Pope Clement X - Pontificate

Pontificate

On 29 April 1670, the papacy was offered to him by fifty-nine Cardinals present at the election; only two being against him. He, however, objected because of his age, for he was almost eighty, and exclaimed, "I am too old to bear such a burden." Pointing to Cardinal Brancacci, Altieri said he was the Cardinal whom they ought to elect. He persisted in refusing, protesting that he no longer had strength or memory; but he was crowned on 11 May. With tears he accepted, and out of gratitude to his benefactor, by ten years his junior, he assumed the name of Clement X.

All but one of the male scions of the Altieri family had chosen the ecclesiastical career. On his accession to the papacy, Clement X, in order to save the Altieri name from extinction, adopted the Paluzzi family, and proposed that one of the Paluzzi should marry Laura Caterina Altieri, the sole heiress of the family. In exchange for adopting the Altieri surname he would make one of the Paluzzi a Cardinal. Following the wedding, which he officiated, he appointed his relative by marriage Cardinal Paluzzi-Altieri, the uncle of Laura's new husband, to the Office of Cardinal Nephew to take on the duties which he was prevented from doing by age. The main activity was to invest the Church's money, and with advancing years gradually entrusted to him the management of affairs, to such an extent that the Romans said he had reserved to himself only the episcopal functions of benedicere et sanctificare, resigning in favour of the Cardinal the administrative duties of regere et gubernare.

On the 8th of June Clement X took possession of St. John Lateran. On 11 June, he confirmed the Minor Observantines in the Holy Land in the privileges and indulgences granted to those who visit the holy places, according to the decree of Popes Alexander VII and Clement IX. In the same month he granted to the prelate-clerks of the chamber the use of the violet-coloured band around their hats.

Like all the pontiffs, Clement X advised the Christian princes to love each other, and to prove it by an entire confidence, by generous measures, and by a prudent and scrupulous conduct. It was especially between Spain and France that the pope desired to witness a renewal of feelings of good understanding.

In 1671, the Pope published an edict by which he declared that a noble might be a merchant without loss of his nobility, provided always that he did not sell by retail".