INNOCENT V., pope from January 20 to June 22,1276, was a native of Tarantasia in Burgundy, where he was born in 1225. In early life he joined the Dominican order, in which he acquired great fame as a preacher. The only noteworthy feature of his brief and uneventful pontificate was the practical form assumed by his desire for union with the Eastern Church. He was proceeding to send legates to the Greek emperor in connexion with the recent decisions of the council of Lyons when he died. He was the author of several works in philosophy, theology, and canon law, including commentaries on the Pauline epistles and on the Sentences of Peter of Lombardy, and is sometimes referred to as “famosissimus doctor.” His predecessor was Gregory X., and he was succeeded by Hadrian V.

INNOCENT VI., Stephen Aubert, pope at Avignon from 1352 to 1362, the successor of Clement VI., was a native of the diocese of Limoges, and, after having taught civil law at Toulouse, became bishop successively of Noyon and of Clermont. In 1342 he was raised to the dignity of cardinal. On the death of Clement VI., after the cardinals had each bound himself by a solemn agreement as to a particular line of policy should he be elected, Aubert was chosen (December 18, 1352); one of the first acts of his pontificate was to declare the paction to have been illegal and null. His subsequent policy compares favourably with that of the other Avignon popes. He brought about many needed reforms in the administration of church affairs, and by his legate, Cardinal Albornoz, who was accompanied by Rienzi, he sought to restore order in Rome, where in 1355 Charles IV. was with his permission crowned, after having previously come under an oath that he would quit the city on the day of the ceremony. It was largely through the exertions of Innocent that the peace of Bretigny (1360) between France and England was brought about. During this pontificate also John Palaeologus offered to submit the Greek Church to the Roman see on condition of assistance being rendered him against John Cantacuzenus. The resources at the disposal of the pope, however, were all required for exigencies nearer home, and the offer was declined. Innocent was a liberal patron of letters, and, if the extreme severity of his measures against the Fraticelli be kept out of account, had a deservedly high reputation for justice and mercy. He died September 12, 1362, and his successor was Urban V.

INNOCENT VII., Cosimo de Migliorati, pope from 1404 to 1406, was a native of Solmona in the Abruzzi, and early distinguished himself by his learning both in civil and in canon law. By Urban VI. he was called to the papal court, and entrusted with various responsible offices, being finally promoted to the archbishopric of Ravenna, and afterwards to the bishopric of Bologna. Boniface IX. made him cardinal, and employed him as legate in several delicate and important missions. On the death of Boniface, Migliorati was unanimously chosen (October 17, 1404) to succeed him, after each of the cardinals had bound himself by a solemn obligation to employ all lawful means for the restoration of the church’s unity in the event of his election, and even to resign the papal dignity should that be considered necessary to this end. The election was resisted at Rome by the Ghibelline party, but peace was maintained by the aid of Ladislaus of Naples, who thus laid Innocent under embarrassing obligations, from which he freed himself at the earliest possible moment. The assassination of some leading members of the city party by Ludovico Migliorati (a nephew of Innocent) and his friends compelled the pope to take refuge, in August 1405, at Viterbo, whence he did not return until January of the following year. These troubles furnished him with a pretext, of which he was not unwilling to avail himself, for postponing the meeting of a general council which was urged by Charles of France, the university of Paris, Rupert of Germany, and John of Castile, as the only means of healing the schism which had prevailed so long. It is hardly necessary to say that he showed no favour to the proposal that he as well as the antipope Benedict XIII. should resign in the interests of peace. He died somewhat ...

INNOCENT VIII., Giovanni Battista Cibo, pope from 1484 to 1492, was born at Genoa (1432), and was the son of a man of senatorial rank. His early years were spent at the Neapolitan court, and subsequently he went to Padua and Rome for his education. In the latter city the influence of his friends procured for him, from Paul II., the bishopric of Savona, and in 1473 he was made cardinal by Sixtus IV., whom he succeeded on August 29, 1484. Shortly after his coronation he addressed a fruitless summons to Christendom to unite in a crusade against the infidels; the amount of his own zeal may in some degree be estimated from the fact that in 1489, in consideration of a yearly sum of 40,000 ducats and a gift of the spearhead which had pierced the Saviour’s side, he consented to favour the sultan Bajazet II. by detaining his fugitive brother in close confinement in the Vatican. In I486 Henry VII. of England was declared to be the lawful holder of the English crown by the threefold right of conquest, inheritance, and popular choice. Innocent, in his bull “Summis desiderantes” (5th December 1484), instigated very severe measures against magicians and witches in Germany; the principles enunciated by him were afterwards embodied in the Malleus maleficarum (1487). He it was also who in 1487 appointed Torquemada to be grand inquisitor of Spain; he also urged a crusade against the Waldensians, offering plenary indulgence to all who should engage in it. In 1486 he prohibited, on pain of severe ecclesiastical censures, the reading of the nine hundred propositions of Pico Mirandola. An important event of his pontificate was the fall of Granada (January 1492), which was celebrated in the Vatican with great rejoicings. He died July 25, 1492, leaving behind him numerous children ...