Innocent Ix
Innocent Ix [1]
(Gidvanni Antonio Facchinetti), born at Bologna in 1519, had distinguished himself as papal legate at Trent, afterwards as the papal nuncio at Venice, and as president of the Inquisition. He was elected pope after the death of Gregory XIV, in Oct. 1591. He bore a good reputation for learning and piety, but he was too old and feeble for the papal chair, and constantly confined to his bed by illness, and was even obliged to give his audiences there. Notwithstanding these difficulties, however, he took an active part in the affairs of France, favoring the party of the League and of Spain, as his predecessor Gregory had done. A letter of his is still extant (in Cayet, Chronologie novenaire), in which he urges Alexander Farnese to hasten the equipment of his troops, to invade France, and to relieve Rouen, all which that general forthwith executed with so much success and skill. He died Dec. 30, 1591, after a short reign of only two months, and was succeeded by Clement VIII. See Labbe, Concilia, 15, 1430; Duchesne, Historiae Francorum Scriptores, 2, 457; Fleury, Hist. Ecclis. 1. 26, chap. 179; Sismondi, Hist. des Francais, 21:124; B. Justiniani, Oratio habita in fanere Inocentii IX (Rome, 1592, 4to); Herzog, Real-Encyklop. 6:673; English Cyclop.; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. G neral, 25; 914; Ranke, History of the Popes of the 16th and 17th Cent. 3, 231, 232; Mosheim, Eccles. Hist. cent. 16,sec. 3, pt. 1, ch. 1.
