67 



INNOCENT IV. 



INNOCENT XI. 



658 



auricular confession, and sanctioned the establishment of the two 

 great mendicant monastic orders, the Dominicans and Franciscans, 

 the former to extirpate heresy, and the latter to preach sound doc- 

 trines and to assist the parochial clergy in the execution of their 

 duties. In the same year he caused his legate in Germany to crown 

 Frederick II. at Aix-la-Chapelle. In the following year Innocent fell 

 ill at Perugia, and died in the month of July, at the early age of 

 fifty-six. He was an extraordinary character, and in several respects 

 the most illustrious, as he was certainly one of the most ambitious, 

 among the many distinguished men who have filled the papal chair. 

 His pontificate must be considered as the period of the highest power 

 of the Roman See. 



INNOCENT IV., SINIBALDO DE' FIESCHI, of Genoa, succeeded 

 Celestine IV. in the year 1243. In the preceding bitter quarrels 

 between Gregory IX. and the Emperor Frederick II., Cardinal Sini- 

 baldo had shown himself rather friendly towards the emperor ; and 

 the Imperial courtiers, on receiving the news of hia exaltation, were 

 rejoicing at it; but the experienced Frederick checked them by 

 remarking : " I have now lost a friendly cardinal, to find another 

 hostile pope. No pope can be a Ghibeline." Anxious however to be 

 relieved from excommunication, Frederick made advances to the new 

 pope, and offered conditions advantageous to the Roman see ; but 

 Innocent remained inflexible, and suddenly leaving Rome, embarked 

 for Genoa, whence he went to Lyon, where he summoned a council in 

 1245, to which he invited the emperor. Thaddeus of Sessa appeared 

 before the council to answer to the charges brought by the pope 

 against Frederick; and after much wrangling, Innocent would listen to 

 no terms, but excommunicated and deposed the emperor, commanded 

 the German princes to elect a new emperor, and reserved the disposal 

 of the kingdom of Sicily to himself. Jn Italy the only consequence 

 Kits that the war which already raged between the Guelphs and 

 Ghibelines continued fiercer than before ; but in Germany some of 

 the electors raised a contemptible rival to Frederick in the person of 

 Henry, landgrave of Thuringia, who was defeated by Conrad, 

 Frederick's son. At last Frederick died in Apulia, A.D. 1250; and 

 Innocent, having returned to Italy, began to ofler the crown of Sicily 

 to several princes, one of whom, Richard of Cornwall, observed that 

 the pope's offer " wa much like making him a present of the moon." 

 The pope at the same time excommunicated Conrad, the ion of 

 Frederick, who however went into Italy in 1252, took possession of 

 Apulia and Sicily ; and he dying two years after, hia brother Manfred 

 became regent, and baffled both the intrigues and the open attacks of 

 the court of Rome. Innocent died soon after, at the end of 1254, at 

 Rome, leaving Italy and Germany in the greatest confusion in con- 

 sequence of his outrageous tyranny, and his unbending hostility to the 

 whole house of Swabia. He waa succeeded by Alexander IV. 

 (Rautner, Getekichte der Ilohenttavffen, and the numerous hutoriang 

 of the popes.) 



INNOCENT V., PETER OP TARAKTABU, succeeded Gregory X. in 

 1276, and died) the same year, after a pontificate of five months. 



INNOCENT VI., ETIENNE D'ALBERT, a Frenchman, succeeded 

 Clement VI. in 1352. He resided at Avignon, like hi immediate 

 predecessors; but, unlike them, he put a check on the disorders and 

 scandals of that court, which have been so strongly depicted by 

 Petrarch. Villani, and other contemporary writer*. He reformed the 

 abuses of the reservations of benefices, and he enforced the residence 

 of bishops on their sees. He sent to Italy as his legate Cardinal 

 Albornoz, who, by skill as well as force, reduced the various provinces 

 of the papal state, which had been occupied by petty tyrants. He 

 sent back to Rome the former demagogue Cola di Rienzo, who, being 

 still der to the people, repressed the insolence of the lawless barons ; 

 but becoming himself intoxicated with bis power, committed acts of 

 wanton cruelty, upon which the people rose and murdered him in 

 1354. In 1358 the Emperor Charles IV. was crowned at Rome by a 

 legate deputed by Pope Innocent for the purpose. Innocent died at 

 Avijmon, at an advanced age, in 1362. 



INNOCENT VII., CARDINAL COSMO DE' MIGLIORATI, of Sulmona, 

 was elected at Rome, after the death of Boniface IX., in 1403. Thia 

 was the period of what is called " the Grout Western Schism," when there 

 were two and sometimes three rival popes, each acknowledged by a part 

 of Europe. Innocent's rival was Benedict XIII., who held hiscourtat 

 Avignon. [BENEDICT, AHTIPOPB.] After the election of Innocent a 

 tumult broke out in Rome, excited by the Colonna and by Ladislaus, 

 king of Naples, which obliged the pope to escape to Viterbo. Ladis- 

 lu however failed in his attempt upon Rome ; and Innocent having 

 returned to his capital, excommunicated him. Innocent died at the 

 end of 1406, after having made his peace with Ladislaus. 



INNOCENT VIII., CARDINAL GIOVAKMI BATTISTA CIBO, of Genoa, 

 succeeded Bixtns IV. in 1485. He favoured the revolted Neapolitan 

 barons against Ferdinand I. of Naples, in consequence of which the 

 troop* of Ferdinand ravaged the territory of Rome, but through the 

 mediation of Lorenzo de' Medici and of the Duke Sforza of Milan, 

 peace was re-established between the two parties. Pierre d'Aubusson, 

 grand-master of the order of St. John of Rhodes, having sent to Rome 

 Xizirn, brother of Bayazid sultan of the Turks, who had run away 

 from hi* brother, and who was considered as an important hostage, 

 the pope received him with great honour, but took care to secure his 

 p* rson. It was also during this pontificate that Giovanni de' Medici, 



son of Lorenzo, and afterwards Pope Leo X., was made cardinal 

 when only fourteen years of age. Innocent died in 1491, and was 

 succeeded by Alexander VI. He enriched his natural sons ; and the 

 family of Cibo, which waa already possessed of the duchy of Massa, 

 became by a marriage alliance with the family of Malaspina possessed 

 also of that of Carrara, which their descendants have retained till 

 within our times. 



INNOCENT IX., GIOVANNI ANTONIO FACCHINETTI, of Bologna, a 

 man of learning and piety, was elected after the death of Gregory XIV., 

 in October 1591. He died two months after his election, and was 

 succeeded by Clement VIII. 



INNOCENT X., CARDINAL GIOVANNI BATTISTA PANFILI, was 

 elected in September 1644, after the death of Urban VIII. He was 

 then seventy-three years of age, and is said to have been in great 

 measure ruled by his sister-in-law Donna Olimpia Maidalchiui Panfili, 

 who appears to have been an unprincipled woman, very fond of money, 

 and of aggrandizing her relatives. Innocent however displayed in. 

 several instances much firmness, justice and prudence, and a wish to 

 protect the humble and poor against the oppressions of the great. 

 He diminished the taxes, and at the same time embellished Rome. 

 The people of Fermo on the Adriatic revolted against their governor, 

 being excited by the local nobility and landholders, who were irritated 

 against him for having by an edict of anuona kept the price of corn 

 low ; the governor and other official persons were murdered. Inno- 

 cent sent a commissioner with troops, and the guilty, without dis- 

 tinction of rank, were punished, some being executed, and others 

 sent to the galleys. The district of Castro and Ronciglione, near 

 Rome, was still in possession of the Farnese dukea of Parma, not- 

 withstanding the efforts of Urban VIII. to wrest it from them. 

 Disputes about jurisdiction were continually taking place between 

 the officers of the duke and those of the pope. Innocent having con- 

 secrated a new bishop of Castro who was not acceptable to the duke, 

 the latter forbade him entering his territories, and as the bishop 

 elect persisted, he was murdered on the road. The pope imme- 

 diately sent troops to attack Castro, which being taken, he ordered 

 the town to be razed to the foundations, and a pillar erected on the 

 site, with the inscription "Qui fu Castro." The episcopal see waa 

 removed to Acquapendente, and the duchy was reunited to the papal 

 state. Innocent died in 1655, and was succeeded by Alexander VII. 



INNOCENT XI., CARDINAL BENEDETTO ODESCALCHI, of Como, suc- 

 ceeded Clement X. in 1676. It is said that he had been a soldier in 

 his younger years, though this has been denied by others. (Count 

 Torre Rezzonico, ' De Suppositis Militaribus Stipendiis Benedetto 

 Odescalchi.') He was a man of great firmness and courage, austere iu 

 his morals, and inflexible in his resolutions. He took pains to reduce 

 the pomp and luxury of his court, and to suppress abuses ; he was free 

 from the weakness of nepotism, and his own nephew lived at Rome 

 under his pontificate in a private condition : but his austerity made 

 him many enemies, and his dislike of the then very powerful Jesuits 

 still more. The principal event of his pontificate was his quarrel with 

 the imperious Louis XIV. of France, on the subject of the immunities 

 enjoyed by the foreign ambassadors at Rome. As this incident 

 exhibits in a singular light the character of the times, it may deserve 

 a few words of explanation. By an old usage or prescription the 

 foreign ambassadors at Rome had the right of asylum, not only iu 

 their vast palaces, but also in a certain district or boundary around 

 them, including sometimes a whole street or square, which the officers 

 of justice or police could not enter, and where consequently malefactors 

 and dissolute persons found a ready shelter. These ' quartierl,' or free 

 districts, were likewise places for the sale of contraband articles, and 

 for defrauding the revenue. This abuse had become contagious ; 

 several of the Roman princes and cardinals claimed and enforced the 

 same rights and immunities, so that only a small part of the city wag 

 left under the sway of the magistrates. The classical advocates for 

 this absurd custom quoted the example of Romulus, who made his 

 new town a place of refuge for all the lawless persons of the neigh- 

 bourhood. Innocent determined to put a stop to the abuse, and to be 

 master in his own capital ; he however proceeded at first calmly and 

 with sufficient caution. He would not disturb the present possessors 

 of those immunities, but he declared and made it officially known that 

 in future he should not give audience to any new ambassador who did 

 not renounce for himself and his successors all claim to the district 

 immunities. Spain, Venice, and other states demurred at this very 

 reasonable determination ; but the death of the Marcchal d'Estre'es, 

 ambassador of France, brought the question to a crisis. Innocent 

 repeated in a bull, dated May 16S7, his previous resolve. Louis XIV. 

 appointed to the embassy the Marquis of Lavardin, and told him " to 

 maintain at Rome the rights and the dignity of France;" and in order 

 to support this dignity he gave him a numerous retinue of military 

 and naval officers, who were to frighten the pope in his own capital. 

 Lavardin's entrance into Rome, under such an escort, resembled 

 that of a hostile commander. He had also been preceded by several 

 hundred reduced French officers, who had entered Rome as private 

 travellers, but who took their quarters near the ambassador's palace, 

 ready for any mischief. Innocent however remained firm ; he refused 

 to receive the new ambassador, and all the anger of Louis, who seized 

 upon Avignon and threatened to send a fleet with troops on the Roman 

 coast, had no effect upon him. Lavardin, having remained eighteen 



