Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/50

 INNOCENT

INNOCENT

although Uie Council of Lyons in 1274 had forbidden under pain of excommunication to extend the regale beyond those districts where it was then in force. Bishops PavUlon of Alet and Caulet of Pamiers pro- tested against this royal encroachment and iii conse- quence they were persecuted by the king. All the efforts of Innocent XI to induce King Louis to respect the rights of the Church were useless. In 1682, Louis XIV convoked an Assembly of the French Clergy which, on 19 March, adopted the four famous articles, known as " Declaration du clerge fran^ais " (see Galli- CANisJi). Innocent annulled the four articles in his rescript of 11 April, 1682, and refused his approbation to all future episcopal candidates who had taken part in the assembly. To appease the ]Hi]ie, Louis XIV began to pose as a zealot of ( 'athulicisni. In 16n5 he revoked the Edict of Nantes and inaugurated a cruel persecution of the Protestants. Innocent XI ex- pressed his displeasure at these drastic measures and continued to withhold his approbation from the epis- copal candidates as he had done heretofore. He n-ri- tated the king still more by abolishing the much abused "right of asylum" in a decree dated 7 May, 1685. By force of this right the foreign ambas.sadors at Rome had been able to harliour in their palaces and the immediate neighboiu'hood any criminal that 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 am- bassador 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 po.ssession of his palace. Innocent XI treated liim as excom- municated and placed under interdict the church of St. Louis at Rome where he attended services on 24 December, 1687.

The tension between the pope and the king was stUl increased by the pope's procedure in filling the vacant archiepiscopal See of Cologne. The two candidates for the see were Cardinal Wilhelm Fiirstenberg, then Bishop of Strasburg, 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 ap- pointment as .\rchbishop and Elector of Cologne would have implied French preponderance in north-western Germany. JosephClement wasnotonly thecandidate of Emperor Leopold 1 (jf Austria but of all European rulers, with the excejit ion of the King of France and his servile supporter, King James II of England. At the election, which took place on 19 July, Ki.s.s. neither of the candidates received the required mmiber of \'otes. The decision, therefore, fell to the jiope, who ilesig- nated Joseph Clement as .Vrchliishop 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. But the pope remained firm. The subsequent fall of James II of England destroyed French preponderance in Europe and soon after Innocent's death the struggle between Louis XIV and the papacy was settled in favour of the Church. Innocent XI did not approve the imprudent manner in which James II attempted to restore Ca- tholicism 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 tliat Innocent XI had little sympathy for the Cat liolie King of England, an<l that he did not assist him in his hour of trial. There is, however, no ground for the accusa- tion that Innocent XI was informed of the designs which William of Orange had upon England, much less that he supported him in tlic overthrow of James II. It was due to linioccnt's earnest and incessant exhor- tations that the German Estates and King John Sobie-

ski of Poland in 1683 hastened to the relief of Vienna which was being besieged by the Turks. After the siege was raised. Innocent 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 ticudi to the Turkish war fund in Au.stria and Hungary and had the satisfaction of surviving the capture of Belgrade, 6 Sept., 1688.

Innocent XI was no less intent on preserving the purity of faith and morals among the clergy and the faithful. He insisted on a thorough education and an exemplary life of the clergj', reformed the monasteries of Rome, passed strict ordinances concerning the modesty of dress among Roman ladies, put an end to tlie ever increasing passion for gambling by suppress- ing the gambling houses at Rome and by a decree of 12February, 1679, encouraged frequentand even daily Communion. In his Bull "Sanctissimus Dominus", issued on 2 March, 1679, he condemned sixty-five propositions which favoured laxism in moral theology, and in a decree, dated 26 June, 1680, he defended the Probabiliorism of Thyrsus Gonzillez, S.J. This decree (seeauthentic text in " Etudes religieuses ", XCI, Paris, 1902, 847 sq.) gave rise to the controversy, whether Innocent XI intended it as a condemnation of Prob- abilism. The Redemptorist Francis Ter Haar, in his work: "Ben. Innocentii PP. XI de prl>abilismo de- ereti historia " (Tournai, 1904), holds that the decree is opposed to Probabilism, while August Lehmkuhl, S.J., in his treatise: "Probabilismus vindicatus" (Freiburg, 1906), 78-111, defends the opposite opin- ion. In a ilecree of 28 August, 1687, and in the Constitution "Cuelestis Pastor" of 19 November, 1687, InnocentXI condemned sixty-eight Quietistic proposi- tions (see Quietism) of Miguel de Molinos. Towards the Jansenists Innocent XI was lenient, though he by no means espoused their doctrines. 'The process of his beatification was introduced by Benedict XIV and continued by Clement XI and Clement XII, but French mfluenee and the accusation of Jansenism caused it to be dropped. His "Epistote ad Prin- cipes" were published by Berthier (2 vols., Rome, 1891-5), and his "Epistola; ad Pontifices", by Bo- namico (Rome, 1891).

Immich, Paps( Innocem XI. (Berlin, 1900); Michaud, Lom's XIV ei Innocent XI (4 vols., Paris, 1.SS2 — ) written from Galli- can standpoint; Gerin, Le Pape Innocent XI et la rt^olulion anglaise de 1688 in Revue des questions historiques, XX (Paris, 1S76); Idem, Le Pape Innocent XI et la Revocation de I' Edit de Nantes, ibidem, XXIV (1878); Idem, Le pape Innocent XI et V Election de Cologne en 1888, ibidem,XXXlU (1S83); Idem, Le Pape Innocent XI el le sitge de Vienne en 1683, ibidem, XXXIX (1S86); Fbaknoi, Papsl Innocem XI. und Ungarns Befreiung von derTitTkenherrsehajt, translated into Oerman from the Hungarian hy Jekei, (FreilnirK im Br.. 1902): GinssANl, II conclave di Innocemo XI iCcniin, 1901). A contemporary biog- raphy by LiPPi was ncwiv c.lilcl liv Berthier (Rome, 1889). See also'HoRVARTH iu ( ■,:!/,, .I„- 1 ■invrrsilu Bulletin. XV (Wash- ington, 1909), 42-64; cf. ibid., IX 1903, 281.

Michael Ott.

Innocent XII, Pope (.\ntonio Pignatelli), b. at Spinazzolo near Naples, 13 Mardi, 1615; d. at Rome, 27 September, 1700. He entered the Roman Curia at the age of twenty and was successively made vice- legate at Urbino, iniiuisitor in Malta, and Governor of Perugia. Under Innocent X he be- came mmcio in Tuscany, and .Alex- ander VII sent him as nuncio to Poland, where he regulated the dis- turbed ecclesiastical affairs and uni- ted the Arnu-niuiis with Rome. In 1668 he became nuncio at Vienna. Innocent XI created him Cardinal- Priest of San Pancrazio fuori le muTa and Bishop of Faenza on 1 September, 1682, then Archbishop .\rm of Naples in 1687. After the death of .\lexander VIII the cartlinals entered the conclave at Rome on 11 February, 1691, but neither the French