Editing Pope Innocent XI (section)

==Papacy==

===Election===
{{main|Papal conclave, 1676}}
Odescalchi was a strong papal candidate after the death of [[Pope Clement IX]] (1667–69) in 1669, but the [[Kingdom of France|French]] government rejected him (using the now-abolished [[jus exclusivae|veto]]). After [[Pope Clement X]] (1670–76) died, [[Louis XIV of France]] (1643–1715) again intended to use his royal influence against Odescalchi's election. Instead, believing that the cardinals as well as the Roman people were of one mind in their desire to have Odescalchi as their Pope, Louis reluctantly instructed the French party cardinals to acquiesce in his candidacy.

On 21 September 1676, Odescalchi was chosen to be Clement X's successor and took the name of Innocent XI. He chose this name in honour of Pope Innocent X, who made him a cardinal in 1645. He was formally crowned as pontiff on 4 October 1676 by the [[protodeacon]], Cardinal [[Francesco Maidalchini]].

{{Infobox popestyles
| image=C o a Innocenzo XI.svg
| dipstyle=[[His Holiness]]
| offstyle=Your Holiness
| relstyle=Holy Father
| deathstyle=[[Beatification|Blessed]]|}}

===Reforming the administration of the papacy===
Immediately upon his accession, Innocent XI turned all his efforts towards reducing the expenses of the [[Roman Curia|Curia]]. He passed strict ordinances against [[nepotism]] among the cardinals. He lived frugally and exhorted the cardinals to do the same. In this manner he not only squared the annual deficit which at his accession had reached the sum of 170,000 [[Italian scudo|scudi]], but within a few years the papal income was even in excess of the expenditures. He lost no time in declaring and practically manifesting his zeal as a reformer of manners and a corrector of administrative abuses. Beginning with the clergy, he sought to raise the [[laity]] also to a higher moral standard of living. He closed all of the theaters in Rome (considered to be centers of vice and immorality) and famously brought a temporary halt to the flourishing traditions of Roman [[opera]]. In 1679 he publicly condemned sixty-five propositions, taken chiefly from the writings of [[Antonio Escobar y Mendoza|Escobar]], [[Francisco Suarez|Suarez]] and other [[casuistry|casuists]] (mostly [[Jesuit]] casuists, who had been heavily attacked by [[Blaise Pascal|Pascal]] in his ''[[Provincial Letters]]'') as ''propositiones laxorum moralistarum'' and forbade anyone to teach them under penalty of excommunication.<ref name=kelly287/> He condemned in particular the most radical form of [[doctrine of mental reservation|mental reservation]] (''stricte mentalis'') which authorised deception without an outright lie.

Personally not unfriendly to [[Miguel de Molinos]], Innocent XI nevertheless yielded to the enormous pressure brought to bear upon him to confirm in 1687 the judgement of the inquisitors by which sixty-eight [[Quietism (Christian philosophy)|quietist]] propositions of Molinos were condemned as blasphemous and heretical.

===Jewish relations===
Innocent XI showed a degree of sensitivity in his dealings with the [[Jews]] within the Italian states. He compelled the [[Republic of Venice]] to release the Jewish prisoners taken by [[Francesco Morosini]] in 1685. He also discouraged compulsory baptisms which accordingly became less frequent under his pontificate, but he could not abolish the old practice altogether.

More controversially on 30 October 1682 he issued an edict by which all the money-lending activities carried out by the Roman Jews were to cease. Such a move would incidentally have financially benefitted his own brothers who played a dominant role in European money-lending. However, ultimately convinced that such a measure would cause much misery in destroying livelihoods, the enforcement of the edict was twice delayed.<ref>Isidore Singer, ''The Jewish Encyclopedia'', Varda Books, 2003</ref>