INNOCENT X., Giovanni Battista Pamphili, pope from 1644 to 1655, was born at Rome in 1574, attained the dignity of cardinal in 1629, and through French influence Was chosen to succeed Urban VIII. on September 15,1644. Throughout his reign the influence exercised over him by Olympia Maidalchina, his deceased brother’s wife, was very great, and such as to give rise to gross scandal, for which, however, there appears to have been no adequate ground. He naturally enough objected to the conclusion of the peace of Westphalia, against which his nuncio in his name vainly protested, and against which he issued the bull “Zelo domus Dei” in November 1648. The most important of his doctrinal decisions was his condemnation of the five Jansenist propositions in 1653. The avarice of his female counsellor gave to his reign a tone of oppression and sordid greed which probably it would not otherwise have shown, for personally he was not without noble and reforming impulses. He died January 5, 1655, and was succeeded by Alexander VII.

INNOCENT XI., Benedetto Odescalchi, pope from 1676 to 1689, was born at Como in 1611, studied law at Rome and Naples, held successively the offices of protonotary, president of the apostolic chamber, commissary of the Marca di Roma, and governor of Macerata; in 1647 Innocent X. made him cardinal, and he afterwards successively became legate to Ferrara and bishop of Novara. In all these capacities the simplicity and purity of character which he displayed had combined with his unselfish and openhanded benevolence to secure for him a high place in the popular affection and esteem; and two months after the death of Clement X. he was (September 21, 1676), in spite of French opposition, chosen his successor. He lost no time in declaring and practically manifesting his zeal as a reformer of manners and a corrector of administrative abuses. He sought to abolish sinecures and to put the papal finances otherwise on a sound footing; beginning with the clergy, he sought to raise the laity also to a higher moral standard of living. Some of his regulations with the latter object, however, may raise a smile as showing more zeal than judgment. In 1679 he publicly condemned sixty-five propositions, taken chiefly from the writings of Escobar, Suarez, and the like, as “propositiones laxorum moralistarum,” and forbade any one to teach them under penalty of excommunication. Personally not unfriendly to Molinos, he nevertheless so far yielded to the enormous pressure brought to bear upon him as to confirm in 1687 the judgment of the inquisitors by which sixty-eight Molinist propositions were condemned as blasphemous and heretical. His pontificate was marked by the prolonged struggle with Louis XIV. of France on the subject of the so-called “Gallican Liberties,” and also about certain ...

INNOCENT XII., Antonio Pignatelli, pope from 1691 to 1700, was the successor of Alexander VIII. He came of a distinguished Neapolitan family, and was born March 13, 1615. Educated at the Jesuit college in Rome, he in his twentieth year became an official of the court of Urban VIII.; under successive popes he served as nuncio at Florence and Vienna and in Poland; and by Innocent XI. he was made cardinal (1681) and archbishop of Naples. Immediately after his election (July 12, 1691) he declared against the nepotism which had too much and too long been one of the greatest scandals of the papacy; the bull “Romanum decet Pontificem,” issued in 1692, prohibited popes in all times coming from bestowing estates, offices, or revenues on any relative; at the same time he sought to check thé simoniacal practices of the apostolic chamber, and in connexion with this to introduce a simpler and more economical manner of life into his court. He introduced various much-needed reforms into the States of the Church, and for the better administration of justice erected the Forum Innocentianum. In 1693 he compelled the French bishops to retract the four propositions relating to the “Gallican Liberties” which had been formulated by the assembly of 1682. In 1699 he decided in favour of Bossuet in his controversy with Fénelon about the Explication des Maximes des Saints sur la Vie Intérieure of the latter. His pontificate contrasted with that of a series of predecessors in having marked leanings towards France instead of Germany. This benevolent, self-abnegating, and pious pope died on September 27, 1700, and was succeeded by Clement XI.

INNOCENT XIII., Michael Angelo Conti, pope from 1721 to 1724, was born in 1655, and became cardinal under Clement XI. in 1706. From 1697 to 1710 he acted as papal nuncio to the kingdom of Portugal, where he is believed to have formed those unfavourable impressions of the Jesuits which afterwards influenced his conduct towards them. In 1721 his high reputation for ability, learning, purity, and a kindly disposition secured his election to succeed Clement XI. His pontificate was prosperous, but comparatively uneventful. He prohibited the Jesuits from prosecuting their mission in China, and ordered that no new members should be received into the order. This indication of his sympathies encouraged some French bishops to approach him with a petition for the recall of the bull “Unigenitus” by which Jansenism had been condemned; the request, however, was peremptorily denied. Innocent XIII., like his predecessor, showed much favour to the English Pretender “James III.,” and liberally supported him. He died March 7, 1724, and was succeeded by Benedict XIII.