INNOCENT VI, Pope. - A native of Limousin, Stephen Aubert was elected pope on 18 Dec. 1352 and crowned on the 30th. He was an esteemed jurist who had exercised the functions of index maior in the seneschalsy of Toulouse, before rising to the episcopal sees of Noyon, Clermont and Ostia, and before obtaining the office of grand penitentiary.

I. must be numbered among the reforming popes; he hastened (6 July 1353) to declare null the capitulation signed, during the Conclave, by the members of the Sacred College, as an attempt against the fullness of the power that Christ had conferred on Peter (const. Sollicitudo pastoralis, in Bullarium Romanum, ed. Ch. Coquelines, III, 11, Rome 1741, pp. 316-18). Furthermore he saw to it that the clergy observed residence, repressed the abuses that had been introduced into certain religious Orders and imposed new Rules upon the latter. With energy, though in vain, he defended the rights of marriage which Peter the Cruel, king of Castile, had violated. If he did not protest against the publication of the "Golden Bull" (14 Jan. 1356) which instituted a new regime for the election of the king of the Romans (passing over in silence the claims of the Holy See to approve and confirm that election and to replace the imperial authority in Italy during the vacancy of the Empire) it was undoubtedly because the famous edict detached the peninsula from that same Empire and consequently favored his personal policy beyond the Alps.

I. indeed intended to reconquer the States of the Church. He had the merit of discovering a man of genius in Card. Gil Álvarez de Albornoz, who knew how to reduce to obedience the prefect of Rome, Giovanni di Vico, the barons of the Patrimony of St. Peter, of the March of Ancona and of Romagna, and succeeded in wresting Bologna from the hands of Bernabò Visconti.

The worries created for him by the Hundred Years' War and the diplomatic setbacks he had to suffer undermined his frail health. He died on 12 Sept. 1362; he was buried in the church of the charterhouse of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, which he had founded.

Bibliography9 works

BIBL.: C. Cipolla, I. VI. e la casa di Savoia (Miscellanea di storia italiana, 6), Torino 1902, pp. 149-215; K. Zecmer, Die Goldene Bulle Kaiser Karls IV., Weimar 1908; E. Dèpres, Innocenz VI. Lettres closes, patentes et curiales se rapportant à la France, Parigi 1909; W. Scheffler, Karl IV. und Innocenz VI. Beiträge zur Geschichte ihrer Beziehungen, Berlino 1912; St. Balasius, Vitae paparum Avenionemium, ed. G. Mollat, I. Parigi 1916, pp. 309-46; II. ivi 1928, pp. 433-91; E. Filippini, Il card. Egidio Albornoz, Bologna 1933 (libro insufficiente); G. Biscan, Le relazioni dei Visconti con la Chiesa, Bernabò e il vicariato di Bologna, I. VI e i primi processi 1355-62, in Archivio storico lombardo, nuova serie, 2 (1937), pp. 119-93; G. Mollat, Les papes d'Avignon, 9ª ed., Parigi 1930, pp. 97-108 (con abbondante bibl.).

@incollection{ec7_innocenzo_vi_papa, author = {Mollat, Guglielmo}, title = {Innocenzo VI, papa}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {16--17}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/innocenzo-vi-papa} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

Innocent VI, Pope

About this entry