No. 76.
POPE INNOCENT XI.
After Rubens.
BORN 1611, ELECTED 1676, DIED 1689.
BENEDETTO, of the noble House of Odescalchi, of Como, went to Rome, and on to Naples, when about twenty-five years of age, with no possessions save the weapons which he required for the military profession he had chosen. But a Cardinal, with whom he became acquainted, dissuaded him from becoming a soldier, and on his return to Rome Odescalchi entered on the career of the ‘Curia,’ where he was soon distinguished for zeal and ability, and gradually rose to elevation in several public offices. In 1645 he obtained the Cardinal’s Hat, and the Bishopric of Novara, a step which his enemies unjustly attributed to the influence of the celebrated Donna Olympia, for Odescalchi was ever remarkable for the morality, and even austerity, of his life.
He became so popular in Rome, that when the Conclave was sitting, a large concourse assembled under the portico of St. Peter’s, and shouted out his name; and the election of Innocent XI. to the Papal Chair gave very general satisfaction.
The new Pontiff, upright and conscientious by nature, first turned his thoughts to financial reform. He reduced the annual expenditure, inquired into all the abuses of Government sinecures, and though he had a worthy kinsman to whom he was much attached, he eschewed nepotism; he also watched over the state of the money market, and after the lapse of a few years, his efforts were rewarded by a great increase of the public revenue. Innocent showed himself a firm opponent of Louis XIV., when that King encroached, as His Holiness deemed, on spiritual privileges. He embraced the cause of the Jansenist priests who had fallen under the displeasure of the ‘Grand Monarque’ for withstanding some of the decrees they considered arbitrary, more especially on the long-vexed question of the ‘Regale.’ They appealed to the Pope, who wrote once, and yet twice, to the King on the subject, admonishing him not to listen to flatterers, and not to lay hands on the immunities of the Church, lest by so doing, he should ‘dry up the fountains of divine grace from his kingdom.’
Finding his homilies of no avail, Innocent spoke out more boldly still, assuring Louis that he ‘would suffer no storm nor danger to appal him, but would use every resource of that power he held at the hands of God’ to resist his injustice. But so completely were the mass of the French clergy enslaved by His Majesty that the Prince de Condé was used to say that if Louis chose to go over to the Protestant faith, the priests would be the first to follow him. Therefore they feared to stand by the Pope, who had defended their rights so zealously, and the ‘Declarations’ that were published from year to year increased and strengthened the royal authority in spiritual concerns.
This was especially manifest in the Articles of the Convocation of 1682; but the Pope was not easily disheartened. To those members of the Declaration whom Louis had preferred before all other candidates for Episcopal offices, Innocent denied spiritual institution. They might indeed receive the revenues of the sees, but ordination was refused them, neither could they exercise one spiritual act of their office.