Christ's Faithful People
Christ's Faithful People
1644 - 1655 AD
Innocent X, he was promised thorns; and the promise was kept. Innocent's was indeed a thorny pontificate.
Giambattista Pamfili was born in Rome on May 6, 1574, of noble parents. After taking a degree in law at the Roman University, he entered the papal service. Appointed nuncio to Naples, he displayed a great talent for diplomacy. Urban VIII made him a cardinal and sent him as nuncio to Spain. Though seventy years old, he was a favorite in the conclave of 1644. Elected, he chose the name Innocent X.
Innocent X was a healthy old gentleman who was pious and capable. His charity was outstanding; during a famine which afflicted Rome in 1649, he outdid himself in centering efforts to give bread to his people. But Innocent, like Urban, was given to nepotism. Since none of his nephews proved to have much ability, he came to depend on his sister-in-law, the grasping Olimpia Maldaichino.
In 1648 the miserable Thirty Years' War was finally ended by peace congresses at Munster and Osnabruck. Innocent sent the capable Fabio Chigi to safeguard Catholic interests, but the nuncio was not listened to in the congress, and when Innocent himself protested against unjust measures in the treaties, he was unheeded. A new era had begun, the era of secularism.
Innocent had trouble in Portugal too. In 1640 a rising had chased out the Spanish Hapsburgs and re-established the House of Braganza. Fearing to offend Spain, neither Urban VIII nor Innocent X acknowledged John of Braganza in any way, even by confirming his appointments to Portuguese bishoprics. The result was that soon Portugal had only one bishop left--a sad state of affairs.
Innocent X is a pope who helped Ireland. To the embattled Irish grimly fighting for faith and fatherland, Innocent sent the capable nuncio Rinnuccini. In return the Irish sent to the Pope the banners captured by Owen Roe O'Neill at Benburb. But the shrewd Rinnuccini was unable to prevail over Anglo-Irish folly, and Innocent lived to hear of the victories and butcheries of Oliver Cromwell and of the sad fate of the Irish Catholics.
The Pope had more success in his efforts to help Venice against the Turks. To aid the Venetians in their fight to hold Crete, Innocent sent them ships, men, and money.
The Jansenists, although Jansen's Augustinus had been condemned by Urban, still gave trouble. Innocent took five propositions from Jansen's book and condemned them, but even this did not quash these peculiar heretics.
Innocent, though an old man, enjoyed good health and was a hard worker. Not until December 1654 did his health give way, and even then he tried to keep going. On January 7, 1655, Innocent X died. His burial was cheap and simple because the sister-in-law, whom he had enriched, refused to pay for the customary pomp.
