Pope clement xii and freemasonry wikipedia
Pope clement xii and freemasonry wikipedia images.
Pope clement xii and freemasonry wikipedia
In eminenti apostolatus
1738 papal bull regarding Freemasons
In eminenti apostolatus specula is a papal bull issued by Pope Clement XII on 28 April 1738, banning Catholics from becoming Freemasons.
It arose from Jacobite-Hanoverian rivalry on the continent.
Background
Freemasonry had developed in England in the seventeenth century, but after 1715 had split into Jacobite and Hanoverian lodges. The lodge in Rome was Jacobite (pro Stuart) and mainly Catholic, but admitted Protestants, while that in Florence was Protestant Hanoverian but also admitted Catholics and atheists who supported the Whig position.
Pope clement xii and freemasonry wikipedia in english
As Clement was from Florence, he did not view a prominent Protestant fraternity in his hometown favorably.
James Francis Edward Stuart was living as James III of England in Rome where he conducted a Jacobean court in exile.
In 1737 he learned that Hanoverian Freemasons had recruited so many French Catholics that they had taken control of the Grande Loge de France from