Clement was seventy-eight years old when elected to the papacy. He'd held many of the important managerial positions within the church before that, and the college of cardinals chose him to repair the financial havoc caused by his predecessor.

He was the first pope to act against the Freemasons. He didn't seem to really know what the secret society was about (not even the Pope is in on that secret!), but banned Catholics from joining, writing, "if they were not doing evil they would not have so great a hatred of the light."