Pope Innocent VIII
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| Innocent VIII | |
|---|---|
| |
| Birth name | Giovanni Battista Cibo |
| Papacy began | 29 August, 1484 |
| Papacy ended | 25 July, 1492 |
| Predecessor | Sixtus IV |
| Successor | Alexander VI |
| Born | 1432 Genoa, Italy |
| Died | 25 July, 1492 Rome |
| Other Popes named Innocent | |
Pope Innocent VIII (1432 – July 25, 1492), born Giovanni Battista Cybo, was Pope from 1484 until his death.
[edit] Biography
Giovanni Battista Cybo (or Cibo) was born at Genoa, the son of Aran Cybo who under Pope Calixtus III (1455–58) had been a senator at Rome. His early years were spent at the Neapolitan court, and subsequently he went to Padua and Rome for his education. In Rome he became a priest in the retinue of cardinal Calandnini, half-brother to Pope Nicholas V (1447–55); the influence of his friends procured for him, from Pope Paul II (1464–71) the bishopric of Savona, and in 1473, with the support of Giuliano Della Rovere, he was made cardinal by Pope Sixtus IV (1471–84), whom he succeeded on August 29, 1484 as Pope Innocent VIII.
The conclave was riven with faction, while gangs rioted in the streets.
Shortly after his coronation Innocent VIII addressed a fruitless summons to Christendom to unite in a crusade against the infidels; the amount of his own zeal may in some degree be estimated from the fact that in 1489, in consideration of a yearly sum of 40,000 ducats and a gift of the spearhead which had pierced the side of Jesus, he consented to favour Bayazid II (1481–1512) by detaining the Sultan's fugitive brother in close confinement in the Vatican.
Innocent VIII, in his papal bull Summis desiderantes (5 December, 1484) instigated very severe measures against magicians and witches in Germany; the principles enunciated by him were afterwards embodied in the Malleus Maleficarum (1487). It was also he who in 1487 appointed Tomas de Torquemada to be grand inquisitor of Spain; he was a strong supporter of the Spanish Inquisition; he also urged a crusade against the Waldensians, offering plenary indulgence to all who should engage in it. In 1486, he prohibited, on pain of severe ecclesiastical censures, the reading of the nine hundred propositions of Pico Mirandola.
An important event of his pontificate was the fall of Granada in January 1492, which was celebrated in the Vatican with great rejoicings. The Pope was sent a hundred fine Moorish slaves, whom he distributed among the Curia and to friends, and granted Ferdinand II of Aragon the epithet "Catholic Majesty."
Innocent VIII died on July 25, 1492, leaving behind him numerous children (Octo Nocens pueros genuit, totidemque puellas; Hunc merito poterit dicere Roma patrem – "Eight wicked boys born, and just as many girls, so this man could be entitled to be called Father of Rome"), towards whom his nepotism had been as lavish as it was shameless. Savonarola chastised him for his worldly ambitions. The unsympathetic chronicler Stefano Infessura provides many lively details, among them the apparent attempt to revive Innocent VIII on his deathbed by blood transfusions from three young male children (who thereafter died as well).
| Preceded by: Sixtus IV | Pope 1484–92 | Succeeded by: Alexander VI |
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