Urban VIII. was more successful in ecclesiastical matters than in international politics. Although the religious revival was para lysed in Germany by the war, it bore fruit in other countries. St. Vincent de Paul in France, and a large number of devoted mis sionaries in other countries, helped to spread Christianity in Asia, Africa and America. The pope created the Propaganda College and the famous Propaganda Press in order to develop missionary work. He initiated a new arrangement of the calendar of festivals, and conferred the title of "Eminence" on the Cardinals. The con demnation of Galileo (1633), whose discoveries he had celebrated in verse when he was a cardinal, took place during the pontificate of Urban VIII. This regrettable blunder was due to a number of unfortunate influences. The pope, who was an excellent classical scholar, was a patron of literature and published his own verses. He also revised the breviary, but it was to be regretted that the beautiful old hymns were re-written in classical metre. He was a great builder : churches and palaces, and fountains in the streets and squares of Rome, were set up, and the fortifications of the city were improved. The bees which appear on the coat of arms of the Barberini may be seen on an immense number of the public buildings of Rome; and the city is 'full of monuments by the great baroque architect Bernini, who built the gigantic Confes sional in St. Peter's and the mausoleum of the famous Countess Matilda. This proud and self-willed pope was the last to practice nepotism on a grand scale.
The pontificate of Innocent X., who was a Pamphili by birth, was darkened by the quarrels of his nephews, and by his relation to his ambitious and greedy sister-in law Donna Olympia, who completely ruled the well-meaning old man and was the most powerful person in the Curia. This regret table state of affairs, which the Calvinists made a pretext for un justified aspersions on the morals of the pope, did much to injure his authority. He was exceedingly zealous in maintaining the purity of doctrine. The minds of the faithful had been much exer cised by the controversies on the question of grace which had arisen since the Council of Trent; and in 1655 the pope condemned five theses from the Augustinus of Cornelius Jansenius, which had originated the Jansenist movement. Innocent X., like his prede cessors, refused to recognize the king of the newly founded king dom of Portugal, out of consideration for Spain. He sent money to the consort of the unhappy King Charles I. of England, and supported the Catholic Irish against the English, as also the Vene tians in their struggle with the Turks. The conversion of several Protestant princes of Germany to Catholicism was a matter for great satisfaction. The pope protested against the Peace of West phalia, 1648 (q.v.)—not against the conclusion of peace itself, but against those clauses of the treaty which were contrary to the rights of the Church and the pope. Innocent was buried in the Church of Sant' Agnese, on the Piazza Navona; this church, as well as the fountain by Bernini in the same Piazza, was erected by his order. A portrait of him by Velazquez is to be
seen in the Doria Gallery.
Fabio Chigi, who had for many years been Nuncio in Cologne, now became pope under the title of Alexander VII. The new pope was adroit, learned and ascetic. Unfortunately he too was not free from the bad custom of nepo tism, which was only too closely bound up with the traditions of the Curia; he provided for his relatives from Siena with lands and lucrative offices. He disliked political business, and left it for the most part to his secretary of State, Rospigliosi. He was pru dent in the conduct of Church affairs ; he was a patron of the Jesuits and was vigilant against the manoeuvres of the Jansenists. He had many difficulties with Portugal, where the king threatened to set up a national Church, and still more with Louis XIV. of France, who, on the pretext that his ambassador had been in sulted by the papal guard, broke off relations with Rome and occupied Avignon. The pope was helpless against him, and was obliged to conclude a humiliating treaty with him in 1664. In view of the growth of Gallicanism, this was a severe blow to his authority. On the other hand, he derived great satisfaction from the fact that Queen Christina of Sweden, the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, became a convert to the Catholic faith and settled in Rome, where she died in 1689. He commissioned Bernini to build the splendid Scala Regia in the Vatican and the colonnades of the square of St. Peter's. Bernini also built his tomb in St. Peter's.
Another Tuscan, the former secretary of State Rospigliosi, was now elected to the Holy See under the title of Clement IX. He was a man of affable character and unusual literary culture. Temperate in his own life, he neverthe less did not forget the interests of his relatives. He lightened the taxes of the population of Rome. He settled the dispute with Portugal, and normal ecclesiastical conditions were restored. He also took an active part in the negotiation of the Peace of Aix between France and Spain (i668). He promoted missionary work, and helped the Venetians in their struggle against the Turks; in spite of this, however, it proved impossible to save Candia. The provisional settlement of the Jansenist controversy is also due to Clement IX.
Clement X., the last of the Roman family of the Altieri, was already 8o when he became pope. He was a man of pious and charitable character. He assisted the Poles in their difficult struggle against the Turks. The business of gov ernment was carried on by his adopted nephew, the ambitious Cardinal Paluzzi-Altieri, a self-seeker and a man of little political ability. It was Clement X. who planned the Piazza del Gesu and constructed the second fountain in the square of St. Peter's. His great tomb is to be seen in St. Peter's itself.