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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Pope Innocent XII</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08022a.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="Reigned 1691-1700"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="08022a.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/i.htm">I</a> > Pope Innocent XII</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Pope Innocent XII</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p>(ANTONIO PIGNATELLI)</p> <p>Born at Spinazzolo near <a href="../cathen/10683a.htm">Naples</a>, 13 March, 1615; died at <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, 27 September, 1700. Re entered the <a href="../cathen/13147a.htm">Roman Curia</a> at the age of twenty and was successively made vice-legate at <a href="../cathen/15221b.htm">Urbino</a>, inquisitor in <a href="../cathen/09574a.htm">Malta</a>, and Governor of <a href="../cathen/11736a.htm">Perugia</a>. Under <a href="../cathen/08020b.htm">Innocent X</a> he became <a href="../cathen/11160a.htm">nuncio</a> in <a href="../cathen/15103b.htm">Tuscany</a>, and <a href="../cathen/01294a.htm">Alexander VII</a> sent him as <a href="../cathen/11160a.htm">nuncio</a> to <a href="../cathen/12181a.htm">Poland</a>, where he regulated the disturbed <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> affairs and united the <a href="../cathen/01736b.htm">Armenians</a> with <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>. In 1668 he became <a href="../cathen/11160a.htm">nuncio</a> at <a href="../cathen/15417a.htm">Vienna</a>. <a href="../cathen/08021a.htm">Innocent XI</a> created him <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm#p">Cardinal-Priest</a> of San Pancrazio <em>fuori le mura</em> and <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/05751b.htm">Faenza</a> on 1 September, 1682, then <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/10683a.htm">Naples</a> in 1687. After the death of <a href="../cathen/01295a.htm">Alexander VIII</a> the <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinals</a> entered the <a href="../cathen/04192a.htm">conclave</a> at <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> on 11 February, 1691, but neither the French nor the Spanish-Hapsburg faction among the <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinals</a> could carry its candidate. A compromise resulted in the election of Cardinal Pignatelli on 12 July, 1691. In his <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Bull</a> "Romanum decet Pontificem" (22 June, 1692), which was subscribed and sworn to by the <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinals</a>, he decreed that in the future no <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> should be permitted to bestow the <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinalate</a> on more than one of his kinsmen. Towards the <a href="../cathen/12327a.htm">poor</a>, whom he called his nephews, he was extremely charitable; he turned part of the Lateran into a <a href="../cathen/07480a.htm">hospital</a> for the needy, erected numerous charitable and <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">educational institutions</a>, and completed the large court-house "Curia Innocenziana", which now serves as the Italian House of Commons (Camera dei Deputati). In 1693 he induced <a href="../cathen/09371a.htm">King Louis XIV of France</a> to repeal the "Declaration of the French Clergy", which had been adopted in 1682. The <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> who had taken part in the "Declaration" sent a written recantation to <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, whereupon the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> sent his <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Bull</a> of confirmation to those <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> from whom it had been withheld. In 1696 he repeated his predecessor's condemnation of <a href="../cathen/08285a.htm">Jansenism</a> and in his <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Brief</a> "Cum alias" (12 March, 1699) he condemned twenty-three semi-Quietistic propositions contained in <a href="../cathen/06035a.htm">Fénelon's</a> "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 <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, who still insisted on the "right of asylum", which had been abolished by <a href="../cathen/08021a.htm">Innocent XI</a>. It was greatly due to the arrogance of Martinitz that Innocent XII advised King Charles II of <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a> to make a <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">Frenchman</a>, the Duke of Anjou, his testamentary successor, an act which led to the "War of the Spanish Succession".</p> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes"><em>Bullarium Innocentii XII</em> (Rome, 1697); RANKE, <em>Die römischen Päpste,</em> tr. FOSTER, <em>History of the Popes,</em> II (London, 1906), 425-7; KLOPP, <em>Hat der Papst Innocenz XII im Jahre 1700 dem Könige Karl II von Spanien gerathen, durch ein Testament den Herzog von Anjou zum Erben der spanischen Monarchie zu ernennen</em> in <em>Historisch-Politische Blätter,</em> LXXXIII (Munich, 1879), 25-46 and 125-150; BRISCHAR in <em>Kirchenlex.,</em> s.v.</p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Ott, M.</span> <span id="apayear">(1910).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Pope Innocent XII.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08022a.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Ott, Michael.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Pope Innocent XII."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 8.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1910.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08022a.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Douglas J. Potter.</span> <span id="dedication">Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.</span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. 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