 Born
at Como, 16 May, 1611; died at Rome, 11 August, 1689. He
was educated by the Jesuits at Como, and studied
jurisprudence at Rome and Naples. Urban VIII appointed
him successively prothonotary, president of the
Apostolic Camera, commissary at Ancona, administrator of
Macerata, and Governor of Picena. Innocent X made him
Cardinal-Deacon of Santi Cosma e Damiano on 6 March,
1645, and, somewhat later, Cardinal-Priest of Sant'
Onofrio. As cardinal he was beloved by all on account of
his deep piety, charity, and unselfish devotion to duty.
When he was sent as legate to Ferrara in order to assist
the people stricken with a severe famine, the pope
introduced him to the people of Ferrara as the "father
of the poor", "Mittimus patrem pauperum". In 1650 he
became Bishop of Novara, in which capacity he spent all
the revenues of his see to relieve the poor and sick in
his diocese. With the permission of the pope he resigned
as Bishop of Novara in favour of his brother Giulio in
1656 and went to Rome, where he took a prominent part in
the consultations of the various congregations of which
he was a member.
He was a strong candidate for the papacy after the
death of Clement IX on 9 December, 1669, but the French
Government rejected him. After the death of Clement X,
King Louis XIV of France again intended to use his royal
influence against the election of Odescalchi, but,
seeing that the cardinals as well as the Roman people
were of one mind in their desire to have Odescalchi as
their pope, he reluctantly instructed the cardinals of
the French party to acquiesce in his candidacy. After an
interregnum of two months, Odescalchi was unanimously
elected pope on 21 September, 1676, and took the name of
Innocent XI. Immediately upon his accession he turned
all his efforts towards reducing the expenses of the
Curia. He passed strict ordinances against nepotism
among the cardinals. He lived very parsimoniously and
exhorted the cardinals to do the same. In this manner he
not only squared the annual deficit which at his
accession had reached the sum of 170,000 scudi,
but within a few years the papal income was even in
excess of the expenditures.
The whole pontificate of Innocent XI is marked by a
continuous struggle with the absolutism of King Louis
XIV of France. As early as 1673 the king had by his own
power extended the right of the régale over the
provinces of Languedoc, Guyenne, Provence, and Dauphiné,
where it had previously not been exercised, although the
Council of Lyons in 1274 had forbidden under pain of
excommunication to extend the régale beyond those
districts where it was then in force. Bishops Pavillon
of Alet and Caulet of Pamiers protested against this
royal encroachment and in consequence they were
persecuted by the king. All the efforts of Innocent XI
to induce King Louis to respect the rights of the Church
were useless. In 1682, Louis XIV convoked an Assembly of
the French Clergy which, on 19 March, adopted the four
famous articles, known as "Déclaration du clergé
français". Innocent annulled the four articles in his
rescript of 11 April, 1682, and refused his approbation
to all future episcopal candidates who had taken part in
the assembly. To appease the pope, Louis XIV began to
pose as a zealot of Catholicism.
In 1685 he revoked the Edict of Nantes and
inaugurated a cruel persecution of the Protestants.
Innocent XI expressed his displeasure at these drastic
measures and continued to withhold his approbation from
the episcopal candidates as he had done heretofore. He
irritated the king still more by abolishing the much
abused "right of asylum" in a decree dated 7 May, 1685.
By force of this right the foreign ambassadors at Rome
had been able to harbour in their palaces and the
immediate neighbourhood any criminal that was wanted by
the papal court of justice. Innocent XI notified the new
French ambassador, Marquis de Lavardin, that he would
not be recognized as ambassador in Rome unless he
renounced this right. But Louis XIV would not give it
up. At the head of an armed force of about 800 men
Lavardin entered Rome in November, 1687, and took
forcible possession of his palace. Innocent XI treated
him as excommunicated and placed under interdict the
church of St. Louis at Rome where he attended services
on 24 December, 1687.
The tension between the pope and the king was still
increased by the pope's procedure in filling the vacant
archiepiscopal See of Cologne. The two candidates for
the see were Cardinal Wilhelm Fürstenberg, then Bishop
of Strasburg, and Joseph Clement, a brother of Max
Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria. The former was a willing
tool in the hands of Louis XIV, and his appointment as
Archbishop and Elector of Cologne would have implied
French preponderance in north-western Germany. Joseph
Clement was not only the candidate of Emperor Leopold I
of Austria but of all European rulers, with the
exception of the King of France and his servile
supporter, King James II of England. At the election,
which took place on 19 July, 1688, neither of the
candidates received the required number of votes. The
decision, therefore, fell to the pope, who designated
Joseph Clement as Archbishop and Elector of Cologne.
Louis XIV retaliated by taking possession of the papal
territory of Avignon, imprisoning the papal nuncio and
appealing to a general council. Nor did he conceal his
intention to separate the French Church entirely from
Rome. But the pope remained firm. The subsequent fall of
James II of England destroyed French preponderance in
Europe and soon after Innocent's death the struggle
between Louis XIV and the papacy was settled in favour
of the Church. Innocent XI did not approve the imprudent
manner in which James II attempted to restore
Catholicism in England. He also repeatedly expressed his
displeasure at the support which James II gave to the
autocratic King Louis XIV in his measures hostile to the
Church. It is, therefore, not surprising that Innocent
XI had little sympathy for the Catholic King of England,
and that he did not assist him in his hour of trial.
There is, however, no ground for the accusation that
Innocent XI was informed of the designs which William of
Orange had upon England, much less that he supported him
in the overthrow of James II. It was due to Innocent's
earnest and incessant exhortations that the German
Estates and King John Sobieski of Poland in 1683
hastened to the relief of Vienna which was being
besieged by the Turks. After the siege was raised,
Innocent again spared no efforts to induce the Christian
princes to lend a helping hand for the expulsion of the
Turks from Hungary. He contributed millions of scudi
to the Turkish war fund in Austria and Hungary and had
the satisfaction of surviving the capture of Belgrade, 6
Sept., 1688.
Innocent XI was no less intent on preserving the
purity of faith and morals among the clergy and the
faithful. He insisted on a thorough education and an
exemplary life of the clergy, reformed the monasteries
of Rome, passed strict ordinances concerning the modesty
of dress among Roman ladies, put an end to the ever
increasing passion for gambling by suppressing the
gambling houses at Rome and by a decree of 12 February,
1679, encouraged frequent and even daily Communion. In
his Bull "Sanctissimnus Dominus", issued on 2 March,
1679, he condemned sixty-five propositions which
favoured laxism in moral theology, and in a decree,
dated 26 June, 1680, he defended the Probabiliorism of
Thyrsus González, S.J. This decree (see authentic text
in "Etudes religieuses", XCI, Paris, 1902, 847 sq.) gave
rise to the controversy, whether Innocent XI intended it
as a condemnation of Probabilism. The Redemptorist
Francis Ter Haar, in his work: "Ben. Innocentii PP. XI
de probabilismo decreti historia" (Tournai, 1904), holds
that the decree is opposed to Probabilism, while August
Lehmkuhl, S.J., in his treatise: "Probabilismus
vindicatus" (Freiburg, 1906), 78-111, defends the
opposite opinion. In a decree of 28 August, 1687, and in
the Constitution "Cœlestis Pastor" of 19 November, 1687,
Innocent XI condemned sixty-eight Quietistic
propositions of Miguel de Molinos. Towards the
Jansenists Innocent XI was lenient, though he by no
means espoused their doctrines.
The process of his beatification was introduced by
Benedict XIV and continued by Clement XI and Clement
XII, but French influence and the accusation of
Jansenism caused it to be dropped.
His "Epistolæ ad Principes" were published by
Berthier (2 vols., Rome, 1891-5), and his "Epistolæ ad
Pontifices", by Bonamico (Rome, 1891). |
