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Pope Clement XI [aka Giovanni Francesco Albani] (1649-1721) Broadside Decretum.
Rome: Typis Reverendae Camerae Apostolicae, 1710.
Folio-format single leaf broadside printed on one side with three woodcuts at the top of the sheet, including portraits of two saints, and the papal arms; text issued under the authority of the church; consisting of approximately forty lines of text detailing the death of papal legate and cardinal to the East Indies and China, Charles-Thomas Maillard De Tournon (1668-1710), who died in Macau in June of 1710; old folds, docketed and numbered in ink on verso; 15 1/8 x 11 3/4 in.
Maillard de Touron was sent east to enforce the Vatican's decree outlawing any Chinese religious traditions still in use by indigenous people converted to Christianity by the Catholic missionaries operating there. In particular, the priests wanted their new converts to stop making sacrifices to departed elders and to Confucius. The missionaries also banned converts from using Chinese words when referring to heaven and god. The church under Clement XI (and his enforcer Maillard de Touron) was similarly intolerant with South Indians practicing the Malabar rites, which Jesuit missionaries had previously tolerated. The Kangxi Emperor ordered Maillard de Touron imprisoned in 1707 after the Holy See threatened excommunication to anyone practicing traditional Chinese religious rites. The pope's legate died in jail. This decree issued 25 September 1710 includes an account of his death and an official approval of his acts overseas on the behalf of the Vatican. His remains were returned eventually to Rome and interred there in 1723.
![Pope Clement XI [aka Giovanni Francesco Albani] (1649-1721) Broadside Decretum.](https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/full//482\812482.jpg)
