FAMOUS
MEMBERS
Pope Innocent XII
(ANTONIO
PIGNATELLI)
Born at Spinazzolo near Naples, 13 March 1615 , from Francesco Pignatelli
, II Marchese di Spinazzola and Porzia Carafa Princess of Minervinio daught
of Fabrizio Carafa Duc of Andria and Maria Carafa of the Princes of Stigliano;
died at Rome, 27 September, 1700.
Re entered the Roman Curia at the age of twenty and was successively made
vice-legate at Urbino, inquisitor in Malta, and Governor of Perugia.
Under Innocent X he became nuncio in Tuscany, and Alexander VII sent him as
nuncio to Poland, where he regulated the disturbed ecclesiastical affairs
and united the Armenians with Rome. In 1668 he became nuncio at Vienna.
Innocent XI created him Cardinal-Priest of San Pancrazio fuori le mura and
Bishop of Faenza on 1 September, 1682, then Archbishop of Naples in 1687.
After
the death of Alexander VIII the cardinals entered the conclave at Rome on
11 February, 1691, but neither the French nor the Spanish-Hapsburg faction
among the cardinals could carry its candidate.
A compromise resulted in the election of Cardinal Pignatelli on 12 July, 1691.
In his Bull "Romanum decet Pontificem" (22 June, 1692), which was subscribed and sworn to by the cardinals, he decreed that in the future no pope should be permitted to bestow the cardinalate on more than one of his kinsmen.
Towards
the poor, whom he called his nephews, he was extremely charitable; he turned
part of the Lateran into a hospital for the needy, erected numerous charitable
and educational institutions, and completed the large court-house "Curia
Innocenziana", which now serves as the Italian House of Commons (Camera
dei Deputati).
In 1693 he induced King Louis XIV of France to repeal the "Declaration
of the French Clergy", which had been adopted in 1682. The bishops who
had taken part in the "Declaration" sent a written recantation to
Rome, whereupon the pope sent his Bull of confirmation to those bishops from
whom it had been withheld.
In 1696 he repeated his predecessor's condemnation of Jansenism and in his
Brief "Cum alias" (12 March, 1699) he condemned twenty-three semi-Quietistic
propositions contained in Fénelon's "Maximes".
Towards
the end of his pontificate his relations with Emperor Leopold I became somewhat
strained, owing especially to Count Martinitz, the imperial ambassador at
Rome, who still insisted on the "right of asylum", which had been
abolished by Innocent XI.
It was greatly due to the arrogance of Martinitz that Innocent XII advised
King Charles II of Spain to make a Frenchman, the Duke of Anjou, his testamentary
successor, an act which led to the "War of the Spanish Succession".