Pope Alexander VIII

Common card · No. 225191

Pope Alexander VIII (Italian: Alessandro VIII; 22 April 1610 – 1 February 1691), born Pietro Vito Ottoboni, was head of the Catholic Church and leader of the Papal States from 6 October 1689 to his death in February 1691. He is the most recent pope to take the pontifical name "Alexander". Born in the Republic of Venice, Ottoboni earned a doctorate in canon and civil law from the University of Padua. He was made a cardinalate by Pope Innocent X, and Ottoboni was elected pope at the 1689 conclave, taking the name Alexander VIII. His papacy is known for having overturned many of the policies of his predecessor, Innocent XI. He indulged in nepotism to further enrich his family, which exhausted the papal treasury, later forcing his successor, Innocent XII, to implement austere measures to restore the papal coffers. Despite his brief papacy, during which little of importance was undertaken, Alexander VIII is known for having condemned the doctrines of the so-called philosophical sin which was...

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