Reformed Churchmen

We are Confessional Calvinists and a Prayer Book Church-people. In 2012, we remembered the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer; also, we remembered the 450th anniversary of John Jewel's sober, scholarly, and Reformed "An Apology of the Church of England." In 2013, we remembered the publication of the "Heidelberg Catechism" and the influence of Reformed theologians in England, including Heinrich Bullinger's Decades. For 2014: Tyndale's NT translation. For 2015, John Roger, Rowland Taylor and Bishop John Hooper's martyrdom, burned at the stakes. Books of the month. December 2014: Alan Jacob's "Book of Common Prayer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Common-Prayer-Biography-Religious/dp/0691154813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417814005&sr=8-1&keywords=jacobs+book+of+common+prayer. January 2015: A.F. Pollard's "Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation: 1489-1556" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-English-Reformation-1489-1556/dp/1592448658/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420055574&sr=8-1&keywords=A.F.+Pollard+Cranmer. February 2015: Jaspar Ridley's "Thomas Cranmer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-Jasper-Ridley/dp/0198212879/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422892154&sr=8-1&keywords=jasper+ridley+cranmer&pebp=1422892151110&peasin=198212879

Sunday, February 1, 2015

1 February 1691 A.D. Alexander VIII (Pietro Ottoboni) Dies—Rome’s 241st; Unremarkable Other Than Revival of Sinecures for Relatives


1 February 1691 A.D.  Alexander VIII (Pietro Ottoboni) Dies—Rome’s 241st;  Unremarkable Other Than Revival of Sinecures for Relatives

Peterson, John Bertram. "Pope Alexander VIII." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907.  http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01295a.htm.  Accessed 2 Oct 2014.

Alexander VIII



Pietro Ottoboni, born at Venice, April, 1610; elected 5 October, 1689; died at Rome, 1 February, 1691. He was the son of Marco Ottoboni, chancellor of the Republic of Venice, and a descendant of a noble family of that city. The future pope enjoyed ail that wealth and social position could contribute towards a perfect education. His early studies were made with marked brilliancy at the University of Padua, where, in 1627, he secured the doctorate in canon and civil law. He went to Rome, during the pontificate of Urban VIII (1623-44), and was made governor of Terni, Rieti, andSpoleto. For fourteen years he served as auditor of the Rota. At the request of theRepublic this favoured son was made Cardinal by Innocent X (19 February, 1652), and was later given the Bishopric of Brescia, in Venetian territory? where he quietly spent the best years of middle life. Clement IX made him Cardinal-Datary. He was already an octogenarian when elected to the papacy, and lived but sixteen months, during which time little of importance was done. Louis XIV of France whose political situation was now critical, profited by the peaceful dispositions of the new Pope, restored to him Avignon, and renounced the long-abused right of asylum for theFrench Embassy. (See ALEXANDER VII.) But the king's conciliatory spirit did not dissuade the resolute Pope from declaring (4 August, 1690) that the Declaration of Gallican Liberties, drawn up in 1682, was null and invalid. He assisted his nativeVenice by generous subsidies in the war against the Turks, and he purchased for theVatican library the books and manuscripts owned by Queen Christina of Sweden. He condemned the doctrine of a number of variously erroneous propositions, among them (24 August, 1690) the doctrine of "philosophical sin" (see SIN); cf. Denzinger, "Enchiridion Symb. et Defin." (9th ed., Freiburg, 1900), 274-278; and Vacant "Dict. de théol. cath." (Paris, 1903), I, 748-763. Alexander was an upright man, generous, peace-loving, and indulgent. Out of compassion for the poor of well-nigh impoverished Italy, he sought to succour them by reducing the taxes. But this same generous nature led him to bestow on his relations the riches they were eager to accumulate; in their behalf, and to the discredit of his pontificate, he revived sinecure offices which had been suppressed by his predecessor.

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