INNOCENT XI. (BENEDETTO ODESCALCII1), elected in 1676, was one of the most dis tinguished among the popes of the 17th century. He was a vigorous and judicious reformer, and his administration is entirely free from the stain of nepotism, which had sullied the fame of many of his predecessors. But his historical celebrity is mainly owing to his contest with Louis XIV., which illustrates as well the personal character of the pontiff, as the peculiar spirit of the age. The dispute began from an attempt on the part of the pope to put an end to the abuse of the king's keeping sees vacant, in vir tue of what was called the Droit de Regale, and appropriating their revenues. The resistance to this attempt drew forth the celebrated declarations of the French clergy as to the Galilean liberties. See GALLICAN Cullum But the actual conflict regarded the immunities enjoyed by the foreign ambassadors residing in Rome, and especially the right of asylum, which they claimed not only for their own residences, but also for a certain adjoining district of the city. These districts had gradually become so many foci of crime, and of frauds upon the revenue; and the pope, resolving to put an end to so flagrant an abuse, gave notice that, while lie would respect the rights of the exist ing ambassadors, he would not thereafter receive the credentials of any new ambassa dor who should not renounce these abusive claims for himself and his successors.
The great powers murmured at this threat, but it was with France that the crisis occur red, on the death of the marechal d'Estrees. The pope renewed his notice in May, 1687. Louis XIV., on the other hand, instructed his new ambassador to maintain the dignity of France, and sent a large body of military and naval °IBM'S to support his preten sions. Innocent persisted in refusing to grant an audience to the ambassador. Louis,in reprisal, seized on the papal territory of Avignon, and threatened to send a fleet to the coast of the papal states, but Innocent was immovable; and in the end, the ambassador was compelled to return with his credentials unopened, nor was the dispute adjusted till the following pontificate. Innocent died in 1689.