Innocent VI.
(Etienne Aubert), pope from the 18th of
December 1352 to the 12th of September 1362, was born at
Mons in Limousin. He became professor of civil law at Toulouse
and subsequently chief judge of the city. Having taken orders,
he was raised to the see of Noyon and translated in 1340 to
that of Clermont. In 1342 he was made cardinal-priest of Sti
Giovanni e Paolo, and ten years later cardinal-bishop of Ostia
and Velletri, grand penitentiary, and administrator of the
bishopric of Avignon. On the death of Clement VI., the cardinals
made a solemn agreement imposing obligations, mainly in favour
of the college as a whole, on whichever of their number should
be elected pope. Aubert was one of the minority who signed
the agreement with the reservation that in so doing he would
not violate any law, and was elected pope on this understanding;
not long after his accession he declared the agreement null and
void, as infringing the divinely-bestowed power of the papacy.
Innocent was one of the best Avignon popes and filled with
reforming zeal; he revoked the reservations and commendations
of his predecessor and prohibited pluralities; urged upon the
higher clergy the duty of residence in their sees, and diminished
the luxury of the papal court. Largely through the influence of
Petrarch, whom he called to Avignon, he released Cola di Rienzo,
who had been sent a prisoner in August 1352 from Prague to
Avignon, and used the latter to assist Cardinal Albornoz, vicar-general
of the States of the Church, in tranquillizing Italy and
restoring the papal power at Rome. Innocent caused Charles IV.
to be crowned emperor at Rome in 1355, but protested against
the famous “Golden Bull” of the following year, which prohibited
papal interference in German royal elections. He
renewed the ban against Peter the Cruel of Castile, and interfered
in vain against Peter IV. of Aragon. He made peace between
Venice and Genoa, and in 1360 arranged the treaty of Bretigny
between France and England. In the last years of his pontificate
he was busied with preparations for a crusade and for the reunion
of Christendom, and sent to Constantinople the celebrated
Carmelite monk, Peter Thomas, to negotiate with the claimants
to the Greek throne. He instituted in 1354 the festival of the
Holy Lance. Innocent was a strong and earnest man of monastic
temperament, but not altogether free from nepotism. He was
succeeded by Urban V.
The chief sources for the life of Innocent VI. are in Baluzius,
Vitae Pap. Avenion
, vol. i. (Paris, 1693);
Magnum bullarium
Romanum
, vol. iv. (Turin, 1859); E. Werunsky,
Excerpta ex registris
Clementis VI. et Innocentii VI.
(Innsbruck, 1885). See also L.
Pastor
History of the Popes
, vol. i. trans. by F. I. Antrobus (London,
1899); F. Gregorovius,
Rome in the Middle Ages
, vol. 6, trans. by
Mrs G. W. Hamilton (London, 1900?1902); D. Cerri,
Innocenzo
Papa VI.
(Turin, 1873); J. B. Christophe,
Histoire de la papaute
pendant le XIV
e
siecle
, vol. 2 (Paris, 1853); M. Souchon,
Die
Papstwahlen
(Brunswick, 1888); G. Daumet,
Innocent VI. et
Blanche de Bourbon
(Paris, 1899); E. Werunsky,
Gesch. Kaiser
Karls IV.
(Innsbruck, 1892). There is an excellent article by
M. Naumann in Hauck’s
Realencyklopadie
, 3rd ed.
(
C. H. Ha.
)