Innocent XII

Pope Innocent XII (; ; 13 March 1615 – 27 September 1700), born Antonio Pignatelli, was head of the Catholic Church and leader of the Papal States from 12 July 1691 until his death in September 1700.

He took a hard stance against nepotism in the Church, continuing the policies of Pope Innocent XI, who started the battle against nepotism but which did not gain traction under Pope Alexander VIII. To that end, he issued a papal bull strictly forbidding it. The pope also used this bull to ensure that no revenue or land could be bestowed on relatives.

Biography Early life Antonio Pignatelli was born on 13 March 1615 in Spinazzola (now in Apulia) to one of the most aristocratic families of the Kingdom of Naples, which had included several Viceroys and ministers of the crown. He was the fourth of five children of Francesco Pignatelli, 4th Marquess of Spinazzola, and wife Porzia Carafa, 1st Princess of Minervino. His siblings were Marzio, Ludovico, Fabrizio and Paola Maria. His mother was related to Pope Paul IV.

He was educated at the Collegio Romano in Rome where he earned a doctorate in both canon and civil law.

Diplomatic career At the age of 20 he became an official of the court of Pope Urban VIII. Pignatelli was the Referendary of the Apostolic Signatura and served as the governor of Fano and Viterbo. Later he went to Malta where he served as an inquisitor from 1646 to 1649, and then governor of Perugia. Shortly after this, he received his priestly ordination.

Episcopate and cardinalate

Pignatelli was made Titular Archbishop of Larissa in 1652 and received episcopal consecration in Rome. He served as the Apostolic Nuncio to Poland from 1660 to 1668 and later to Austria from 1668 to 1671.

Innocent XII also introduced various reforms into the States of the Church including the Forum Innocentianum, designed to improve the administration of justice dispensed by the Church. In 1693 he compelled French bishops to retract the four propositions relating to the Gallican Liberties which had been formulated by the assembly of 1682.

In 1699, he decided in favour of Jacques-Benigne Bossuet in that prelate's controversy with Fénelon about the Explication des Maximes des Saints sur la Vie Intérieure of the latter. Innocent XII's pontificate also differed greatly from his predecessors' because of his leanings towards France instead of the Habsburg monarchy; the first in the 20 years following France's failure to have its candidate elected in 1644 and 1655.

Consistories

Innocent XII created 30 cardinals in four consistories; two of those he elevated were those he reserved in pectore.

Canonizations and beatifications Innocent XII canonized Saint Zita of Lucca on 5 September 1696. He beatified Augustin Kažotić on 17 July 1700 and approved the cultus of Angela of Foligno in 1693. He also beatified Osanna Andreasi on 24 November 1694, Mary de Cervellione on 13 February 1692, Jane of Portugal on 31 December 1692, Umiliana de' Cerchi on 24 July 1694, Helen Enselmini on 29 October 1695, and Delphine of Glandèves in 1694.

Death The tomb and monument to Innocent XII in Saint Peter's Basilica. Innocent XII was already considerably ill on 25 December 1699 with gout (a rheumatic disease) and was therefore unable to attend the solemn opening of the Holy Door at Saint Peter's Basilica to mark the beginning of the Jubilee for 1700, hence, Cardinal Emmanuel-Théodose de La Tour d'Auvergne represented the pontiff in the solemn celebration. On Easter Sunday in 1700, the seriously ill pontiff gave a blessing from his balcony to the large crowds outside of the Quirinal Palace. Despite his illness, he named three new cardinals in June 1700.

Innocent died on 27 September 1700 and was succeeded in the next conclave by Pope Clement XI (1700–21). His tomb in Saint Peter's Basilica was sculpted by Filippo della Valle. Innocent is the most recent pope to not be clean shaven.

In fiction Innocent appears as one of the narrators in Robert Browning's long poem The Ring and the Book (1869), based on the true story of the pope's intervention in a historical murder trial in Rome during his papacy.