Cardinal-nephew
Pietro Ottoboni, the last Cardinal Nephew,
painted by Francesco Trevisani
A cardinal-nephew (Latin: cardinalis ne-
pos;[1] Italian: cardinale nipote;[2] Spanish:
valido de su tío; French: prince de fortune)[3]
is a cardinal elevated by a pope who is that
cardinal’s uncle, or, more generally, his relat-
ive. The practice of creating cardinal-neph-
ews originated in the Middle Ages, and
reached its apex during the 16th and 17th
centuries.[4] The word nepotism originally re-
ferred specifically to this practice, when it
appeared in the English language about
1669.[5] From the middle of the Avignon Pa-
pacy (1309–1377) until Pope Innocent XII’s
anti-nepotism bull (a papal charter), Roman-
um decet pontificem (1692), a pope without a
cardinal-nephew was the exception to the
rule.[6] Every Renaissance pope who created
cardinals appointed a relative to the College
of Cardinals, and the nephew was the most
common choice.[7]
The institution of the cardinal-nephew
evolved over seven centuries, tracking devel-
opments in the history of the Papacy and the
styles of individual popes. From 1566 until
1692, a cardinal-nephew held the curial of-
fice of the Superintendent of the Ecclesi-
astical State, known as the Cardinal Neph-
ew, and thus the terms are sometimes used
interchangeably. The curial office of the Car-
dinal Nephew as well as the institution of the
cardinal-nephew declined as the power of the
Cardinal Secretary of State increased and the
temporal power of popes decreased in the
17th and 18th centuries. Notable cardinal-
nephews include at least sixteen, and prob-
ably as many as eighteen popes[8] (John XIX,
Benedict IX, Gregory IX, Alexander IV, Adri-
an V, Gregory XI, Boniface IX, Eugene IV,
Paul II, Alexander VI, Pius III, Julius II, Leo X,
Clement VII, Benedict XIII, and Pius VII, per-
haps also Innocent III and Benedict XII), one
antipope (John XXIII), and two or three saints
(Charles Borromeo, Guarino Foscari, and per-
haps Anselm of Lucca, in a case that he was
really a cardinal).
History
Bef