignor; in 1718 secretary of the Sacred Congregation of the Council; and in 1725, titular bishop of Theodosia.
Lambertini was consecrated a bishop in Rome, in the Pauline Chapel of the Vatican Palace, on 16 July 1724, by Pope Benedict XIII. The co-consecrators were Giovanni Francesco Nicolai, titular Archbishop of Myra (Vicar of the Vatican Basilica), and Nicola Maria Lercari, titular Archbishop of Nazianzus (Papal Maestro di Camera).
He was made Bishop of Ancona in 1727. He was created a cardinal in pectore, his name being published on 30 April 1728, and was subsequently made the Cardinal-Priest of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme on 10 May 1728. He also served as the Archbishop of Bologna.
Ascension to the papacy
After the death of Pope Clement XII, Lambertini attended the papal conclave to choose a successor. It would last for six months. At first Cardinal Ottoboni, dean of the Sacred College, was favored to be elected, but a number of cardinals were opposed to this on account of the cardinal being protector of France.
After long deliberation, Lambertini was put forth to the cardinal electors as a compromise candidate, and it is reported that he said to the members of the College of Cardinals "If you wish to elect a saint, choose Gotti; a statesman, Aldrovandi; an honest man, me". (Vincenzo Ludovico Gotti (1664–1742) was professor of philosophy at the College of Saint Thomas, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum, and perhaps the leading Thomist of his time. Aldrovandi was a canon lawyer and Cardinal of the Catholic Church).
This appears to have assisted his cause for winning the election, which also benefited from his reputation for deep learning, gentleness, wisdom, and conciliation in policy. On 17 August 1740 he was elected in the evening and took his new pontifical name of Benedict XIV in honour of Pope Benedict XIII. He was crowned on 21 August 1740, and by 30 August 1740 the famous ephemeral baroque structures of the Festival of the Chinea and the triumphal arch of Benedict XIV were erected by Charles III of Spain, who was then a Pontifical vassal and monarch of the Kingdom of Naples.
Pontificate
Lambertini's papacy as Pope Benedict XIV began in a time of great difficulties, chiefly caused by the disputes between Catholic rulers and the papacy about governmental demands to nominate bishops rather than leaving the appointment to the Church. He managed to overcome most of these problems — the Holy See's disputes with the Kingdom of Naples, Sardinia, Spain, Venice, and Austria were settled.
Reforms
He had a very active papacy, reforming the education of priests, the calendar of feasts of the Church, and many papal institutions. Perhaps the most important act of Benedict XIV's pontificate was the promulgation of his famous laws about missions in the two bulls, Ex quo singulari and Omnium solicitudinum. In these bulls he ruled on the custom of accommodating non- Christian words and usages to express Christian ideas and practices of the native cultures, which had been extensively done by the Jesuits in their Indian and Chinese missions. An example of this is the statues of ancestors – there had long been uncertainty whether honour paid to one's ancestors was unacceptable 'ancestor worship,' or if it was something more like the Catholic veneration of the saints. This question was especially pressing in the case of an ancestor known not to have been a Christian. The choice of a Chinese translation for the name of God had also been debated since the early 17th century. Benedict XIV denounced these practices in these two bulls. The consequence of this was that many of these converts left the Church.
The Apostolic Constitution Sacramentorum Poenitentiae of 1741 assigned to the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition the responsibility of safeguarding the sanctity of the sacrament of penance.
Other activities
On 22 December 1741, Benedict XIV promulgated the papal bull "Immensa Pastorum Principis" against the enslavement of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and other countries.
On 18 May 1743, Benedict XIV signed a document addressed to the Archbishops and Bishops of the Kingdom of Poland regarding marriage, communicating his dissatisfaction with the dissolution of Christian marriages, even long-stable ones, by the Ecclesiastical Courts of Poland without due cause or in violation of canon law.
Benedict XIV was also responsible, along with Cardinal Passionei, for beginning the catalogue of the Vatican Library. Benedetto, Duke of Chablais, a military commander of the French Revolution and member of the House of Savoy (rulers of the kingdom of Sardinia) was named after him. Infanta Benedita of Portugal was also named after him.
In the apostolic constitution Pastoralis Romani Pontificis, which was promulgated on 30 March 1741, he is one of many popes to enforce and declare that he, his predecessors, and all his successors hold Papal Infallibility and that ecumenical councils should be discouraged, as they can undermine the one of the principle pillars of the papacy - infallibility.
Benedict XIV consecrated the expensive gilded baroque chapel (Chapel of St. John the Baptist), on 15 December 1744 in Sant'Antonio dei Portoghesi. The chapel was designed by Nicola Salvi and Luigi Vanvitelli, and was then shipped to Portugal to be placed in the Igreja de Sāo Roque.
In 1750, Benedict XIV declared a Holy Year. During the month of April, 43,000 meals were served to the poor at the Trinita Hospital.
In his encyclical, Allatae Sunt , promulgated on 26 July 1755, Benedict XIV, echoing the words of Pope Gelasius I, universally banned the act of females serving the priest at the altar, noting that the practice had spread to certain Oriental Rites.
During his papacy, Benedict XIV commissioned a team of architects led by Nicola Salvi and Luigi Vanvitelli to design a large palace that was to be 'more complex and with greater baroque style than the box of a palace Vanvitelli designed in Caserta'. The palace was to be built south of St. Peter's Basilica, but was never built, as the plans were quietly ignored by Benedict's successor, Clement XIII. They were brought up once more by Pius VI late in his papacy, but had to stop due to the possibility of invasion.
Benedict improved the finances of the Papal States, reduced taxes, encouraged agriculture and free trade and drastically cut the military budget, but was unable to completely reform the administration, still corrupt from previous papacies. At the University of Bologna he revived the practice of anatomical studies and established a chair of surgery. He had a clear view of ecclesiastical problems, had respect for differing opinions and an ability to distinguish between dogma and theory.
Death and burial
Benedict XIV's health worsened in 1758 and after a battle with gout, he died on 3 May 1758 at the age of 83. His final words to those surrounding him on his deathbed were, "I leave you in the hands of God."
Following his funeral, he was interred in Saint Peter's Basilica and a large catafalque was erected in his honour.
