Editing Pope Alexander VII (section)

== Biography ==

=== Early life ===
Born in [[Siena]], a member of the illustrious banking family of [[Chigi-Albani family|Chigi]], son of Count Flavio Chigi-Ardenghesca (1549–1615), [[Gonfaloniere]], [[Capitano del Popolo]], and wife Laura Marsigli, and a great-grandnephew of [[Pope Paul V]] (1605–1621),<ref>George L. Williams, 114.</ref> Fabio Chigi was privately tutored and eventually received doctorates of philosophy, law, and theology from the [[University of Siena]].

Fabio's nephew Antonio created a cardinal by his uncle on 9 April 1657. The appointment was made public on 10 November 1659. He appointed his nephew Giovanni Bichi, Admiral of the [[Papal Navy]].

=== Papal diplomat ===
In 1627 he began his apprenticeship as vice-[[papal legate]] at [[Ferrara]], and on recommendations from two cardinals he was appointed [[Inquisitor]] of [[Hospitaller Malta|Malta]].<ref>V. Borg, ''Fabio Chigi, Apostolic Delegate in Malta, 1634–1639. An edition of his official correspondence'' (Città del Vaticano: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1967).</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Johanna Maria |last=Winter |title=Sources Concerning the Hospitallers of St. John in the Netherlands, 14th-18th Centuries |publisher=Brill |year=1998 |page=133 }}</ref>

Chigi was ordained a priest in Rome in December 1634. He was appointed ''Referendarius utriusque signaturae'', which made him a prelate and gave him the right to practice before the Roman courts. On 8 January 1635, Chigi was named [[Bishop of Nardò]] in southern Italy and consecrated on 1 July 1635<ref name=Gauchat>Patritius Gauchat, ''Hierarchia catholica medii et recentioris aevi''  Tomus IV, editio altera (Monasterii 1935), p. 257, and note 5.</ref> by [[Miguel Juan Balaguer Camarasa]], [[Bishop of Malta]].<ref name=CathHierFabChi>[http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bchigi.html "Pope Alexander VII - Fabio Chigi"] ''[[Catholic-Hierarchy.org]]''. David M. Cheney. Retrieved 2 July 2016</ref>  On 13 May 1652 he was transferred to the [[Bishop of Imola|Bishopric of Imola]].<ref name=Gauchat />

Bishop Chigi was named [[Apostolic Nuncio to Cologne|nuncio in Cologne]] (1639–1651) on 11 June 1639.  There, he supported [[Urban VIII]]'s condemnation of the heretical book ''[[Augustinus (Jansenist book)|Augustinus]]'' by [[Cornelius Jansen]], Bishop of Ypres, in the [[papal bull]] ''In eminenti'' of 1642.<ref>Joseph Bergin, ''Church, Society and Religious Change in France, 1580–1730'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), pp. 396–404.</ref>

Though expected to take part in the negotiations which led in 1648 to the [[Peace of Westphalia]], Bishop Chigi (and other Catholic delegates) declined to deliberate with persons whom the Catholic Church considered [[Christian heresy|heretics]]. Negotiations therefore took place in two cities, [[Osnabrück]] and [[Münster]] in [[Westphalia]], with intermediaries travelling back and forth between the Protestant and the Catholic delegates.  Chigi protested against the Treaty of Westphalia on behalf of the Papacy once the instruments were finally completed.<ref>{{cite book |first=Salo Wittmayer |last=Baron |title=A Social and Religious History of the Jews: Late Middle Ages and the Era of European Expansion |volume=10 |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=1969 |page=290 }}</ref><ref>Derek Croxton and Anuschka Tischer, ''The Peace of Westphalia : a historical dictionary'' (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2002).</ref>  [[Innocent X|Pope Innocent X]] himself stated that the Peace  "is null, void, invalid, unjust, damnable, reprobate, inane, empty of meaning and effect for all time."<ref>[[Kalevi Jaakko Holsti]],  ''Peace and War: Armed Conflicts and International Order, 1648–1989'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1991), p. 25.</ref> The Peace ended the [[Thirty Years' War]] (1618–1648) and established the balance of European power that lasted until the [[French Revolutionary Wars]] (1792).