1
February 1691 A.D. Alexander
VIII (Pietro Ottoboni) Dies—Rome’s 241st; Unremarkable Other Than Revival of Sinecures
for Relatives
Peterson, John Bertram. "Pope Alexander
VIII." The
Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert
Appleton Company, 1907.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01295a.htm. Accessed 2 Oct 2014.
Alexander VIII
Pietro Ottoboni, born at Venice, April, 1610; elected 5
October, 1689; died at Rome, 1 February, 1691. He
was the son of Marco Ottoboni,
chancellor of the Republic of Venice, and
a descendant of a noble family of
that city. The future pope enjoyed
ail that wealth and social position
could contribute towards a perfect education. His
early studies were made with marked brilliancy at the University of Padua,
where, in 1627, he secured the doctorate in canon and civil law. He
went to Rome, during the
pontificate of Urban VIII (1623-44),
and was made governor of Terni, Rieti, andSpoleto. For
fourteen years he served as auditor of the Rota. At the request of
theRepublic this
favoured son was made Cardinal by Innocent X (19
February, 1652), and was later given the Bishopric of Brescia, in Venetian territory?
where he quietly spent the best years of middle life. Clement IX made
him Cardinal-Datary. He was already an octogenarian when elected to the papacy, and lived but sixteen
months, during which time little of importance was done. Louis XIV of France whose
political situation was now critical, profited by the peaceful dispositions of
the new Pope,
restored to him Avignon, and
renounced the long-abused right of asylum for
theFrench Embassy.
(See ALEXANDER VII.) But
the king's conciliatory spirit did
not dissuade the resolute Pope from
declaring (4 August, 1690) that the Declaration of Gallican Liberties, drawn up
in 1682, was null and invalid. He assisted his nativeVenice by
generous subsidies in the war against
the Turks, and he purchased for
theVatican library the
books and manuscripts owned
by Queen Christina of Sweden.
He condemned the doctrine of a
number of variously erroneous propositions,
among them (24 August, 1690) the doctrine of
"philosophical sin" (see SIN); cf. Denzinger,
"Enchiridion Symb. et Defin." (9th ed., Freiburg, 1900), 274-278; and Vacant "Dict.
de théol. cath." (Paris, 1903), I, 748-763. Alexander was an
upright man,
generous, peace-loving, and indulgent. Out of compassion for the poor of
well-nigh impoverished Italy, he sought to succour
them by reducing the taxes. But this same generous nature led
him to bestow on his relations the riches they
were eager to accumulate; in their behalf, and to the discredit of his
pontificate, he revived sinecure offices which had been suppressed by his
predecessor.
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