His pontificate was marked by mediation during European wars, and his popularity in Rome stemmed from his charity, humility, and refusal to advance his family's wealth.

Clement IX was a patron of the arts, commissioning works from Gian Lorenzo Bernini and opening the first public opera house in Rome.

He studied at the Seminario Romano and later at the University of Pisa as a pupil of the Jesuits, receiving doctorates in theology, philosophy and both canon and civil law in 1623.

Rospigliosi was an accomplished man of letters who wrote poetry, dramas and libretti, as well as what may be the first comic opera, namely his 1637 libretto Chi soffre, speri.

When asked about Rospigliosi becoming pope, Cardinal Francesco Albizzi said: "Urban turned the Holy See into a bank; Innocent into a brothel; Alexander into a tavern; this one will make a playhouse of it".

Albizzi also alluded to Rospigliosi's passion for music and said, "He will emasculate the Sacred College by giving the hat to all the castrated singers in Europe!

Nothing remarkable occurred under Clement IX's short administration beyond the temporary adjustment of the disputes between the Holy See and those prelates of the Gallican Church who had refused to join in condemning the writings of Jansen.

He increased the goodwill of his subjects by buying off the monopolist who had secured the "macinato", or privilege of selling grain, and as his predecessor had collected the money for the purpose, Clement IX had the decree published in the name of Alexander VII.

He embellished the city of Rome with famous works commissioned from Gian Lorenzo Bernini, including the angels of Ponte Sant'Angelo and the colonnade of Saint Peter's Basilica.

At the end of October 1669, Clement IX fell ill after receiving news that the Venetian fortress of Candia in Crete had surrendered to the Turks.

[5] Following his death, the Florentine agent in Rome, writing to Grand Duke Ferdinando II de' Medici a few days later, accuses the late Clement IX of having hidden the fact that he was epileptic, which would have, according to the canon law in place at the time, disqualified him from exercising any ecclesiastical functions, however, this has never been proven.