Innocent XII

Antonio Pignatelli was a Neapolitan aristocrat who had spent decades in papal diplomatic service before his election in 1691. He issued the bull Romanum decet Pontificem in 1692, which prohibited popes from granting estates, offices, or revenues to relatives. This effectively ended the nepotism that had plagued the papacy for centuries. He also abolished the sale of certain papal offices, taking a real financial hit to do so. He negotiated a settlement with Louis XIV that ended the Gallican crisis, though at some cost to papal prestige. He condemned Fenelon's Quietist writings while treating the archbishop personally with charity. He died in 1700, the last pope of the seventeenth century.