Clement XI
The pope who on 20 November 1704 confirmed the Holy Office’s ruling against the Chinese rites and repeated it in the constitution Ex illa die of 1715.
Benedict XIV’s review of the controversy says that the examination of the Chinese rites begun under Innocent XII was cut short by that pope’s death, and that Clement XI, who succeeded him, approved the Holy Office’s answers forbidding the rites and had them sent to his visitor in China, Charles Maillard de Tournon (Benedict XIV, Ex quo singulari §§ 6 and 8, pp. 189–190). His constitution Ex illa die, which Benedict reproduces, repeats the prohibitions (Benedict XIV, Ex quo singulari pp. 191–192, the text of Ex illa die). See the Chinese Rites Controversy.
In the timeline
- 1653 to 1713, firm dateJansenism and the Bull Unigenitus
In 1653 Rome condemns five propositions on grace. The defenders of Cornelius Jansen condemn them too but deny that they are in his book; Rome defines that they are, and in 1713 the bull Unigenitus condemns 101 propositions from Quesnel’s New Testament.
- 1704 to 1742, firm dateThe Chinese Rites Controversy
Jesuit missionaries let Chinese converts honour Confucius and their ancestors as civil customs; others call the rites superstitious. Rome forbids them in 1704, 1715 and 1742, the Kangxi emperor says Westerners should no longer preach, and in 1939 Rome allows them as civil acts.