Pope innocent viii wikipedia

Election of Pope Innocent VIII

The 1484 papal conclave (August 26–29) elected Pope Innocent VIII after the death of Pope Sixtus IV.

The election

At the death of Sixtus IV, the conclave of cardinals that met to elect his successor numbered thirty-two cardinals.^[1]

The immediate context of the election was the nearly unprecedented packing of the College of Cardinals by Sixtus IV, not only in terms of overall size, but also in terms of cardinal-nephews and crown cardinals.^[2] As a result, nearly all of the non-Venetian cardinals supported the continuation of Sixtus IV's policies of isolation towards the Republic of Venice, specifically the Peace of Bagnolo.^[2] However, the two factions of cardinals differed over whether the church ought to prioritize the continuation of the Italian League or should prioritize papal power (especially vis-a-vis Naples) over the preservation of the peace.^[2] Cardinal Borja led the fir