Popes & Anti Popes: All the Popes, Good & Bad, from Sr. Peter to John Paul Ii

By John Wilcock

WHEN THE POPE DIES the biggest story in the world stays on the front pages for at least 15 days until 135 cardinals assemble to choose his successor. Who will it be? The choice has immense implications, and not just for the worlds 950 million Catholics.

There are 194 cardinals altogether, and they gather in Rome from all parts of the world. Only those under 80 years old are permitted to vote, and of those Pope John Paul II appointed all but five. Voting is by written secret ballot and although the number has varied over the years, the requisite majority is now two-thirds plus one of the eligible cardinals, for election of the new pope. The required number has varied over the years but This rule was established at the 3rd Lateral Council during the time when Alexander III (1159-81) was pope following an earlier decision by Nicholas II. He had ruled in the previous century that only Roman cardinals could vote. Today, if the conclave is deadlocked after several days, a lesser majority of 50% plus one is allowed (The extra one is in case any cardinal voted for himself).

Until not so long ago, the conclave (cum-clave = with key,. ie. a locked room) kept everybody confined until a decision was reached, but since 1996 cardinals stay in St Marthas Residence in like rooms simply decorated with crucifixes and papal pictures.

The cardinals are shuttled there for lunch and then back to the Sistine Chapel where their deliberations take place beneath the Michelangelo frescoes, and from where communication with the outside world is forbidden. Two trustworthy technicians check for any hidden eavesdropping devices. More sophisticated listening devices mean the Vatican walls are no longer insurmountable says Bishop Jorge Mejia, secretary of the College of Cardinals
THE VATICAN YEAR BOOK Annuario Pontificio, lists all the popes, but other references sometimes arrange them in a slightly different order especially before the 3rd century. Much of our information about the early popes comes from Liber Potificalis (LP) and the Liberian Catalogue (LC) Both were started in the 4th century, with the former (which eventually incorporated LC) updated until 1464. There is an 1886 French translation of LP with commentary by Abbe Louis Duchesne, and a 1916 English translation by Louise Ropes Loomis, published by Columbia University Press, The earliest historians--Clement of Rome c. 95; }Ignatius of Antioch c.l00; Tertullian (c. 160-225); Eusebius c. 260; and Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, who (c. 190) wrote five books comparing the doctrines of rival sects--are credited in the text that follows as (C), (Ig), (T), (Eu) or (Ir), respectively.
Anti-popes were usually chosen because of factional differences over what might today seem to be obscure theological arguments, their significance especially magnified after the Roman empire split into two and the papacy became involved in political disputes between Rome and Constantinople. The battle between popes and emperors for ultimate supremacy, spiritual or temporal, continued for centuriee. We should remember that popes are fallible human beings, a few benevolent geniuses, others dolts; some indisputably saintly, others less so--probably to roughly the same extent as any other 263 powerful men during our 2,000 years of Christian history. Petri dignitas etiam in indigno herede non deficit declared Pope Leo I. The dignity of St Peter is not lacking even in an unworthy heir.

64. St. Gregory I (The Great). b. Rome; elected 3 Sept, 590; d.
12 March, 604, aged about 64. Great-grandson of Pope Felix III he came from an aristocratic family and was prefect (mayor) of Rome before resigning to become a monk in a monastery financed by the sale of his family home. He was the first monk to become pope and his early letters as pope graphically portray his unhappiness at being dragged from the contemplative life to shoulder his heavy burden (ODP). He instituted the Gregorian Chant and his Book of Pa

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 18, 2005
• ISBN: 9781465324023

John Wilcock

John Wilcock, a longtime columnist and author, has written more than 30 books, most of them travel guides to such countries as Japan, Greece, India and Venezuela, as well as Los Angeles, Mexico City, Rome and Florence. His column has run in the Village Voice (of which he was a co-founder), the Toronto Daily Star and Tokyo’s Mainichi Daily News. It currently appears in the Montecito Journal. He is the author of The Autohiograpphy and Sex Lifè of Andy Warhol, Magical & Mystical Sites and An Occult Guide to South America.

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POPES AND ANTI-POPES

Image538.JPG

all the popes, good and bad,

from St Peter to John Paul II

Compiled by John Wilcock

Copyright © 2005 by John Wilcock.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

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Contents

The Popes, in chronological order

ALPHABETICAL LIST

WHEN THE POPE DIES the biggest story in the world stays on the front pages for at least 15 days until 135 cardinals assemble to choose his successor. Who will it be? The choice has immense implications, and not just for the world’s 950 million Catholics.

There are 194 cardinals altogether, and they gather in Rome from all parts of the world. Only those under 80 years old are permitted to vote, and of those Pope John Paul II appointed all but five. Voting is by written secret ballot and although the number has varied over the years, the requisite majority is now two-thirds plus one of the eligible cardinals, for election of the new pope. The required number has varied over the years but this rule was established at the 3rd Lateral Council during the time when Alexander III (1159-81) was pope following an earlier decision by Nicholas II. He had ruled in the previous century that only Roman cardinals could vote. Today, if the conclave is deadlocked after several days, a lesser majority of 50% plus one is allowed. (The extra one is in case any cardinal voted for himself).

Until not so long ago, the conclave (cum-clave = with key,. ie. a locked room) kept everybody confined until a decision was reached, but since 1996 cardinals stay in St Martha’s Residence in motel-like rooms, simply decorated with crucifixes and papal pictures.

The cardinals are shuttled there for lunch and then back to the Sistine Chapel where their deliberations take place beneath the Michelangelo frescoes, and from where communication with the outside world is forbidden. Two trustworthy technicians check for any hidden eavesdropping devices. More sophisticated listening devices mean the Vatican walls are no longer insurmountable says Bishop Jorge Mejia, secretary of the College of Cardinals.

THEVATICAN YEAR BOOK Annuario Pontificio, lists all the popes, but other references sometimes arrange them in a slightly different order especially before the 3rd century. Much of our information about the early popes comes from Liber Pontifcalis (LP) and the Liberian Catalogue (LC) Both were started in the 4th century, with the former (which eventually incorporated LC) updated until 1464. There is an 1886 French translation of LP with commentary by Abbe Louis Duchesne, and a 1916 English translation by Louise Ropes Loomis, published by Columbia University Press. The earliest historians—Clement of Rome c. 95; Ignatius of Antioch c.100; Tertullian (c. 160225); Eusebius c. 260; and Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, who (c. 190) wrote five books comparing the doctrines of rival sects—are credited in the text that follows as (C), (Ig), (T), (Eu) or (Ir), respectively.

Anti-popes were usually chosen because of factional differences over what might today seem to be obscure theological arguments, their significance especially magnified after the Roman empire split into two and the papacy became involved in political disputes between Rome and Constantinople. The battle between popes and emperors for ultimate supremacy, spiritual or temporal, continued for centuries. We should remember that popes are fallible human beings, a few benevolent geniuses, others dolts; some indisputably saintly, others less so—probably to roughly the same extent as any other 263 powerful men during our 2,000 years of Christian history. Petri dignitas etiam in indigno herede non deficit declared Pope Leo I. The dignity of St Peter is not lacking even in an unworthy heir.

OTHER BOOKS Consulted or quoted from include Bede’s Ecclesiastical History; Legends of the Saints, The Golden Legend (GL) by Jacobus de Voragine, the 13th century archbishop of Genoa; Butler’s Lives of the Saints (B) first published in 1756; A Catholic Dictionary, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1851; (ACD), The Popes’ Rights & Wrongs (PRW) published by Truber & Co., 1860; History of the Popes (HP) by Dr Ludwig Pastor, 1885 (Kraus Reprint, 1969); The Dictionary of Sects, Heresies &c (DSH) by John Blunt (Longmans, Green & Co.,1874); History of the Catholic Church by Richard Henry Clarke (Gebbie, 1891); Life, & Works of St Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux ed, by Dom. John Mabillon (John Hodges, 1896); History of the Popens (P.F. Collier & Son, 1901) by Leonard Van Renke (LVR) who cites numerous 16th c. documents; The History of the Papacy by Joseph McCabe (London, 1916); A Biographical Dictionary of the Saints (BDS) by the Rt. Rev. F.G. Holbeck (B. Herder Book Co, 1924); History & Literature, of Christianity from Tertullian to Boethius by Pierre de Cabriolle, tr. by Herbert Wilson (Knopf, 1925);The Book of Popens (BP) by Dr. F.J. Bayer (Methuen & Co, 1925); A Source Book (SB) for Ancient Church History by J.C. Ayer (Chas Scribners’ Sons, 1926);Their Name Was Pius by Lillian Browneolf (Bruce Publishing, 1941); Saints & Their Emblems in English Churches (StE) by R.L.P. Milburn, OUP 1949; Pageant of the Popes by John Farrow (Sheed & Ward 1950); A Catholic Dictionary-CD (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1951); A History of Christianity by Kenneth Scott Latourette (Harper & Bros, 1953); The Papal

Encyclicals in Their Historical Context ed. by Anne Fremantle (G.P. Putnams’s Sons, 1956); Vatican Diplomacy by Robert A. Graham (Princeton University Press, 1959); A History of the Christian Church by Willis Walker (Charles Scribners’ Sons,1959); Church & State in Italy (1850-1950) by A.C. Jemolo (Basil Blackwell, 1960); The Papal Princes by Glenn D. Kittler (Funk & Wagnalls,1960); The Correspondence, of Pope Gregory VII, tr. with intro by Ephraim Emerton (Octagon Books, 1960); Popes in the Modern World by Frances Sugrue (Thomas P. Crowell, 1961); The Popes, a concise biographical history, (tP) ed. Eric John (Burns & Oates, 1964); The Bad Popes (TBP) by E.R. Chamberlin (Dial Press, 1965); History of the Catholic Church by Thomas P. Neill and Raymond H Schmandt (Bruce Publishing Co., 1965); The Popes in the World by Anton Henze (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1965); The Silence of Pope Pius XII by Carlo Falconi (Little Brown & Co, 1965); the Penguin Dictionary of the Saints (PDS) by Donald Attwater (1965); Popes from the Ghetto by Joachim Prinz (Horizon Press, 1966); The Popes in the 20th Century : from Pius X to John XXIII by Carlo Falconi (Little, Brown & Co. 1967); New Catholic Encyclopedia (NCE) published by McGraw Hill, 1967; Unzipped, the popes bare all by Arthur Frederick Ide (American Atheist Press, 1967); The Medieval Papacy by Geofrey Barraclough (Harcourt Brace & World, 1968); Divine Disobedience by Francine du Plessix Gray (Knopf, 1970); The Vatican in the Age of Dictators by Anthony Rhodes (Holt, Rinehart & Winston 1973); Catholic America by John Cogley (Dial Press, 1973); the Dictionary of h Christian Church (Paternoster Press, 1974); The Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire (D&F) by Edward Gibbon (Harvard University Press, 1977); The Popes & the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages by Jeffrey Richards (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979); The Final Conclave by Malachi Martin (Stein & Day, 1978); Continuity & Change in Roman Religion by J.H.W.G. Liebeschuetz (Clarendon Press, 1979); Decline & Fall of the Roman Church by Malachi Martin (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1981); How the Pope Became Infallible by August Bernhard Hasler (Doubleday 1981); The Popes & the European Revolution by Owen

Chadwick (Clarendon Press 1981); A Short History of the Catholic Church by J. Derek Holmes & Bernard W Bickers (Burns & Oates, 1984); Rome: The Biography of a City by Christopher Hibbert (W.W. Norton, 1985); the Oxford Dictionary of Popes (ODP) (Oxford University Press, 1986); The Catholic Fact Book by John Deedy (Thomas More Press, 1986); Somni Pontifici Romani (ISPR), a colorful poster published by Realizzato da Memmo Caporilli, Rome; 1987); the Book of Saints (BS) published by A.C. Black, 1989; Saints & Sinners (S&S) by Eamon Duff (Yale University Press, 2002).

The Popes, in chronological order

1. St Peter, b. Galilee

Peter always headed the list of the 12 apostles closest to Jesus. He was a Galilean fisherman formerly named Simon who became the unquestioned leader of the Apostles and perhaps for a time bishop of Antioch before presiding over the church of Rome on Vatican Hill. His 25-year pontificate, suggests BP, is probably no more than a deduction based upon inconsistent chronological data. LP says he ordained three bishops (Linus, Cletus and Clement) and disputed with Simon Magus (who) was drawing away from those whom the blessed Peter was gathering into the faith of Christ. And while they debated once at great length, Simon was struck dead by the will of God. TP adds:.According to the mainstream of Christian tradition Peter’s powers and prerogatives passed to the bishops of Rome.

Peter baptized Cornelius, a Roman centurion who had been told by an angelic visitor to send for him, and told his followers: You must put aside every trace of ill will and deceitfulness, your affectations, the grudges you bore and all the slanderous talk. GL reports that when Peter first preached at Antioch his head was shorn „to do despite and shame and it thus became the custom thereafter „that the clergy should have his crown shaven in sign of right great honor and authority. Peter‘s onetime roommate, a Roman senator named Pudens, was mistakenly believed to be a woman and had a church built in her name. Peter was crucified 29 June, 67, supposedly on the site of the present San Pietro in Montorio (T). Emperor Nero was suspected of having started a devastating fire in Rome AD 64 so he diverted criticism by persecution of Christians. According to legend, any other pope named Peter would be the last.

Depicted in 4th c. bronze statue and Giotto mosaic in St

Peter’s; painting in S. Maria del Popolo; in 14th c. wall painting at Mistra.

2.   St Linus. b.Volterra. elected 67; d. 76. Identified by Eu and Ir as the companion of St Paul who sent greetings to Timothy (in 2 Tim IV; 21.) You are the rock now, Linus … lead them as I have led them said Peter to the slave he had baptized. What (his) actual functions and responsibilities were can only be guessed (BP). Linus was said to have been directed to ordain 25 priests to serve the growing number of churches and ruled by the direction of Peter (LP) that women must veil their heads in church. "All (the early popes) are called saints (tP) and listed as such in the Roman Martyrology (but), it is unlikely that the popes of the early church were … holier men than those of recent times.

3.   St Anacletus. b. Rome. elected 76, d. 88. or, according to Eu, in the 12th year of Domitian’s reign, ie. AD 93. Ordained 25 priests. Anacletus in Greek means ‘blameless’ which may or may not be the origin of his Greek name. Both Linus and Cletus (the shortened version of his name) are mentioned in the first eucharistric prayer, also known as the Roman Canon, in which names of early saints are recited. NCE says LP, in crediting him for building a burial monument for St Peter, may have mistaken him for Anicetus.

4.   St. Clement I. b. Rome. elected 88, died 97. Eu mentions as him as a colleague of St Paul and Ir wrote that he had seen and consorted with the blessed apostles. According to T, Clement was consecrated by St Peter as his successor and GL adds: Peter … assembled all his brethren and took Clement by the hand and ordained him bishop and made him sit in his own seat. ODP says the story about his exile to the Crimea and being thrown in the sea with an anchor around his neck is without foundation.

Nevertheless, Clement remains the patron saint of marble workers, stone cutters and sailors. He wrote many books in his zeal for the faith of the Christian religion (LP) and advised his followers: Root out the lawless anger of your jealousy, according to the prayer for peace and concord which we have made in this letter. His letter to the church of Corinth, after a revolt against the leaders there, was a model of pastoral solicitude and firm parental admonition (PDS).

According to Eu, Clement wrote to Corinthian dissidents in AD 95 urging their reconciliation and dwelling on the bad effects always produced by discord. His bones are supposedly buried in S.