INNOCENT VI  . (Etienne Aubert), pope from the 18th of December 1352 to the 12th of September 1362, was born at Mons in Limousin . He became professor of civil law at Toulouse and subsequently chief judge of the city . Having taken orders, he was raised to the see of Noyon and translated in 134.0 to that of Clermont . In 1342 he was made cardinal-priest of Sti Giovanni e Paolo, and ten years later cardinal-bishop,of Ostia and Velletri, grand penitentiary, and administrator of the bishopric of Avignon . On the death of Clement VI., the cardinals made a solemn agreement imposing obligations, mainly in favour of the college as a whole, on whichever of their number should be elected pope . Aubert was one of the minority who signed the agreement with the reservation that in so doing he would not violate any law, and was elected pope on this understanding; not long after his accession he declared the agreement null and void, as infringing the divinely-bestowed power of the papacy . Innocent was one of the best Avignon popes and filled with reforming zeal; he revoked the reservations and commendations of his predecessor and prohibited pluralities; urged upon the higher clergy the duty of residence in their sees, and diminished the luxury of the papal court . Largely through the influence of Petrarch, whom he called to Avignon, he released Cola di Rienzo, who had been sent a prisoner in August 1352 from Prague to Avignon, and used the latter to assist Cardinal Albornoz, vicar-general of the States of the Church, in tranquillizing Italy and restoring the papal power at Rome . Innocent caused Charles IV. to be crowned emperor at Rome in 13J5, but protested against the famous " Golden Bull " of the following year, which prohibited papal interference in German royal elections . He renewed the ban against Peter the Cruel of Castile, and interfered in vain against Peter IV. of Aragon . He made peace between Venice and Genoa, and in 1360 arranged the treaty of Bretigny between France and England .

In the last years of his pontificate he was busied with preparations for a crusade and for the

reunion of Christendom. and sent to Constantinople the celebrated Carmelite monk, Peter Thomas, to negotiate with the claimants to the Greek throne . He instituted in 1354 the festival of the Holy Lance . Innocent was a strong and earnest man of monastic temperament, but not altogether free from nepotism . He was succeeded by Urban V . 1 he chief sources for the life of Innocent VI. are in Baluzius, Vitae Pap . _lvenion. vol. i . (Paris, 1693); Magnum bullariii Ronxruuu, vol. iv . (Turin, 1859); E . Weruusky, Excerpta ex registris Clemcntis VI. et Innocentii VI . (Innsbruck, 1883' . See also L . Pastor (1(story the I'vpes, vol. i. trans. by F .

I . Antrottus (

London, 1899) ; F . Gregorovius, Rome in the Middle Ages, vol . 6, trans. by Mrs G . W . Hamilton (London, 1900—1902); D . Cerri, Innocenzo Papa VI (Turin, 1823); J . B . Christophe, Histoire de la papaute pendant le XIVe siecle, vol . 2 (Paris, 1853); M . Souchon, Die Papstwahlen (Brunswick, 1888) ; G . Daumet, Innocent VI et Blanche de Bourbon (Paris, 1899); E .

Werunsky, Gesch . Kaiser Karts IV . (Innsbruck, 1892) . There is an excellent

article by M . Naumann in Hauck's Realencyklopddie, 3rd ed . (C . H .