Clement IX

Giulio Rospigliosi , (born with Pistoia 27 or January 28th 1600 - died on December 9th 1669), Pope Clement IX (in Latin Clemens IX , in Italian Lenient IX ) of the June 20th 1667 with the December 9th 1669. " Sidus olorum " in the Prophecy of Saint Malachie. Elected official the June 26th 1667, he was the mediator in the wars of succession between France, Spain, England and Holland by the peace of Aachen known as " Clémentine".

Biography

He belonged to a noble family of and was pupil of the Jésuites. After having received its doctorate of philosophy to the University of Pisa, it taught theology there. Later he was the intimate collaborator of the pope Urbain VIII (1623 - 44), a pope of the family of the Barberini, and he worked in the pontifical diplomacy as nuncio in Spain, among other stations. He became also vicar of the Holy-Marie-Major Basilique with Rome.

It was a man of letters achieved, who left poetries, dramas and booklets of operas, in particular He Sant' Alessio , drama crowned, music of Stefano Landi, created in Rome in 1631, as well as what can be considered the first comic opera.

He lived in the retirement during the reign of the pope Innocent X (1644 - 1655), who was hostile with Barberini and their favorites. The election of the pope Alexandre VII (1655 - 1667) gave it in favor. In 1657, it was created cardinal and was named Secretary of State. After the death of Alexandre VII in 1667, conclave a 18 day old ended in its election unanimously and it took the name of Clément IX.

Nothing remarkable occurred under its short pontificate if it is not the temporary appeasing of the quarrel between the Holy See and the prelates of the Church of France which had refused to take part in the judgment of the writings of Jansénius. He was the mediator at the time of the Traité of Aachen (1668), which put an end to the War of succession of Austria between the France, the Spain, the England and the Netherlands.

Like pope, Clément IX continued to express his interest for arts. He embellishes the town of Rome with work which was to remain famous that it ordered with the Bernin, among them the angels of the Big shot Sant' Angelo and the colonnade of the Basilique Saint-Pierre. Exceptional fact at a Pope of the time, it did not make engrave its name on the monuments which it made build. It is him also which made build the first opera in Rome, the Teatro Tondinona , open two years after its death with Scipione africano of Francesco Cavalli and for the celebrations of the Carnival of 1668, it charged Antonio Maria Abbatini, of the Chorus of the Chapelle Sixtine, to put in music its free Italian translation of a Spanish religious drama La Baltasara. For the setting in scene one used decorations designed by Bernin.

Clément IX worked much to make reinforce Venetian defenses against the Turks in Crete. But it did not manage to gather a sufficient support around this cause. At the end of October 1669, it fell sick when it learned that the Venetian fortress of Candie in Crete had capitulated to the Turks. He died in Rome, the broken heart, says one, in December of this year. Its successor, the pope Clement X (1670 - 1676), made him build a richly decorated tomb with Sainte-Marie Majeure.

He occupied in the conclave the room of the swans.

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