Innocent VII

Innocent VII (born 1336, Sulmona, Kingdom of Sicily—died Nov. 6, 1406, Rome) was the pope from 1404 to 1406.

Appointed archbishop of Ravenna (1387) by Pope Urban VI and, in 1389, bishop of Bologna, he was made cardinal by Pope Boniface IX, whom he succeeded on Oct. 17, 1404. Innocent’s election was opposed at Rome, where it caused considerable strife, and at Avignon, Fr., where the Western Schism (1378–1417) was perpetuated by the rival election of Antipope Benedict XIII. King Ladislas of Naples went to Rome and suppressed the revolutionaries who were opposing the Pope’s temporal authority. In appreciation, Innocent nominated Ladislas as “defender” of the church and promised the King not to negotiate with Benedict unless the Antipope recognized Ladislas’ claims to Naples.

In late 1404 Innocent summoned a general council at Rome to heal the Schism, but the council never assembled because the Romans again rebelled when Innocent’s nephew, Cardinal Ludovico de’ Migliorati, murdered some of the leaders of the insurrection that Ladislas had quashed. Innocent was forced to flee to Viterbo, Papal States, on Aug. 6, 1405. Later realizing that the Pope was not guilty, the Romans submitted. In March 1406 Innocent returned to Rome, where he died before resolving the Schism and while making plans to restore the Roman University.

Britannica Quiz

Pop Quiz: 19 Things to Know About Christianity