Pope Innocent XII

Pontiff who banned nepotism in papal appointments 

A divided papal conclave elected Pope
 Innocent XII as a compromise candidate 

Pope Innocent XII, whose nine years as Pope at the end of the 17th century were notable for his ban on the practice of pontiffs appointing relatives to key positions in the papal court, was born Antonio Pignatelli on this day in 1615.

Innocent XII, who was elected Pope in July 1691 and led the Catholic Church until his death in September 1700, issued the papal bull entitled Romanum decet pontificem within a year of taking office, abolishing the position of Cardinal-Nephew in the church hierarchy.

Cardinal-Nephew as an office in the church had been officially recognised since 1566 but the practice of appointing family members had been used by a succession of popes since the Middle Ages to help them consolidate family power and wealth in an era when papal authority extended well beyond the confines of the church.

The practice gave rise to the use of the term nepotism to describe the act of granting an advantage, privilege, or position to relatives or friends in any occupation or field. The word originates from cardinalis nepos, the Latin translation of cardinal nephew - cardinale nipote in Italian.

It was a practice Pignatelli was determined to stamp out, viewing it as an abuse of power, and he set out to build on the groundwork done by Pope Innocent XI between 1676 and 1689 but which his immediate predecessor, Pope Alexander VIII, had not advanced.

Pignatelli was born in Spinazzola, a town now in Puglia but then in the Kingdom of Naples, about 80km (50 miles) west of Bari. His aristocratic family included several Viceroys and ministers of the crown.  He was educated at the Collegio Romano in Rome where he earned a doctorate in both canon and civil law.

Pope Innocent XII's tomb in 
Saint Peter's Basilica

He became an official of the court of Pope Urban VIII at the age of 20 and thereafter held a number of diplomatic roles including Inquisitor of Malta and Governor of Perugia. 

After he was ordained as a priest, he was made Titular Archbishop of Larissa. He subsequently served as the Apostolic Nuncio to Poland and later Austria. Pope Innocent XI appointed him as the Cardinal-Priest of San Pancrazio and then of Faenza. His final post before the papacy was  Archbishop of Naples. 

Pope Alexander VIII died in 1691, after which the conclave to select his successor was split between factions loyal to France, Spain and the broader Holy Roman Empire. After a five-month deadlock, Cardinal Pignatelli emerged as a compromise candidate and was crowned on July 15, when he was given possession of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran.

As well as outlawing the Cardinal-Nephew position, which meant that popes could not bestow estates, offices, or revenues on any relative, Innocent XII introduced other reforms.

These included economies in the way the church was run and improvements in the way the church administered justice. He also appointed Marcello Malpighi, a pioneer in the use of the microscope in medicine, as his personal physician and made him Professor of Medicine at the Sapienza University of Rome.

After a long period of ill health that caused him to miss a number of important engagements in 1700, Innocent XII died on September 27 of that year, to be succeeded by Pope Clement XI.

His tomb in Saint Peter's Basilica was sculpted by Filippo della Valle.

Via Acerenza is typical of the narrow, cobbled
streets that fan out from Spinazzola's main street

Travel tip:

Formerly part of Basilicata, the border of which is less than 5km away, Spinazzola has been part of Puglia since 1811.  It is a charming small town in the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani, with narrow cobblestone streets, traditional stone houses and a number of historic buildings, with Roman and Byzantine influences.  The countryside around it is particularly picturesque. Pope Innocent XII’s family owned a castle in the town but it fell into disrepair and was demolished at the beginning of the 20th century. Some remains of a medieval city wall still exist, along with the 16th century mother church of San Pietro Apostolo and the first Templar hospital. Historic palaces include the Saracen Palace on Corso Vittorio Emanuele, one of the main streets through the town’s narrow historic centre.  The centre of the town’s social life is Piazza Plebiscito, a square at the junction of Corso Vittorio Emanuele and Corso Umberto I.

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Rome's Collegio Romano, which Antonio Pignatelli
attended before becoming Pope, was built in 1582

Travel tip:

Rome’s Collegio Romano - the city’s Jesuit College - was established in 1551 by Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit Order. A new building was erected for the College, under the patronage of Pope Gregory XIII, in 1582. The building can be found in the central Pigna district of the city in a square now known as Piazza del Collegio Romano. It is currently used partly by the Ministry of Heritage and Culture and partly by the Ennio Quirino Visconti high school.  Pigna takes its name from an enormous Roman bronze statue in the shape of a pine cone, which once adorned an ancient Roman fountain.  The sculpture was later moved to the Cortile del Belvedere at the Vatican Palace, where it stands alongside a pair of bronze Roman peacocks from Hadrian’s mausoleum. The area’s tourist attractions include the Pantheon, built in 118AD and considered to be Rome’s best preserved ancient building.

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More reading:

Urban VIII, the pope whose extravagance led to disgrace

Why a 16th century Pope decreed that 10 days would not happen

The Pope who commissioned Michelangelo for the Sistine Chapel

Also on this day: 

1853: The birth of actor and playwright Eduardo Scarpetta

1925: The birth of actor Corrado Gaipa

1955: The birth of footballer Bruno Conti

1960: The birth of rock musician Luciano Ligabue

1980: The birth of dancer Flavia Cacace

(Picture credits: tomb by Samuraijohnny; Via Acerenza by Forsehairagione; Collegio Romano by Lalupa; via Wikimedia Commons)

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The rebuilding of Cervia

Historic town is now a popular seaside resort

A copy of the plan for the new Cervia that was
commissioned by Pope Innocent XII in 1697

Pope Innocent XII, as Head of the Papal States, signed a document ordering the rebuilding of the town of Cervia in the Emilia-Romagna region, on this day in 1697.

It was the second time in its history that Cervia had been moved and rebuilt and therefore it has become known as ‘the town of three sites’.

Present day Cervia, in the province of Ravenna, is a popular seaside resort with a 9km (5.5 miles) stretch of sandy beaches along the Adriatic coast, about 30km (19 miles) north of Rimini.

The town was originally known as Ficocle and was probably of Greek origin. It lay near the coast halfway between what is often referred to as New Cervia and the city of Ravenna.

However, the town of Ficocle was completely destroyed in 709 as punishment for being an ally of Ravenna and therefore against Byzantium. It was later rebuilt in a safer location.

Cervia became a strong city with three protected entrances, a Prior’s Palace, seven churches and a fortress. It was during this period that the name of the city was changed from Ficocle to Cervia.

Cervia's Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta was
built in accordance with the 1697 plan

There is a legend that the Bishop of Lodi was walking in the pine forest surrounding the town one day and a deer (cervo), recognising him as a representative of God, knelt before him as a sign of devotion. However, another theory is that the town got its name from the enormous piles of salt (acervi) gathered from the salt pans located there.

Cervia’s coat of arms has an image of a golden deer kneeling on the ground, which is an indication that the story of the bishop and the deer is the most popular theory.

By the 17th century the salt pans had turned into marshland and the air had become unhygienic, killing off many of Cervia’s inhabitants.

Therefore, on 9 November 1697, Pope Innocent XII signed a document containing the order and regulations for the building of a new Cervia in a location that would be healthier for the residents at a cost of 40,000 scudi.

The document stipulated the exact number of houses to be built, and the position of the Cathedral, the Bishop’s Palace and the prisons. There were also plans for huge silos for the storing of the salt produced in the town.

Cervia boasts a long stretch of wide, sandy
beaches extending for 9km 

Travel tip:

Cervia has grown from being just a fishing and salt producing town into one of the major seaside resorts on the Adriatic coast, with excellent beaches at outlying Milano Marittima, Pinarella and Tagliata. All building in the town has been governed by strict regulations in order to conserve the natural pine forests. Nightclubs and outdoor dance venues have been banned from the historic centre out of consideration for the residents. A typical local dish served in the restaurants is Tortelli Verdi stuffed with ricotta and served with butter and sage.

Cervia's San Michele Tower, next to the salt
museum, predates the new town

Travel tip:

In the centre of the town, the Duomo di Cervia, or Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, is a Baroque building begun in 1699 and consecrated in 1702. It was designed by Francesco Fontana, son of the Roman architect, Carlo Fontana, but the marble veneer he had planned for the façade was never added. The San Michele Tower in Via Arnaldo Evangelisti dates back to 1691, before the rebuilding of the new Cervia, when it was erected to defend the town from Turks and Saracens. Its design was based on an old drawing by Michelangelo, who had sketched a prototype for a defensive building to protect the coastal areas of the Papal States. You can also visit an old tower housing a Salt Museum, (MUSA) in Via Nazario Sauro, which was founded by the Salt Workers Association to keep the memory of working in Cervia’s salt pans alive by displaying old tools, documents and photographs.

Also on this day:

1383: The birth of military leader Niccolò III d’Este

1877: The birth of Enrico De Nicola, the first president of Italy

1921: The birth of football stickers pioneer Giuseppe Panini

1974: The birth of footballer Alessandro Del Piero

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