Editing Pope Clement XII (section)

===Ecclesial activities===
[[File:Retrato del papa Clemente XII (Universidad de Salamanca).jpg|thumb|''Papa Clemente XII'', unknown Spanish artist <small>(oil on canvas, 1739, [[University of Salamanca]])</small>]]
In ecclesiastic affairs he issued ''[[In eminenti apostolatus]]'', the first papal decree against the [[Freemasonry|Freemasons]] on 28 April 1738. He canonized [[Saint Vincent de Paul]] and proceeded with vigour against the French [[Jansenism|Jansenists]]. He campaigned for the reunion of the Roman and [[Eastern Orthodox|Orthodox churches]], received the [[Patriarch]] of the [[Coptic Orthodox Church|Coptic Church]] and persuaded the [[Catholicos of Armenia|Armenian Patriarch]] to remove the [[anathema]] against the [[Council of Chalcedon]] and [[Pope Leo I]] (440–461). He dispatched [[Joseph Simeon Assemani]] to the East for the twofold purpose of continuing his search for manuscripts and presiding as legate over the [[Lebanese Council of 1736]].<ref name=Loughlin/> He created the youngest Cardinal ever when on 19 December 1735, he named [[Luis Antonio Jaime de Borbón y Farnesio]], Royal [[Infante]] of Spain, age 8, to the [[Sacred College]].

Though he was blind and compelled to keep to his bed, from which he gave audiences and transacted affairs of state, he surrounded himself with capable officials, many of them his Corsini relatives, but he did little for his family except to purchase and enlarge the palace built in [[Trastevere]] for the [[Riarii]], and now known as the [[Palazzo Corsini, Rome|Palazzo Corsini]] (the seat of the [[Accademia dei Lincei]]). In 1754, his nephew, Cardinal [[Neri Maria Corsini]], founded there the famous Corsini Library.<ref name=Loughlin/>