Pope Clement X

Emilio Bonaventura Altieri was born in Rome in 1590 to the Papal nobility, earned a doctorate in law, and climbed through Church posts — Bishop of Camerino, Superintendent of the Papal Exchequer. The conclave of 1670 dragged four months before settling on him at nearly 80, making him Pope Clement X. He canonized saints, worked to ease tensions among Christian states, and adopted the Paoluzzi family outright to keep the Altieri name alive. A new tax he imposed in Rome set off fights with ambassadors and cardinals. In 1675, frail but determined, he celebrated the fourteenth jubilee of the holy y…