Pope Innocent XI

Infobox pope|English name=Innocent XI
Latin name=Innocens PP. XI


birth_name=Benedetto Odescalchi
term_start=September 21 1676
term_end=August 12 1689
predecessor=Clement X
successor=Alexander VIII
birth_date=birth date|1611|5|16|mf=y
birthplace=Como, Italy
dead=dead|death_date=death date and age|1689|8|12|1611|5|16|mf=y
deathplace= Rome, Italy
other=Innocent

Pope Innocent XI (May 16 1611 – August 12 1689), born Benedetto Odescalchi, was Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1676 to 1689.

Early life

He was born at Como in 1611, and was educated there by the Jesuits. He studied law at Rome and Naples, held successively the offices of protonotary apostolic, president of the apostolic chamber, commissary of the Marco di Roma, and governor of Macerata; in 1647, Pope Innocent X (1644–55) made him Cardinal Deacon with the title of "Santi Cosma e Damiano". He afterwards became legate to Ferrara. When he was sent 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." In 1650, Odescalchi 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. While there he took a prominent part in the consultations of the various congregations of which he was a member. In all these capacities, the simplicity and purity of character which he displayed combined with his unselfish and openhanded benevolence to secure for him a high place in the popular affection and esteem.Kelly, 287]

Papacy

Election

infobox popestyles
papal name=Pope Innocent XI
dipstyle=His Holiness
offstyle=Your Holiness
relstyle=Holy Father
deathstyle=Blessed|Odescalchi was a strong papal candidate after the death of Pope Clement IX (1667–69) in 1669, but the French government rejected him (making use of the now-abolished veto). After Pope Clement X (1670–76) died, Louis XIV of France (1643–1715) again intended to use his royal influence against Odescalchi's election. Instead, believing the cardinals as well as the Roman people were of one mind in their desire to have Odescalchi as their Pope, Louis reluctantly instructed the French party cardinals to acquiesce in his candidacy. On September 21 1676, Odescalchi was chosen Clement X's successor and took the name of Innocent XI.

Reforming the Vatican administration

Immediately upon his accession, Innocent XI 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. He lost no time in declaring and practically manifesting his zeal as a reformer of manners and a corrector of administrative abuses. Beginning with the clergy, he sought to raise the laity also to a higher moral standard of living. In 1679 he publicly condemned sixty-five propositions, taken chiefly from the writings of Escobar, Suarez and other casuists (mostly Jesuit casuists, who had been heavily attacked by Pascal in his "Provincial Letters") as "propositiones laxorum moralistarum" and forbade anyone to teach them under penalty of excommunication. He condemned in particular the most radical form of mental reservation ("stricte mentalis") which authorized deception without an outright lie.

Personally not unfriendly to Miguel de Molinos, Innocent XI nevertheless yielded to the enormous pressure brought to bear upon him to confirm in 1687 the judgement of the inquisitors by which sixty-eight quietist propositions of Molinos were condemned as blasphemous and heretical.

Encyclicals

*"Sollicitudo pastoralis" (Fostering and Preserving the Orders of Men Religious)
*"Coelestis Pastor" (Condemning the errors of Molinos)

Foreign relations

Innocent XI dispatched Ferdinando d'Adda as nuncio to the Kingdom of England, the first representative of the Church to go to that land in more than one hundred years. Even so, the Pope 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 are, however, no grounds for the accusation that Innocent XI was informed of the designs which William of Orange (1689–1702) had upon England, much less that he supported him in the overthrow of James II.Kelly, 288]

It was due to Innocent XI's earnest and incessant exhortations that the German Estates and King John III of Poland (1674–96) in 1683 hastened to the relief of Vienna which was being besieged by the Turks. After the siege was raised, Innocent XI 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, September 6 1688.

Relations with France

The whole pontificate of Innocent XI is marked by a continuous struggle with the absolutism of Louis XIV. 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. All the efforts of Innocent XI to induce Louis XIV to respect the rights of the Church were useless. In 1682, the King convoked an assembly of the French clergy which adopted the four famous articles, which became known as the Gallican Liberties. Innocent XI annulled the four articles on April 11 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 act as a zealot of Catholicism. In 1685 Louis XIV 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. He irritated the King still more that same year by abolishing the much abused right of asylum, by which the foreign ambassadors at Rome had been able to harbor in their embassies any criminal who 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 December 24 1687.

Cologne controversy

The tension between the Pope and the King of France was still increased by the Innocent XI's procedure in filling the vacant archiepiscopal see of Cologne. The two candidates for the see were Cardinal William Egon of Fürstenberg, then Bishop of Strasbourg, 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 Prince-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 (1658–1705) but of all European rulers, with the exception of the King of France and his supporter, King James II of England (1685–88). At the election, which took place on July 19 1688, neither of the candidates received the required number of votes. The decision, therefore, fell to Innocent XI, 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. The Pope remained firm. The subsequent fall of James II in England destroyed French preponderance in Europe and soon after Innocent XI's death (1689) the struggle between Louis XIV and the papacy was settled in favour of the Church.

Death and beatification

Innocent XI died after a long period of ill health on August 12, 1689.

The case for his canonization was introduced in 1714 but the influence of France forced it to be suspended in 1744. In the 20th century it was reintroduced, and Pope Pius XII (1939–58) announced his beatification on October 7 1956.

The feast day of Pope Innocent XI is August 12.

The first incorrupt body of a Pope?

Innocent XI, when exhumed from his tomb for beatification, was reportedly surprisingly well preserved.Fact|date=September 2007 Today his body lies with the bodies of Pope St Pius X (1903–14) and Pope John XXIII (1958–63) at the Vatican. The face and hands are lined with silver coating. His monument (1697-1704) in Saint Peter's was designed and sculpted by Pierre-Étienne Monnot.

Writings about Pope Innocent XI

Rita Monaldi and Francesco Sorti, in their novel "Imprimatur" (2002), cast a different and more controversial light on that Pope, building a case against his canonization. They depict a selfish politician, betraying the Roman Catholic Church's interests in the hope of recovering a personal debt. Although the book does not pretend to be of scholarly value, an appendix of various notes and documents spanning about forty pages at the end of the text allows a critical review of the authors' researches.

Notes

References

* Kelly, J.N.D., "The Oxford History of the Popes", Oxford University Press, 1986. ISBN 0192820850.