Innocent X (7 May 1574 – 7 January 1655), born Giovanni Battista Pamphili (or Pamphilj), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 September 1644 until his death in January 1655. He was the 236th pope.
Early Life and Career
Giovanni Battista Pamphili was born in Rome to Camillo Pamphili, of the noble Roman Pamphili family, which was originally from Gubbio in Umbria and claimed direct descent from Pope Alexander VI. He graduated from the Roman College in 1594 and was trained as a lawyer. He served as a consistorial lawyer in 1601 and succeeded his uncle, Cardinal Girolamo Pamphili, as auditor of the Roman Rota (the ecclesiastical appellate tribunal) in 1604. He also served as a canonist of the Sacred Apostolic Penitentiary.
In 1623, Pope Gregory XV sent him as apostolic nuncio to the Kingdom of Naples. In 1625, Pope Urban VIII sent him to accompany his nephew Francesco Barberini as nuncio to France and then Spain. In January 1626, Pamphili was appointed titular Latin Patriarch of Antioch, and in May 1626 he was made nuncio to the court of Philip IV of Spain. This position led to a lifelong association with Spanish interests. He was created a cardinal in pectore in 1627, publicly published in 1629.
Papal Election
The conclave of 1644 was long and contentious, lasting from 9 August to 15 September. A large French faction, led by the nephews of Pope Urban VIII, opposed the Spanish candidate. Cardinal Giulio Cesare Sacchetti was put forward by the French but could not secure enough support. Cardinal Pamphili was accepted as a compromise candidate. Cardinal Mazarin, who bore the French veto of Pamphili, arrived too late to prevent the election.
Pontificate
Relations with France
Soon after his accession, Innocent X initiated legal action against the Barberini family for misappropriation of public funds. The Barberini brothers fled to Paris, where Cardinal Mazarin protected them. Innocent X confiscated their property and issued a papal bull in February 1646 decreeing that cardinals who left the Papal States for six months without express permission would be deprived of their benefices and cardinalate. The French Parlement of Paris declared the ordinance void, and Innocent X eventually relented when Mazarin prepared to send troops to Italy. The Barberini were later rehabilitated through a marriage alliance with the Pamphili family.
Condemnation of Jansenism
In 1653, Innocent X issued the papal bull Cum occasione, condemning five propositions from Cornelius Jansen's Augustinus as heretical and close to Lutheranism. This condemnation sparked the formulary controversy, prompted Blaise Pascal's Lettres Provinciales, and ultimately led to the suppression of the Jansenist convent of Port-Royal.
War with Parma
Hostilities between the Papal States and the Duchy of Parma resumed in 1649. Forces loyal to Innocent X destroyed the city of Castro on 2 September 1649, ending the Second War of Castro.
Peace of Westphalia
Innocent X objected to the conclusion of the Peace of Westphalia (1648), which ended the Thirty Years' War. His nuncio, Fabio Chigi, protested in vain. In 1650, Innocent X issued the papal brief Zelo Domus Dei against the peace, backdating it to 1648 to preserve potential claims for confiscated church lands and property. The protest was ignored by the European powers.
Irish Confederate Wars
During the Irish Confederate Wars (1641–1653), Innocent X strongly supported the independent Confederate Ireland, over the objections of Mazarin and the exiled English Queen Henrietta Maria. He sent Archbishop Giovanni Battista Rinuccini as a special nuncio to Ireland with arms, gunpowder, and money. Rinuccini sought to discourage an alliance with the Royalists and promote an independent Catholic-ruled Ireland, but Oliver Cromwell's campaign ultimately restored Ireland to the Parliamentarian side, and Rinuccini returned to Rome in 1649.
Other Activities
- In 1650, Innocent X celebrated a Jubilee year.
- He raised the Colegio de Santo Tomás in Manila to the rank of a university (now the University of Santo Tomás, the oldest existing university in Asia).
- He embellished Rome, commissioning Gian Lorenzo Bernini's Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi in Piazza Navona (the Pamphili stronghold) and ordering the construction of Palazzo Nuovo at the Campidoglio.
- He is the subject of Diego Velázquez's celebrated Portrait of Innocent X (c. 1650), housed in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj in Rome. This painting later inspired Francis Bacon's "Screaming Pope" series.
Olimpia Maidalchini
Olimpia Maidalchini, the wife of Innocent X's deceased brother, exercised considerable influence over the pope in matters of promotion and politics. This relationship gave rise to scandalous rumors, though German historian Leopold von Ranke concluded that she was not Innocent X's lover. Her avarice contributed to a reputation of oppression and greed during his pontificate.
Death and Legacy
In his later years, Innocent X suffered severely from gout. His health declined in August 1654, and he died on the night of 6 January 1655 at the Quirinal Palace, aged 80. He was buried in the Church of Sant'Agnese in Agone, which he had built in 1652 adjacent to the family palace in Rome. He was succeeded by Pope Alexander VII.
Innocent X was a politically shrewd pontiff who increased the temporal power of the Holy See. He has been described as a lover of justice with a blameless personal life, but also as irresolute, suspicious, and irritable in his later years. His pontificate was marked by significant political conflicts with France, Parma, and the European powers over the Peace of Westphalia, as well as the theological condemnation of Jansenism.
