in Roman Antiquity, a college of the Salii, or priests of Mars; so called from Mount Albanus, the place of their residence.

Cardinal Gian Francesco, was elected Pope in November 1700, as the successor of Innocent XII. After his election, he hesitated about accepting the high office; but after some days ascended the chair of St Peter by the title of Clement XI. Whatever were his reasons for hesitation, he became one of the most active and zealous pontiffs in supporting the prerogatives and pretensions of the Holy See; which embroiled him with Victor Amadeus of Savoy, with Naples, and with Austria. But his most noted interference was in the religious dissensions in France; when by his bull entitled "Vineam Domini," he confirmed the edict of his predecessors against the Jansenists; but the issuing of his celebrated bull "Unigenitus," in 1713, set the kingdom of France in a flame. In this he condemned as heretical 101 propositions in Quesnel's Reflections Morales sur le Nouveau Testament, in which that author had maintained various opinions of St Augustin and the older fathers, which favoured the Jansenist doctrines on Grace and Free Will.

After a severe struggle and keen debates, Le Tellier, the Jesuit confessor of Louis XIV., persuaded his master to receive the bull; and it was at length registered by the Parliament of Paris; but these questions had for several years estranged France from the Holy See.

Another affair which troubled this pope was the disputes concerning the Jesuit missionaries in China, who had risen high in the consideration of the Imperial government, and seemed too independent of the court of Rome. Clement sent as his legate Cardinal Touron in 1702; but he died at Macao, and his successor, Father Mezzabarba, was but coldly received at Pekin, and soon after ordered to quit China, at the instigation, as it was alleged, of the Jesuits; a source of deep mortification to this aspiring pontiff.

Clement warmly espoused the cause of the exiled house of Stuart, and furnished the son of James II. with money for his ill-advised attempt on Britain in 1715. After the failure of that expedition, he offered the prince an asylum at Urbino, where, as the Chevalier de St George, he had from the Pope a pension of 30,000 scudi; and, on his marriage with Clementina, daughter of the heroic John Sobieski, gave him a palace at Rome for his residence. This Pope died in March 1721.

Clement was a scholar, and wrote an excellent Latin style. His Homilies have been translated into Italian by Cescinelli.

Albano, Francesco, a celebrated Italian painter, was born in Bologna in 1578, and died in 1660. His father was a silk-merchant, and intended to bring up his son to the same occupation; but the young Albani was already, at the age of 12, filled with so strong an inclination for painting, that on the death of his father, he devoted himself entirely to art. His first master was Denys Calvert, with whom Guido Reni was at the same time a pupil. He was soon left by Calvert entirely to the care of Guido, and contracted with him a close friendship. He followed Guido to the school of the Caracci; but after this, owing to mutual rivalry, their friendship began gradually to cool. They kept up for a long time a keen competition, and their mutual emulation called forth some of their best productions. Notwithstanding this rivalry, they still spoke of each other with the highest esteem. Albani, after having greatly improved himself in the school of the Caracci, went to Rome, where he opened an academy and resided for many years. Here he painted, after the designs of Ann. Caracci, the whole of the frescoes in the chapel of St Diego in the church of San Giacomo degli Spagnuoli, besides numerous other pictures. On the death of his wife, he returned to Bologna, where he married a second time, and resided till his death in the enjoyment of much domestic happiness and general esteem.

Albani was naturally of a happy and amiable disposition, and his paintings breathe the same soft and joyous spirit. "In point of original invention," says Lanzi, "he is superior to Domenichino, perhaps to any other of the school; and in his representation of female forms, according to Mengs, he has no equal. By some he is denominated the Anacreon of painting." Like that poet, with his short odes, so Albani, from his small paintings, acquired great reputation; and as the one sings Venus and the Loves, and maids and boys, so does the artist hold up to the eye the same delicate and graceful subjects. Nature, indeed, formed, the perusal of the poets inclined, and fortune encouraged his genius for this kind of painting; and possessing a consort and twelve children, all of surprising beauty, he was, at the same time, blest with the finest models for the pursuit of his studies. He had a villa most delightfully situated, which further presented him with a variety of objects enabling him to represent the beautiful rural views so familiar to his eye. Passeri greatly extols his talent in this branch, remarking that where others, being desirous of suiting figures to the landscape, or its various objects to one another, most frequently alter their natural colour, he invariably preserves the green of his trees, the clearness of his waters, and the serenity of the air, under the most lovely aspect, and contrives to unite them with the most enchanting power of harmony." The most of his works are at Bologna. Among the most celebrated of his pictures are those of the Four Elements; those of Diana and Venus in the Florentine gallery; the Toilet of Venus, in the Louvre; Venus landing at Cythera, in the Ghigi palace at Rome, &c. Among the best of his sacred subjects are a St Sebastian and an Assumption of the Virgin, both in the church of St Sebastian at Rome.