Pope Clement XIV (1769
to 1774)
Catholicism
Assassinations
The night before Pope Clement XIII was to execute the dissolution, however, he suddenly fell ill and died. Prior to his death he cried out I am dying . . . It is a very dangerous thing to attack the Jesuits. His successor, Pope Clement XIV, was also put under tremendous political pressure to dissolve the Jesuits, but he resisted doing so for three years until the political tension finally forced his hand. Pope Clement XIV issued the papal brief of dissolution, Dominus ac Redemptor, on August 16, 1773. Pope Clement XIV knew the significance of such an act to the papacy, he exclaimed: I have cut off my right hand. In addition, Pope Clement XIV knew that by signing the brief dissolving the Jesuits he was signing his own death warrant. Soon after signing the brief the letters I.S.S.S.V. appeared on the palace walls in the Vatican. Pope Clement XIV knew what it meant and explained that it stood for In Settembre, Sara Sede Vacante. Which translated means in September, the See will be vacant (the pope will be dead). Pope Clement XIV was poisoned and died on September 22, 1774. [2011] Solving the Mystery of Babylon the Great by Edward Hendrie