the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Encyclopedias
Innocent VIII
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or (cardinal Giovanni Battista Cibo), a Genoese of Greek descent, was during his youth in the service of Alfonso of Aragon, king of Naples, but subsequently entered the Church, Paul II giving him the bishopric of Savone. His conduct was disgracefully irregulari he had seven illegitimate children by different women, and was, besides, married when he took orders. At the death of Sixtus IV serious troubles broke out in Rome. The election was warmly contested, and among the chief agitators was chancellor Borgia, who afterwards attained an unenviable celebrity as Alexander VI; but the maneuvers in favor of Cibo proved at last successful Innocent had bought the tiara by means of benefices, legations, palaces, and large sums of money, and was elected Aug. 24, 1484. His first undertaking was to conciliate the Italian princes, and to reconcile to the papal see all those whom his predecessor had alienated. Frightened at the advance of Bajazet with his Turks, Innocent wrote to the Christian princes for help in men or money to resist the invasion. Immense sums were at once forwarded to Rome from divers countries; but the pope, pretending that he could not act without the assistance of the German princes (who were then divided by the quarrels between Mathias, king of Hungary, and emperor Frederick, Albert of Brandenburg and Otho of Bavaria, etc.), used the funds thus obtained to war against Ferdinand I, king of Naples, who refused to pay him the usual tribute. The pope favored the revolted Neapolitan barons against Ferdinand I of Naples, in consequence of which the troops of Ferdinand ravaged the territory of Rome; but through the mediation of Lorenzo de Medici and of the duke Sforza of Milan, peace was re-established between the two parties. The Turks were still threatening war. Jem, in order to shun the enmity of his brother Bajazet, had fled to Rhodes, where he was seized by the grand master of the order of St. John, D'Aubusson, and delivered up to the pope in exchange for the cardinal's hat.
The pope received Jem with great honor, but took care to secure his person, as he would be an important hostage. In this he was not mistaken, for Bajazet feared the power of his brother, and, to secure his throne, he sent an ambassador to Rome to offer Innocent a large sum if he would keep Jem in prison. The pope accepted the dishonorable bargain, although the sultan of Egypt, who desired Jem, as commander in chief of his forces, to march against Bajazet, offered, on condition of his release, to restore Jerusalem to the Christians, and was even ready to pledge himself to surrender to the pope all the territory that should be taken from the Turks. Under Innocent's successor, the depraved Alexander VI, Jem was poisoned by order of the pope (comp. Reichel, See of Rome in the Middle Ages, p. 530). Bajazet, of course, showed himself very generous towards his accomplice, Innocent VIII. On May 29, 1492, he sent him the iron of the spear with which, he asserted, Christ was pierced on the cross, and which was among ‘ he booty taken by Mohammed II after the downfall of Constantinople. The relic (although received with great ceremony) was, unfortunately, the third of the kind in Europe, for the emperor of Germany claimed to have the holy lance at Nuremberg, and the king of France in the Holy Chapel at Paris. Innocent VIII died July 25, 1492., Among the principal acts of his administration are the confirmation, in 1485, of the order of the Conception, founded at Toledo by Beatrix of Sylva; the canonization of Leopold of Austria in 1485; the condemnation of the propositions of Mirandola in 1487; the union under the crown of Spain of the three military orders of Calatrava, St. James, and Alcantara, in 1488; and the confirmation of the Brotherhood of Mercy, instituted at Rome for the benefit of condemned criminals. Two letters of Innocent are published by Ughelli, Italia Sacra, 1, 710; 5, 948. Roman Catholic writers endeavor to free Innocent VIII from the charge of gross immorality by asserting that he had only two illegitimate children, and that they were born before he was made pope; but" the success of Innocent VIII in increasing the population of Rome was a favorite topic with the wits of the day" (Innocuo priscos aquum est debere Quirites. Progenie exhaustam restituit patriam. — Salnnazarii Epigram. lib. 1), and he was graced with "the epitaph which declared that filth, gluttony, avarice, and sloth lay buried in his tomb" (Marultus, Epigram. lib. 4). But the conduct of Innocent VIII can hardly compare with the career of his successor, Alexander VI," the most depraved of all the popes, uniting in himself all the vices of Innocent VIII and the unscrupulous family ambition of Sixtus IV." Indeed, all the latter half of the 16th century scarcely saw a supreme pontiff without the visible evidences of human frailty around him, the unblushing acknowledgment of which is the fittest commentary on the tone of clerical morality (Lea, Hist. of Sacerdotal Celibacy, p. 358, 39). See Labbe, Conciiia, 13:1465; Fleury, Hist. Ecclesiastique, lib. 23, ch. 15; Duchesne, Historiac Friancorsum Scriptores, 2, 350; Sismondi, Hist. des Franfais; Ciaconius, Vitae et res gestce Pontifcunz Romanorunm, 3:90; F. Serdonati, Vita e Fatti d'Innocenzo VIII (Milan, 1829, 8vo); Comines, Memoires, lib. 7:ch. 1; Herzog, Real-Encyklop. 6, 672; Engl. Cyclop.; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Gé neralé, 25:912; Ranke, Hist. of the Papacy in the 16th and 17th Centuries, 1, 43,296; Mosheim, Ch. Hist. p. 436 ‘ Bower, Hist. of the Popes, 7, 317 sq.; Wetzer und Welte, Kirchen-Lex. 5, 641 sq.; Aschbach, Kirchen-Lexikon, 3:460 sq.
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Innocent VIII'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/i/innocent-viii.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
