ALEXANDER VIII  . (Pietro Ottoboni), pope from 1689 to 1691, was born in 1610 of a noble Venetian family, was created cardinal, and then successively bishop of Brescia and datary . The ambassador of Louis XIV. succeeded in procuring his election on the 6th of October 1689 as successor to Innocent XI.; nevertheless, after months of negotiation Alexander finally condemned the declaration made in 1682 by the French clergy concerning the liberties of the Gallican church . Charities on a large scale and unbounded nepotism exhausted the papal treasury . He bought the books and manuscripts of Queen Christina of Sweden for the Vatican library . Alexander condemned in 1690 the doctrines of so-called philosophic sin, taught in the Jesuit schools . He died on the 1st of February 1691 . (W . W .