Pope Innocent X^[a] (6 May 1574 – 7 January 1655), bornGiovanni Battista Pamphilj (orPamphili), was head of theCatholic Church and ruler of thePapal States from 15 September 1644 to his death, in January 1655.^[1]

Pope Innocent X
Bishop of Rome
Portrait of Innocent X, byDiego Velázquez, 1650
Church	Catholic Church
Papacy began	15 September 1644
Papacy ended	7 January 1655
Predecessor	Urban VIII
Successor	Alexander VII
Previous post(s)	Legate to France (1625) Titular Latin Patriarch of Antioch (1626–1629) Apostolic Nuncio to Spain (1626–1629) Cardinal-Priest of Sant'Eusebio (1629–1644) Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Clergy (1639–1644) Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church (1643–1644)
Orders
Consecration	25 January 1626 by Laudivio Zacchia
Created cardinal	19 November 1629 byUrban VIII
Personal details
Born	Giovanni Battista Pamphilj or Pamphili 6 May 1574 Rome,Papal States
Died	7 January 1655(1655-01-07) (aged 80) Rome, Papal States
Motto	Allevitæ sunt aquæ super terram ("The Waters are Lifted Above the Earth")
Signature
Coat of arms
Other popes named Innocent

Born inRome of a family fromGubbio inUmbria who had come to Rome during the pontificate ofPope Innocent IX, Pamphili was trained as a lawyer and graduated from theCollegio Romano. He followed a conventionalcursus honorum, following his uncle Girolamo Pamphili as auditor of theRota, and like him, attaining the position ofcardinal-priest ofSant'Eusebio. Before becoming pope, Pamphili served as a papal diplomat toNaples,France, andSpain.

Pamphili succeededPope Urban VIII (1623–44) on 15 September 1644 as Pope Innocent X, after a contentiouspapal conclave that featured a rivalry between French and Spanish factions.

Innocent X was one of the most politically shrewd pontiffs of the era, greatly increasing the temporal power of theHoly See. Major political events in which he was involved included theEnglish Civil War, conflicts with French church officials over financial fraud issues, and hostilities with theDuchy of Parma related to theFirst War of Castro.

In theology, Innocent X issued apapal bull condemning the beliefs ofJansenism.

Giovanni Battista Pamphili was born in Rome on 5 May 1574, the son of Camillo Pamphili, of the RomanPamphili family. The family, originally fromGubbio, was directly descended fromPope Alexander VI.^[2]

In 1594 he graduated from theRoman College and followed a conventional path through the ranks of the Catholic Church. He served as a consistorial lawyer in 1601, and in 1604 succeeded his uncle, Cardinal Girolamo Pamphili, as auditor of theRoman Rota, the ecclesiastical appellate tribunal. He was also acanonist of theSacred Apostolic Penitentiary, a second tribunal.^[3]

In 1623Pope Gregory XV sent him asapostolic nuncio (ecclesiastical diplomat) to the court of theKingdom of Naples.^[4] In 1625Pope Urban VIII sent him to accompany his nephew,Francesco Barberini, whom he had accredited as nuncio, first toFrance and thenSpain.^[5] In January 1626, Pamphili was appointed titular Latin Patriarch of Antioch.^[6]

In reward for his labors, in May 1626 Giovanni Battista was made nuncio to the court ofPhilip IV of Spain.^[6] The position led to a lifelong association with the Spaniards which was of great use during thepapal conclave of 1644. He was created Cardinalin pectore in 1627 and published in 1629.

The1644 conclave for the election of a successor to Pope Urban VIII was long and contentious, lasting from 9 August to 15 September. A large French faction led by Urban VIII's nephews objected to the Spanish candidate, as an enemy ofCardinal Mazarin, who guided French policy. They put up their own candidate (Giulio Cesare Sacchetti) but could not establish enough support for him and agreed to Cardinal Pamphili as an acceptable compromise, though he had served as legate to Spain.^[7] Mazarin, bearing theFrench veto of Pamphili, arrived too late, and the election was accomplished.^[8]

Pamphili chose to be called Innocent X. Soon after his accession he initiated legal action against theBarberini family for misappropriation of public funds. The brothersFrancesco Barberini,Antonio Barberini andTaddeo Barberini fled to Paris, where they found a powerful protector in Cardinal Mazarin.^[9] Innocent X confiscated their property, and on 19 February 1646, issued apapal bull decreeing that all cardinals who might leave thePapal States for six months without express papal permission would be deprived of theirbenefices and eventually of their cardinalate itself. The FrenchParlement of Paris declared the papal ordinance void in France, but Innocent X did not yield until Mazarin prepared to send troops to Italy. Henceforth the papal policy towards France became more friendly, and somewhat later the Barberini were rehabilitated when the son of Taddeo Barberini,Maffeo Barberini, marriedOlimpia Giustiniani, a niece of Innocent X.

In 1653, Innocent X, with theCum occasionepapal bull, condemned five propositions ofJansenius'sAugustinus,^[10] as heretical and close toLutheranism. This led to theformulary controversy,Blaise Pascal's writing of theLettres Provinciales, and finally to the razing of theJansenist convent ofPort-Royal and the subsequent dissolving of its community.

The death of Pope Urban VIII is said to have been hastened by his chagrin at the result of theFirst War of Castro, a war he had undertaken againstOdoardo Farnese, Duke of Parma. Hostilities between the papacy and theDuchy of Parma resumed in 1649, and forces loyal to Pope Innocent X destroyed the city ofCastro on 2 September 1649.^[2]

Innocent X objected to the conclusion of thePeace of Westphalia, which hisnuncio,Fabio Chigi, protested in vain. In 1650 Innocent X issued thepapal briefZelo Domus Dei^[11] against the Peace of Westphalia, and backdated it to 1648 in order to preserve potential claims for confiscated land and property.^[12] The protests were ignored by the European powers.

During theIrish Confederate Wars (1641–53) (theIrish component of theBritish Civil Wars), Innocent X strongly supported the independentConfederate Ireland, over the objections of Mazarin and the English Queen and thenqueen mother,Henrietta Maria, exiled in Paris. The pope sentGiovanni Battista Rinuccini,archbishop of Fermo, as a special nuncio to Ireland. He arrived atKilkenny with a large quantity of arms including 20,000 pounds of gunpowder, and a very large sum of money.^[13] Rinuccini hoped he could discourage the Confederates from allying with Charles I and the Royalists in theEnglish Civil War and instead encourage them towards the foundation of an independent Catholic – ruled Ireland.

At Kilkenny, Rinuccini was received with great honours, asserting in his Latin declaration that the object of his mission was to sustain the king but, above all, to rescue from pains and penalties the Catholic people of Ireland in securing the free and public exercise of the Catholic religion, and the restoration of the churches and church property. In the end,Oliver Cromwell restored Ireland to the Parliamentarian side and Rinuccini returned to Rome in 1649, after four fruitless years.

During the papacy of Pope Urban VIII, the future Innocent X was the pope's most significant rival among theCollege of Cardinals. Antonio Barberini, Urban VIII's brother, was a cardinal who had begun his career with theCapuchin brothers. About 1635, at the height of theThirty Years' War in Germany, in which the papacy was intricately involved, Cardinal Antonio commissionedGuido Reni's painting of theArchangel Michael, tramplingSatan, who bears the recognizable features of Innocent X.^[14] This bold political artwork still hangs in a side chapel of the Capuchin friars' Church of the Conception (Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini) in Rome. A legend related to the painting is that the dashing and high-living artist, Guido Reni, had been insulted by rumours he thought were circulated by Cardinal Pamphili.

When, a few years later, Pamphili was raised to the papacy, other Barberini relatives fled to France on embezzlement accusations. Despite this, the Capuchins held fast to their chapel altarpiece.

Innocent was responsible for raising the Colegio de Santo Tomás de Nuestra Señora del Santísimo Rosario into the rank of a university. It is now theUniversity of Santo Tomás inManila, the oldest existing in Asia.

In 1650, Innocent X celebrated aJubilee. He embellished Rome with inlaid floors andbas-relief inSaint Peter's, erectedGian Lorenzo Bernini'sFontana dei Quattro Fiumi inPiazza Navona, the Pamphili stronghold in Rome, and ordered the construction ofPalazzo Nuovo at theCampidoglio.^[15]

Innocent X is also the subject ofPortrait of Innocent X, a famous painting byDiego Velázquez housed in the family gallery of Palazzo Doria (Doria Pamphilj Gallery). This portrait inspired the "Screaming Pope" paintings by 20th-century painterFrancis Bacon, the most famous of which is Bacon'sStudy after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X.

Innocent X has been described as irritable in his later years. In March 1654, Innocent X suddenly expelled his personal physician of eight years,Gabriel da Fonseca, after Fonseca defended a barber who had bled the Pope.^[16] Fonseca claims he had been in service to the Pamphili family for over two decades, and that the Pope had regarded him not only as his physician but also as a private advisor.^[17][18]

Olimpia Maidalchini was married to Innocent X's late brother, and was believed to be his mistress because of her influence over him in matters of promotion and politics. This state of affairs was alluded to in theEncyclopædia Britannica 9th edition (1880):

"Throughout his reign the influence exercised over him by Maidalchini, his deceased brother's wife, was very great, and such as to give rise to gross scandal, for which, however, there appears to have been no adequate ground.... The avarice of his female counsellor gave to his reign a tone of oppression and sordid greed which probably it would not otherwise have shown, for personally he was not without noble and reforming impulses."

German historianLeopold von Ranke concluded that she was not Innocent X's lover.^[19]

In his later years, Innocent X suffered fromgout, causing him intense pain and severely restricting his movements. The eighty-year-old pontiff's health began to decline in August 1654.^[20] By the evening of 26 December his condition had deteriorated to the extent that the family was summoned.^[21]

On 27 December, he blessed his nephew, niece, and their children, and then had a brief meeting with CardinalsFlavio Chigi andDecio Azzolino. That night he had a little rest, though his condition did not improve.^[22]

On 28 December, Innocent X received theLast rites and expressed his desire to take leave of the cardinals. In anticipation of the Pope's expected death many of the cardinals had already gathered in Rome in advance of a subsequent conclave. Thirty-nine gathered at his bedside at theQuirinal Palace.

On 1 January 1655,Mass was celebrated at the pope's bedside, and the same was done on 6 January, when Innocent X also received theViaticum for the last time.Secretary of State Chigi, who had been in attendance during the last twelve days,^[23] Prefect of the Sacred Palace Bishop Scotti, and Sacristan Monsignor Altini, as well as, various attendants were present when the Pope died on the night of 6 January 1655.^[24][22]

TheSwiss Guard escorted PapalCamerlengo Cardinal Antonio Barberini to the Quirinal to perform the requisite rituals and Cardinal de' Medici visited with the Pope's three nephews, who were in another room. After an autopsy, the body was embalmed and the next day taken to the Vatican where it was placed on a catafalque in theSistine Chapel. On 8 January it was transferred to St. Peter's Basilica, where the sealing of the coffin was witnessed by CardinalsNiccolò Albergati-Ludovisi, Fabio Chigi,Luigi Omodei,Pietro Vito Ottoboni,Marcello Santacroce, Baccio Aldobrandini,Cristoforo Vidman,Lorenzo Raggi,Carlo Pio di Savoia and Gualtieri, Princes Pamphili, Ludovisi and Giustiniani, and the Master of Ceremonies Fulvio Servantio. A funeral held on 17 January.^[25] Innocent's tomb is located in the Church ofSant'Agnese in Agone which he had built in 1652 adjacent to the family palace, the Palazzo Pamphili, in Rome.

Innocent X was succeeded byPope Alexander VII who had promised Innocent X that he would build more schools in Europe.

• Cardinals created by Innocent X
• Pamphili, with Innocent X's family tree
• Portrait of Innocent X
• Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X

• Collier, Theodore Freylinghuysen (1911)."Innocent/Innocent X" . InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 14 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 582.
• Ott, Michael (1910)."Pope Innocent X" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 08. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

• Guido Braun:Innozenz X. Der Papst als ‚padre comune‘. In:Michael Matheus / Lutz Klinkhammer (eds.):Eigenbild im Konflikt. Krisensituationen des Papsttums zwischen Gregor VII. und Benedikt XV. WBG, Darmstadt, 2009, pp. 119ff.,ISBN 978-3-534-20936-1.
• Michael Tilly (1990). "Innozenz X". In Bautz, Friedrich Wilhelm (ed.).Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol. 2. Hamm: Bautz. cols. 1295–1298.ISBN 3-88309-032-8.
• Chev. Artaud De Montor, 1911.The Lives and Times of the Popes

•   Media related toInnocentius X at Wikimedia Commons
•   Works by or aboutInnocent X atWikisource
• Publications by or about Pope Innocent X atVD 17
• Works by and about Pope Innocent X in theDeutsche Digitale Bibliothek (German Digital Library)