INNOCENT XIII. (Michele Angelo Conti), pope from 1721 to 1724, the son of the duke of Poli, and a member of a family that had produced several popes, among them Innocent III., was born in Rome on May 13, 1655, served as nuncio in Switzer land and Portugal, was made cardinal and bishop of Osimo and Viterbo by Clement XI., whom he succeeded on May 8, 1721. One of his first acts was to invest the emperor Charles VI. with Naples (17 2 2) ; he protested in vain against the imperial investi ture of Don Carlos with Parma and Piacenza. He recognized the Pretender, "James III.," and promised him subsidies conditional upon the re-establishment of Roman Catholicism in England. Moved by deep-seated distrust of the Jesuits and by their con tinued practice of "Accommodation," despite express papal pro hibition (see CLEMENT XI.), Innocent forbade the Order to re ceive new members in China, and was said to have meditated its suppression. This encouraged the French Jansenist bishops to press for the revocation of the bull Unigenitus; but the pope com manded its unreserved acceptance. Innocent died on March 7, 1724, and was succeeded by Benedict XIII.
See Guarnacci, Vitae et res gestae Pontiff. Rom. 0751), ii. 137 sqq., 381 sqq.; Sandini, Vitae Pontiff. Rom. (Padua, 1739) ; M. v. Mayer, Die Papstwahl Innocenz' XIII. (1874) ; Michaud, "La Fin du Clement XI. et le commencement du pontificat d'Innocent XIII." in the Inter nat. Theol. Zeitschr. v. 42 sqq., 304 sqq.