Sede Vacante 1691

PALUZZO CARDINAL PALUZZI ALTIERI DEGLI ALBERTONI (1623-1698). Paluzzo Paluzzi was a member of one of Rome's distinguished families. He obtained a doctorate in law at the University of Perugia. He joined the Apostolic Chamber under Urban VIII Barberini, and became Auditor General under Alexander VII Chigi. His family was joined with the Altieri when his nephew, Gaspare Albertoni, married the niece and sole heiress of the family of Emilio Cardinal Altieri. In 1664 he was named Cardinal Priest and received the titulus of SS. Apostoli (which he exchanged for S. Crisogono and then S. Maria in Trastevere). He was elected Bishop of Montefiascone and Corneto in 1666.

In 1670, his relative Emilio Cardinal Altieri, was elected Pope Clement X, and on the day of the election the new pope adopted Paluzzo Paluzzi and named him Cardinal Nephew. He received a number of important benefices as a result: Archbishop of Ravenna (1670-1674?), Legate in Avignon (1670), Legate in Urbino (1673-1677), Governor of Tivoli. He became Chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church on August 4, 1671, a post which he held until his death on June 29, 1698. In 1691 he was promoted to Cardinal Bishop of Sabina, then Palestrina, and then to Porto and Santa Rufina in 1698. He was Archpriest of the Lateran from 1693-1698.

He participated in the Conclaves of 1667 and 1669-70 and presided at the Conclaves of 1676, 1689, and 1691.

Alexander VII Ottoboni ruled only sixteen months, but he made gestures toward easing the situation with the French government, attempting to work through back-channels by way of Madame de Maintenon. In this effort he was aided by the Glorious Revolution in England (1688), which brought the Protestant William III of Orange to the English throne, much to the discomfort of Louis XIV. But when the Pope stood firm both on the Gallican Articles and the matter of the regalian rights, and issued a constitution Inter Multiplices on his deathbed nullifying both actions of Louis XIV, all hopes collapsed.

The Conclave of 1691 began on February 11 (or 4), with forty-three cardinals in attendance, and lasted a stormy five months, made all the worse near the end by the heat of a Roman summer and riots in the streets of Rome. The French and Imperial ambassadors were at odds, as were important members of their suites with each other. For some time Gregorio Cardinal Barbadigo seemed likely to prevail, but was unable to secure two-thirds. A compromise candidate, Antonio Pignatelli, Archbishop of Naples (Innocent XII, 1691-1700), was elected on July 12. He had received 53 of 61 votes. He was crowned on July 15, and took possession of the Lateran Basilica on April 13, 1692.

G. Novaes, Elementi della storia de' sommi pontefici Vol. XI (Roma 1822) 106-108. Alexis François Artaud de Montor Histoire des souverains pontifes romains VI (Paris 1851) 206-207, repeats Novaes' notes, neither having any insight. G. Moroni, Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica Vol. 36 (Venezia 1846) 32-33 adds nothing.