Editing Pope Innocent VIII (section)

==Papacy==
Shortly after his investiture, Innocent VIII addressed a fruitless summons to [[Christendom]] to unite in a [[Crusades|crusade]] against the Turks. A protracted conflict with King [[Ferdinand I of Naples]] was the principal obstacle. Ferdinand's oppressive government led in 1485 to a rebellion of the aristocracy, known as the [[Conspiracy of the Barons]], which included Francesco Coppola and Antonello Sanseverino of Salerno and was supported by Pope Innocent VIII. Innocent excommunicated Ferdinand in 1489 and invited King [[Charles VIII of France]] to come to Italy with an army and take possession of the [[Kingdom of Naples]], a disastrous political event for the Italian peninsula as a whole. The immediate conflict was not ended until 1494, after Innocent VIII's death.

===Relations with the Ottoman Empire===
[[Bayezid II]] ruled as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1481 to 1512. His rule was contested by his brother [[Sultan Cem|Cem]], who sought the support of the Mamluks of Egypt. Defeated by his brother's armies, Cem sought protection from the [[Knights Hospitaller|Knights of St. John]] in Rhodes. Prince Cem offered perpetual peace between the Ottoman Empire and Christendom. However, the sultan paid the Knights a large amount to keep Cem captive. Cem was later sent to the castle of Pierre d'Aubusson in France. Sultan Bayezid sent a messenger to France and requested Cem to be kept there; he agreed to make an annual payment in gold for his brother's expenses.

In March 1489, Cem was transferred to the custody of Innocent VIII. Cem's presence in Rome was useful because whenever Bayezid intended to launch a military campaign against the Christian nations of the [[Balkans]], the Pope would threaten to release his brother. In exchange for maintaining the custody of Cem, Bayezid paid Innocent VIII 120,000 crowns, a relic of the [[Holy Lance#Rome|Holy Lance]] and an annual fee of 45,000 ducats.<ref>Duffy, Eamon (2006). Saints & Sinners – A History of the Popes. Yale University Press. {{ISBN|978-0300115970}}, p. 196</ref> Cem died in Capua on 25 February 1495 on a military expedition under the command of King [[Charles VIII of France]] to conquer Naples.

===Relations with witchcraft===
{{Further|Summis desiderantes affectibus}}

On the request of German [[inquisitor]] [[Heinrich Kramer]], Innocent VIII issued the [[papal bull]] ''[[Summis desiderantes affectibus]]'' (5 December 1484), which supported Kramer's investigations against [[ceremonial magic|magician]]s and [[witch]]es:
:"It has recently come to our ears, not without great pain to us, that in some parts of upper Germany, [...] [[Mainz]], [[Köln]], [[Trier]], [[Salzburg]], and [[Bremen]], many persons of both sexes, heedless of their own salvation and forsaking the catholic faith, give themselves over to devils male and female, and by their incantations, charms, and conjurings, and by other abominable superstitions and sortileges, offences, crimes, and misdeeds, ruin and cause to perish the offspring of women, the foal of animals, the products of the earth, the grapes of vines, and the fruits of trees, as well as men and women, cattle and flocks and herds and animals of every kind, vineyards also and orchards, meadows, pastures, harvests, grains and other fruits of the earth; [...]"<ref>[[Wikisource:Summis desiderantes]]</ref>

The bull was written in response to the request of [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] Heinrich Kramer for explicit authority to prosecute witchcraft in Germany, after he was refused assistance by the local ecclesiastical authorities,<ref>Kors, Alan Charles; Peters, Edward (2000). Witchcraft in Europe, 400–1700: A Documentary History. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. {{ISBN|0812217519}}, p. 177</ref> who disputed his authority to work in their dioceses. Some scholars view the bull as "clearly political", motivated by jurisdictional disputes between the local German Catholic priests and clerics from the Office of the Inquisition who answered more directly to the pope.<ref>Darst, David H. (15 October 1979). "Witchcraft in Spain: The Testimony of Martín de Castañega's Treatise on Superstition and Witchcraft (1529)". ''Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society'' 123 (5): p. 298</ref>
[[File:Malleus maleficarum, Köln 1520, Titelseite.jpg|thumb|''Malleus Maleficarum'', 1520 edition]]

Nonetheless, the bull failed to ensure that Kramer obtained the support he had hoped for, causing him to retire and to compile his views on witchcraft into his book ''[[Malleus Maleficarum]]'', which was published in 1487. Kramer would later claim that witchcraft was to blame for bad weather. Both the papal letter appended to the work and the supposed endorsement of Cologne University for it are problematic. The letter of Innocent VIII is not an approval of the book to which it was appended, but rather a charge to inquisitors to investigate diabolical sorcery and a warning to those who might impede them in their duty, that is, a papal letter in the by then conventional tradition established by John XXII and other popes through Eugenius IV and Nicholas V (1447–55).<ref>cf., Joyy et al., ''Witchcraft and Magic In Europe'', p. 239 (2002).</ref>

===Other events===
In 1487, Innocent confirmed [[Tomas de Torquemada]] as Grand Inquisitor of [[Spain]]. Also in 1487, Innocent issued a bull [[Id Nostri Cordis]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Innocent VIII |title=Id nostri cordis |series=Histoire générale des Eglises Evangeliques des Vallées du Piemont ou Vaudoises |volume=2 |page=8|date=1669}}</ref> denouncing the views of the [[Waldensians]] (Vaudois), offering plenary [[indulgence]] to all who should engage in a Crusade against them. Alberto de' Capitanei, archdeacon of [[Cremona]], responded to the bull by organizing a crusade to fulfill its order and launched an offensive in the provinces of [[Dauphiné]] and [[Piedmont]]. [[Charles I, Duke of Savoy]] eventually interfered to save his territories from further confusion and promised the Vaudois peace, but not before the offensive had devastated the area and many of the Vaudois fled to [[Provence]] and south to Italy.

The noted [[Franciscan]] theologian [[Angelo Carletti di Chivasso]], whom Innocent in 1491 appointed as Apostolic Nuncio and Commissary, conjointly with the [[Bishop of Mauriana]], was involved in reaching the peaceful agreement between Catholics and Waldensians.<ref name=Donovan>{{cite CE1913|last=Donovan |first=Stephen |wstitle=Bl. Angelo Carletti di Chivasso |volume=1}}</ref>

In 1486, Innocent VIII was persuaded that at least thirteen of the 900 theses of [[Giovanni Pico della Mirandola]] were heretical, and the book containing the theses was interdicted.<ref>{{cite CE1913|last=Lejay |first=Paul |wstitle=Giovanni Pico della Mirandola |volume=10}}</ref>

In Rome, he ordered the [[Belvedere (structure)|Belvedere of the Vatican]] to be built, intended for summer use, on an unarticulated slope above the [[Vatican Palace]]. His successor would later turn the building into the [[Cortile del Belvedere]]. In season, he hunted at Castello della Magliana, which he enlarged. Constantly confronted with a depleted treasury, he resorted to the objectionable expedient of creating new offices and granting them to the highest bidders.<ref name=Weber/> The fall of [[Granada]] in January 1492, was celebrated in the Vatican and Innocent granted [[Ferdinand II of Aragon]] the epithet "Catholic Majesty."

===Slavery===
It was noted that the attitude of Renaissance popes towards slavery, a common institution worldwide in contemporary cultures, varied. Minnich states that those who allowed the slave trade did so in the hope of gaining converts to Christianity.<ref name="minnich">Minnich, p. 281</ref> In the case of Innocent he permitted trade with [[Barbary]] merchants in which foodstuffs would be given in exchange for slaves who could then be converted to Christianity.<ref name="minnich" />

King Ferdinand of Aragon gave Innocent 100 [[Moors|Moor]]ish slaves, who were shared out with favoured Cardinals.<ref>"For the glory of God", Rodney Stark, p. 330, Princeton University Press, 2003, {{ISBN|0691114366}})</ref> The slaves of Innocent were called ''mori'', meaning "dark-skinned men", in contrast to negro slaves who were called ''mori neri'', meaning "black moors".<ref>David Brion Davis, p. 101 fn. 21</ref>

===Canonizations===
In 1484, Innocent granted formal approval for the local veneration of [[Catherine of Vadstena]], recognizing her cult and affirming her status within the traditions of regional religious devotion—a significant step toward legitimizing her sanctity within the broader framework of the Catholic Church.<ref>{{cite book |title=Sanctity in the North Saints, Lives, and Cults in Medieval Scandinavia |editor-first=Thomas A. |editor-last=DuBois |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=2008 |p=287}}</ref> In 1485, at [[Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Frederick III's]] request, Innocent canonized [[Leopold III, Margrave of Austria|Leopold III]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Reforming Saints: Saints' Lives and Their Authors in Germany, 1470-1530 |first=David J. |last=Collins |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2008 |page=130}}</ref>

===Consistories===
{{main|Cardinals created by Innocent VIII}}
Innocent VIII named eight cardinals in one consistory which was held on 9 March 1489; the pope named three of those cardinals ''[[in pectore]]'' (one of whom being a successor in [[Pope Leo X|Giovanni de' Medici]] who became Pope Leo X) with two of them having their names released after the pope died to ensure that they could vote in the [[Papal conclave, 1492|1492 conclave]].