X-Nico

11 unusual facts about Pope Innocent XI


António Vieira

At the request of the pope he drew up a report of two hundred pages on the Inquisition in Portugal, with the result that after a judicial inquiry Pope Innocent XI suspended it in Portugal for seven years (1674–81).

Benedetto Erba Odescalchi

As Archbishop of Milan he focused on pastoral activities, taking as examples Saint Charles Borromeo and Pope Innocent XI.

His great uncle was Pope Innocent XI, who died when Benedetto was 10 and from whom in 1709 Benedetto took his second surname Odescalchi.

Droit de régale

These at first sought redress through their metropolitans, but when the latter took the king's side they appealed, in 1677, to Pope Innocent XI.

Étienne Le Camus

Pope Innocent XI, having made him cardinal instead of Harlay, presented by the king, he was not allowed till 1689 to go to Rome to receive the insignia of his dignity.

Ilok Castle

After the victory against the Ottomans at the Battle of Vienna in 1683, the Emperor Leopold I granted the castle, significant properties and the title of the Duke of Syrmia to Livio Odescalchi, nephew of Pope Innocent XI and a member of the powerful Italian aristocratic Odescalchi family, which would own the castle for the next two centuries.

Luo Wenzao

Then in 1679 Pope Innocent XI appointed him a second time and he was forced to accept.

Mercat Cross, Edinburgh

On 10 December 1688, a mob, having broken into the private chapel of King James VII at Holyrood Abbey and torn down the woodwork, carried it to the Cross where it was burned along with an effigy of the Pope.

Michael Dahl

At several occasions, Christina let Dahl paint her portrait and she was able to establish an opportunity for Dahl to show a specimen of his work to Pope Innocent XI.

Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala

The University finally gained international acceptance by Official Decree from Pope Innocent XI, on June 18, 1687.

Venus de' Medici

Though visitors to Rome like John Evelyn found it "a miracle of art", it was sent to Florence in August 1677, its export permitted by Innocent XI because, it was thought, it stimulated lewd behavior.


Agostino Steffani

The accomplished abbate was sent on this delicate mission in 1696, with the title of envoy extraordinary, and he fulfilled his difficult task so well that Pope Innocent XI, in recognition of certain privileges he had secured for the Hanoverian Catholics, consecrated him bishop of Spiga on the Sea of Marmora (modern day Biga in Turkey).