CLEMENT XII  . (Lorenzo Corsini), pope from 1730 to 1740, succeeded Benedict XIII. on the 12th of July 1730, at the age of seventy-eight . The rascally Cardinal Coscia, who had deluded Benedict, was at once brought to justice and forced to disgorge his dishonest gains . Politically the papacy had sunk to the level of pitiful helplessness, unable to resist the aggressions of the Powers, who ignored or coerced it at will . Yet Clement entertained high hopes for Catholicism; he laboured for a union with the Greek Church, and was ready to facilitate the return of the Protestants of Saxony . He deserves well of posterity for his services to learning and art; the restoration of the Arch of Constantine; the enrichment of the Capitoline museum with antique marbles and inscriptions, and of the Vatican library with oriental manuscripts (see AssEMAN1); and the embellishment of the city with many buildings . He died on the 6th of February 1740, and was succeeded by Benedict XIV . See Guarnacci, Vitae et res gestae Pontiff . Rom . (Rome, 1751) ; Sandini, Vitae Pontiff . Rom . (Padua, 1739); Fabroni, De Vita et Reb .

Gest . Clementis XII . (Rome, 176o);

Ranke, Popes (Eng. trans . Austin), iii . 191 seq.; v . Reumont, Gesch. der Stadt Rom, in . 2, 653 seq . (T . F .