Alexander VII, Pope

ALEXANDER VII, Pope. - Fabio Chigi, b. at Siena on 13 Feb. 1599. He was in Rome from Dec. 1626 to Oct. 1629; vice-legate at Ferrara until June 1634, he also discharged the functions of commissioner of arms and commissioner-regulator of the frontiers with the Venetians. Recalled to Rome and appointed inquisitor and apostolic delegate to Malta, he was examined for the bishopric of Nicastro and received the three major orders. Having exchanged Nicastro for Nardò, he reached Malta in Oct. 1634 and was consecrated bishop in July 1635. Returning to Rome, he left it again shortly afterward for Cologne, where he arrived on 9 Aug. 1639, to fill there the post of nuncio on the Rhine. In Dec. 1643 he was also charged with the duties of extraordinary nuncio to the congress for peace. In March 1644 he passed from Cologne to Münster in Westphalia, immediately beginning there an intense work of mediation between the imperial and Spanish parties on one side and the French on the other, always supported by the Venetian ambassador Alvise Contarini. He defended with all his might the rights of Catholicism, betrayed ever more each day, in his judgment, by the Catholic princes of Germany and by the king of Spain. He refused to allow the name of the Pope and his own to appear in the peace treaties, and he raised a solemn written protest against the injuries done to the rights of the Catholic Church. In 1649 he left Münster for Aachen, in order to give once more his service as mediator to the negotiations between Spain and France. Recalled to Rome to assume the post of secretary of State, he arrived there on 30 Nov. 1651; created cardinal on 19 Feb. 1652, he received the title of S. Maria del Popolo and resigned the church of Nardò for that of Imola. On 7 Jan. 1655 Innocent X expired in his arms. Having entered the conclave on 17 Jan., he was elected Pope on 7 Apr. and crowned on the 18th. In Dec. he welcomed in Rome Queen Christina of Sweden and conferred on her the sacrament of Confirmation. When the plague broke out in Rome, the wise measures adopted by the Pope succeeded in keeping the mortality within fairly narrow limits (May 1656-Aug. 1657). Having obtained the return to Venetian territory of the proscribed Jesuits, he furnished aid to the republic, on several occasions, for the war against the Turks. Mazarin (d. in 1661), from the very beginning of the pontificate, and then Hugues de Lionne, on account of an unpleasant incident (20 Aug. 1662) involving the papal guard's clash with the duke of Créqui, ambassador of France, made relations between Louis XIV and A. extremely difficult. But the legation in France of his nephew card. Flavio Chigi, which was supposed to mark the extreme humiliation of the Pope, after the peace of Pisa (12 Feb. 1664), turned out instead to be a triumphal journey. The struggle against Jansenism, in France and in the Low Countries, cost the Pope great labors. In 1658 A. canonized St. Thomas of Villanova, in 1665 St. Francis de Sales, whom he had always admired and venerated in a most special way. In 5 promotions, he created 38 cardinals, among them Giulio Rospigliosi, his successor in the papacy under the name of Clement IX, Sforza Pallavicino and the blessed Gregory Barbarigo. A. died on 22 May 1667. His body rests in the basilica of St. Peter, in the monument designed by G. L. Bernini (1672-78).

A graceful Latin poet (Philomathi Musae iuveniles, Cologne 1645, Antwerp 1654, Paris 1656, Amsterdam 1660), before and during his pontificate he loved the company of and encouraged the works of many scholars and men of letters. A. united with the Vatican Library that of the dukes of Urbino (1658) and great benefac-

He also acquired [rights] toward the Vatican Secret Archive. Having completed the construction of the Palazzo della Sapienza, he founded there the Alessandrina Library (1667). To Fabio Chigi is due, in large part, the formation of the Chigi Library. In his youth he had compiled a list of paintings, sculptures and architecture of Siena (ms. Chigiano I, I, 11), still an important source for the history of Sienese art. During A.'s pontificate the building of Propaganda Fide (1649-66) was brought to completion; at S. Maria del Popolo the work of the young Fabio Chigi was continued (1626-27, 1652, 1655-60); the facade of S. Maria della Pace was created and its square laid out (1656-67); the Berninian colonnade of St. Peter's Square arose (1656-57); and the altar of the chair in the same basilica (1656-65). Between 1658 and 1662 the facade of S. Maria in Via Lata and the church of S. Tommaso da Villanova in Castelgandolfo were built; between 1660 and 1675 that of S. Maria in Portico in Campitelli; between 1662 and 1664 the church of the Assunta and the adjacent buildings in Ariccia. Between 1662 and 1679 the works for the symmetrical churches of S. Maria in Monte Santo and S. Maria dei Miracoli in Piazza del Popolo took place. To the magnificence of the same Pontiff are furthermore due: the transformation of the Scala Regia (1663-66), and the Sala Ducale (1665) in the Vatican; the facade of S. Andrea della Valle (1665), and finally the erection of the obelisk mounted on the elephant in Piazza della Minerva (1666-67). - See Pl. LXI.

Giovanni Incisa della Rocchetta