Supplica che f Roma al Re Cattolico per la Morte di Clemente XIV. Anonymous anti-Jesuit eulogy for the deceased Pope.

Folio. Italian manuscript on paper. 1 pp. In the guise of a supplication by the city of Rome to Spanish King Charles III (1716-88) following the death of Pope Clement XIV in 1774, this poem with 34 verses of 6 lines is a fiercely caustic enumeration of anti-Jesuit tropes and slanders. Among the common accusations levied against the Jesuits was the fabrication of a link between the Society and Robert-Fran ois Damiens, who had attempted to assassinate Louis XV in 1757: "Tu sai che nella Francia / Un caro a lor si cangia / In Sicario ed assase, / Perfido disleale, / Il Monarca al cospetto / Del Popol tutto per uprirgli il pecto." In one of the final verses the poem calls for Charles III, who "will extinguish the stains on the forks", to take up his sword "in every street" against those who have insulted "the majesty of the kings and of the church". - The most consequential and controversial decision of Pope Clement XIV was the suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773. This political act led to a surge in propaganda for and against the Jesuits and the Pope. Spain had already expelled the Jesuits in 1767. - Traces of folds and insignificant brownstaining.