Pope Innocent VIII |
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Bishop of Rome | |
Papacy began | 29 August 1484 |
Papacy ended | 25 July 1492 |
Predecessor | Sixtus IV |
Successor | Alexander VI |
Orders | |
Consecration | 28 January 1467 |
Created Cardinal | 7 May 1473 by Sixtus IV |
Personal details | |
Birth name | Giovanni Battista Cybo or Cibo |
Born | 1432 Genoa, Republic of Genoa |
Died | 25 July 1492 Rome, Papal States |
Papal styles of Pope Innocent VIII |
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Reference style | His Holiness |
Spoken style | Your Holiness |
Religious style | Holy Father |
Posthumous style | None |
Pope Innocent VIII (Latin: Innocentius VIII; 1432 – 25 July 1492), born Giovanni Battista Cybo (or Cibo), was Pope from 29 August 1484 to his death in 1492. Born into a prominent Genoese family he entered the church and was made bishop in 1467 before being elevated to the rank of cardinal by Pope Sixtus IV. He was elected Pope in 1484 as compromise candidate after a stormy conclave.
Giovanni Battista Cybo (or Cibo) was born in Genoa of Greek ancestry, the son of Arano Cybo or Cibo (c. 1375-c. 1455) and his wife Teodorina de Mari (c. 1380-), of an old Genoese family. His paternal grandparents were Maurizio Cybo and his wife Seracina Marocelli. Arano Cybo was a senator in Rome under Pope Calixtus III (1455–58). Giovanni Battista's early years were spent at the Neapolitan court, and subsequently he went to Padua and Rome for his education.
In Rome he became a priest in the retinue of cardinal Calandrini, half-brother to Pope Nicholas V (1447–55). In 1467, he was made Bishop of Savona by Pope Paul II, but exchanged this see in 1472 for that of Molfetta in south-eastern Italy. In 1473, with the support of Giuliano Della Rovere, later Pope Julius II, he was made cardinal by Pope Sixtus IV, whom he succeeded on 29 August 1484 as Pope Innocent VIII.
The papal conclave of 1484 was riven with faction, while gangs rioted in the streets. In order to prevent the election of the Venetian Cardinal Barbo, Camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals, on the evening before the election, after the cardinals had retired for the night, the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, nephew of the late Pope, and Cardinal Borgia, the Vice-Chancellor, visited a number of cardinals and secured their votes with the promise of various benefices.