Theodore Freylinghuysen Collier

“ Sardinia and Sicily, Parma and Piacenza, were disposed of without regard to papal claims. When he quarrelled with the duke of Savoy, and revoked his investiture rights in Sicily (1715) , his interdict was treated with contempt. The prestige of the papacy had hardly been lower within two centuries. About 1702 the Jansenist controversy broke out afresh. Clement reaffirmed the infallibility of the pope, in matters of fact (1705) , and, in 1713, issued the bull Unigenitus, condemning 101 Jansenistic propositions extracted from the Moral Reflections of Pasquier Quesnel. ”

“ Clement also forbade the practice of the Jesuit missionaries in China of “accommodating” their teachings to pagan notions or customs, in order to win converts. Clement was a polished writer, and a generous patron of art and letters. ”

“ For contemporary lives see Elci, The Present State of the Court of Rome, trans. from the Ital. (London, 1706) ; Polidoro, De Vita et Reb. Gest. Clem. XI. (Urbino, 1727) ; Reboulet, Hist. de Clem. XI. Pape (Avignon, 1752) ”