prohibited (1486) on pain of excommunication the reading of the propositions of Pico della Mirandola; he appointed (1487) T. Torquemada to be grand inquisitor of Spain; and he offered plenary indulgence to all who would engage in a crusade against the Waldenses. He took the first steps towards the canonization of Queen Margaret of Scotland, and sent missionaries under Portuguese auspices to the Congo. An important event of his pontificate was the capture of Granada (2nd of January 1492), which was celebrated at Rome with great rejoicing and for which Innocent gave to Ferdinand of Aragon the title of “Catholic Majesty.” Innocent was genial, skilled in flattery, and popular with the Romans, but he lacked talent and relied on the stronger will of Cardinal della Rovere, afterwards Julius II. His Curia was notoriously corrupt, and he himself openly practised nepotism in favour of his children, concerning whom the epigram is quoted: “Octo nocens pueros genuit, totidemque puellas:—Hunc merito poterit dicere Roma patrem.” Thus he gave to his undeserving son Franceschetto several towns near Rome and married him to the daughter of Lorenzo de’ Medici. Innocent died on the 25th of July 1492, and was succeeded by Alexander VI.
The sources for the life of Innocent VIII. are to be found in L. Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, vol. 3, and in Raynaldus, a. 1484–1492. See also L. Pastor, History of the Popes, vol. 5, trans. by F. I. Antrobus (London, 1898); M. Creighton, History of the Papacy, vol. 4 (London, 1901); F. Gregorovius, Rome in the Middle Ages, vol. 7, trans. by Mrs. G. W. Hamilton (London, 1900–1902); T. Hagen, Die Papstwahlen von 1484 u. 1492 (Brizen, 1885); S. Riezler, Die Hexenprozesse (1896); G. Viani, Memorie della famiglia Cybo (Pisa, 1808); F. Serdonati, Vita e fatti d’Innocenzo VIII. (Milan, 1829). (C. H. Ha.)
Innocent IX. (Giovanni Antonio Fachinetti) was born in
1519. He filled the offices of apostolic vicar of Avignon, legate
at the council of Trent, nuncio to Venice, and president of the
Inquisition. He became cardinal in 1583; and under the
invalid Gregory XIV. assumed almost the entire conduct of
affairs. His election to the papacy, on the 29th of October
1591, was brought about by Philip II., who profited little by it,
however, inasmuch as Innocent soon succumbed to age and
feebleness, dying on the 30th of December 1591.
See Ciaconius, Vitae et res gestae summorum Pontiff. Rom. (Rome, 1601–1602); Cicarella, continuator of Platina, De Vitis Pontiff. Rom. (both contemporaries of Innocent); Ranke, Popes (Eng. trans., Austin), ii. 233 sq. (all brief accounts). (T. F. C.)
Innocent X. (Giovanni Battista Pamfili) was born in Rome
on the 6th of May 1574, served successively as auditor of the
Rota, nuncio to Naples, legate apostolic to Spain, was made
cardinal in 1627, and succeeded Urban VIII. as pope on the
15th of September 1644. Throughout his pontificate Innocent
was completely dominated by his sister-in-law, Donna Olimpia
Maidalchini, a woman of masculine spirit. There is no reason to
credit the scandalous reports of an illicit attachment. Nevertheless,
the influence of Donna Olimpia was baneful; and she
made herself thoroughly detested for her inordinate ambition
and rapacity. Urban VIII. had been French in his sympathies;
but the papacy now shifted to the side of the Habsburgs, and
there remained for nearly fifty years. Evidences of the change
were numerous: Innocent promoted pro-Spanish cardinals;
attacked the Barberini, protégés of Mazarin, and sequestered
their possessions; aided in quieting an insurrection in Naples,
fomented by the duke of Guise; and refused to recognize the
independence of Portugal, then at war with Spain. As a reward
he obtained from Spain and Naples the recognition of ecclesiastical
immunity. In 1649 Castro, which Urban VIII. had failed
to take, was wrested from the Farnese and annexed to the
Papal States. The most worthy efforts of Innocent were directed
to the reform of monastic discipline (1652). His condemnation
of Jansenism (1653) was met with the denial of papal infallibility
in matters of fact, and the controversy entered upon a new phase
(see Jansenism). Although the pontificate of Innocent witnessed
the conversion of many Protestant princes, the most notable
being Queen Christina of Sweden, the papacy had nevertheless
suffered a perceptible decline in prestige; it counted for
little in the negotiations at Münster, and its solemn protest
against the peace of Westphalia was entirely ignored.
Innocent died on the 7th of January 1655, and was succeeded
by Alexander VII.
For contemporary lives of Innocent see Oldoin, continuator of Ciaconius, Vitae et res gestae summorum Pontiff. Rom.; and Palazzi, Gesta Pontiff. Rom. (Venice, 1687–1688) iv. 570 sqq.; Ciampi’s Innoc. X. Pamfili, et la sua Corte (Rome, 1878), gives a very full account of the period. Gualdus’ (pseud. of Gregorio Leti; v. bibliog. note, art. “Sixtus V.”) Vita de Donna Olimpia Maidalchina (1666) is gossipy and untrustworthy; Capranica’s Donna Olympia Pamfili (Milan, 1875, 3rd ed.) is fanciful and historically of no value. See also Ranke, Popes (Eng. trans., Austin), iii. 40 sqq.; v. Reumont, Gesch. der Stadt Rom. iii. 2, p. 623 sqq.; Brosch, Gesch. des Kirchenstaates (1880) i. 409 sqq.; and the extended bibliography in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie, s.v. “Innocenz X.” (T. F. C.)
Innocent XI. (Benedetto Odescalchi), pope from 1676 to
1689, was born at Como on the 16th of May 1611. He studied
law in Rome and Naples, entered the Curia under Urban VIII.
(his alleged military service seems to be questionable), and
became successively protonotary, president of the Apostolic
Chamber, governor of Macerate and commissary of Ancona.
Innocent X. made him a cardinal (1647), legate to Ferrara, and,
in 1650, bishop of Novara. His simple and blameless life, his
conscientious discharge of duty, and his devotion to the needs
of the poor had won for him such a name that, despite the
opposition of France, he was chosen to succeed Clement X. on
the 21st of September 1676. He at once applied himself to moral
and administrative reform; declared against nepotism, introduced
economy, abolished sinecures, wiped out the deficit (at
the same time reducing rents), closed the gaming-houses, and
issued a number of sumptuary ordinances. He held monks
strictly to the performance of their vows; took care to satisfy
himself of the fitness of candidates for bishoprics; enjoined
regular catechetical instruction, greater simplicity in preaching,
and greater reverence in worship. The moral teaching of the
Jesuits incurred his condemnation (1679) (see Liguori), an act
which the society never forgave, and which it partially revenged
by forcing, through the Inquisition, the condemnation of the
quietistic doctrines of Molinos (1687), for which Innocent
entertained some sympathy (see Molinos).
The pontificate of Innocent fell within an important period in European politics, and he himself played no insignificant rôle. His protest against Louis XIV.’s extended claim to regalian rights called forth the famous Declaration of Gallican Liberties by a subservient French synod under the lead of Bossuet (1682), which the pope met by refusing to confirm Louis’s clerical appointments. His determination to restrict the ambassadorial right of asylum, which had been grossly abused, was resented by Louis, who defied him in his own capital, seized the papal territory of Avignon, and talked loudly of a schism, without, however, shaking the pope in his resolution. The preponderance of France Innocent regarded as a menace to Europe. He opposed Louis’s candidate for the electorate of Cologne (1688), approved the League of Augsburg, acquiesced in the designs of the Protestant William of Orange, even in his supplanting James II., whom, although a Roman Catholic, he distrusted as a tool of Louis. The great object of Innocent’s desire was the repulse of the Turks, and his unwearying efforts to that end entitled him to share in the glory of relieving Vienna (1683).
Innocent died on the 12th of August 1689, lamented by his subjects. His character and life were such as to suggest the propriety of canonization, but hostile influences have defeated every move in that direction.
The life of Innocent has been frequently written. See Guarnacci, Vitae et res gestae Pontiff. Rom. (Rome, 1751), i. 105 sqq.; Palazzi, Gesta Pontiff. Rom. (Venice, 1690); also the lives by Albrizzi (Rome, 1695); Buonamici (Rome, 1776); and Immich (Berlin, 1900). Particular phases of Innocent’s activity have been treated by Michaud, Louis XIV. et Innoc. XI. (Paris, 1882 sqq., 4 vols.); Dubruel, La Correspond. . . . du Card. Carlo Pio, &c. (see Rev. des quest. hist. lxxv. (1904) 602 sqq.); and Gerin, in Rev. des quest. hist., 1876, 1878, 1886. For correspondence of Innocent see Colombo, Notizie biogr. e lettere di P. Innoc. XI. (Turin, 1878); and Berthier, Innoc. PP. XI. Epp. ad Principes (Rome, 1890 sqq.). An extended bibliography may be found in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie, s.v. “Innocenz XI.” (T. F. C.)
