Mozetta

Lorenzo Corsini was a lawyer in Florence, Italy. He came from a powerful family which was not only nobility, but had very close ties to the Catholic Church. He had many high ranking clergy on both sides of the family, including a saint on his father’s side. In fact, when he was 33, he also joined the clergy by buying a high ranking position of his own. Within five years, he was named an Archbishop.

Before long, he also became the Papal Treasurer, and eventually became Pope Clement XII. It was in 1730, and Corsini was 78 years old. He had an interesting term, even though it lasted less than ten years. He is known for such architectural projects as the facade of Saint John Lateran, and a chapel there, restoration of the Arch of Constantine, and starting the Trevi Fountain. Visitors to Rome are likely to see all of these, and Saint John Lateran is an “archbasilica”, outranking even St Peter’s, so a pretty likely stop for pilgrims. It’s also where Clement XII is buried.

He is also known for banning Catholics from becoming Masons, and worked to reunite the Roman and Orthodox Catholic churches, and reduce the differences between the Romans and Coptic and Armenian churches. And, consistent with his interest in caring for the church treasury, he was able to make quick and significant improvements to its financial situation.

Two other important notes: by the time he became pope, he was mostly blind and bedridden. So he conducted business sitting up in bed, and never saw the architecture and building projects to which he is so closely associated. But most importantly in our immediate context, he wore a mozetta. Of course he wore a mozetta; it is part of the uniform for the pope and cardinals and other church officials. It’s a short, wrap-around cape with a hood, and the painting of Pope Clement XII by Agostino Masucci shows just enough of the hood so you can tell it’s there.

It’s a nice touch, as well, to show His Holiness sitting up in a chair, looking as though we have just interrupted him reading a letter.

(Read more, here: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04030a.htm)

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