ALEXANDER VII. (Fabio Chigi), Pope from 1655 to 1667, was born at Siena on Feb. 13, 1599. He was successively inquisitor at Malta, vice-legate at Ferrar and nuncio in Cologne (1639-51). Innocent X. subsequently made him cardinal-secretary of State. When Innocent died, Chigi, the candidate favoured by Spain, was elected Pope on April 7, 1655. The Conclave believed he was strongly opposed to the nepotism then prevalent. In the first year of his reign Alexander VII. forbade his relations even to visit Rome; but in 1656 he gave them the best-paid civil and ecclesiastical offices, also palaces and princely estates. Alexander disliked business of State, preferring literature and philosophy ; a collection of his Latin poems appeared at Paris in 1656 under the title Philornathi Labores luveniles. He also encouraged archi tecture, and in particular constructed the beautiful colonnade in the piazza of St. Peter's. He favoured the Jesuits, in their con flict with the Jansenists, forbade in 1661 the translation of the Roman Missal into French, and in 1665 canonized Francis of Sales. His pontificate was marked by protracted controversies with France and Portugal. He died on May 22, 1667.