Innocent VIII's pontificate was consumed almost entirely by the crisis of Ottoman expansion following the fall of Constantinople, and by his 1486 publication of the Summis desiderantes affectibus — the papal bull that formally authorized the Inquisition's persecution of witchcraft across northern Europe. His reign also saw Bayezid II pay the Vatican an annual stipend to keep the Ottoman prince Cem Sultan detained in Rome, a geopolitical arrangement with few parallels in papal history. The ducat itself followed Venetian weight standards that the papacy had adopted to ensure acceptance in international trade.
Innocent VIII's pontificate was consumed almost entirely by the crisis of Ottoman expansion following the fall of Constantinople, and by his 1486 publication of the Summis desiderantes affectibus — the papal bull that formally authorized the Inquisition's persecution of witchcraft across northern Europe. His reign also saw Bayezid II pay the Vatican an annual stipend to keep the Ottoman prince Cem Sultan detained in Rome, a geopolitical arrangement with few parallels in papal history. The ducat itself followed Venetian weight standards that the papacy had adopted to ensure acceptance in international trade.