gland
from the French interest, but also a positive and measurable benefit
for the Church of Rome. The pope understood and assented, and took
the Habsburgs with him into the camp of the Great Deliverer. This is
the touch of mystery in the Revolution of 1688. James, the champion
of the Church, had alienated Rome.

The pope, Innocent XI, Odescalchi, is a rare and original figure, and
James said truly that no man like him had sat on the see of Rome for
centuries. He began the reform of the court, which consisted in the
abolition of nepotism. All through the century his predecessors had
founded great princely families--Borghese, Ludovisi, Barberini,
Pamphili, Chigi, Rospigliosi, Altieri. These great houses grew wealthy
out of the spoils of the Church, and, as their founders died without
making restitution, opponents of nepotism affirmed that they died
unrepentant, and might be found in those regions of the other world
where Dante delighted to exhibit the pontiffs of his time. In his zeal
for a strict morality Innocent tried to rectify the teaching of the
Casuists, and was involved in trouble with the Jesuits. In France he
was spoken of as a Jansenist, and in England Oldmixon called him a
Protestant pope. He endeavoured, as nobody had done since the
Reformation, to find a remedy for the divisions of Western
Christendom. The movement had not ceased since Richelieu was minister
and Grotius ambassador at Paris, and it became active on both
sides. Innocent sanctioned a scheme of concessions which was deemed
satisfactory in the universities of Protestant Germany.

When Lewis revoked the Edict of Toleration the pope did not conceal
his displeasure. He was compelled at last to allow Te Deums and
illuminations; but he made no secret of his disbelief in the armed
apostolate of missionaries in jackboots. He was bitterly opposed to
the Gallican system, out of which the persecution proceeded. James II
was odious to him for many reasons. First as a promoter of French
tendencies, both in politics and in religion. For James, like Lewis,
was a Gallican in Church questions. When an Englishman defended
ultramontane propositions in a disputation at Louvain, he expressed
his indignation that such an attack should have been permitted in his
presence on the plenary authority of kings. He offended the pope by
sending as his ambassador Lord Castlemaine, who was ridiculous not
only as the Duchess of Cleveland's husband, but as th