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The second centenary of the birth of this famous sculptor was commemorated by the issuance, on July 2, 1958, of a set of four stamps, each depicting one of Canova's masterpieces of sculpture. Inasmuch as the background of Canova has already been outlined in VATICAN NOTES in connection with the Pantheon issue, the biographical detail which follows will be that of the four popes whose images appear on the stamps. 
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Pope Clement XIII 
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Carlo della Torre Rezzonico was born at Venice on March 7, 1693 and died at Rome on February 2, 1769. He was educated at Bologna and Padua and in 1716 was employed at Rome. He was made Governor of Rieti in 1716, of Fano in 1721 and Auditor for the Rota for Venice in 1725. He was made cardinal in 1737 and Bishop of Padua in 1743. In this post he showed himself zealous for the sanctification of his clergy and himself lived an exemplary life. He was elected Pope July 6, 1758 to succeed Benedict XIV. Regalism and Jansenism were the two traditional foes of the Church, and a new force rising was making use of them. These were the Rationalists or Encyclopedists of Voltaire, who were bitter enemies of the Church. They had influence in Portugal and other royal courts of the Bourbons. Their first attack was on the Society of Jesus, which was the great bulwark of the Church.
 
Under their influence, the Portuguese king imprisoned the Jesuit heads and expelled all other Jesuits from Portuguese territory. Over the protests of Clement XIII the French Parliament suppressed the Society of Jesus in France. Charles III of Spain, also under the influence of the Encyclopedists, suppressed the Jesuits, and Voltairian ministers of the minor rulers of Naples and Parma followed suit. Since Parma was a fief of the Papacy, Clement XIII condemned the move. The Bourbon courts of Europe threatened the Pope with loss of territory and demanded the complete suppression of the Jesuits throughout the world. It is thought that this dem-and brought about the death of Clement XIII, because he died within two weeks of the demand.
 
The tomb of Pope Clement XIII in St. Peter's is toward the right or epistle transept. Its sculpture established the reputation of Canova and is considered by many as his best work. It was finished after 8 years of labor in Canova's 38th year.' Clement kneels in prayer. On the right is a figure representing Death with a torch inverted. On the left stands a figure representing Religion holding a cross. Two sleeping lions at the bottom are sometimes called the finest work in modern sculpture. The whole monument is gracefully arranged over a doorway.
 
<center>Pope Clement XIV 
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Lorenzo (or Giovanni Vincenzo Antonio) Ganganelli was born at Sant' Arcangelo, near Rimini, October 31, 1705, and died at Rome September 22, 1774. He was of humble birth and was educated by the Jesuits at Rimini. At the age of 19, in 1724, he entered the Franciscans, Friars Minor, and changed his baptismal name of Giovanni Vincenzo Antonio to Lorenzo. He became Defin-itor General of the Friars Minor in 1741 and Benedict XIV made him a consultor of the Holy Office. Clement XIII made him a cardinal in 1759. 
At the death of Clement XIII, the authority of the papacy was being attacked by Gallicanism, Jansenism, and Rationalism, backed by the rulers of France, Spain, Naples, Portugal and Parma; rather, these rulers were being used as tools of the afore-mentioned groups. Clement XIV tried a manful resistance to them but failed even to check them to any great degree. The bone of contention was the Society of Jesus. It was already suppressed in Portugal, France and Spain under Clement XIII. The election of Clement XIV was the occasion of renewed demands for its universal suppression.
 
The conclave that elected Clement XIV convened February 15, 1769, and the ambassadors of the above-named countries tried to swing the election to a cardinal favorable to their demands. They used their power of veto on 23 of the 47 cardinals not favorable, and of the remainder, 8 to 10 were considered too old for election. Cardinal Ganganelli was one Who seemed to favor neither side and after signing a paper for Cardinal Solis of Spain that he recognized the right of the Pope to suppress the Jesuits according to Canon Law, he was elected.
 
The Jesuits were strong champions of the Church, and were accused of being disturbers of the peace, since they challenged the enemies of the Church and refuted their attacks. Despite the fact that they were in favor in the Germanic countries, Clement XIV started a campaign against them, removing them from schools and colleges, suppressing their publications, etc. Charles Emmanuel of Sardinia and Maria Theresa of Austria had supported the Jesuits, but with the death of Charles Emmanuel, Maria Theresa listened to her son Joseph II and her daughter, the Queen of Naples, and withdrew her active support of the Jesuits.
 
As a result, Clement XIV began the writing of his Brief of Abolition of the Jesuits in November, 1772. He signed it on June 8, 1773, dating it to become effective on July 21, 1773. He did this as an effort to restore peace to the Church, and without any condemnation of the Society of Jesus. The suppression was a Brief, not a Bull, and therefore easier of recall. With the papacy seemingly approving, this Brief was not put into effect in many countries for some time, and under Catherine of Russia, not at all.
 
The only advantage reaped by this grave act was the restoration of Avignon and Benevento to the Holy See. Both of these had been seized when Clement XIII excommunicated the kinsmen of the young Duke of Parma. Hostility continued from the enemies of the Church, and the Church was not without her most articulate and devoted defender, the Society of Jesus. Embittered by the knowledge that he had failed in his effort to bring peace to the Church despite this great sacrifice, Clement XIV took to bed September 10, 1774 and died September 22, 1774.
 
He was buried in the Church of Sancti Apostoli in Rome. The monument to him by Canova is placed over the door of the sacristy in the left aisle. It was executed in Canova's 25th year. The Pope is seated with his right hand raised in blessing. Below on the opposite sides of the door are two figures representing Temperance and Meekness.
 
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Pope Pius VI 
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Giovanni Angelico Braschi was born at Cesena on December 27, 1717, and died at Valence, France, on August 29, 1799. Of a poor family, he was educated at Cessna and Ferrara, and became papal secretary and a canon of St. Peter's in 1755. Clement XIII made him Treasurer of the Roman Church in 1766, and Clement XIV made him a cardinal. He was Abbot of Subiaco until his election as Pope on February 15, 1775. 
France, Spain and Portugal at first conspired to prevent his election because he was reputed favorable to the Jesuits. When elected, he did not dare revoke their suppression, but he did liberate the Jesuit superior from prison. He acceded to the request of Prussia to allow the Jesuits to keep their schools there and allowed their continuance in Russia.
 
He took steps to stop the Galilean idea against papal supremacy which had spread to Germany. Joseph II of Austria had suppressed numerous monasteries and had forbidden Austrian bishops to ask Rome for faculties. Pius VI went to Vienna, arriving March 22, 1782, and remained until the following month. However, he accomplished nothing with the Emperor. After the Pope returned, Joseph seized papal property, and then appointed a bishop to Milan. This last act aroused Pius VI where the seizure of his property had not. He threatened Joseph with excommunication. Joseph came to Rome in December of 1783 and threatened to separate the whole Church in Germany from Rome. He was dissuaded from this and Pius granted him the right to nominate bishops in Milan and Mantua. This started a series of attacks on the papacy from nearly all European countries. Amid all this, Pius VI erected the first bishopric in the United States at Baltimore in April of 1789.
 
After the French Revolution, Pius rejected the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and objected to the execution of Louis XVI. France retaliated by annexing Avignon and Venaissin. The Pope cooperated with the Allies against the French Republic, and this, combined with the murder of the French attache at Rome, brought Napoleon's attack on the Pontifical State. By the Peace of Tolentino Pius surrendered to France Avignon, Venaissin, Ferrara, Bologna and Romagna; also fifteen million francs and numerous works of art. In an attempt to revolutionize Rome, the French General Duphot was killed. The French seized Rome and proclaimed the Roman Republic. Pius VI refused to submit, and was taken out of Rome by night to France, where he died at Valence on his journey as a prisoner. He was first buried at Valence, but on February 17, 1802 his body was transferred to St. Peter's in Rome. The statue by Canava, depicting Pius kneeling before the tomb of St. Peter, in the Confession at the High Altar, is one of Canova's finest works. Pius is said to have ordered the attitude and position of his figure while he was a captive of the French.
 
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Pope Pius VII 
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 Barnaba Chiarmonte was born at Cesena in the Pontifical State on Aug. 14, 1740 and died at Rome on August 20, 1823. He came from noble and pious parents, and was educated at Ravenna. At the age of 16 he entered the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria del Monte, near Oceans., and after completing his studies taught in the Benedictine colleges at Parma and Rome. Pius VI made him abbot of his monastery in Rome and later made him Bishop of Tivoli. He was subsequently made Bishop of Imola and was raised to the cardinalate on February 14, 1785. When the French invaded Italy, Pius instructed his flook not to put up useless resistance against overwhelming French forces. In 1797 he instructed them to submit to the Cisalpine Republic. 
By ordinance of Pius VI, the conclave of election was to be held in that city where the greatest number of cardinals were to be found. Thus, Venice was selected, and its Monastery of San Giorgio was the place where Pius VII was elected and crowned on March 21, 1800. Ercole Consalvi was made a cardinal by Pius VII in his first year as Pope. As Secretary of State under Pius VII he proved one of the greatest statesmen of the 19th century.
 
The Church had been destroyed in France by the Revolution, and Pius VII entered negotiations with Napoleon by the Concordat of 1801, which was to regulate the affairs of the Church in France for more than 100 years. After the fall of Napoleon a new concordat was negotiated between Pius and Louis XVII, but this never went into effect.
 
Because of tremendous losses of property which the Church suffered after the Peace of Lunoville in 1801, ecclesiastical reorganization of the Church in Germany became imperative, and negotiations were begun for an agreement with Bavaria and later with Wurttemberg. At the Congress of Vienna in 1814, Consalvi tried to restore the former German ecclesiastical relations disrupted by Napoleon, but failed, and being unable to treat with a central German State, he arranged a concordat Which was signed with Bavaria in 1817. An agreement was entered into with Prussia in 1821. An agreement with England over the ecclesiastical affairs of Ireland was attempted, but failed due to resistance by the Irish. In 1810, Pius erected new dioceses in Boston, Now York, Philadelphia and Bardstown, and made Baltimore en archdiocese. Charleston and Richmond became bishoprics in 1820 and Cincinnati in 1821.
 
The Congress of Vienna restored the territory of the Papal State through the efforts of Consalvi. Pius VII offered sanctuary to the family of the fallen Napoleon, who had persecuted the Church. He re-established the Society of Jesus in Russia in 1801, in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1804, in America, England and Ireland in 1813, and for the Universal Church on August 7, 1814.
 
Pius VII fell in his room on July 6, 1823, fracturing his leg; he never rose again from his bed and died on August 20, 1823.
 
Canova's bust of Pius VII from which this stamp is designed is in the Vatican Museums. His tomb in St. Peter's is by Thorwaldsen. Pius VII established the Museo Chiarmonte, which was arranged by Canova and contains over 700 pieces of ancient sculpture.

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