Innocent XII — Antonio Pignatelli — issued this coin during the same pontificate in which he published Romanum decet Pontificem (1692), the bull that formally abolished the practice of popes appointing family members to major offices. It was a direct rebuke to his predecessor Innocent XI's nepotism and to centuries of entrenched practice. The motto ELEVAT PAVPEREM was not incidental flourish — Pignatelli had a documented personal commitment to poor relief, converting the Lateran Palace into a hospice for the indigent in 1693.
Innocent XII — Antonio Pignatelli — issued this coin during the same pontificate in which he published Romanum decet Pontificem (1692), the bull that formally abolished the practice of popes appointing family members to major offices. It was a direct rebuke to his predecessor Innocent XI's nepotism and to centuries of entrenched practice. The motto ELEVAT PAVPEREM was not incidental flourish — Pignatelli had a documented personal commitment to poor relief, converting the Lateran Palace into a hospice for the indigent in 1693.