RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Innocent VHI-XI
which he made was the condemnation of the five propositions from Jansen's Augustinus (May 30, 1653; cf. Mirbt, Quellen, pp. 296-296; see Jansen, Cornelius, Jansenism).
Decision and firmness in carrying through what he undertook can not be denied to Innocent; he was also energetic, and strove earnestly for order and quiet in Rome. But the chronic deficit in the treasury after Donna Olimpia's needs were supplied frustrated his efforts. The same needs led, at least in part, to the preaching of jubilee indulgences in 1650, and to the suppression of a number of monasteries, though the latter step was justified, as the monks no longer observed their rules and failed to perform their spiritual duties. In his last years Innocent suffered deeper and deeper humiliation from the constantly growing arrogance and avarice of Donna Olimpia, still displayed after his death, on Jan. 7, 1655, when she refused to provide for his funeral on the ground that, as a poor widow, she had not the means. K. Beneath.
Bibliography: Rosstauscher, Hist. Innocentis X., Wittenberg, 1674; I. Giampi, Innocenzo X. Pamfili e la sua corte- Rome, 1878; A. von Reumont, Geschichte der Stadt Rom, iii. 2, pp. 623, Berlin, 1870; M. Brosch, Geschichte des Kirchenslaates, i. 409 sqq., Gotha, 1880; J. Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire, pp. 236, 392, New York, 1904; Cambridge Modern History, iv. 402, 415, 529, 600, 687-688, New York, 1906; Mirbt, Quellen, pp. 202-203; Ranke, Popes, ii. 322 et passim; Bower, Popes, iii. 330; and the literature under Jansenism.
Innocent XI. (Benedetto Odescalchi): Pope 1676-89. He was born at Como May 16, 1611, was educated by the Jesuits in his native city, and then studied law in Rome and Naples. He entered the Curia under Urban VIII. and was made cardinal by Innocent X. He won general respect at Rome by his simplicity of life, his uprightness, and his benevolence. As bishop of Novara in 1650 he applied the entire income of the see to the care of the: sick and needy. Compelled to return to Rome by ill health, he distinguished himself among his colleagues of the college of cardinals by his fidelity to duty and his incorruptibility. After a vacancy of two months he succeeded Clement X. on Sept. 21, 1676, being chosen in accordance with the clearly expressed wish of the people of Rome and in spite of the opposition of Louis XIV. of France. Seldom has a pope taken in hand the work of reform with greater decision or more fruitful results. His first, task was to regulate the finances, and in a short time he changed a deficit in the treasury into a surplus by strict economy, by cutting off sinecures, and by refraining from nepotism. He exacted similar frugality from the higher clergy and required bishops to reside in their dioceses. A congregation of cardinals was charged with the duty of inquiring into the moral and scholastic qualifications of prospective bishops. He admonished the lower clergy to adapt their preaching to the needs of the people, and not to neglect the training of the young.
In 1679 Innocent condemned as " propositions of lax moralists" certain theses questionable on religious and moral grounds mostly taken from the writings of Escobar, Suarez, Busenbaum, and other Jesuits, and later he protected Tyrso Gonzalez in his attack upon Probabilism (q.v.), and even
secured his election as general of the Jesuits. The powerful order never forgave him for his judgments, and in the quietistic controversy he was compelled to make some concessions. His sympathies at first were on the side of Molinos (q.v.), but in the end he condemned quietism because of danger to the ecclesiastical organization. He was less complaisant in controversies with Louis XIV. of France (see Regale). After the promulgation of the four articles of Gallicanism, Innocent refused all episcopal consecrations for France; and he was only transiently appeased by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1686. A new source of controversy was soon added. The pope wished the ambassadors of the powers in Rome to relinquish the right of giving shelter to those condemned by Roman justice; the emperor, Spain, Poland, and Sweden complied, but Venice recalled its representative from Rome, and Louis XIV. provided a wellarmed force of 800 men to maintain the right of franchise of his ambassador. Innocent put the ambassador under the ban and a rupture of diplomatic relations ensued. The king took Avignon from the pope, and when, in 1688, a French envoy came to Rome to treat concerning the appointment of an archbishop for Cologne, Innocent would not even grant an audience. Louis even contemplated putting a patriarch independent of the pope at the head of the French Church. Innocent acquiesced in an attempt at mediation by James II. of England, but there is ground for the suspicion that he did so only because he foresaw that it would be fruitless. He strongly disapproved of the efforts of James to restore Roman Catholicism in England by ill-advised and too precipitate measures, and when the Earl of Castlemaine appeared in Rome as envoy of James to treat in the matter, the pope received him politely, but brought the interview to an end by severe fits of coughing, and intimated to the envoy that the early morning was the best time to travel in the climate of Rome. The fall of James was not unwelcome in Rome. To no land did Innocent render greater services than to Austria. At his entreaties the German princes and John Sobieski of Poland hurried to the relief of Vienna when besieged by the Turks in 1683, and his zeal brought about later the alliance of the emperor, Venice, and Poland against the crescent. He lived to see Hungary freed from the Turkish yoke, and the capture of Belgrade.
Innocent asserted the rights of the Church with energy, moderation, and dignity. He is to be accorded the praise of an enlightened mind, of one who strove to execute large plans and attain lofty aims by honorable means. Ranke says of him: " The papacy appears in him in its most estimable character, mediating, and laying the foundations of peace." K. Beneath.
Bibliography: Innocent's decrees concerning the suppression of an office of the Immaculate Conception appeared in English, Oxford, 1679; and his Epistolos, ad principes, ed. I. I. Berthier, 2 vols., Rome, 1891-95. Consult: Vita d'Innocenzo XI., Venice, 1690; A. von Reumont, Geschichte der Stadt Rom., iii. 2, pp. 636 sqq., Berlin, 1870; C. Ge"rin, in Revue des questions historigues, Oct., 1874; idem, Oct., 1876 (on the pope and the English Revolution); idem, Le Pape Innocent XI. et la revocation de Vedit de Nantes, ib., Oct., 1878; M. Brosch, Geschichte des Kirchen-
innocent XII-XIII