ALEXANDER VII. (Fabio Chigi),
pope from 1655 to 1667, was
born at Siena
? on the 13th of February 1599. He was successively inquisitor at Malta, vice-legate at Ferrara and nuncio in Cologne (1639-1651). Though expected to take part in the negotiations
which led in 1648 to the
Peace of Westphalia, he refused to
deliberate with heretics, and protested against the treaties
when completed. Innocent X. subsequently made him cardinal
secretary of state. When Innocent died, Chigi, the candidate
favoured by Spain, was elected pope on the 7th of April
1655. The conclave believed he was strongly opposed to the
nepotism then prevalent. In the first year of his reign
Alexander VII. forbade his relations even to visit Rome; but
in 1656 he gave them the best-paid civil and ecclesiastical
offices, also palaces and princely estates. Alexander disliked
business of state, preferring literature and philosophy; a
collection of his Latin poems appeared at Paris in 1656 under
the title
Philomathi Labores Juveniles. He also encouraged
architecture, and in particular sponsored
Gianlorenzo Bernini's construction of the beautiful colonnade in the piazza of St Peter's. He favoured the
Jesuits, especially in their conflict with the Jansenists
?,
forbade in 1661 the translation of the
Roman Missal into
French, and in 1665 canonized [Francis de Sales]
?. His pontificate
was marked by protracted controversies with France and
Portugal. He died on the 22nd of May 1667.
Initial text from 1911 encyclopedia -- Please update as needed
- preceded by Pope Innocent X (1644-1655)
- succeeded by Pope Clement IX (1667-1669)