Editing Henry Benedict Stuart (section)

==Ecclesiastical career==
On 30 June 1747 [[Pope Benedict XIV]] conferred the [[tonsure]] on him and created him [[Cardinal-Deacon]] of [[Santa Maria in Campitelli]] in a special [[papal consistory|consistory]] held on 3 July 1747. On 27 August 1747 he was promoted through the four minor orders by Benedict. He received the subdiaconate on 18 August 1748 and diaconate on 25 August 1748. His elder brother Charles, who was in France at the time, was not in favor of the ecclesiastical honors as he believed they would only serve to further religious prejudice against the Stuarts.{{sfn |Kelly |1899 |p={{page needed |date=June 2022}}}}

As the cardinalate was a rank rather than one of the priestly orders, Charles hoped that Henry might yet make a politically advantageous marriage, and was dismayed to discover that his brother had been ordained a priest on 1 September 1748.<ref name=Tribe/> Later that month, Henry was made Cardinal-Priest, retaining his diaconal church. In 1751, he was made Arch-Priest of [[St. Peter's Basilica]].<ref name=Tribe/>

{{blockquote|text=His revenues from the many ecclesiastical preferments he enjoyed were enormous. His income from abbeys and other pluralities in Flanders, Spain, Naples and France amounted to 40,000 Pounds in British money at the time. He also held sinecure benefices yielding revenues in Spanish America. He owned territory in Mexico, which contributed largely to his income.{{sfn |Lees-Milne |1984 |p=[https://archive.org/details/laststuartsbriti0000lees/page/75/mode/1up?q=ecclesiastical+preferments 75]}}}} [[Louis XV of France]] bestowed on the Cardinal the abbeys of Auchin and St. Amand as compensation for having had to evict his brother pursuant to the terms of the [[Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)|Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle]].{{sfn |Kelly |1899 |p={{page needed |date=June 2022}}}}

In December 1752 his titular seat was changed to [[Santi Apostoli, Rome|Santi Apostoli]]; and in 1758 the Pope named him [[List of Camerlengos of the Sacred College of Cardinals|Camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals]]. The responsibilities of this office included administering all property, fees, funds and revenue belonging to the College of Cardinals, celebrating the requiem Mass for a deceased cardinal, and charge of the registry of the ''Acta Consistoralia''. He participated in the [[1758 papal conclave]], which elected [[Pope Clement XIII]]. In October of that year, Henry was made titular [[Archbishop of Corinth]]. The following year, he resigned the title of Santa Maria in Campitelli to assume that of [[Santa Maria in Trastevere]]; however, he retained the Church of Santi Apostoli ''[[in commendam]]''.

He was made [[Cardinal-Bishop of Frascati]] on 13 July 1761.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cardinals Created by Benedict XIV (1743-7)|url=http://www.gcatholic.org/hierarchy/data/cardB14-1.htm#1578|access-date=2020-06-16|website=www.gcatholic.org}}</ref> He was appointed [[Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals]] on 26 September 1803, then also succeeding to the See of [[Ostia and Velletri]]. He lived and worked in Frascati for many years, descending each afternoon in his carriage to Rome, where his position as vice-chancellor entitled him to the [[Palazzo della Cancelleria]].

Henry was the last claimant to the British throne to [[Royal touch|touch]] the sick to cure them from the [[scrofula|King's Evil]].

Henry is described as a beatific, abstemious, wealthy, celibate aesthete who lived to a great age, 'inoffensive and respectable' to the end.{{sfn |Haggard |1840 |p=[https://www.jstor.org/stable/42681835?seq=3 151]}}