Innocent VII (cardinal Cosmo de' Migliorati. of Sulmona), who had been appointed archbishop of Ra- venna and bishop of Bologna by Urban VI. was elected by the Italian prelates as the successor of B(jniface IX in 1404. At this time " the great Western schism" agi- tated the Romish Church, the French cardinals support- ing a rival pope, Benedict XIII (q. v.), who held his court at Avignon, acknowledged by a part of Europe. 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. Ladislaus, however, failed in his attempt upon Rome ; and Innocent, having returned to his capital, excommu- nicated him. Innocent died Nov. 6, 140ti, after having made his peace with Ladislaus. Some think that he was poisoned. He is spoken of as a man who possessed great learning and virtue, and as governed by the purest motives in all his acts; hostile to all luxury, avari- ciousuess, and simony— evils which were one and all possessed by his rival Benedict, and bv liis own prede- IV.-P p
cessor Boniface (comp. Reichel, See of Rome in the Mid- dle Ages, p. 446 sii). Tlie charge which some lay to him that he did not keep the promise which he gave on his accession to the papal see that he would, if liis rival should be declared the proper incumbent, vacate the papal throne, seems not well founded. It is true Benedict proposed a conference for the alleged purpose of restoring peace and union to the Church of Rome, which Innocent did not agree to, but this was done be- cause Innocent knew that Benedict did not earnestly desire it. He wrote Oratio de Ecclesinsficn I'liionc; Approbatio regulce patrum et soi-orum di- jk iiilnitin or- dinis S. Domiuici; and a letter of his is ijublishetl by Ughelli, Italia Sacra, i, 1381. See Labbe, Concilia, xi, 2082 ; Fleury, Hist. Ecclesiastique, 1. xx, ch. xcix : Du- chesne, Ilist. des Papes, ii, 299; Sismondi, Histaire des Fran^ais, xii, 211 ; Maimbourg, ///'^Y. ihi iinuxl Sihl.^me d' Occident; Bruni d'Arezzo, Z'c /.'< //"s //'///' /x. and I'/iis- tolce Fumiliares; Herzog, Real-Encgklvp. vi, 671; Mos- heim, Ch. Hist. cent, xv, pt. ii, ch. ii ; Hefele, Concilien- geschichte, vi, 748 sq. ; Hoefer, A'o«r. Biog. Gener. xxv, 911 ; Neander, Hist, of the Christ. Religion and Church, V, 70, 247 ; Bower, History of the Popes, vii, 91 sq. (J. H.W.)
Innocent VIII (cardinal Giovanni Batfista Cibo), a Genoese of Greek descent, was during his youth in the service of Alfonso of Aragon, king of Naples, but subsequently entered the Church, Paul II giving him the bishopric of Savone. His conduct was disgracefully irregular : he had seven illegitimate children by differ- ent women, and was, besides, married ^vhen he took or- ders. At the death of Sixtus IV serious troubles broke out in Rome. The election was warmly contested, ajid among the chief agitators was chancellor Borgia, who afterwards attained an unenviable celebrity as Alexander VI ; but the manoeuvTres in favor of Cibo proved at last successful. Innocent had bought the tiara by means of benefices, legations, palaces, and large sums of moncj', and was elected Aug. 24, 1481. His first undertaking was to conciliate tlie Italian princes, and to reconcile to the papal see all those whom his predecessor had alien- ated. Frightened at the advance of Bajazct with his Turks, Innocent wrote to the Christian princes for help in men or money to resist the invasion. Immense sums were at once forwarded to Rome from tlivers countries ; but the pope, pretending that he could not act without the assistance of the German princes (who were then divided by the quarrels between jNIathias, king of Hun- gary, and emperor Frederick, Allicrt of Brandenburg and Otho of Bavaria, etc.). used the funds thus obtained to war against Ferdinand I, king of Naples, who refused to pay him the usual tribute. The pope favored the re- volted Neapolitan barons against Ferdinand I of Naples, in consequence of which the troops of Ferdinand rav- aged the territory of Rome; but through the mediation of Lorenzo de Jledici and of the duke Sforza of ^Milan, peace was re-established between the two parties. The Turks were still threatening war. Jem, in order to shun the enmity of his brother Bajazet, had fled to Rhodes, where he was seized by the grand master of the order of St. John, D'Aubusson, and delivered up to the pope in exchange for the cardinal's hat. The pope received Jem with great honor, but took care to secure his person, as he would be an important hostage. In this he was not mistaken, for Bajazet feared the power of his brother, and, to secure his throne, he sent an am- bassador to Rome to offer Innocent a large sum if he would keep Jem in prison. The pope accepted the dis- honorable bargain, although the sultan of Egypt, who desired Jem, as commander in chief of his forces, to march against Bajazet, offered, on condition of his re- lease, to restore Jerusalem to the Christians, and was even ready to pledge himself to surrender to the pope all the territory that should be taken from the Turks. Under Innocent's successor, the depraved Alexander VI, -Jem was poisoned by order of the pope (comp. Reichel, See of Rome in the Middle Ages, p. 530). 13ajazet, of