INNOCENT XI., CARDINAL BENEDETTO ODESOALCHI, of COMO, Suc ceeded Clement X. in 1676. It is said that he had been a soldier in his younger years, though this has been denied by others. (Count Torre Rezzonico, ' De Suppositis Militaribus Stipendiis Benedetto Gdescalchi) He was a man of great firmness and courage, austere in his morals, and inflexible in his resolutions. He took pains to reduce the pomp and luxury of his court, and to suppress abuses ; he was free from the weakness of nepotism, and his own nephew lived at Rome under his pontificate in a private condition : but his austerity made him many enemies, and his dislike of the then very powerful Jesuits still more. The principal event of his pontificate was his quarrel with the Imperious Louis XIV. of France, on the subject of the immunities enjoyed by the foreign ambassadors at Rome. As this incident exhibits in a singular light the character of the times, it may deserve a few words of explanation. By an old usage or prescription the foreign ambassadors at Rome had the right of asylum, not only in their vast palaces, but also in a certain district or boundary around them, including sometimes a whole street or square, which the officers of justice or police could not enter, and where consequently malefactors and dissolute persons found a ready shelter. These quartieri,' or free districts, were likewise places for the sale of contraband articles, and for defrauding the revenue. This abuse had become contagious : several of the Roman princes and cardinals claimed and enforced the same rights and immunities, so that only a small part of the city was left under the sway of the magistrates. The classical advocates for this absurd custom quoted the example of Romulus, who made his new town a place of refuge for all the lawless persons of the neigh bourhood. Innocent determined to put a stop to the abuse, and to be master in his own capital ; he however proceeded at first calmly and with sufficient cautioo. He would not disturb the present possessors
of those immunities, but he declared and made it officially known that in future he should not give audience to any new ambassador who did not renounce for himself and his successors all claim to the district immunities. Spain, Venice, and other states demurred at this very reasonable determination ; but the death of the Marechal d'Estrees, ambassador of France, brought the question to a crisis. Innocent repeated in a bull, dated May 1687, his previous resolve. Louis XIV. appointed to the embassy the Marquis of Lavardiu, and told him " to maintain at Rome the rights and the dignity of France;" and in order to support this dignity he gave him a numerous retinue of military and naval officers, who were to frighten the pope in his own capital. Lavardin's entrance into Rome, under such an escort, resembled that of a hostile commander. He had also been preceded by several hundred reduced French officers, who bad entered Rome as private travellers, but who took their quarters near the ambassador's palace, ready for any mischief. Innocent however remained firm; he refused to receive the new ambassador, and all the anger of Louis, who seized upon Avignon and threatened to send a fleet with troops on the Roman coast, had no effect upon him. Lavardin, having remained eighteen months at Rome without being able to see the pope, was obliged to return to France with his credentials unopened. The quarrel was not made up till the following pontificate : but the district immunities of the foreign ambassador* at Rome continued partly, and with some modifications, till the beginning of the 19th century. The Piazza di Spagna, and some of the adjacent streets, wero under the protection of the Spanish ambassador. Innocent died In August 1689, and was succeeded by Alexander VIII. (Botta, Sioria crite/ia.)