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Bible Encyclopedias
Innocent X
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or (cardinal Giovanni Battista Panfil), born at Rome in 1572, was elected in Sept. 1644, after the death of Urban VIII. He was then seventy-three years of age, and wholly under the control of his sister in-law, Donna Olimpia Maidalchini Panfili, who appears to have been an unprincipled woman, very fond of money, and anxious to aggrandize her relatives. Innocent, however, displayed in several instances much firmness, justice, and prudence, and a wish to protect the humble and poor against the oppressions of the great. He diminished the taxes, which had been very heavy under his predecessor, Urban VIII, and at the same time embellished Rome.
The people of Fermo, on the Adriatic, revolted against their governor, being excited by the local nobility and landholders, who were irritated against him for having by an edict of annona kept the price of corn low; the governor and other official persons were murdered. Innocent sent a commissioner with troops, and the guilty, without distinction of rank, were punished, some being executed, and others sent to the galleys. The district of Castro and Ronciglione, near Rome, was still in possession of the Farnese dukes of Parma, notwithstanding the efforts of Urban VIII to wrest it from them.
Disputes about jurisdiction were continually taking place between the officers of the duke and those of the pope. Innocent having consecrated a new bishop of Castro who was not acceptable to the duke, the latter forbade his entering his territories, and as the bishop elect persisted, he was murdered on the road The pope immediately sent troops to attack Castro, which being taken, he ordered the town to be razed to the foundations, and a pillar erected on the site, with the inscription "Qui fu Castro." He showed the same resolution against the Barberini, who had opposed his election, and was a steadfast enemy of cardinal Mazarin, the supporter of the Barberini. The French prelate, however, outwitted the pope, and obliged him to yield by threatening to take Avignon. Innocent also took an active part in the quarrel between the Jesuits and the Jansenists. As early as 1650, Hubert, bishop of Vabres, had denounced to the pope five propositions ascribed to Jansenius (q.v.), which, in the preceding year, had been referred to the theological faculty. Innocent established a special congregation to examine them, April 20,1651.
De Saint Amour and some other theologians sent by the Jansenists were heard May 19, 1653, but P. Annat, a Jesuit, informs us that the affair had already been judged and decided in advance. Finally a bull was issued. Cum occasione, May 30,1653, condemning the five propositions. It was received in France, and published by order of Louis XIV. Innocent died soon after, Jan. 6, 1654. His anxiety to further the interests of Rome throughout the world is manifest by the pecuniary assistance which he afforded the Venetians and Poles in their wars against the Turks, by his opposition to the peace of Westphalia, fearing' that it endangered the Romish tenets, and even the pontifical chair, and especially by the assistance which he gave to the Irish to combat the English, and, if possible, to regain the English territory for his Church. In Germany) also, he secured, by his undaunted efforts, the conversion of several princes and noblemen of influence. He built two beautiful churches in Rome, and left a well-filled treasury, which proved very useful to his successor, Alexander VII. See Bruys, Hist. des Popes, 5. 253; Duchesne, Historic Francorum Scriptores, 2, 532; Ciaconius, Vite et res geste Pontificum Romanorum, 4, 642; Sismondi, Hist. des Francais, 24:78; Relation des deliberations du clerge de France sur la Constitution et sur le Bref de N. S. P. le pape Innocent X (Paris, 1656, fol.); De Lalane, Defense de la Constitution du pape Innocent X, etc. (1655, 4to); Vie de Madame Olympe Madachini, qui a gouverne Eglisependant le pottificat d'Innocent X (Amst. 1666, 18mo); Memoires du Cardinal de Retz, L 3; L de Saint Amour, Journal de ce qui s'est.fait a Rome dans l'affaire des cinq propositions (Paris, 1662, fol.); J. C. Rosstenscher, Historia Innocentii X (1676, 4to); Herzog, Real- Encyclop. 6, 673; Enyl. Cyclop.; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. G neral, 25, 915; Ranke, Hist. of the Papacy, 1, 182, 242; Mosheim, Ch. list. cent. 17, sec. 2, pt. 1, ch. 1; Aschbach, Kirchen-Lex. 3:462 sq.
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Innocent X'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/i/innocent-x.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
