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On November 19, 2015, Vatican City issued the stamp above to mark the 4th centenary of the birth of Pope Innocent XII, who served as pope at the end of the seventeenth century. The stamp is based on an etching found in the Offices of the Secretariat of State.
 
The future pope was born Antonio Pignatelli on March 13, 1615, in Spinazzola in the Kingdom of Naples. He went on to be educated at the Collegio Romano, earning doctorates in both canon and civil law. At the age of 20, he became an official in the papal court and began a distinguished diplomatic career, serving Popes Urban VIII, Innocent XI and Alexander VIII. His stations included tours across Italy, as well as Poland and Malta. He was created a cardinal in 1681 by Pope Innocent XI, and eventually became the Archbishop of Naples in 1686.
 
After the death of Pope Alexander VIII in early 1691, the conclave of cardinals convened and was unable to elect a successor following five months of deliberations. Cardinal Pignatelli emerged as a compromise candidate and was elected in July 1691, taking the name Innocent XII.
 
Innocent XII immediately took up the cause of his two recent predecessors, Innocent XI, and Alexander VIII, and moved to abolish the practice of nepotism. It was common practice for the pope to elevate family members to positions within the Curia, giving them both power and wealth. A common term dating to the Middle Ages was that of “Cardinal Nephew” since popes often named their nephews to the role of cardinal, with many assuming positions of great power within the papal court. With the issuance of the papal Bull Romanum decet Pontificem in 1692, Innocent XII decreed that no future pope should be permitted to bestow the cardinalate on more than one of his kinsmen. The Bull also ensured that no revenue or land could be bestowed on relatives.
 
An extremely generous pope, Innocent XII moved to help the poor through many charitable acts. He turned part of the Lateran Palace into a hospital for the needy and established a number of charitable and educational institutions. He was hugely popular with the people and worked to aid the citizenry during the plague and following earthquakes and floods during his pontificate.
 
In the last years of his papacy, Innocent XII was quite ill (reportedly due to rheumatic disease or gout). He was unable to attend the opening of the Holy Door to mark the beginning of the Holy Year of 1700 and eventually died on September 27, 1700.
 
References:
 
Wikipedia.com,<a href= 
'https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Innocent_XII'>Pope Innocent XII</a>
 
Wikipedia.com, <a href= 
'https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal-nephew'>Cardinal-nephew</a>
 
New Advent, <a href= 
'https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08022a.htm'>Pope Innocent XII</a>
 
UFN, November 19, 2015, <a href=
'https://vaticanstamps.org/UFN/images/2015-2-15-1.jpg'>4th Centenary of the Birth of Pope Innocent XII</a>
 
Vatican Philatelic Society website (www.vaticanstamps.org), Stamp Database Search

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