Click here for pdf version.
PART 1 -- INTRODUCTION
Early in Christian history bishops were considered equals and the title "pope" was applied to any bishop. Over time, however, the bishops of some cities became esteemed as more important than others. Eventually, in western Christianity, the bishop of Rome emerged as THE bishop, the pope, he who was the authoritative leader of the Catholic hierarchy.
The claim of the pope as the leader of the universal (or catholic) church rests on the doctrine of Roman primacy. This doctrine states that Peter was the first bishop of Rome, that the bishop of Rome is the leader and most important of all bishops, and that Peter's successors as Roman bishop inherited his mantel and authority. The convention of regarding Peter as first bishop of Rome did not begin until the late second or early third century but is now accepted as fact by most Catholics. The story of how the bishops of Rome came to be seen as Peter's successors and how this claim of papal primacy came to be legitimized is a fascinating, incredibly informative, and important history. Among many of its goals, this history of the popes attempts to show how the office of the papacy developed from almost nothing to one of the most important and powerful religious institutions in the world. Another goal is to introduce students to various religious movements that appear from time to time. Yet another is to show the flow of Christian history by using the popes as our focal point. Finally, this history will serve as the foundation for our study of European history, so vital to our understanding of Christianity.
While the succession list looks clear cut, historically it is not so. It was not always easy to tell who was the legitimate successor to the "throne of Peter." On many occasions it was for contemporaries, in fact, down right confusing. With historical hindsight the difficult succession questions have been ironed out, although not always to everyone's satisfaction.
The following list is the official list of the popes according to the Catholic Church. All popes are included though some are clearly more important than others.
1. Peter died in Nero's persecution sometime around ad 66. He is supposed to have been crucified upside down and is claimed to be buried underneath St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
2. Linus (ca.66-ca.78). First bishop of Rome. According to the earliest succession lists of bishops of Rome, passed down by Irenaeus of Lyons (c.180) and Hegesippus (c.160) and attested by the historian Eusebius (c.260-c.340), he was entrusted with his office by the apostles Peter and Paul after they had established the Church in Rome. Irenaeus and Eusebius identified him with the Linus who, as a companion of St. Paul, sent greetings from Rome to Timothy in Ephesus (2 Tim. 4:21).
3. Anencletus (ca.79-ca.91). Anencletus was the second bishop of Rome. His name means "blameless."
4. Clement I (ca.91-ca.101). Origen, Eusebius, and Jerome equate Clement, perhaps correctly with the Clement of Philippians 4:3. He was the author of the First Epistle of Clement, the most important first century Christian document outside the New Testament. In this letter he rebuked the Christians of Corinth for falling into schism. This letter is the first example of the intervention of the Roman church in the affairs of another church.
The bishops of Rome of the second century were, in general, unassuming individuals. The great Christian names of this century come from the east -- Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna; Ignatius, bishop of Antioch; Iranaeus of Smyrna, bishop of Lyons. Iranaeus was an early supporter of the primacy of Rome (that the Roman bishop should be the first authority in the Church). He felt that the Roman church had been founded by the two great apostles, that it was the center of the empire, and that only Rome could impose unity on a universal church.
5. Evaristus (ca. 101-ca. 109). Not much is known of Evaristus. It is claimed that he died as a martyr.
6. Alexander I (ca. 109-ca. 116). A collection of papal biographies (the Liber Pontificalis) that was begun in the sixth century claims that Alexander I placed the narrative of the Last Supper into the Mass. Roman tradition claims that he was beheaded.
7. Sixtus I (ca. 116-ca. 125). The Liber Pontificalis indicates that Sixtus decreed that only the clergy could touch the sacred vessels of the mass and that the people should shout the Sanctus (the "Holy, Holy, Holy") at the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer. These changes in the mass should be noted as evidence that the ordinances of the church had already begun to evolve in different ways. Tradition claims he died as a martyr.
8. Telesphorus (ca. 125-ca. 136). This is the only 2nd-century pope whose martyrdom is reliably attested. He is the only second century bishop listed by St. Iraneus (died ca. 200) as a martyr. He died during the closing years of Hadrian's reign, though Eusebius says that it was during the first year of Emperor Antoninus Pius.
9. Hyginus (ca. 138-ca. 142). During Hyginus's time as bishop the Gnostic teachers Valentinus and Cerdo came to Rome, as did Marcion. These facts may indicate that Rome was becoming a major Christian center. It is claimed that he died as a martyr.
10. Pius I (ca. 142-ca. 155). During the episcopate of Pius I, Marcion of Pontus, as well as, the leading Gnostics, Valentinus and Cerdo, were working out and disseminating their beliefs that the Old Testament had been completely replaced by the New Testament (what there was of it), suggesting that Christianity was a replacement for Judaism rather than its fulfillment. Pius must have presided over the synod (a council of church officials) of presbyters which excommunicated Marcion July 144. He must also have known the apologist Justin Martyr (died, c. 165) who was teaching in a house in Rome at this time.
11. Anicetus (ca. 155-ca. 166) was elected bishop by the community of Christians at Rome. His pontificate is best known for the friendly dispute he had with Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna (in western Turkey), on the subject of easter. Polycarp came to Rome and tried to get Anicetus to celebrate easter on the 14th day of the Jewish month Nisan (Passover), the Quartodeciman date. Rome at this time had no special Easter festival. The members there considered every Sunday a celebration of the resurrection. This friendly dispute is one of the first of many disputes, mostly not-friendly, that the church will face on religious practices. It also is part of the growing concern about whether the bishop of Rome has any more authority than anyone else.
12. Soter (ca. 166-ca. 174). Under Soter, Easter as an annual Church celebration was introduced. It was celebrated on the Sunday after the 14th day of the Jewish month Nisan (in other words the Sunday following Jewish Passover), in contrast to the churches of Asia Minor which celebrated the Quartodeciman date (in other words the date for Jewish Passover no matter what day of the week it fell on). Soter also wrote a letter to the church in Corinth (in Greece) presumably expressing his disapproval of the moral laxity that he saw there. It is claimed that he died as a martyr.
13. Eleutherius (ca. 174-ca. 189) received a visit from St. Irenaeus of Lyons (in France) who presented a letter from the church in Lyons criticizing Montanism, a new movement that preached the upcoming end of the world and the need for severe ascetical practices in the church. Eleutherius apparently saw no need to condemn this movement.
14. Victor I (189-198) exerted himself to bring the other churches
in line with Rome concerning the date for Easter. To this effect
he held synods from Gaul to Mesopotamia. He threatened to excommunicate
the Eastern churches for not accepting the Roman date. Polycrates,
bishop of Ephesus, refused to submit to Victor's efforts to change
the Easter celebration date and he did not seem to be bothered
by Victor's threat of excommunication. Iranaeus, bishop of Lyons,
in sympathy with Victor's position on Easter, nonetheless rebuked
him for trying to dictate to the Eastern churches. Victor did
excommunicate Theodotus of Byzantium, the leader of an Adoptionist
group. This group taught that Jesus was not the real Son of God,
but only adopted.
Victor is the first bishop of Rome known to have had dealings
with the imperial family. He supplied Marcia, a Christian and
the mistress of the Emperor Commodus (180-192), with a list of
Christians condemned to the mines of Sardinia, and thus secured
their release.
15. Zephyrinus (198-217). Zephyrinus was probably the pope that Tertullian (died, c. 225), who had converted from Christianity to the Montanist movement, reproached because he had initially recognized the Montanist movement and then spoke out against it. Zephyrinus also had to deal with Modalism, a teaching taught by Noetus, Praxeas, and Sebellius that destroyed the distinctions between the persons of the Trinity. They claimed that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost do not represent real distinctions in the Godhead but successive modes of self-revelation. Zephyrinus's struggle with the Modalists is another in a growing list of doctrinal arguments -- we have already noted those of the Gnostics, Marcion, and the Adoptionists -- that would threaten and cause dissension in the church. Many more are yet to come. While Zephyrinus was bishop, Origen (died, c.254), one of the church's first great theologians visited Rome.
16. Callistus I (217-222) had once been convicted of embezzlement
and deported to the mines in Sardinia. Another story has it that
he was sent to the mines for brawling in a synagogue. When Marcia,
the emperor's mistress, engineered the release of Christians under
the Emperor Commodus, Callistus had somehow prevailed on Rome
to secure his own release as well, even though Pope Victor had
deliberately left him off the list he had given Marcia.
Callistus was elected as bishop of Rome in 217, but it was a disputed
election because a man named Hippolytus also claimed to be the
bishop. Hippolytus was the first antipope in Catholic history.
Hippolytus claimed that Christ was a distinct person, the son
of God, and had assumed a human form. His view contradicted the
view that God himself became man through Christ and was held by
Callistus to be heretical. Hippolytus accused Callistus of supporting
Modalism, even though Callistus had excommunicated Sabellius,
one of the leaders of that movement. Hippolytus also accused Callistus
of being too lax in his treatment of bishops who had committed
grave offenses while in office, too lax in readmitting converts
from heretical groups without penance, and too weak in condemning
clergy who had married.
17. Urban I (222-230) had a generally peaceful pontificate though he still had to deal with the schism caused by Hippolytus.
18. Pontian (230-235). The schism of Hippolytus continued. In 235 the Emperor Maximinus Thrax initiated a persecution of Christian leaders. He sent both Hippolytus and Pontian to the mines of Sardinia, a virtual death sentence. Pontian abdicated (the first pope to do so) in 235, presumably to allow a successor to take over immediately. The other notable occurance of Pontian's bishopric is the condemnation of Origen's teachings and his exclusion from the priesthood.
19. Anterus (235-236) was bishop for less than two months.
20. Fabian (236-250). Legend has it that when he was chosen pope few of the clergy had considered him as their choice, but as they were trying to decide on whom to elect, a dove landed on his head signifying to them that this was the choice of the Holy Spirit. Most of Fabian's reign saw peace, prosperity, and growth for the Church, first because Emperor Gordian III (238-44) dropped his predecessor's persecution and then because the next emperor, Philip the Arab (244-249), was sympathetic with Christianity. Fabian reorganized the local clergy, dividing the city into seven ecclesiastical districts, with a deacon in charge of each, assisted by a subdeacon and six assistants. Fabian must have had some influence at the imperial court because he was able to arrange for the return of the bodies of Pontian and Hippolytus from the mines of Sardinia, a feat requiring the rarely granted permission of the emperor. Fabian died in the persecutions of Emperor Decius (249-251).
21. Cornelius (251-253). Due to the persecutions of Decius, the clergy did not elect another bishop for fourteen months. During that time the priest Novatian, a gifted intellectual, acted as their spokesman. When in the spring of 251, the clergy elected Cornelius as the new bishop instead of Novatian, Novatian moved into schism. He had three bishops from southern Italy ordain him as bishop. The biggest disagreement between Novatian and Cornelius was whether or not lapsed members of the Church could be readmitted into the Church (lapsed members were those who left the church during persecutions but wanted readmittance after the persecutions ended). Cornelius allowed it after suitable penance; Novatian did not. Cyprian, the well-known bishop of Carthage, supported Cornelius but only after some hesitation. Cornelius with a synod of sixty bishops excommunicated Novatian. The Novatianist church spread and persisted into the fifth century. Based on letters written by Cornelius in which he gives statistics on church officers, the church at Rome at this time is estimated to contain around 50,000 members.
22. Lucius I (253-254) was exiled by Emperor Gallus but managed to make it back to Rome after Gallus's death.
23. Stephen I (254-257) argued on several points of doctrine and policy with Cyprian, bishop of Carthage. One argument occurred when Bishop Marcian of Arles adopted the Novatian (hardline) stance on lapsed Christians. Cyprian urged Stephen to excommunicate Marcian but Stephen would not do so. Another argument came about because Cyprian held that baptisms performed by heretics were not valid and that those who wanted to be considered as members had to be rebaptized. Stephen said that rebaptism was not necessary, but that absolution by the laying on of hands was all that was required. The threatened schism dissolved with Stephen's death and Cyprian's martyrdom. Stephen was the first pope to use Matt. 16:18 ("Thou art Peter and upon this rock...") as an argument for papal primacy.
24. Sixtus II (257-258). During the reign of Sixtus II, the Emperor Valerian (253-260) abandoned his earlier tolerant attitude and ordered the Christians to take part in state religious ceremonies and forbid them to assemble in the cemeteries. A second imperial edict later ordered the execution of bishops, priests, and deacons. In 258 the authorities surprised Sixtus as he presided at a meeting and beheaded him on the spot, along with four of the deacons of Rome. Within four days the other three deacons were likewise executed.
25. Dionysius (260-268). Dionysius was not elected until the Emperor Valerian was dead. During his administration a controversy in Alexandria arose because the bishop there was teaching Sabellianism (also known as Subordinationism), the doctrine that the Father and the Son were not of one essence. Dionysius convened a synod that condemned Sabellianism. This episode shows that it was becoming more common for various locations in the church to appeal important decisions to the Roman bishop. Dionysius helped reorganize the church after the Valerian persecutions. The Emperor Galenius (260-268), Valerian's son, restored the church's confiscated property and cemeteries.
26. Felix I (269-274). Little is known of Felix. He did confirm a decision by a synod in Antioch to depose Bishop Paul of Samasota for heretical teachings on the Trinity.
27. Eutychian (275-283). Nothing is known of Eutychian other than the fact that his reign was during a time of peace.
28. Caius (283-296). Nothing is known of Caius other than the fact that his reign was during a time of peace.
29. Marcellinus (296-304) fortunately saw most of his reign fall during the peace and consolidation of the church that occurred between the persecutions of emperors Valerian and Diocletian. However, on Feb. 23, 303 the Emperor Diocletian issued his first persecution edict ordering the destruction of churches, the surrender of sacred books, and the offering of sacrifices by those attending law-courts. In May 303 Marcellinus surrendered copies of the scriptures and offered incense to the emperor. Three elders of the church who became future popes, Marcellus, Miltiades, and Silvester, were later accused by the Donatists of acting with him.
30. Marcellus I (306-308). The office of Roman bishop remained vacant for almost three years. Finally Marcellus was elected in 306, after the death of Emperor Diocletian and the ascension of Emperor Maxentius (306-312). Marcellus required strict penance for those who had lapsed under persecution, and thereby aroused enough public opinion against him that there was disorder and even bloodshed in Rome. An apostate denounced Marcellus to the Emperor. Maxentius banished him from the city and he shortly thereafter died.
31. Eusebius (Apr.-Oct. 310). The lapsed controversy continued. A party led by a sort of antipope, Heraclius, refused to acknowledge the right of readmission for the lapsed, as opposed to Eusebius who allowed it after due penance. The Emperor Maxentius had both Eusebius and Heraclius deported to Sicily. There Eusebius soon died.
32. Miltiades (311-314) saw the Emperor Maxentius restore the properties of the church, including both land and buildings, that had been confiscated by Diocletian. During his bishopric, Constantine defeated Maxentius at the battle of Milvian Bridge on Oct. 28, 312. Constantine presented Miltiades with Empress Fausta's palace, the Lateran, on Monte Celio. It was henceforth the papal residence. In 313 the rigorist party in north Africa objected to Bishop Caecilian of Carthage because one of his consecrators had been a traditor (he had surrendered sacred books during the persecutions). They elected a rival bishop, Majorinus, and appealed to Constantine to arbitrate. Majorinus was soon replaced by Donatus. Constantine asked Miltiades to decide the Donatist issue in North Africa. He called a synod at the Lateran palace in Rome. The synod decided against the Donatists. It excommunicated Donatus for requiring the rebaptism of the laity and reordination of clergy who had lapsed.
33. Silvester (314-335) was the first bishop of Rome to be regularly called Pope. Great legends later became established concerning Silvester. One was that he saved Rome from a poison puffing dragon. Another legend was the basis for the forged "Donation of Constantine," acknowledging that Constantine had given the Pope greater prominence in the church than the bishops at Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Constantinople.
In truth Silvester accomplished relatively little. When Constantine called the first ecumenical council, the Council of Nicaea, in 325, Silvester did not attend. If Constantine was baptized at all it was on his deathbed in 337 at the hands of the Arian bishop Eusebius of Nicodemia. Constantine did help build beautiful churches in Rome, including Basilica Constantiniana and the basilicas St. Peter and St. Paul. The Council of Nicaea, met from late May until late August, A.D. 325, in the city of Nicaea, located in modern-day Turkey, and defined orthodox Trinitarian belief. The council was convened by the emperor, Constantine, to resolve several controversies, the chief of which was the controversy created by the presbyter (priest) Arius. Arius taught that the Son is not God in the same way as the Father is God. To be divine means above all to be unoriginated, or to have no origin. The Son and the Father could not both be unoriginated, since there is only one God. Thus, only the Father is unoriginated and truly God; the Son originates from the Father. Although the Son exceeds all other creatures in perfection, nevertheless, the Son has the status of a creature in relation to the Father.... To make its opposition to Arianism explicit, the council formulated a creed containing expressly anti-Arian elements, followed by a series of Arian beliefs to which those who subscribed were declared anathema. Specifically, the council in the creed declared the Son "from the substance of the Father," and "begotten not made," "of one substance with the Father" (Gk., homoousios). With these phrases, and especially with the term homoousios, the council stipulated the proper interpretation of the Son's divinity. The Son is truly God, just as the Father is truly God. In addition to the Arian controversy, the council declared against the practice of celebrating Easter on the date of the Jewish Passover, as was the custom of certain Eastern churches....Several canons concerned the status within the Church of Christians who had lapsed during persecutions. Others provided regulations related to clerical life and practice. Three canons outlined the selection procedures for future bishops, as a response to the practices of the schismatic bishop, Melitius, who had ordained bishops without consulting his fellow bishops. [Encyclopedia of Catholicism, Ed. Richard P. McBrien, (New York, N.Y.: Harper Collins, 1995), p. 916.]
34. Mark (336) decreed that the bishop of Ostia, a diocese near Rome, should be the first of the three consecrators of the bishop of Rome. Today the dean of the College of Cardinals holds the honorary title of bishop of Ostia.
35. Julius I (337-352). The Arians, led by Eusebius of Nicodemia, were growing in dominance in the East. Arian church leaders had deposed the "orthodox" bishops Athanasius of Alexandria and Marcellus of Ancyra from their bishoprics in 336. Julius was the staunch defender of these two bishops. The emperors, Constans (337-350) and Constantius II (337-361), called a council in 342. The western delegation insisted that Athanasius and Marcellus take part. The eastern delegation withdrew and excommunicated leading western bishops including Julius. Athanasius was allowed to return to Alexandria in 345.
36. Liberius (352-366). The Emperor Constantius II sought to force the western bishops to acknowledge the condemnation of Athanasius (the leader of the Nicene doctrine) and accept Arianism. He banished the unrelenting Liberius to Beroea in Thrace by 356. In exile the morale of Liberius collapsed and he acquiesced to Athanasius's excommunication, submitting to the emperor, and rejecting the offensive parts of the Nicene Creed. While Liberius was exiled, his archdeacon Felix had been elected bishop. In 358 the emperor allowed Liberius to return on condition that he reign jointly with Felix. This was extremely unpopular with the Roman people. On the death of Constantius, Liberius reassumed his Nicene orthodoxy. Liberius is the first Pope not to be considered a saint.
37. Damasus I (366-384). When Liberius died on Sept. 24, 366, violent disorders broke out in Rome. A group loyal to Liberius elected the deacon Ursinus as bishop and consecrated him in the Julian basilica. The deacon Damasus hired a gang of thugs to storm the basilica and conduct a three-day massacre of Ursinians. On Oct. 1, Damasus's followers elected him bishop in the Lateran basilica. He then convinced the city prefect to expel Ursinus from Rome. Mob violence continued until Oct. 26 when Damasus's men attacked the Ursinians in the Liberian basilica, killing 137 people. Damasus condemned Arianism, as well as Apollinarianism (which claimed Jesus did not have a human soul because the Logos took the place of the human mind in the God-man) and Macedonianism (which denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit). However, Basil the Great, who was trying to restore the Nicene doctrine in the East found him undiplomatic and described him as impossibly arrogant. Damasus took no part in the second ecumenical council, held at Constantinople in 381, and made no contribution to the growing detente between East and West. The First Council of Constantinople (May to July 381), also called the Second Ecumenical Council, reiterated the Council of Nicaea's teaching on Christ's equality with God (against Arianism), recognized the full humanity of Jesus Christ (against Apollinarianism), and declared the divinity of the Holy Spirit (against Pneumatomachians [who denied it]). The council was convoked by Emperor Theodosius I, who wanted to unite the Church on the basis of the Nicene faith, thereby ending the controversy over Arianism. In attendance were 186 bishops from the East (of whom 36 were considered "heretical"), but there were no bishops from the West and no representatives of Pope Damasus I....It granted Constantinople honorary precedence over all churches except Rome. [Catholic Encyclopedia, p. 361.] Damasus fought hard to make the Roman bishop supreme. Using Matt. 16:18, Damasus strongly asserted the primacy of Rome and downplayed the growing importance of Constantinople. In 378 he convinced the government to recognize Rome as the court of first instance and also of appeal for the western bishops. In 380 Emperor Theodosius I (379-395) expelled all the Arians from the churches of Constantinople and made Christianity the state religion. Damasus commissioned his secretary, St. Jerome, to write the Vulgate, a version of the Bible that was the authoritative version of the Bible until 1943.
38. Siricius (384-399) was the first pope to issue decretals (decrees that were to be accepted as law).
39. Anastasius I (399-401) wrote to the Council of Carthage and asked the bishops to continue their fight against the Donatists (who taught that those baptized by heretics had to be rebaptized).
40. Innocent I (401-417) was the son of Anastasius I, his predecessor. He spent his time trying to enhance the primacy of Rome, constantly reminding other bishops in letters of his rights as Peter's successor, particularly the right to decide all disputes in the church. He supported John Chrysotom, bishop of Constantinople, in his struggles against the emperor (Chrysotom was deposed and exiled in 404), refusing to acknowledge the bishop appointed in his place. He, along with St. Augustine, bishop of Hippo (in N. Africa), fought the Pelagian heresy, which denied Original Sin and the necessity of grace. Alaric the Visigoth sieged Rome in 408. In 410 Innocent led a deputation to the Emperor Honorius (393-423) at Ravenna to negotiate a truce. The negotiations failed and Alaric stormed and plundered Rome. Innocent did not return from his mission to Ravenna until 412.
41. Zosimus (417-418) reversed Innocent I's condemnation of Pelagius and then later reversed himself under pressure from African bishops, including St. Augustine. He was inept in his ability to govern.
42. Boniface I (418-422). Another individual was elected bishop by a rival group the day before Boniface was elected. Eventually the emperor decided in favor of Boniface. Boniface strongly opposed Pelagianism (which taught that salvation could be reached by human effort alone, without the help of divine grace), and a great advocate of papal authority.
43. Celestine I (422-432). Though the position of bishop of Rome had been steadily growing in prestige and power, it was still not universally recognized that Rome had the right to reign over the whole church. The African bishops in particular, resented the interference of the Roman bishop, reminding him from time to time that he did not have the right to hear appeals on decisions made in their jurisdictions. Celestine continually asserted his right to hear appeals from the entire church. His best opportunity in this regard came because of the preaching of Nestorius of Constantinople, who taught that in Jesus there were two persons, one human and one divine. Nestorius also believed that Mary gave birth to the human Jesus but not the divine Christ. In these teachings, Nestorius was opposed by Cyril of Alexandria. Both Nestorius and Cyril submitted their positions to Celestine who treated it as an appeal from the East to Rome. Celestine ruled against Nestorius, demanding that he recant within ten days or be excommunicated. Meanwhile the Emperor Theodosius II (408-450) summoned the Third Council of the church to meet at Ephesus in 431 to help decide the matter. Celestine did not attend but did send three papal legates. The council decided against Nestorius and he was excommunicated.
44. Sixtus III (432-440) tried to bring reconciliation to wounded feelings following the Council of Ephesus. He also pursued a large rebuilding effort in Rome necessitated by the sacking of Rome in 410 by Alaric the Visigoth.
45. Leo I or Leo the Great (440-461). Some historians call
him the first pope. He worked very hard to establish the primacy
of the Roman bishop. In 448 Leo received an appeal from a monk
named Eutyches who had been deposed by the bishop of Constantinople
for teaching the Monophysite doctrine that Jesus only had one
nature, a divine one. Leo condemned Eutyches and reaffirmed that
Jesus had two natures. The Emperor Theodosius II called a council
at Ephesus in 449 to decide the matter. Leo sent three legates
with his written feelings on the issue. The council rejected Leo's
writings and condemned the bishop of Constantinople. Leo rejected
the council's decision and led a growing resistance to it. The
result was the Fourth General Council at Chalcedon in 451. This
council reversed the decisions of the council at Ephesus. However,
Leo was not happy with another of the issues decided at Chalcedon
in which the Patriarch of Constantinople was given equal authority
with the pope.
Leo strengthened the papacy in several ways:
2. He convinced Attila the Hun in 452 and Genseric the Vandal
in 455 not to destroy Rome (though Genseric's troops plundered
it for two weeks). Legend says that great fear was created in
Attila by a vision of St. Peter and St. Paul marching with the
pope as he went to confront the Hun. These successes increased
his popularity.
46. Hilarus (461-468) compelled Emperor Anthemius to swear that he would not allow meeting places in Rome for heretics.
47. Simplicius (468-483) lived to see the fall of Rome when the last Roman emperor in the west, Romulus Augustulus, was forced to abdicate by Odovacar, a German general and an Arian. He worked hard to maintain Rome's authority in the west. The eastern Emperor Zeno (474-491) was deposed in 475-476 by Basiliscus. During the period of usurpation, Basiliscus allowed and encouraged a compromise between Monophysites (those who taught that Jesus had only one nature, a divine one) and those who held to the doctrines of the Council of Chalcedon. After Zeno was restored as eastern emperor, he and Acacius, the bishop of Constantinople, pursued the same policy of conciliation with the Monophysites. After 479, Acacius intentionally kept Simplicius uninformed about the religious happenings in the East, refusing to communicate about most of what was going on. Clearly the emperor and the patriarch did not at this time feel that they wanted or needed help from Rome.
48. Felix III (483-492). Peter Mongos, a Monophysite, had been installed as bishop of Alexandria during Simplicius's reign. Soon after Felix's election, the pope wrote letters to emperor Zeno and Acacius demanding that Peter Mongos be deposed and that the East adhere to Chalcedonian orthodoxy. In 484 Felix excommunicated Acacius for including Mongos in the diptychs (the names of living and dead publicly prayed for at mass). The excommunication had no practical effect, beyond provoking Acacius to retaliate by removing the pope's name from the Diptych. In 485 Pope Felix III declared the Monophysite bishop of Antioch deposed, but this also had no effect. By 491, Mongos, Zeno, and Acacius had all died. The new patriarch, Euphemius, an orthodox Chalcedonian, was alarmed at the monophysitism of the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I (491-518). He wrote to Felix asking for a reconciliation between the two churches. Felix refused because the name of Acacius was included in the Diptych. This Acacian Schism would last for 35 years and was the first significant break in the relationship between the eastern and western churches. In 487 Felix ruled that those Catholics in Africa who had been forcibly submitted to Arian rebaptism by the Vandals, could only be restored to communion after years of penitential discipline; those in holy orders only on their deathbed. In Italian secular concerns, Theodoric of the Ostrogoths defeated Odovacar in 488 and ruled as king in Italy until 526. He interfered as seldom as possible in the affairs of the church.
49. Gelasius I (492-496) was the first pope known to be called the Vicar of Christ. At the time he ascended the throne of Peter, barbarian kings, all Arians, ruled what had been the Roman empire in the west. The order that had existed in Europe would continue to deteriorate. Gelasius was adamant and constant in advancing the claims of papal primacy. Among other things he declared in a letter to the Byzantine emperor that priestly power was above kingly power and, therefore, the chair of Saint Peter (the pope) is supreme in the world. He declared that there can be no appeal from the decisions made by the pope. He also taught that while church authorities must submit to the emperor in secular matters, in things concerning the church the emperor must submit to the pope. In its feelings about the relationship between church and state, the Catholic church followed this line of reasoning for centuries. Gelasius was unmovable on the Monophysite issue. He refused overtures from Euphemius for reconciliation, insisting that Acacius and other offenders of orthodoxy be removed from the eastern Diptych. He was a vigorous administrator and used his private fortune to help the poor.
50. Anastasius II (496-498). Anastasius attempted a reconciliation with the East. In the process he made enemies of many of the Roman clergy. He died in the midst of the controversy before the reconciliation could be brought about. Dante places him in the sixth level of hell in The Inferno.
51. Symmachus (498-514) was elected by the clergy who had rejected the attempts by Anastasius to reconcile with the East on the Acacian question. In opposition to Symmachus, a minority of the clergy, the aristocracy and the Roman Senate elected Lawrence as an antipope. Both factions asked Theodoric, king of Italy, to decide. He chose Symmachus. In 501 the Lawrentian party accused Symmachus of celebrating Easter on the wrong date. Theodoric summoned him to Ravenna to stand trial. On the way to the trial the pope learned that he would also be accused of adultery and misuse of church property. Symmachus panicked and went back to Rome, taking refuge in St. Peter's. Theodoric called a synod to judge the case. The synod ruled that as pope, no human court could judge him and that he was freed from all charges. The king did not like the verdict and allowed Lawrence to return and rule as pope in the Lateran for four years. Bloody street violence between the two factions continued off and on for these four years. In 506, after some careful negotiating by the Symmachan party, Theodoric reinstated Symmachus as pope. Lawrence retired to a farm.
52. Hormisdas (514-523) was pope when the Acacian schism ended. In 518, the Emperor Anastatius died. The new Byzantine emperor, Justin I (518-527) was a staunch Chalcedonian. Upon his ascension to the throne he immediately reestablished the "two-natures" of Christ as the official doctrine of the empire. The "Formula of Hormisdas," which established the doctrine concerning Christ along the lines of Chalcedonian orthodoxy and condemned Acacius and his four successors, was signed at the imperial palace by John, the Patriarch of Constantinople, in 519.
53. John I (523-526). Shortly before John's election, the Emperor Justinian began persecuting the Arians, including a great number of Goths. The persecution angered and alarmed Theodoric, King of Italy (493-526), himself a Goth and an Arian. Theodoric summoned the aged and infirm pope to Ravenna, and then ordered him to go to Constantinople to secure a stop to the persecution. The pope was royally treated by the people and emperor. John was able to have the persecution stopped and obtained the return of confiscated Arian churches. But he was unable to secure the emperor's permission for Arians, who had been forcibly converted, to return to their Arian beliefs. When the pope got back to Ravenna, he was greeted by a furious Theodoric. The king felt that the delegation had been a failure and treated the pope with great suspicion because he had been so well received in Constantinople. Theodoric ordered John to stay in Ravenna. Worn out, John soon died in there. During John's pontificate the practice began of dating years in the calendar from Christ's birth instead of from Diocletian's era.
54. Felix IV (526-530). The deadlock that lasted 58 days to choose the next pope was broken when King Theodoric stepped in to order the consecration of Felix, the pro-Gothic candidate as opposed to the pro-Byzantine candidate. On his deathbed, Felix nominated Boniface to be his successor. Nomination of a successor was unconstitutional. The Roman senate and most of the clergy objected and chose Dioscorus to be pope. A minority of the clergy then elected Boniface.
55. Boniface II (530-532). Dioscorus died 22 days after his election and is not counted as a pope. The clergy thence forth accepted Boniface as the next pope.
56. John II (533-535). His real name was that of the pagan god, Mercury. He was, therefore, the first pope to take a new name. The election that saw him come to office was one of great corruption and bribery.
57. Agapitus I (535-536). At the beginning of the papacy of
Agapitus, the Emperor Justinian (527-565) was preparing to invade
Italy and retake it from the Goths. The king of the Ostrogoths,
Theodahad, forced the pope to go to Constantinople, charging the
pope to persuade Justinian not to attack. The pope was unsuccessful.
While in Constantinople, Agapitus forced the removal of the patriarch,
Anthimus, because he was a Monophysite. Agapitus died in Constantinople.
58. Silverius (536-537). Theodahad terrorized the clergy into selecting the subdeacon, Silverius, as pope because he wanted someone in office who would be pro-Gothic. Justinian's wife, the Empress Theodora, a Monophysite, intrigued with the Roman deacon Vigilius. She promised him that she would help make him pope if in return he would secure the reestablishment of Anthimus as patriarch. Vigilius hastened to Rome only to find Silverius already elected. In 536, the Byzantine general, Belisarius, took the city of Rome. Belisarius summoned the pope to meet him, stripped him from his papal robes, deposed him, degraded him to the rank of monk, and exiled him to Patara in Lycia. When a local bishop protested, Justinian ordered Silverius be taken back to Rome to stand fair trial. Vigilius arranged with Belisarius to have Silverius delivered to him. This was done and Silverius was exiled to the island of Palmaria, where his abdication was extorted. Silverius died a month later of starvation.
59. Vigilius (537-555). Belisarius forced the election of Vigilius. He proved to be deceitful to the emperor. When Emperor Justinian condemned Origen, Vigilius dutifully subscribed to the edict. When, however, Justinian then condemned three theologians called the "Three Chapters" (they were anti-Monophysites) the pope refused to recognize the condemnation, even though the patriarch, Menas, subscribed to it. Justinian had Vigilius arrested as he was saying mass in 545 and taken first to Sicily and then in 547 to Constantinople where he could more effectively be bullied. Vigilius refused to give in on the issue. He excommunicated Menas, who in return excommunicated Vigilius. Eventually, however, worn down, Vigilius condemned the Three Chapters and reinstated Menas. There was intense indignation in the West; a synod of African bishops excommunicated Vigilius. Eventually a council, the Fifth, was called at Constantinople in 553. The council decided in favor of condemning the Three Chapters. The pope resisted and at first refused to accept the decision. Eventually, however, under house arrest, he gave his approval of the decision in 554. He died on his way back to Rome. By the time Vigilius died in 555, Italy had been devastated by 20 years of war between the Goths and the Byzantines. Justinian finally retook Italy for the empire in 552. The fighting impoverished and depopulated Italy, brought civilized life to an end, and opened the way for invasions by the Lombards. There was an epidemic of bubonic plague and a shortage of drinking water in Rome caused by the cutting of the aqueducts. Also the 300,000 inhabitants of Milan had mostly been slaughtered.
60. Pelagius I (556-561) was selected as the next pope by Justinian and Theodora. Before his selection as pope he had been adamantly opposed to compromises on the Monophysite issue. However, as pope he immediately fell in line with the emperor on the debate of the "Three Chapters." There was some talk that he had had something to do with the death of Vigilius and he was widely criticized for his about face on the condemnation of the "Three Chapters." Pelagius reformed church finances, took a firm stand against simony (the selling of church offices) and clerical corruption and spent much time and effort relieving the physical needs of the Roman people. In spite of his hard work in these areas he never gained much respect or popularity because of his doctrinal capitulation concerning the Monophysites.
61. John III (561-574). John had to wait four months after election for approval of the emperor before he could be consecrated. During his reign, in 568, the Lombards (they were German Arians) invaded Italy.
62. Benedict I (575-579). Benedict had to wait eleven months for imperial approval before consecration. During his reign the Lombards pushed farther into Italy, even beginning a siege of Rome in 579. Benedict died during the famine caused by the Lombard siege.
63. Pelagius II (579-590). As the Lombards continued to threaten
Rome, Pelagius asked the Byzantine emperor for help. Since he
was fighting the Persians at the time, he could spare only a few
troops and they accomplished very little. In 585 the Byzantine
imperial exarch (governor of Italy) located in Ravenna, arranged
an armistice with the Lombards that lasted until 589. Pelagius
argued with the patriarch of Constantinople over his use of the
term "Ecumenical Patriarch." Pelagius felt that he was
taking too much authority upon himself. During Pelagius's pontificate
the Visigoths of Spain converted to Christianity. Pelagius died
during a plague in Rome.
64. Gregory I the Great (590-604). Under Gregory, the papacy increased in spiritual and temporal power. As the Lombards invaded, Gregory was forced to assume responsibility for the defense of Rome and Naples, due to the slow response of the exarch to the crisis. The empire and the emperor lost power and prestige, while the papacy gained both. Soon Gregory was acting as civil and military governor of the whole area. To the starving population of Rome, he gave away grain from the papal granaries. He paid the imperial troops, appointed their officers, and directed their movements. When the truce he had concluded with the Lombards was disowned by the exarch, who was jealous of the pope, the Lombard king besieged Rome. Gregory bought him off with 500 pounds of gold. Such direct dealings with the Lombards displeased both the exarch (the Byzantine governor in Ravenna) and Emperor Maurice, who accused Gregory of political naivete. He protested against the charge with force and dignity. Gregory continued to acknowledge that he was the subject of the emperor, but argued strenuously throughout his papacy with the Emperor Maurice and the patriarch because of their use of the term "ecumenical patriarch" to describe the bishop of Constantinople. He felt it made the patriarch equal to the pope. Because of these problems, Gregory greeted the news of Maurice's assassination in 602 with great joy. Gregory's greatest accomplishment was to organize the papal government as an elaborate, smoothly functioning machine during an otherwise chaotic time. Among other things he organized the priests and deacons of the early church into colleges, and created an elaborate organization for the management of the papal estates (laying the foundation for the future Papal States). He also was very involved in missionary work, launching among others the mission to England by Augustine, and in reconverting Arians to Catholicism. Finally, Gregory vigorously pursued the acceptance of the Roman bishop as leader of the whole church. Gregory energetically promoted the liturgy and liturgical music, so much so that his name was given to what we know as Gregorian chant.
65. Sabinian (604-606) was one of the most unpopular popes ever. During the continued hardships caused by the Lombards he, like Gregory I, had considerable control over the food supply. But unlike Gregory he sold the food rather than give it away. Accused of racketeering, he was so disliked that when he died his funeral procession had to make a detour outside the city to avoid the angry crowds. He was buried in a secret location in the Lateran.
66. Boniface III (Feb.-Nov. 607). Boniface obtained a formal declaration from the Emperor Phocas that officially acknowledged the bishop of Rome as head of all churches. This ended, for the time being, the "ecumenical patriarch" controversy.
67. Boniface IV (608-615) was devoted to the poor. His reign saw a series of famines, plagues, and natural disasters. He turned the great Roman temple to the gods, the Pantheon, into a church dedicated to Mary.
68. Deusdedit (615-618) experienced both a plague and an earthquake during his pontificate.
69. Boniface V (619-625) was known for his compassion and generosity. He distributed his entire fortune to the poor. Like Deusdedit he had to wait almost a year after his election for confirmation of approval by the Byzantine emperor.
70. Honorius I (625-638) was an energetic pope. He took over operations that the civil government could not handle. He restored aqueducts, maintained the corn supply, paid imperial troops, and instructed government officials how to administer the city of Naples. However, he is the source of great controversy because he supported the Emperor Heraclius and Sergius, the patriarch of Constantinople, in their efforts to once again compromise with the Monophysites. Sergius suggested what is known as Monothelitism, the belief that Christ had two natures but only one divine will. Honorius would be subsequently condemned as a heretic at the Sixth General Church Council at Constantinople in 680-681, one of just a few popes to be so condemned. In 636, the Moslems overran Palestine and Syria. Thus the important bishoprics of Antioch and Jerusalem were lost.
71. Severinus (640) had to wait twenty months before receiving imperial approval of his election. While he waited the papal treasury was plundered by imperial troops because they felt they had not been paid. Part of the delay to the confirmation was Severinus's unwillingness to rule that Monophytism was acceptable.
72. John IV (640-642) also fought the emperor on the Monothelitist issue.
73. Theodore I (642-649). Theodore was an arch enemy of Monothelitism. He excommunicated two patriarchs, one deposed and one current, because of their acceptance of the heresy. It was said that he signed the decree of the one deposed, Pyrrhus, on the apostle's tomb with consecrated eucharistic wine. In 646 the Moslems conquered Egypt. The bishopric of Alexandria was lost.
74. Martin I (649-654) was the first pope in decades to be consecrated without having waited for imperial approval. He is also the last pope to be recognized as a martyr. He refused to bow to the Byzantine Emperor Constans II (641-648) on the issue of Monothelitism. Eventually the emperor had him dragged from his sick bed and shipped to Constantinople, where he was imprisoned for three months in solitary confinement. Then the emperor condemned Martin to death, publicly flogged him, and sent him back to prison to await his death. After the patriarch pleaded for Martin's life, Constans had him exiled to the Crimea, where he died two years later. His greatest distress during this time was that the Roman church did nothing to alleviate his suffering, such as send supplies, and they elected his successor while he was still alive.
75. Eugenius (654-657) sought reconciliation with the Byzantine emperor by sending envoys to Constantinople immediately after his consecration. The new patriarch of Constantinople suggested as a compromise that each of Christ's natures had its own will but that the divine person only had one will (technically giving Christ three wills). The papal envoys accepted this proposition and reestablished communion with the East. But when the new proposal was read in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, the clergy and people were so upset they refused to let the pope finish Mass. Eugnius finally agreed to reject the new compromise and so Rome and Constantinople went back to being in schism.
76. Vitalian (657-674) adopted a conciliatory attitude towards
the East and improved relations with the emperor. Also the question
of the Celtic and Roman churches was settled during his pontificate
in favor of the Roman version of Catholicism. Among other things,
the Roman date for Easter was established as the correct date.
77. Adeodatus II (672-676) rejected Monothelitism. He was known
for kindness and generosity.
78. Donus (676-678). Not much is known of Donus's pontificate. He did take care of a small problem of a Nestorian (the heresy that in Christ there are two persons, one mortal and one divine) monastery by dispersing the monks to other monasteries.
79. Agatho (678-681). Soon after his consecration Agatho received a letter from the Emperor Constantine IV (668-685) requesting an end to the Monothelitist controversy. The emperor had decided that the issue was no longer useful for reconciling the Monophysites in the East (Many of the Monophysites lived in Syria and Egypt, areas that had been captured by the Moslems). The outcome of the letter was the Sixth General Council (680-681) held at Constantinople. This council condemned Monothelitism and Pope Honorius, as well as helping to reconcile the papacy with the Byzantine emperor.
80. Leo II (682-683) had to wait 18 months for imperial acceptance. It was he who formally accepted the decrees of the Sixth General Council. He was devoted to the poor.
81. Benedict II (684-685) waited a year for imperial approval. He was known for his gentleness and devotion to the poor.
82. John V (685-686) was ill during most of the 11 months he was pope and did not accomplish much.
83. Conon (686-687) was elected in his old age. His mismanagement of affairs left the Roman church deeply divided at the time of his death.
84. Sergius (687-701). After the death of Sergius's predecessor, Conon there was a split decision on who should be the new pope. Both the archdeacon Paschal and the archpriest Theodore were elected by different factions. Both went to the Lateran and barricaded themselves into different parts of the building. As a result leading city officials, army officers, and most of the clergy elected a compromise candidate, Sergius. Theodore submitted. Paschal eventually was imprisoned. The Emperor Justinian II (685-695; 705-711) decided he wanted to hold a council. He did not invite the West to what is called the Quinisext council. It decided on 102 disciplinary and ritual canons. Among other western practices it condemned were clerical celibacy and Saturday fast in Lent. Justinian insisted that the pope sign it. He refused. Justinian sent an army to force the pope to sign it or be brought captive to Constantinople. Instead, the imperial troops at Ravenna rallied to the pope's side and Sergius had to plead for the army commander's life. Sergius introduced the singing of the Agnus Dei into the Mass.
85. John VI (701-705) spent large sums of money ransoming prisoners that had been taken in battles in defense of papal territories.
86. John VII (705-707) was a patron of the arts and constructed a new papal palace at the foot of the Palatine hill.
87. Sisinnius (708) died of gout 20 days after his consecration.
88. Constantine (708-715) traveled to Constantinople in 710 and was successful in negotiating peace between himself and the emperor Justinian II. When Justinian died the new emperor, Philippicus Bardanes, a fanatical Monothelite, tried to force the pope to accept his profession of faith as a Monothelitist. The pope dropped the emperor's name from the list of those prayed for at mass. The imperial exarch in Ravenna tried to enforce the emperor's demand, which caused bloody street fighting. Fortunately the emperor was soon overthrown.
89. Gregory II (715-731). Though a loyal subject of the empire, Gregory led the angry resistance in Italy between 717 and 726 when the emperor, Leo III the Isaurian (717-741) drastically raised taxes. The emperor made plans to have Gregory assassinated or deposed but the pope's popularity prevented it. Beginning in 726, Emperor Leo forbade the use of icons in churches, as part of his plan for converting Moslems and Jews. In 730 he issued an edict outlawing icons and had the eastern patriarch sign it. Leo's demand that Pope Gregory II agree to the edict touched off uprisings in Northern Italy. Gregory rejected Leo's iconoclasm and wrote to him that doctrine was the business of priests not princes. While he recognized the authority of the emperor, he refused to bow on the matter of icons. In 729 the Lombards threatened Rome, but a visit by Gregory to the Lombard camp so impressed the Lombard king that he gave up the siege and submitted allegiance to the pope. Gregory commissioned Boniface to do missionary work in Germany and provided him with a letter of recommendation to Charles Martel. Boniface was quite successful.
90. Gregory III (731-741). At the funeral of Gregory II, cheering
crowds rushed to the Lateran and made Gregory III pope by acclamation.
He was consecrated five weeks later. He was the last pope to seek
the Byzantine emperor's confirmation. He made Emperor Leo III
angry by calling an Italian synod in 731 to condemn iconoclasm.
Later they called a truce after Gregory helped Leo retake Ravenna
from the Lombards in 733. Gregory had worse problems with the
Lombards than he did with the East. When the Lombards invaded
the duchy of Rome, capturing four key fortresses and threatening
the city itself, Gregory took the momentous step in 739 and again
in 740 of asking the king of the Franks, Charles Martel, for help.
Martel received the pope's envoys courteously but declined to
give aid. But this marked the beginning of the papacy's move
away from Byzantium toward the Franks.
Gregory, Leo, and Charles Martel all died in 741.
91. Zacharias (741-752) used his influence for ten years to keep the Exarchate out of Lombard hands. Finally, however, in 751 a new Lombard king, Aistulf (749-756), took Ravenna and put an end to Byzantine power in Northern Italy. When it became apparent that the Lombards might again threaten Rome, Zacharias decided that it would be in his best interests to improve his relations with the Franks. Boniface's efforts in Germany had already helped strengthen the this relationship. In 751, the pope directed Boniface to crown Charles Martel's son, Pepin III, the Short, as king of the Franks. The Merovingian line of kings was thus formally ended. Zacharias moved the pope's residence back to the Lateran. (John VII had moved to the Palatine.)
92. Stephen II (752-757) was the beneficiary of the alliance with Pepin the Short. His papacy is important for two important developments: 1) the detachment of the papacy from the Byzantine empire and the protection of the Church by the Franks, 2) and the creation of the Papal States. When in 752, the Lombard king, Aistulf, threatened Rome, Stephen appealed to the eastern Emperor Constantine V (741-775). Receiving no help, he then turned to Pepin III. Traveling across the Alps Stephen II met Pepin III at Ponthion. The next day the pope dressed in penitential clothing and threw himself at the feet of Pepin III, begging for help against the Lombards. In reply, the Franks defeated the Lombards in 754 and again in 756. Pepin forced the Lombards to give the pope the territory extending from Rome to Ravenna. This became the nucleus for the Papal States. (Most scholars think it was Stephen II who forged the "Donation of Constantine," to show precedent for the temporal rule of the pope. This document was purported to have been written by the Emperor Constantine the Great to Pope Silvester the I, ceding Rome, Italy, and the provinces in the West to the papacy.) The creation of the Papal States, made the pope not only the spiritual leader of the church but a temporal prince as well, an event that would prove to be a mixed blessing.
93. Paul I (757-767) was the younger brother of Stephen II. He spent much of his time trying to consolidate his hold on the Papal States. He also dealt with the iconoclast problem that arose again in the East. He held a synod that ruled in favor of icons. Paul's administrative style was so harsh that he badly alienated the Roman lay aristocracy. This alienation laid the foundation for the end of participation by the laity in papal elections.
94. Stephen III (768-772). In 767 a Roman noble named Toto used armed men to scare the Roman electors into choosing a layman, Toto's brother, Constantine as pope (consequently known as an antipope). Within the year the Roman clergy, led by Archdeacon Christopher, called on the Lombard king, Desiderius, to depose Constantine. Desiderius obliged, killing Toto and putting Constantine in prison. Desiderius, through his agent Waldipert, then rigged the election in favor of his own candidate, Philip, despite Christopher's desires. The clergy and people of Rome would not stand for this, however, and they elected Stephen III. For some time Christopher and his son Sergius dominated and manipulated Pope Stephen. They also had Constantine, Waldipert, and others blinded and mutilated. Upon his election, Stephen III dispatched a messenger to the Franks for approval. On arrival, the messenger found that Pepin III was dead. His son, Charlemagne (768-814), now in charge, confirmed the election. In 770, Charlemagne married the daughter of Desiderius. From here on out Stephen III botched things terribly. Stephen III allowed the murder of Christopher and Sergius by Desiderius on the promise of more territory for the Papal States and then wrote to Chalemagne that Desiderius (Charlemagne's father-in-law) had saved him from their plotting. However, Desiderius refused to honor his offer of more land. Then in 771 Charlemagne divorced his Lombard wife and became a mortal enemy of the Lombards. Thus the pope had weakened the relationship the popes had had with the Franks for the sake of a bargain with his enemies, the Lombards. Not only did the bargain fail, but the pope had essentially agreed to the murders of Christopher, his chief notary, and his son Sergius. In 772, Stephen III died having disgraced the papacy.
95. Pope Hadrian I (772-795) sent the unsuspecting agent of the Lombard king, Paul Afiarta, on a journey to Ravenna, where he had the Archbishop of Ravenna arrest him on the way. The Archbishop had him executed in prison. An angry Desiderius marched on Rome taking cities as he went. Hadrian called Charlemagne for help. Charlemagne defeated the Lombards in 774, destroyed the Lombard kingdom, declared himself their king, and renewed the Donation of Pepin (the papal states given to the pope by Pepin III), actually giving the pope about 3/4 of Italy. Charlemagne did not hesitate to interfere in those territories. The Seventh General Council of the Church held at Nicaea in 787 condemned iconoclasm. Hadrian was untiringly diligent in his care for the Roman people. He carried out a vast program of public works and rebuilt or decorated many churches.
96. Leo III (795-816). Leo met hostility from some aristocrats. In Apr. 799 while Leo was riding to mass, a gang attacked him trying unsuccessfully to cut out his eyes and tongue. He was then shut up in a monastery. He escaped and made his way to Charlemagne's court. His enemies also arrived and accused him of adultery. Charlemagne gave him an escort back to Rome. In Nov. 800 Charlemagne came to Rome to personally consider the charges against the pope. After three weeks of discussion, it was decided that the Vicar of Christ could not be judged by his fellow men. Still Leo was required to publicly take an oath that he was not guilty. Two days later, as Charlemagne rose from prayer in St. Peter's, Leo suddenly placed a crown on his head and the people burst into declaration that Charlemagne was the Emperor of the Romans, crowned by God. Leo's actions gave the Charlemagne equal prestige to the Byzantine emperor and established a secular power in Rome that could help bring order there. It also ended the papacy's dependence on the Byzantine empire. But it established a relationship that gave precedence to the political interference of the Germans that would occur for the next several centuries. In most aspects of their relationship, Charlemagne dominated the pope. In 810 Charlemagne pressed the reluctant Leo to add the "filioque clause" (the Holy Spirit emanates from the Father and the Son, rather than from only the Father) to the Nicene Creed. Leo refused but could not prevent it from becoming normal in the West. In 815 Leo discovered another plot to assassinate him. He had scores of individuals suspected of conspiracy put to death.
97. Stephen IV (816-817). On a visit to Charlemagne's successor, Louis I, the Pious (814-840), Stephen anointed and crowned Louis at Rheims (in France), suggesting that the intervention of the pope was necessary for full exercise of imperial power.
98. Paschal I (817-824). Louis's son, Lothair, crowned as co-emperor in 817, came to Rome in 823. Paschal anointed him on Easter Sunday. This event continued to help establish the pope's right to crown the emperor, as well as establishing Rome as the place of coronation. While in Rome, Lothair exercised royal power in ways that infringed on papal power. Among other things, he exempted the abbey of Farfa from paying tribute money to the papacy. Upper class opponents of Paschal in Rome turned to Lothair for support. When Lothair left Rome, two leaders of the pro-Frankish party were blinded and beheaded. Rumor linked Paschal to the deed. Like Leo III, Paschal took an oath of purgation before a synod of 34 bishops denying the charge. Paschal saw the revival of iconoclasm in the east by Emperor Leo V (813-820). Paschal began the practice of indulgences (the remission of temporal punishments for sin).
99. Eugene II (824-827). Louis I sent Lothair to Rome in 824 to restore order after the excesses of Paschal I. Lothair established the "Roman constitution" with Eugene's agreement. This document stated that: 1) All persons under either imperial or papal protection would be granted immunity; 2) Ordinary citizens could be judged by Roman, Frankish, or Lombard law, according to their choice; 3) A supervisory commission to examine the papal administration was set up. It would report annually to the Frankish emperor; 4) the people of Rome as well as the clergy would take part in papal elections and the pope-elect would take an oath of loyalty to the emperor (this ancient practice had been suspended since a synod ruled against it in 769). 5) the pope's consecration could not take place without approval from the Frankish emperor. Louis I, the Pious, urged the pope to accept a compromise on the issue of iconoclasm, but he would not budge, sayiing it had been settled by the Seventh Council in Nicaea in 787.
100. Valentine (827) died about a month after consecration.
101. Gregory IV (827-844). When Louis's sons began to rebel against their father, Gregory supported Lothair. The Frankish bishops threatened to excommunicate Gregory if he persisted in this disloyalty. Gregory negotiated a settlement only to be deceived by Lothair. Louis was deposed though he later was restored. After Louis's death the Treaty of Verdun, dividing the Carolingian empire between the three sons of Louis, was concluded in 843.
102. Sergius II (844-847). Sergius's corrupt administration used doubtful means, including much simony, for collecting funds for his building projects around Rome. In 846 Muslim pirates plundered St. Peter's and St. Paul's.
103. Leo IV (847-855) did not wait for imperial approval before taking office, citing danger from the Muslim pirates as a reason for quick action. His relations stayed strained with the Carolingian empire. He is said to have added the sprinkling of holy water during the Mass. A medieval legend says that Leo IV was succeeded by a woman, Pope Joan, mascarading as a man. The legend says that she was found out when she gave birth to a baby while riding in procession from St. Peter's to the Lateran. Another version said she succeeded Victor III in 1087. There is no contemporary evidence to support either legend.
104. Benedict III (855-858). After Benedict's confirmation, the pro-imperial faction in Rome, drug him from his throne, imprisoned him, and installed the cardinal-priest, Anastasius as pope. After three days of anarchy, however, it became clear that Benedict had wide popular support. Benedict was returned to office.
105. Nicholas I (858-867). Under Nicholas the papacy enjoyed a period of independence and supremacy. He had an exalted view of the papacy believing that he was God's representative on earth, with authority over the whole church. He excommunicated the bishop of Ravenna, reinstating him only after he promised to submit to Rome. He thought that the church had a right to watch over and influence the state, and to look to it for protection and support. He used the famous Pseudo-Isodorian, or False Decretals, to support his claims to primacy. These were a collection of writings including letters from early popes, rulings from councils, and the "Donation of Constantine." They established the pope as the successor to Peter, asserted the superiority of the church to the state, and held that priests were free from control by secular rulers. According to the Decretals, only God could remove a pope. Although these documents were forgeries, they were still widely accepted for centuries and strengthened the Roman bishop's position as Pope. Nicholas refused to allow Lothair II of Lorraine to divorce his wife and marry his mistress, excommunicating the mistress and the two archbishops who had agreed to the divorce. The emperor sent trooops to Rome but eventually backed off. When the Byzantine emperor, Michael III, dismissed the Patriarch, Ignatius, in order to nominate his friend Photius. Nicholas refused to acknowledge the nomination, though he did agree to it if the East would give Illyricum (approximately modern Albania) to the pope. The emperor refused. A Lateran synod excommunicated Photius in 863. In 867 a Byzantine synod excommunicated the pope for sending missionary bishops to Bulgaria. However, the pope was dead before the news reached Rome. This episode laid the foundations for the final East-West split in 1054. In 867, Photius was forced to abdicate and Ignatius was patriarch until his death a few years later when Photius took his place again.
106. Hadrian II (867-872) was so well respected that he was elected to the papacy twice, in 855 and 858, and turned it down before finally accepting it the third time. He was married before his ordination and as pope endured the tragedy of the rape and murder of his daughter and the murder of his wife by the brother of the former antipope, Anastasius. Hadrian held a synod in 869 that condemned Photius. This condemnation was upheld at what is considered in the West as the Eighth General Council (869-870), held at Constantinople. He reversed the excommunication of Lothair II even though he showed no signs of following Nicholas I's order to take back his wife.
107. John VIII (872-882). John crowned both Charles the Bald (875-877) and Charles the Fat as Roman emperors (881-888) but most of his political moves proved inept. The Franks were not able to help him in a move to fight raiding Saracens (Moslems). In desperate need of help, John sought reconciliation with the East. The difficulty here was that Photius had by now regained the position of patriarch and the eastern emperor, Basil I (867-886) requested that Photius be so recognized. At what is known in the east as the Eighth General Council (879-880), held at Constantinople, those attending annulled the councils that had anathematized Photius. John ratified this decision. He therefore got the military aid that he needed. John is the first pope to be assassinated. According to a German historian, he was poisoned by a group of powerful Italian nobles. When the poison worked too slowly, the group broke into the pope's bedroom and bashed his head in with a hammer.
108. Marinus I (882-884) was the first pope to be elected who was already a bishop of another diocese, in violation of church law (the pope is supposed to be, after all, the bishop of Rome).
109. Hadrian III (884-885) had a high official of the Lateran palace blinded and a noblewoman whipped naked through the streets of Rome. He was most likely assassinated as he journeyed to Worms in Germany to attend the imperial Diet (an assembly).
110. Stephen V (885-891) faced two problems: increasing Saracen raids and internal factions in Rome. With the death of Charles the Fat in 888 the empire of Charlemagne disintegrated, so he could not get help from that quarter. He turned to the Duke of Spoleto who had seized most of Italy. The Duke used the opportunity to assert control over the Papal States. Stephen V forbade the Old Slavonic liturgy and thereby pushed the Slavs towards the eastern patriarch and away from the pope. Eventually this Slavonic-speaking church, loyal to Eastern Orthodoxy and not Catholicism would spread into other countries, particularly Russia.
111. Formosus (891-896) was a man of exceptional intelligence and lived an exemplary life. He had been a leading official for Nicholas I, Hadrian II, and John VIII. However, he fell out of favor with John VIII and was excommunicated for suspected intrigue and desiring the papacy. After John died he was reinstated. Two powerful factions in Rome, an Italian and a German faction, fought for power in the city. When he became pope he promoted the German party.
112. Boniface VI (896). Before Boniface's election to the papacy he had been defrocked (removed from the ministry) twice for immorality. He was pope about fifteen days before his death caused by gout.
113. Stephen VII (896-897) presided over the "Cadaveric Council." He had Formosus dug up from his grave. The corpse was dressed in his papal robes and tried before a council for uncanonical conduct (translation of bishops), coveting the papacy, and perjury. After being found guilty, three fingers of his right hand (with which he gave pontifical blessings) were cut off and his body was thrown into the Tiber river. Thereafter, Stephen required clergy ordained by Formosus to produce letters renouncing their ordinations as invalid. Eventually popular opinion swung against Stephen. Encouraged by reports of miracles worked by the body of Formosus, the supporters of Formosus deposed Stephen, threw him into prison, and had him strangled. What was left of the body of Formosus was retrieved by a hermit. The Cadaveric Council divided the Italian church and figured in several future elections.
114. Romanus (897) was a member of the pro-Formosan faction. One source said that after a few months as pope, he became a monk and retired to a monastery.
115. Theodore II (897) was pope for twenty days. He had the body of Formosus exhumed one more time, clothed it in pontifical robes, and buried it in St. Peter's. The strife between the pro-Formosan and pro-Stephen forces would continue for at least a couple of decades.
116. John IX (898-900). The anti-Formosan party elected a bishop named Sergius as pope but the pro-Formosan appealed to Lambert, king of Italy. Sergius was expelled and John IX replaced him. He held a synod annuling the acts of the Cadaveric Council.
117. Benedict IV (900-903). During Benedict's reign Rome remained in political turmoil. Not only was the city still split by pro- and anti-Formosan forces but the king of Italy, Berengar, drove the Holy Roman emperor, Louis out of Italy. Without the presence of imperial forces to keep order, the city fell into great disorder. It is believed that Benedict IV was murdered by Berengar's agents.
118. Leo V (903). After thirty days as pope, Leo was deposed and imprisoned by the antipope Christopher.
119. Sergius III (904-911) had been elected pope by the anti-Formosan faction after the death of Theodore II, but had to give way to John IX, who had the support of the emperor Lambert of Spoleto (d. 898). Sergius was deposed and exiled. When, four years later, the exiled Sergius heard that Christopher had thrown Leo V in prison, he marched on Rome with an army, threw Christopher in prison, and was acclaimed pope. A few months later Sergius had both Leo V and Christopher (he lasted on the papal throne four months) murdered in prison. Sergius dated his reign from his first attempt to be pope in 897. He declared all his predecessors as non-popes. He also threatened the clergy with violence until they attended a synod which reaffirmed the decision of the Cadaveric Council. This synod also declared null and void all the ordinations done by Formosus. Since Formosus had created many bishops, the resulting confusion was indescribable. Sergius was supported by Theophylact (d. 920), the head of the most powerful Roman family of the time. He was the financial director of the papacy and commander of the militia. His wife, Theodora, apparently had no moral scruples, nor did her daughters, Theodora and Marozia. Sergius was reputed to have had a child, the future pope, John XI, by the fifteen year-old Marozia. The period of time when the papacy was controlled by this family is known as the pornocracy. Sergius supported the Byzantine emperor, Leo VI, in his quest for a male heir, approving his fourth marriage.
120. Anastasius III (911-913) was dominated by the family of Theophylact.
121. Lando (913-914). There is almost no record of Lando's six month papacy.
122. John X (914-928) was elected pope on demand of the family of Theophylact. The rumor was that as a young priest John had been the lover of the elder Theodora and that she wanted him in closer proximity. The real reason was probably that Rome needed a vigorous and experienced leader to deal with the Saracens who had been devastating Italy for 60 years. With a coalition of Italian leaders, John helped defeat the Saracens in 915. John X approved the strict monastic rule of the newly founded (910) abbey of Cluny in Burgundy (eastern France). He encouraged the conversion of the Normans. He restored relations with the Eastern Church in 923. John sought to secure the independence of the papacy from the aristocratic control of the family of Theopylact by alliances with other rulers. This did not suit Marozia, the real ruler of Rome after her father's death. She had John's brother slaughtered in 927 in his presence. In 928 she had John imprisoned in Castel Sant' Angelo where he was smothered to death in 929. After John X, Marozia raised to the papacy, in succession, Leo VI (928-929), and Stephen VII (929-931).
123. Leo VI (928-929) was elected while his predecessor, John X, was still imprisoned. In fact, Leo VI died before John X's murder.
124. Stephen VII (928-931) was also elected while John X was still alive in prison.
125. John XI (931-936) was Marozia's illegitimate son, probably
fathered by Pope Sergius III. As pope he confirmed the papal privileges
of protection for the abbey of Cluny, in Burgundy. John approved
the appointment of the sixteen-year-old son of the eastern emperor,
Romanus I (920-944), as Patriarch of Constantinople in 932.
In the summer of 932 Marozia (d. after 932) was remarried to the
king of Italy, her brother-in-law, Hugh of Provence. At the wedding,
the pope's half-brother, Alberic II, was insulted by the new husband.
Alberic, thereupon, raised a successful rebellion among the Romans
against his mother. He proclaimed himself prince of the Romans
and ruled as such until his death in 954. Marozia was imprisoned
and never heard of again. John was also imprisoned. Later he was
released but some said served the rest of his pontificate as Alberic's
personal servant.
The next four popes were all made and controlled by Alberic. One of the things that Alberic insisted on was support of the monastery reform movement led by the abbey at Cluny.
126. Leo VII (936-939) invited abbot Odo of Cluny to Rome and commissioned him to reform the monasteries of Rome and its neighboring areas. He encouraged the archbishop of Mainz to expel Jews who would not be baptized as Christians.
127. Stephen VIII (939-942) supported Louis IV as king of Frnace and ordered the people and nobles of France and Burgundy to accept him under penalty of excommunication. He somehow angered Alberic II. He was imprisoned and mutilated. He died of his wounds.
128. Marinus II (942-946) like his predecessors was controlled by Alberic II.
129. Agapitus II (946-955) supported Louis IV in France, demanding that he submit to Louis or be excommunicated. He also gave broad support to Otto I of Germany. On Alberic's death bed, Agapitus II made the clergy and nobility swear that Alberic's illegitimate son, Octavian, would be made the next pope.
130. John XII (955-963), a grandson of Marozia, and illegitimate son of Alberic, was a complete profligate. As Alberic II had ordered on his deathbed, the leading Romans made his son Octavian, not only the next prince, but also the next pope. Octavian changed his name to John, the second pope to make such a change. John loved horses, hunting, and women. Many tales were told of his excesses: that he consecrated a ten-year old boy as bishop, castrated a cardinal-deacon, called upon the old pagan gods to help him at dice, and made the papal palace a brothel. Supposedly he died in his twenties from a stroke which he suffered while in the act of adultery. After failing to expand the territory of the Papal States, John XII sought an ally in this matter. He agreed to crown Otto I the great (emperor 962-973), of Germany as Holy Roman Emperor in return for his help. This act entangled the papacy with German politics for the next three hundred years and reestablished the Holy Roman Empire as an important force in Europe. The alliance did result in increased lands for the Papal States. Somewhere between two-thirds and three-fourths of Italy now belonged to the pope. But the alliance also required the pope to acknowledge the emperor as overlord of the territory. It also provided that the emperor would be the protector of the church's rights and possessions. Otto took his role as emperor much more seriously than any Carolingian. Under Otto, the pope was more the emperor's chief chaplain, rather than the head of the universal Church. John XII grew to resent the arrangement. In 963 he intrigued with the Italian king, Berengar II, against Otto. Otto returned to Rome, deposed John and had Leo VIII (963-965) consecrated.
131. Leo VIII (963-965). When Otto left Rome in Jan. 964, the Romans reinstated John as pope. At a synod in Feb. John deposed and excommunicated Leo. Otto marched on Rome again. John fled. In May, a month later John died. The Romans begged Otto to be allowed to elect Benedict V as pope. Otto refused, but the people and clergy elected and consecrated Benedict anyway. Otto besieged Rome until, faced with starvation, at the end of June the people took Leo back.
132. Benedict V (May 22-June 23, 964). After Leo VIII was reestablished as pope he held a synod at which Benedict was deposed. His robes were stripped and the pastoral staff was broken over his head. He went to Hamburg where he died in 966.
133. John XIII (965-972) was Otto's next choice as pope. Two months after his consecration the people of Rome revolted, assaulting John XIII, imprisoning him, and finally banishing him. Emperor Otto I made another visit to Rome and this time stayed in Rome until 972. John XIII officiated at the marriage of Otto's son, Otto II, and the niece of the Byzantine emperor, John I.
134. Benedict VI (973-974). Benedict forbade bishops from charging fees for ordinations and consecrations. After Otto I died in 973, and while Otto II was preoccupied with problems in Germany, the pro-Italian party in Rome, led by the newly powerful Crescentii family, threw Benedict in prison and elected the antipope Boniface VII. When Otto's representative showed up in Rome demanding Benedict's release, Boniface had Benedict strangled by a priest named Stephen. The murder caused a terrible reaction of the populace against Boniface and he had to leave Rome.
135. Benedict VII (974-983). Boniface succeeded in ousting Benedict for almost a year in 980-981. Otto II came back to Rome with soldiers and reestablished Benedict. Boniface feld to Constantinople. Deeply religious, Benedict promoted monasticism and monastic reform.
136. John XIV (983-984). Otto II imposed John as pope without consulting the Roman clergy. As a result, John had few allies. When Otto II died unexpectedly in Dec. 983, he had no one to protect him. The new emperor, Otto III, was only three years old at the time of his father's death. The antipope, Boniface, took advantage of the situation and returned from Constantinople. He was installed as pope by the powerful Crescentii family in 974. John was imprisoned in Castel Sant' Angelo and was murdered four months later. Boniface died suddenly in 975. The people stripped the body of its vestments and dragged it naked through the streets, finally dropping it in front of the Marcus Aurelius statue (now at the Campadoglio) in front of the Lateran Palace. There it was trampled and repeatedly stabbed with spears. He was referred to as "Malefatius" (evildoer) instead of "Bonifatius" (gooddoer).
137. John XV (985-996). John was elected as the choice of both leading church officials and John Crescentius (d.988), the head of the Crescentii family. The empress Theophano, widow of Otto II, acquiesced being preoccupied with affairs in Germany. In 992 a synod of French bishops, at the instigation of Hugh Capet, king of France (987-996), deposed Arnoul, the archbishop of Reims, for treason against Capet. The French bishops acted without consulting the pope because they were convinced that the pope had lost his moral authority. Pope John XV was eventually able to negotiate the suspension of the replacement bishop, Gerbert, in 995. But this incident was one of the first and most serious manifestations of Gallicanism, meaning the claim by the French church to freedom from authority from the pope. At the end of his papacy John was so hated because of his greed and nepotism that he had to flee Rome. Otto III, now 15, started south with an army to reinstate him. The Roman nobility invited him back, but the pope died on the way home. He was the first pope to canonize a saint.
138. Gregory V (996-999). Otto III had his cousin's son chosen as the first German pope, Gregory V. He is the first pope to take a new name upon election rather than because his real name was pagan or that of Peter (there had been four who had taken new names for either of those two reasons). A month after Gregory's election in 996, the Romans, led by Crescentius II Nomentanus, drove Gregory from Rome. Crescentius then had Otto III's former teacher, the antipope John XVI, elected. By early 998, Otto III was in Rome. Gregory was restored. The antipope, John XVI, was blinded as well as mutilated in his nose, tongue, lips, and hands, paraded around the city, sitting front to back on an ass, and eventually shut up in a Roman monastery. Crescentius was beheaded on the battlements of Castel Sant' Angelo. Gregory excommunicated King Robert II of France because he wouldn't give up his cousin whom he had uncanonically married.
139. Silvester II (999-1003) was the first French pope. Earlier,
as Bishop Gerbert, he had led the Gallican revolt under John XV,
arguing that the pope had lost his authority. As pope he reversed
his position and insisted on papal authority, even reinstalling
his old arch enemy Arnoul, the archbishop of Reims, on the ground
that he had originally been deposed without the pope's permission.
Silvester was a reformer who worked with his friend the emperor,
Otto III (996-1002), to change the church. He denounced simony
and nepotism, and called for clerical celibacy. This was also
at the time that the reforming monastery of Cluny had wide influence.
After Otto III died in 1002, Silvester spent the rest of his reign
dominated by John II Crescentius.
140. John XVII (1003) had a short reign of six months. He was probably elected throught he efforts of the powerful Crescentii family.
141. John XVIII (1003-1009) was elected through the efforts of the Crescentii family. He is thought to have abdicated and become a monk.
142. Sergius IV (1009-1012) was elected through the efforts of the Crescentii family. In May 1012 there was a violent upheaval in Rome. Both Pope Sergius IV and John II Crescentius died within six days of each other. There is much speculation that the deaths were not natural.
143. Benedict VIII (1012-1024). Immediately following the deaths of Sergius IV and John II Crescentius, the Tusculan family wrested power in Rome from the Crescentii, and secured the election of Benedict VIII. Benedict quickly established good relations with the German royal house, crowning Henry II as emperor in 1014. At the synod following the coronation, Benedict VIII granted Henry's request that the creed, with the addition of the Filioque (the statement that the Holy Spirit came from the Father and the Son, rather than just the Father), should be sung at mass. The East had held this belief for some time but it had not been accepted in Rome and was a source of contention between the eastern and western churches. Benedict spent much of his papacy trying to increase papal territory, and Henry supported him, often with his armies. He supported anti-Byzantine revolts in southern Italy. The revolts were defeated and the pope had to call on Henry to halt Byzantine forces moving north. Benedict sought to prohibit clerical marriage or concubinage, reducing the children of these relationships to serfs. Henry incorporated these canons into the imperial code.
144. John XIX (1024-1032) was the younger brother of Benedict VIII. He bribed his way into being elected with the support of the Tusculan family. He crowned Conrad II as emperor but Conrad continually dominated the pope, treating him with little respect.
145. Benedict IX (1032-1044, Mar.-May 1045, 1047-1048), of the Tusculan family, was made Pope by a bribe that his father made with Rome's ruling families. He was the third layman in a row to be made pope and the nephew of the last two popes. He was scandalously immoral. The people drove him from Rome and the Crescentii family elected Silvester III to be pope. However, he would return to be pope two more times. The histories of the next four popes should be read as a continuation of this story.
146. Silvester III (Jan.-Mar. 1045) was elected pope, with the support of the Crescentii. In Mar. 1045 Benedict excommunicated Silvester, managed to expel Silvester, and resumed the papacy.
147. Gregory VI (1045-1046). In May 1045 Benedict abdicated in favor of his godfather, Gregory VI, who bought the papacy from him for a sizeable amount of money. Benedict abdicated because of job insecurity, pressure from friends, and some say a desire to marry.
148. Clement II (1046-1047). Bent on rescuing the papacy from
feuding Roman families, in the fall of 1046 the German king Henry
III went to Rome, called a synod, and deposed Benedict, Silvester,
and Gregory. He then made Clement II the new pope. Clement crowned
Henry III as emperor on the same day. Silvester was confined to
a monastery. Gregory VI was taken to Germany and placed under
the supervision of the bishop of Cologne.
Clement died of lead poisoning within the year, though rumor had
it that he was poisoned by Benedict. On exhumation in 1942, it
was found that he probably did die of lead poisoning. Bribery
and popular enthusiasm reestablished Benedict IX as pope once
again.
149. Damasus II (1048). Benedict IX was again deposed by Henry III in 1048. Henry then made Damasus II pope, but he died of malaria after 23 days in office.
150. Leo IX (1049-1054). Henry made Leo IX the new Pope, though Leo refused to accept the nomination unless it was also acclaimed by the Roman clergy and people. He was eagerly accepted. At a synod in 1049 Benedict IX was excommunicated for simony. He died over seven years later. The Cluniac reform was by now in high gear. Leo spent his time trying to reform the church, particularly the clergy. He spoke against simony and clerical unchastity. During Leo's pontificate the final split, or what is considered the final split, between the eastern and western churches took place. Leo IX led a small army against marauding Normans in southern Italy. His army was defeated and he was captured and held prisoner for nine months. The fanatically anti-Latin patriarch Michael Cerularius (1043-1058) was angered by Leo's interference in areas of Italy still claimed by Byzantium. He therefore shut down the Latin churches in Constantinople in 1053 and launched a violent attack on such western religious practices as the use of unleavened bread in the Eucharist, fasting on Saturdays, and living in communion with the Jews. On Leo's behalf, Humbert, bishop of Silva Candida and Leo's chief adviser, prepared a ferocious return attack, arguing the case for the Roman primacy from the Donation of Constantine. A political alliance being urgently needed, an attempt at reconciliation was made by both pope and emperor. In Jan. 1054, Leo sent an embassy to Constantinople, headed by Humbert. The mission was a disaster. The patriarch and papal envoys took immediate offense with each other. Relations deteriorated until on July 16, 1054, in full view of the congregation of Hagia Sophia, Humbert placed on the altar a bull excommunicating the patriarch. Cerularius responded with counter-anathemas on July 24. The final schism between the East and West is generally dated from this year. Leo had been dead since April.
151. Victor II (1055-1057). Henry III made Victor II the next pope. The emperor and the pope held a synod in Florence in 1055 condemning simony, clerical marriage, clerical immorality, and selling church property for personal gain. Several bishops were deposed. The fortunes of the church were improving. Unfortunately, Henry III died unexpectedly in 1056 and the church's fortune would soon change. Victor was instrumental in securing the ascension to the throne of Henry III's five-year-old son Henry IV. He crowned him at Aachen.
152. Stephen IX (1057-1058) continued the reformist policies.
153. Nicholas II (1059-1061). With the Emperor Henry IV still too young to have much power, Nicholas worked through the Second Lateran Council in 1059 to establish the College of the Cardinals as the corporate government of the Church. Together they would form what is still known as the curia. Importantly, the Cardinals were also established as the group that from now on would chose the new popes. This council also issued the first formal prohibition of lay investiture (government leaders nominating and investing bishops). Nicholas negotiated a treaty with the Normans under Robert Guiscard by which the pope conceded their right to southern Italy and Sicily, while they agreed to be vassals to the pope. This treaty permanently ended Byzantine rule in Italy. At the end of his papacy, Nicholas faced growing resentment at the German court and among the German bishops. At a synod in 1061, the German bishops declared his acts as pope null and void.
154. Alexander II (1061-1073). The cardinals did not consult
the German court when they elected Alexander as pope. At the instigation
of the imperial court, the Roman nobility elected the antipope
Honorius II. Eventually, in 1062, Duke Godfrey of Lorraine persuaded
both popes to withdraw and await the decision of the German court.
Anno, the reform minded archbishop of Cologne had in the meantime
replaced Agnes as regent and he swung the decision to Alexander.
Pope Alexander still had to contend with Honorius's efforts to
unseat him until a synod in 1064 decided definitely in Alexander's
favor. Honorius resumed his position as bishop of Parma, never
relinquishing his claim as rightful pope. Guided by Hildebrand,
Alexander was a reformer, issuing a decree against simony and
forbidding masses celebrated by married priests. During his papacy
a series of inquisitions and reforming synods were held in France
and Spain. He had enough influence to coerce Henry IV to abandon
the divorce of his wife Bertha. He renewed the prohibition of
Gregory the Great against the mistreatment of Jews.
Alexander backed William of Normandy in his invasion of England.
William fought against Harold under the banner of St. Peter.
155. Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085). Hildebrand took the name of Gregory VII. He proved to be one of the strongest advocates of papal reform and independence. He had visions of one Christian world united under the authority of the pope. As Richard McBrien says:
His attempts to extend this authority over the Western church met with limited success. In 1074 at his first synod, Gregory denounced simony and clerical marriage. This denunciation was aimed, for the most part, at Germany and the German clergy (many of the married clergy were German). In 1075 Gregory declared that the Roman church had never erred and never would; that the Bishop of Rome had the sole right to be called "universal;" that he was the sole judge of all major matters, spiritual or secular, in the Christian world; and that he had the power to depose emperors and kings. He also declared against lay investiture. This brought him into direct conflict with Emperor Henry IV who believed that control of the bishops in Germany and northern Italy was the basis of his power.
In 1076, Henry acted on the challenge by deposing the bishop of Milan and putting another in his place. Gregory responded by demanding that Henry appear in Rome to account for his sins. Henry then called a meeting of the German bishops at Worms, where they declared Gregory a "false monk" and no longer pope. Gregory called his own synod at which he excommunicated Henry and declared that the loyalty oaths sworn by the emperor's vassals were invalid. He invited the German princes to elect a new emperor at a gathering in 1077 that would be presided over by the pope. The German princes rebelled against Henry. Henry crossed the alps as a penitent in Jan. 1077, intercepting the pope at Canossa in northern Italy on his way to the German election. By standing barefoot in the snow for three days, Henry forced the pope to forgive the repentant sinner. The ban against Henry was lifted. He was restored as emperor. By 1080 Henry had controlled the political opposition of the princes. He proclaimed the antipope Clement III as the new pope. Thirteen cardinals deserted Gregory. There would be an antipope for the next 30 years. Henry invaded Rome with his army. Gregory was rescued by the Norman, Robert Guiscard, but Norman forces antagonized the citizens and the Romans vented their anger on the pope. He was forced to leave. Gregory died in exile in Salerno in 1085. Henry died in 1106. Successive popes and emperors continued to battle over the issue of lay investiture until the issue was settled in 1122 at the Concordat of Worms.
156. Victor III (1086-1087). Gregory's exile left Rome a no-man's-land in which neither the survivors of the reform party nor the party of the anti-pope could gain complete control. Victor had been the abbot at Monte Cassino. Four days after his election, but before he was consecrated, he was forced to leave Rome because of rioting. He went back to Monte Cassino, declining to be pope. However, his supporters convinced him to resume the papacy. They brought him back and consecrated him in May 1087 after Norman troops had taken the city from the antipope, Clement III. Eight days later he went back to the monastery because of the problems in Rome with Clement's followers. In June, he came back to Rome but left again in July because of rumors that Henry IV was coming to Rome. He died at Monte Cassino in September.
157. Urban II (1088-1099). Because Clement III was in control of Rome at the time of his election, Urban II had to be elected at Terracina (south of Rome). However, Urban II soon skillfully regained leadership in Europe, by applying Gregory VII's reform principles but avoiding showy confrontations. At a synod in Clermont in 1095 Urban called for the First Crusade, amidst great popular acclaim, to deliver Jerusalem from the Moslems. Two weeks before Urban died, Jerusalem was retaken. During Urban's papacy saw the emergence of the Roman curia, an institution that can be compared to a royal court.
158. Paschal II (1099-1118). Henry V successfully revolted against his father Henry IV in 1105-6. Despite this change in the German court, and the death of Clement III in 1100, the lay investiture controversy did not go away. In 1111, Henry placed Paschal II under two months of harsh imprisonment and then threatened to support the antipope Silvester IV because of the issue. Paschal capitulated, conceding the king's right to invest bishops with ring and crozier after canonical election with royal consent and before consecration. He also crowned Henry V as emperor and promised never to excommunicate him. Paschal's concessions to the emperor raised a firestorm of protest from many sources. Paschal II himself came to regret his decision. In 1116 he withdrew the concessions. He left Rome when Henry showed up in 1117 and died shortly after his return in 1118.
159. Gelasius II (1118-1119) was intensely loyal to Paschal II. Because of this loyalty he was imprisoned immediately after his election by the head of a powerful Roman family, Cencius Frangipani, who hated Paschal II. At the request of other Roman families Gelasius II was released, but he and the cardinals fled to France. Emperor Henry V came to Rome and demanded that Gelasius return. When Gelasius refused, Henry V created an antipope. Henry V left Rome. Gelasius II returned to Rome. However, he was attacked while saying a mass by agents of Frangipani. He again fled to France where he died.
160. Callistus II (1119-1124) was able to affect a compromise with the emperor, Henry V, on the investiture issue known as the Concordat of Worms, held in 1122. The concordat gave church officials the right to invest bishops with the symbols of their ecclesiastical authority (The ring and the crosier, or bishop's staff), but civil authorities kept the right to give them fiefs and the symbols of their role as secular leaders.
161. Honorius II (1124-1130). When Callistus died a majority of the cardinals elected the cardinal-priest Teobaldo to be Celestine II. While the installation ceremony was in process, the Frangipani family, at the instigation of the papal chancellor, Aimeric, broke into the assembly with armed troops, demanding that Cardinal Lamberto be made pope. Teobaldo suffered blows and severe wounds and thereupon resigned. Lamberto became Honorius II. Celestine is consequently classified as an antipope. Honorius II supported church reform. He approved the order of the Knights Templar (a militant monastic order created to protect pilgrims to the Holy Land) in 1128.
162. Innocent II (1130-1143) experienced a serious schism during 8 years of his papacy. Innocent was elected with the support of the Frangipani, the most prominent family in Rome at the time. However, the Pierleoni, a family of prominent bankers, used their money and influence to have Anacletus II elected as anti-pope. Anacletus was supported by Sicily, Scotland, and Aquitaine. On the other side, France, England, Christian Spain, Germany, and Bernard of Clairvaux supported Innocent. This schism ended when Anacletus died in 1138. In 1139 Innocent II was captured in a battle against Roger II. Innocent was forced to recognize Roger as king of Sicily. In 1141 Innocent argued with Louis VII of France over an ecclesiastical appointment. Innocent issued an interdict (withholding of Catholic sacraments) on any region that allowed the king residence. In 1143 the citizens of Rome established a commune with an independent senate in opposition to the pope and political authority.
163. Celestine II (1143-1144) lifted the interdict on King Louis VII.
164. Lucius II (1144-1145) faced continued opposition from the commune and its independent senate that met on the Capitoline hill. Lucius II led a military expedition against the political rebels. He was injured by heavy stones in the attack and died shortly thereafter.
165. Eugene III (1145-1153) was a monk under the tutelage of Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux. He never discarded the monk's lifestyle or habit. The papacy of Eugene was marked by the continuation of the republican commune at Rome and the Second Crusade. The loss of Edessa to the Moslems inspired the Pope Eugene III to call for a Second Crusade in 1145. The leading preacher of this crusade was Bernard of Clairvaux. The crusade started with a massacre of the Rhineland Jews by the German crusaders. The Germans under their king, Conrad III, joined the French led by Louis VII and his queen Eleanor of Aquitaine at Constantinople. The whole group was badly defeated at Damascus in 1148 and the crusade fell apart. Meanwhile Eugene needed help against the republican commune. He first asked Conrad III for help but he died in 1152 before he could lend aid. So the pope's fortunes rested on Conrad's nephew, Frederick I Barbarossa of Hohenstaufen. Frederick agreed to help the pope against the commune and Eugene agreed to crown him as emperor. But Eugene died before this agreement could be fulfilled.
166. Anastasius IV (1153-1154) established peaceful relations between the commune and the papacy.
167. Hadrian IV (1154-1159) is the only English pope in history. During his reign the title "Vicar of Christ" became commonly applied to the pope. Neither the Concordat of Worms nor the creation of the College of Cardinals as the body for the election of the pope put an end to the interference of political officers in papal business. In addition, the popes continued to be deeply involved in political intrigue, the goal of which was to establish papal control over western Europe. Hadrian's reign is a good example of this continuing conflict.
Hadrian renewed the animosity with the Roman commune. He aligned himself with Frederick I Barbarossa, (1152-1190) king of Germany, for help against the Roman commune and for help against William I of Sicily (1154-1166), who was attacking the Papal State. With Barbarossa's support, Hadrian placed an interdict on the people of Rome until the senate gave in and banished Arnold, the troublesome leader of the commune. A year later Arnold was arrested, hanged, burned, and his ashes thrown in the Tiber River. Hadrian crowned Frederick Barbarossa as emperor in 1155, but altered the ceremony to emphasize the emperor's subordination to the pope. Both Hadrian and Barbarossa had different ideas about who should control the relationship. The pope's intention to reform the German Church united all of Germany with the emperor against Hadrian. On his part, Barbarossa aspired to make his kingdom like it was in the days of Charlemagne. The friction and distrust between the two caused Hadrian to switch his allegiance and make an alliance with William of Sicily in 1156. William acknowledged the pope's feudal suzerainty and agreed to pay an annual tribute; the pope recognized him as king over most of southern Italy with special rights over the church in Sicily. In 1158 the emperor claimed imperial authority over northern Italy. Hadrian entered into a secret pact with a number of dissident Lombard cities. This pact stipulated that the cities would not make peace with Frederick without the pope's permission and he would excommunicate the emperor within 40 days. Hadrian died before the forty days was up.
168. Alexander III (1159-1181) was elected by the great majority
of cardinals. But a handful of pro-imperial cardinals elected
Victor IV as antipope. At the original consecration of Alexander,
Victor and his forces broke into the meeting, ripped the red mantle
from Alexander's shoulders, and forced him to leave. His adherents
consecrated Alexander later. This schism would last eighteen years
and played into the hands of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. The
emperor called a council of German and Italian bishops in 1160,
which excommunicated Alexander. Alexander had already excommunicated
Victor and Barbarossa. Victor had the support of the emperor,
but most of Europe did not want to see the return of imperial
control of the papacy. Therefore, the antipope had great difficulty
in gaining widespread support. He died in 1164 and was buried
in a small monastery (His bones would eventually be dug up by
Gregory VIII and tossed out of the church in 1187). Barbarossa
had Paschal III (1164-1168) elected as antipope. In 1176, Barbarossa
was defeated at Lagnano by a league of Lombard cities. He agreed
to acknowledge Alexander as pope and agreed to armistices with
the Lombards and Sicily. In return, the pope agreed to withdraw
Barbarossa's excommunication. Alexander supported, albeit cautiously,
Thomas Becket, the archbishop of Canterbury, in his dispute with
Henry II of England over the Constitutions of Clarendon. After
Becket's murder in 1170 he imposed heavy sanctions on the king,
finally working out an agreement. In 1179, he confirmed the right
of Alfonso I of Portugal (1139-1185) to be king, in return for
an annual tribute. In 1181, he placed William I of Scotland (1165-1214)
and his kingdom under interdict for interfering in church appointments.
In 1179 he presided over the important Third Lateran (Eleventh
General) Council. It required a two-thirds majority of the cardinals
for the election of the pope, encouraged universities, and called
for schools at cathedrals. The council also allowed for the persecution
of heretics, particularly the Albigenses, or Cathari.
169. Lucius III (1181-1185) wanted peace, as did, at this point, Barbarossa. They met at Verona in 1184 to discuss church-state matters. One of the things they decided on is often called the charter for the inquisition: if heretics were judged unrepentant they were to be excommunicated and then handed over to the secular authorities for punishment. Despite this agreement, relations between the two deteriorated and were not good when Lucius died.
170. Urban III (1185-1187) was a strong-willed opponent of the emperor. He spent most of his papacy in disputes with Barbarossa. The emperor occupied the Papal States. Urban was forced to live in Verona during his reign. Urban III was planning to excommunicate the emperor when he died from a short illness.
171. Gregory VIII (1187) was pope for about three months. He sought better relations with Barbarossa. He sought reform of the clergy. He preached preparations for the Third Crusade.
172. Clement III (1187-1191). During Clement's papacy the Papal States were returned to the pope. Clement moved back to Rome, the first time in six years that the pope had lived there. The commune was still running the city. Clement III actively encouraged the Third Crusade.
173. Celestine III (1191-1198). Barbarrosa had died in 1190 while on the Third Crusade. His son Henry VI (1191-1197) caused several problems for Celestine. He invaded southern Italy twice. He nominated bishops arbitrarily, even condoning the murder of one of the pope's nominees. And he imprisoned Richard I Coeur de Lion (1189-1199), king of England, even though he was supposed to be under papal protection as a returning crusader. Celestine annulled the divorce of Philip II Augustus (1180-1223) of France from his Danish wife Ingeborg. Philip remarried anyway. Celestine wanted to abdicate in Dec. 1197 if the cardinals would agree to elect his picked successor. The cardinals refused and he died a few weeks later.
174. Innocent III (1198-1216). With the sudden death of Emperor Henry VI in 1197 at the young age of 32, the papacy's fortunes climbed. Three months after Henry's death Celestine died and the cardinals elected the forceful Innocent III as pope. He became the most powerful pope in Christian history, reimposing his authority on Rome over the commune and reestablishing papal control over Italian territories lost to the emperor, doubling the size of the Papal State. After Henry VI died, the Empress Constance acknowledged Pope Innocent III as overlord, surrendering to him the state's rights over the church, in return for the pope's promise to be guardian for her three year old son Frederick (He would be known as Frederick II, emperor from 1220 to 1250). She feared her son would be killed by those vying for power in Germany. Innocent exploited the situation by shifting his loyalty back and forth between the two rival candidates, Philip of Swabia and Otto of Brunswick. Innocent first supported Otto because of his promise to recognize papal estates. However, when Otto invaded southern Italy and Sicily, the Pope excommunicated him and deposed him. This occurred in 1210. Philip being dead, Innocent then swung his support to Frederick. By 1214 Frederick had defeated Otto. In 1215 Frederick was crowned king of Germany by a papal legate. Frederick would create many problems for future popes. Innocent's German policy was not his only intervention in international affairs. He excommunicated King John of England in 1209 for refusing to acknowledge the papal appointee as archbishop of Canterbury. John submitted, making his kingdom a papal fife. Innocent then dropped the excommunication and declared the Magna Charta to be void.
Innocent spent several years trying to force the king of France, Philip II, to reconcile with his wife Ingeborg, a Danish princess. He threatened to place France under interdict if he did not. Philip took her back, though maybe more for political reasons than anything. Beyond politics, Innocent's main concerns were a crusade, reform, and heresy. When the Fourth Crusade was diverted by the Venetians to conquer Constantinople and establish a Latin patriarchate in 1204, Innocent condemned the attack but then accepted it as fait accompli. As a reformer he simplified living standards among the curia and promoted honesty. He took steps to improve the quality and moral behavior of the clergy. He recognized the Franciscans in 1210 and the Dominicans in 1216 as legitimate orders of the church. In 1208, after Innocent's legate to the Cathari, or Albigenses, was murdered, he declared a crusade against this heresy in southern France. The Northern barons, led by Simon de Montfort, anxious for loot and lands, fought against the Cathari (Dualists, Manichaeans) in a bitter and merciless war. The Cathari were crushed in 1213 and again invaded in 1226. Innocent's final achievement was the great Fourth Lateran Council (1215), which was attended by 2,283 Christian representatives. The Fourth Lateran Council introduced the following decrees: the doctrine of Transubstantiation; a bishop's inquisition in each territory that was responsible for rooting out heresy in the region; a ban on new monastic orders; each cathedral should have a school that was open to the poor; clergy could not attend games or theater or participate in hunts; Muslims and Jews in Christian lands had to wear clothes that set them apart; relics could not be used without papal approval; and Catholics should make a yearly confession.
175. Honorius III (1216-1227) spent most of his pontificate worrying about crusades. The Fifth Crusade, 1217-1221, was ill coordinated and ended in failure. Emperor Frederick II was somewhat to blame. Since Frederick's coronation in 1215, the pope had tried to get him to go on a crusade but he had continually postponed the event. To entice him to go on the Sixth Crusade, Honorius crowned him as emperor in 1220. However, problems in Sicily, a land that Frederick had claim to through his mother, detained him. Finally, Frederick agreed in 1225 to go on the crusade by the summer of 1227 or be excommunicated. Honorius started a crusade against the Moors in Spain and intensified the crusade against the Cathari in southern France. With Honorius's approval, Frederick II in 1220 and Louis VIII of France in 1226, published ordinances imposing severe penalties for heretics, contributing to the development of the Inquisition.
176. Gregory IX (1227-1241). Gregory extended existing legislation against heretics, making them subject to death at the hands of civil authorities. He established the papal Inquisition, separate from the bishop's Inquisition, and placed it under the jurisdiction of the Dominicans. Frederick II launched the Sixth Crusade from Brindisi in Aug. 1227. However he soon fell sick and abandoned it. In September, the new pope, Gregory, excommunicated him. In June 1228, Frederick set out on crusade. He soon negotiated the return of Jerusalem to Christianity without any fighting. Being excommunicated, he had to clap the crown of Jerusalem on his own head in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Gregory reacted to Frederick's success by setting up an anti-king in Germany, releasing the emperor's Sicilian subjects from their allegiance, and raising an army to invade Sicily. Frederick returned in 1230, crushed the pope's troops and forced a treaty by which he was unexcommunicated. Peace reigned between pope and emperor for nine years. Frederick even helped the pope in 1232 and 1234 when he was forced to flee Rome due to clashes with the citizens over greater freedoms. In return, Gregory tried to mediate for Frederick in his conflict with the cities of Lombard. By 1239 the pope and emperor were back at each other on the issue of who should control which parts of Italy. Frederick wanted Lombardy and the pope did not want him to have it. Frederick tried to win the cardinals to his side and was promptly excommunicated again when this correspondence was discovered. He then surrounded Rome with an army. The pope died while surrounded and Frederick backed off to Sicily to see what would happen.
177. Celestine IV (1241). Only ten cardinals were available to elect the new pope. In hopes of forcing a quick decision, Matteo Orsini, a senator from Rome, crammed them into a run down room and deprived them of servants, doctors, and proper food. The guards mishandled them and amused themselves by defecating on them through holes in the roof. It took two months to elect one of the ten cardinals as Celestine IV. An English cardinal died during that time and all became ill. Celestine's papacy only lasted 16 days.
178. Innocent IV (1243-1254). It took almost two years for the cardinals to elect Innocent IV. Much of that time they negotiated with Frederick II for the release of two cardinals that he held prisoner. Resuming the battle with Emperor Frederick II, Innocent left Rome secretly in 1244, settling with his curia in Lyons, France where he could more safely consolidate his position. All Italy was now divided between the two parties, the Guelfs (papalists) and the Ghibellines (imperialists). Innocent used nepotism on an unprecedented scale to build support for himself everywhere. At the Thirteenth General Council in 1245, Frederick was deposed and the German princes were encouraged to elect a new king. The pope supported various anti-kings in Germany and even sanctioned an unsuccessful plot to murder Frederick. A war of words and armies continued until Frederick II died quite suddenly of dysentery in 1250. Frederick's son Conrad IV died in 1254 and his illegitimate child Manfred, regent for Conradin, acknowledged the pope as overlord. Innocent annexed Sicily to the papal estates. Manfred soon changed his mind and marched on and defeated the papal troops. The news helped hasten the death of Innocent IV. Innocent lowered the prestige of the papacy by constant use of spiritual powers to raise money and buy friends, and by his misuse of papal finances. In 1252 he established the Inquisition in Italy as a permanent institution and sanctioned the use of torture to extract confessions. He encouraged Louis IX to go on the ill-fated Seventh Crusade (1248-1254).
179. Alexander IV (1254-1261) excommunicated Manfred, but Manfred defeated the pope's efforts to recapture Sicily for the papacy and too control of the Papal States.
180. Urban IV (1261-1264), a Frenchman, offered the kingdom of Sicily and Naples held by Manfred to Charles of Anjou, the brother of Louis IX, king of France, but died before the arrangements could be ratified. Because of hostile feelings in Rome between Guelfs (pro-papal party) and Ghibellines (pro-imperial party), Urban's entire papacy was spent outside of Rome. He named 14 new cardinals, six of them Frenchmen.
181. Clement IV (1265-1268) completed the arrangements with Charles of Anjou. Manfred was killed in battle with Charles in 1267. In 1268 the last of the Hohenstaufens, Conradin, was defeated and executed by Charles. The Hohenstaufen dynasty came to its end. However, Charles of Anjou would prove as great a threat to the papacy as the Hohenstaufens. Clement's bull Licet ecclesiarum reserved to the papacy the appointment of benefices ( a benefice is an ecclesiastical office that carries the right for its holder to collect revenue for his support) that fell vacant during the death of the incumbent on a visit to the curia. This was a landmark in the centralization of the western church. It claimed that the appointment to all benefices belonged to the pope. This was a major step toward the pope having the power to name all new bishops. Like Urban IV, Clement never lived in Rome during his rule.
182. Gregory X (1271-1276). After three years of stagnation on the part of the cardinals in selecting a new pope, the civil authorities finally locked them in the papal palace, then removed the roof, and finally threatened them with a starvation diet. Gregory X was then finally selected. He was on a crusade at the time. He was a dynamic pope who brought the pope's residence back to Rome. Since there had been no king of Germany since the death of Frederick II, Gregory encouraged the election of one as a counterbalance to Charles of Anjou. The electors picked Rudolf, Count of Habsburg. Gregory crowned him as king of the Germans at Aachen in 1273. Gregory opened up negotiations with Michael VIII Palaeologus for a reconciliation with the eastern church. He called for a new crusade. And in 1274, he opened up the Fourteenth General Council which passed some reforms, including the provision that after the death of a pope, the cardinals must meet within ten days and be subjected to progressively austere conditions the longer the conclave took. Gregory's unexpected death in 1276 ended hopes for the East-West reconciliation, a new crusade, and the coronation of Rudolf as emperor.
183. Innocent V (1276) was the first Dominican pope. The practice of the pope wearing a white cassock may have begun with him when he decided to continue wearing his white Dominican habit.
184. Hadrian V (1276) was pope only for one month, but he reversed the conclave decree of Gregory X on the quick elections of popes. He was a deacon at the time of his election and died before he was officially ordained as bishop. This is theologically a problem since the pope is the bishop of Rome.
185. John XXI (1276-1277) made unsuccessful attempts to reconcile with the eastern church. He died from injuries sustained when the ceiling of his study collapsed.
186. Nicholas III (1277-1280) was the first pope to make the Vatican palace his residence. He arranged a marriage between the daughter of Rudolf of Habsburg and the grandson of Charles of Anjou to try and reconcile the two houses. He also tried to restore good relations with the eastern church.
187. Martin IV (1281-1285). While his two predecessors had sought to reconcile Charles of Anjou and Rudolf of Habsburg, Martin was unabashedly pro-French and pro-Charles of Anjou. He stocked the college of cardinals with Frenchmen. Charles of Anjou had been trying for many years to attack Constantinople. Martin's support of Charles in this endeavor and his excommunication of Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus in 1281 ended any chance of reconciliation with the East. Martin died a few weeks after the death of Charles of Anjou.
188. Honorius IV (1285-1287) tried to renew efforts to crown Rudolf of Habsburg as emperor but it was twice postponed and never took place.
189. Nicholas IV (1288-1292) sent missionaries to China for the first time. They established the first Catholic Church in China at this time. The were occasional civil disorders in Rome during his reign that occurred partly because of his great favoritism toward the Colonna family.
190. Celestine V (1294). The well known and well respected hermit, Peter of Morone, was chosen as Celestine V (1294) after a 27 month vacancy. The twelve cardinals were split between loyalties to the Colonna and Orsini families and could not obtain the necessary two-thirds vote. Finally, Celestine was chosen. Many Italians believed he would reign as the "Angelic Pope," a thirteenth century dream of an angel pope who would usher in the age of the Spirit. He at first rejected the offer to be pope so Charles II of Anjou summoned him to Rome. He rode into the city on an ass, acclaimed by excited crowds. He was immediately consecrated as pope. Charles procured from him 12 new Cardinals, 7 of whom were French, and then hustled him off to his capital, Naples. After five months, having sought the advice of Cardinal Benedetto Caetani, Celestine abdicated, desiring to go back to his simple cell. The abdication shocked everyone. Celestine died after two years of being under guard in a castle at Farentino. He was placed under house arrest by Boniface VIII (Cardinal Benedetto Caetani) because Boniface feared he could be a rallying-point of a schism.
191. Boniface VIII (1294-1303) spent his pontificate feuding with Philip IV the Fair of France. He also deeply offended the powerful Colonna family of Rome by expelling two of their members from the college of Cardinals and by confiscating their property and giving it to his relatives. To raise money for a war, both England and France began taxing their clergy without papal consent. Boniface sought to stop the practice with a papal bull in 1296. Philip then prohibited the export of money and valuables. This hurt the pope greatly since he relied heavily on revenue from France. The pope was forced to back down. To seal the reconciliation, the pope made Philip's grandfather, Louis IX (1214-1270, a saint. Opposed to Boniface's high-handed style, the Colonna family highjacked a papal convoy of treasure in 1297. He retaliated by excommunicating the two cardinals. The Colonna called for a general council to decide on his legitimacy as pope. He seized their property. The Colonna had to submit. By 1300, Boniface seemed to have overcome all obstacles. He declared the year 1300 a year of jubilee, issuing plenary indulgences for pilgrims to the Apostles' shrines. He often dressed up in imperial insignia, claiming he was not only pope, but also emperor. In 1301, Philip IV imprisoned a French bishop and demanded his degradation. Boniface felt that this was an issue over control of clergy. He excommunicated Philip IV in 1302 and issued the greatest claim for papal power in history, the bull Unam Sanctum. In the bull Boniface contended that all temporal powers must be subject to the pope, and that secular rulers must be judged by the spiritual power, but no temporal power had the right to judge spiritual authorities. (See 1 Cor 2:14-16.) He also stated that no one could be saved if they were outside the Catholic Church. Philip IV called his own council to accuse the pope of being a sodomite and a simoniac. In 1303 he and the Colonna had the 86 year old pope kidnapped at Anagni, Italy. The citizens of Anagni, the city of his birth, rallied around him and had him released uninjured, but he died a month later.
192. Benedict XI (1303-1304). Charles II of Anjou appeared in Rome and had Benedict XI elected as pope. Threatened by Philip IV of France he renounced Bonifaces's bull concerning the taxation of clergy by kings, released him from excommunication, granted him two years tithing, and absolved everyone involved in the abduction of Boniface except the ringleader, Guillaume de Nogaret, Philip's minister. Benedict lasted only eight months as pope, dying before he could do anything to Nogaret.
193. Clement V (1305-1314). When the Archbishop of Bordeaux, France was finally selected, after 11 months of bitter debate between the pro-French and anti-French parties, as Pope Clement V, the new pope decided not to go to Rome for the coronation. Instead, he settled for Lyons (in France) in the presence of King Philip IV. Until 1309 he wandered indecisively between Poitiers, Lyons, and Bordeaux before he finally chose Avignon as his headquarters, initiating what is known as the Babylonian Captivity (the period when the popes lived in Avignon). Avignon belonged to the Angevin kings of Naples. Constantly dominated by Philip IV of France, he revoked all of Boniface's anti-French bulls. Of the 24 Cardinals he selected, 23 were French, including five members of his own family (his nepotism was extreme). He was forced to rehabilitate the Colonna cardinals and compensate their families, absolve Nogaret, and publish a bull commending Philip for his attack on Boniface VIII. King Philip IV insisted on the canonization of Celestine V, and demanded and received the dissolution of the Order of the Templars, the mainstay of the crusades for two centuries. The Templars had become very wealthy and the king wanted their property. Philip had their Grand Master tortured and burned. 54 other Knights Templar were burned on the same day. Clement crowned Henry VII of Luxembourg as Holy Roman Emperor in 1312. He reserved new benefices to the papacy. He depleted the papal treasury with personal expenses. He published a bull declaring that the pope was superior to the emperor.
194. John XXII (1316-1334) faced philosophical challenges to his authority from Marsilius of Padua, rector of the University of Paris, as well as from Dante. Marsilius argued against the primacy of Rome, stating that there was no evidence that Peter ever lived in Rome. Dante argued that the pope had no right to exercise universal government or to dictate to the emperor. In 1318 John condemned the Spiritual Franciscans for their vow of absolute poverty. Four members of the Spirituals were burnt at the stake by the Inquisition. John excommunicated William of Occam (a well known theologian of the time) over the issue of the Spirituals. John condemned the views of the famous mystic Meister Eckhart in 1329. John himself suffered great condemnation for his teaching in 1331 that the saints did not now enjoy the full vision of God but would have to wait until the last judgment. On his deathbed he modified this view somewhat. Most of the men John selected as cardinals were Frenchmen. He restored health to the papal finances.
195. Benedict XII (1334-1342) was a reformer. He had been before his election an inquisitor very efficient at extracting confessions from supposed heretics. The Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) began during his reign in spite of his protestations. The first diet (congress) of Frankfurt in 1338 declared that the emperor's power came from God not from the pope. Benedict XII began building the papal palace at Avignon as both a palace and a fortress. Five of his six selections as cardinals were French.
196. Clement VI (1342-1352) liked horses, women, and banquets. He was a patron of the arts. He bought Avignon from the Queen of Naples for 80,000 gold florins. When the black plague killed three-fourths of Avignon, 11,000 in one month, he kept control in the city, quelling the abuses against the Jews, who had been accused of poisoning the wells. He also provided the city with financial relief. Clement VI enlarged the papal palace in Avignon. His opulent lifestyle exhausted the huge resources of the papal treasury left to him by his two predecessors. He therefore had to increase taxes and the number of benefices reserved to himself. His bull Unigenitus defined the "Treasury of Merits," a vast reserve of merit built up by Christ and the saints. This merit can be applied to other Catholics by performance of certain works such as recitation of prayers. The means by which the church dispenses this merit is called indulgences (indulgences have been minimized since the Second Vatican Council).
197. Innocent VI (1352-1362) was a reformer. He reduced number
of officials in the papal household and simplified their lifestyle.
He was severe with the Spiritual Franciscans (they claimed that
a Franciscan should own no property) turning some of them over
to the Inquisition for imprisonment or even death by burning at
the stake. He spent much of his time trying to solve problems
in Italy so the papacy could be moved back to Rome. During his
papacy, Charles IV of Bohemia was crowned as emperor. Charles
issued the Golden Bull in 1356 standardizing the election of the
German kings by seven electors, eliminating papal interference
in the process.
198. Urban V (1362-1370) was a reformer. He supported hundreds
of poor college students and founded three new universities, one
at Orange, one at Krakow, and one at Vienna. He had three main
goals: a new crusade, the reuniting of the East and West, and
the return of the papacy to Rome. The crusade proved unsuccessful,
other than the brief recapture of Alexandria. The Byzantine emperor,
John V Palaeologus did agree to submit to Rome because he needed
help against the Turks, but no clergy agreed with him and it came
to nothing. At the end of his papacy, Urban V moved to Rome for
three years but became so discouraged by the problems there that
he moved back to Avignon three months before his death.
199. Gregory XI (1370-1378) returned the papacy to Rome in 1377. He faced an uphill battle in Italy with much fighting between various factions. He used the Inquisition ruthlessly in France. In a bull to Edward III of England (1327-1377) he insisted on the condemnation of many of John Wycliffe's ideas (He rejected transubstantiation, Purgatory, and indulgences).
200. Urban VI (1378-1389). When Gregory died in 1378 Romans began rioting in the streets, milling around, shrieking their demands that the next pope be a Roman, or at the very least an Italian, even bursting into the conclave at one point. The cardinals selected Urban VI, archbishop of Bari in southern Italy. Urban VI had seemed to be the perfect choice, a hard-working, competent, administrator who would hold a middle course. However, once elected he became very offensive and overbearing. He was so harsh with the cardinals that they soon decided to replace him. One by one they slipped out of Rome and gathered at Anagni where they declared to all of Europe that Urban had been uncanonically elected because they had been coerced by the mobs. Later they elected Clement VII (1378-1394) who eventually made Avignon his headquarters. Urban excommunicated Clement, who in turn excommunicated Urban. Popes excommunicating popes would continue for forty years. Urban appointed 29 cardinals to replace the ones who had deposed him and gone to Avignon. In 1384, Charles of Durazzo, whom Urban had supported in overthrowing his cousin Joanna as ruler of Naples, fell out with Urban and plotted with some of the cardinals to replace him. Urban discovered the plot and tortured and imprisoned six cardinals, eventually killing five of them. The Christian world was now in total disarray. There had been many antipopes in the past, but now the situation looked permanent. Besides both sides had equally valid claims. France, Scotland, and several of the Spanish kingdoms supported the pope in Avignon; England, Italy, Hungary, Poland, and Scandinavia identified with Rome. The Holy Roman emperor endorsed Rome but was opposed by a number of German nobles. Europe was so divided that this situation came to be called the Great Western Schism.
In England John Wycliffe (1328-1384) continued to preach radical ideas. Soon these ideas would be echoed in Bohemia by John Hus (1371-1415). Urban VI probably died of poisoning.
201. Boniface IX (1389-1404) was immediately excommunicated by Clement VII in Avignon. He struggled with the factions in Rome but was able to disband Rome's republican government and set himself up as absolute ruler. He rebuilt the ruined Castel Sant' Angelo. Boniface sold church offices to the highest bidder, increased church taxes, and sold indulgences. Benedict XIII was elected pope in Avignon when Clement VII died in 1394.
202. Innocent VII (1404-1406) spent a much of his papacy dealing with unrest in Rome.
203. Gregory XII ( 1406-1415) was elected with the promise that he would not name any new cardinals, that he would negotiate with the pope in Avignon, and that he would abdicate if Benedict XIII would abdicate in Avignon. However, after becoming pope he broke his promise not to name any new cardinals (he named four, two of whom were his nephews). Most of the rest of his cardinals thereupon broke with him and negotiated with four of Benedict XIII's cardinals. In 1408 these negotiations led to a council of the Church at Pisa. The council deposed both popes and elected Alexander V (1409-1410) as pope. However, neither Benedict XIII in Avignon or Gregory XII in Rome accepted the decision. Thus there were now three men who claimed to be pope. Gregory XII called his own council and excommunicated Benedict XIII and Alexander V. When Alexander V died he was succeeded by John XXIII (1410-1415). John XXIII had been a soldier, some said a pirate, before he joined the ministry. He apparently had no morals and no conscience.
204. Martin V (1417-1431). In 1414 the Council of Constance
was called by the emperor, Sigismund (r. 1410-1437). The council
lasted until 1418. It voted to depose all three popes and in 1417
made Martin V pope. He had been very active in the Council of
Pisa. John XXIII ended up in a German prison for three years.
Then in 1419 he bought his freedom, made submission to the new
pope, and was made Cardinal Bishop of Tusculum. Gregory submitted
immediately and was made Cardinal Bishop of Porto. Benedict XIII
refused to submit and died in schism. John Hus was condemned to
the stake by this council and was burned to death in 1415. Martin
V dismissed the Council of Constance in 1417. The delegates had
during the council declared that regular councils should be held
by the church. Martin V announced after a short council in Pavia
in 1423-24 that the next council would be held in Basel in 1431.
205. Eugene IV (1431-1447). In 1431 Eugene summarily dismissed the reform Council of Basel. It refused to be dismissed, declaring that a council was superior to the pope. In 1439 the delegates of the council still remaining, elected the last antipope in history, Felix V (1439-1449). Eugene not only had to deal with a rebel council and antipope, but he faced terrible problems in Italy as well. The Papal States were occupied by hostile powers and in 1434 the Colonna family led a revolt in Rome. From 1434 to 1443 Eugene was forced to live in Florence. This stay brought him and the curia into contact with the intellectual and artistic currents of the Renaissance. Because of threatened attacks by the Turks, the Byzantine emperor concluded an act of union with Eugene IV in 1439. By this agreement the eastern church agreed to recognize the primacy of the pope and the existence of Purgatory, the use of unleavened bread in the Eucharist, and the recital of the Filioque in the creed. This union. Of course, was really only the idea of the Emperor John VIII Palaeologus and recieved little backing from anyone else.
206. Nicholas V (1447-1455) is regarded as the first Renaissance pope. He was the last pope to crown a German emperor at Rome -- Emperor Frederick III, in 1452. He was the pope when Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453 and when the Hundred Years' War ended in the same year. A republican plot on the life of the pope was uncovered in 1453. The leading conspirators were executed. Nicholas turned Rome into a vast construction site. He promoted the search for ancient manuscripts and the production of books and was the real founder of the Vatican library. He proved to be the constructive conciliator that the church needed at the time. He rid the Papal States of mercenaries and won back allegiance from various cities. At this time in history, an expansion in the greater city-states of Italy, at the expense of the lesser ones, had left only five great states and a few lesser ones in Italy out of the scores of city-states that had existed at the beginning of the Renaissance. These five states were: 1) the duchy of Milan, 2) the republics of Florence 3) and Venice, 4) the Papal State, 5) and the kingdom of Naples.
Milan, under the leadership of the house of Sforza, became a rich center of art and learning. Venice was ruled by an oligarchy of wealthy families who elected a doge (or life president) who in turn ruled with the aid of a senate and a council of ten. By a treaty signed with Milan in 1454, Venice received a mainland state in eastern Lombardy and around the head of the Adriatic Sea. In Florence, frequent revolutions, party feuds, and control by an oligarchy of wealthy families conditioned the citizens to accept, beginning in 1434, the rule of the Medici. Cosimo de'Medici and his successors ruled as despots, despite the outward appearance of a republic. Lorenzo de'Medici later raised their prestige to its Zenith as poet, patron of art and learning, statesman, and diplomat. The Papal State stretched across central Italy and included Romagna. The kingdom of Naples included all of Italy south of the Papal State, and sometimes Sicily. Here feudalism survived. There was little commerce and industry. And the kingdom was often torn by dynastic struggles between the French family of Anjou and the Spanish family of Aragon.
In 1454 statesman in these five great Italian states decided they needed peace from their constant infighting. The Peace of Lodi was signed by Cosimo de' Medici (Florence), Pope Nicholas V, the Doge of Venice, and the Duke of Milan (Francesco Sforza). Alfonso of Aragon, king of Naples also adhered to it. The pope was president of this "Holy League."
207. Callistus III (1455-1458). Originally Alonso Borja, he became the founder of the Borgia family fortunes. He made two nephews cardinals, including one who became Alexander VI. He declared a crusade against the Turks that had some initial success, but also caused anger in France and Germany because of oppressive ways of raising money. Callistus III also revived harsh anti-Jewish legislation.
208. Pius II (1458-1464) encouraged the arts and promoted lavish pageantry.
209. Paul II (1464-1471). When the cardinals elected Paul II they were looking for a reformer. Instead they got someone who was vain and shallow, who loved elaborate display and festivals, and who promoted carnivals.
210. Sixtus IV (1471-1484) scandalized even the least sensitive of his contemporaries with his nepotism. He made five nephews and a grandnephew cardinals, one a bishop, and married four nephews and two nieces into important Italian families. He made an eight-year-old the archbishop of Lisbon and an eleven-year-old the archbishop of Milan. Sixtus IV reigned as a Renaissance prince. He involved the papacy and the Papal State in the power game of Italian politics and reduced it to where it was, more or less, just another Italian state, like Milan or Venice. The most unworthy incident of his papacy was the conspiracy by the banking family, the Pazzi, to assassinate the Medici brothers, a conspiracy of which the pope undoubtedly was aware, even if he wasn't behind it. In 1478 Giuliano de' Medici was stabbed to death at High Mass in the cathedral at Florence, while Lorenzo escaped with a slight wound. The chief conspirators, including the Archbishop of Pisa, were hanged. In return Sixtus excommunicated the Medici and placed Florence under interdict. Sixtus IV changed Rome from a medieval city into one of the Renaissance, improving bridges and buildings. One of the many churches that he had built was the Sistine Chapel. He attracted painters, sculptors, and musicians to Rome. Because of these projects and his numerous military expeditions, Sixtus had to raise taxes, sell indulgences, and begin to invent and sell new offices. Rumor had it that Sixtus was a sodomite and the father of one or more of his nephews. It is impossible to judge whether or not this is true. At the request of the Catholic kings, he set up the Spanish Inquisition in 1478.
211. Innocent VIII (1484-1492) openly acknowledged his illegitimate children fathered before his ordination by a mistress in Naples. He married off his son to a daughter of Lorenzo de' Medici. He made Lorenzo's thirteen-year-old son, Giovanni, a Cardinal. Needing money he created numerous worthless positions and auctioned them off to the highest bidder. He was the first pope to open negotiations with the Ottoman empire. In 1489 he agreed to an arrangement with the Ottoman sultan Bayezid II (1481-1512). Bayezid agreed to pay the pope 40,000 ducats a year and give him the Holy Lance. In return the pope agreed to keep the sultan's fugitive brother, Jem, in close confinement in Rome. Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain married in 1469, and the Moslems were kicked out of Spain in 1492. Innocent was very ineffective and he left the papal state in total disarray.
212. Alexander VI (1492-1503). Rodrigo Borgia became Alexander VI. He bought the papacy from his nearest rivals. Named a Cardinal at 24 years of age in 1456, he had kept several mistresses and fathered seven children by the time he became pope at the age of 62. His favorite mistress, a married woman from Naples, who had reputedly succeeded her mother as his mistress, bore him four children: Jaun, Cesare, Lucrezia, and Jofre. When he became pope, this mistress was married off to a third husband (she was married to two husbands in succession while serving as Alexander's mistress), and the pope took a new mistress. Alexander had great hopes for his children. He made Cesare a Cardinal at the age of 18. He married Lucrezia to a Sforza, Jofre to a granddaughter of the King of Naples, and had made Jaun a territorial prince with property carved out of the papal states. In 1493 Alexander drew up the Line of Demarcation, splitting up the new world between Spain and Portugal. Peace in Italy broke down after forty years in 1494. Charles VIII of France invaded Italy in that year to "deliver" Italy from its troubles. Actually, Charles had a vision of a French empire. He quickly conquered Naples.
The Holy League drove Charles out in 1495, but this invasion initiated the Italian wars -- a series of wars between Spain, France, and Habsburg Germany, each contending for and dividing up Italy, that would last intermittently until the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis in 1559 gave control of most of Italy to Spain. In 1497 Alexander annulled Lucrezia's marriage and remarried her to Alfonso, the heir to the kingdom of Naples. In the same year, the pope's son, Jaun, was found floating in the Tiber River with nine stab wounds the day after eating dinner with his brother Cesare. Romans exchanged witticisms about the pope being the fisher of men, and suspicions fell on Cesare. The ugliest rumor of the time was that the two brothers had been rivals for the affections of Lucrezia. Probably, if Cesare was guilty, it was that he was jealous of Jaun's worldly prospects. Soon Alexander ended the official inquiry, Cesare resigned his Cardinalship, and both father and son concentrated on his worldly advancement. Cesare married into the French royal family and then methodically eliminated, by expelling or assassinating, most of the rulers in central Italy. His military campaigns drained the papal coffers. He became for a time, in Rome and central Italy, virtual ruler and tyrant. He was ruthless, murderess, and vindictive. In 1498 Alexander had the friar/preacher Savanarola excommunicated, tortured, and burnt at the stake for heresy. In 1501 Lucrezia's husband Alfonso was attacked by five men and severely wounded. He believed it was Cesare who instigated the attack. Recovering, he saw him from a window walking in a garden, and shot an arrow at him but missed. Cesare had him hacked to death by his bodyguard. Two months after Alfonso's death, according to John Burchard, the master of ceremony at the papal court, Alexander presided over the Ballet of the Chestnuts, a banquet given at the Vatican by Cesare. Burchard records that after dinner fifty papal courtesans danced with fifty guests, at first clothed then naked. Chestnuts were scattered on the floor among the candelabra which the courtesans and guests picked up on their hands and knees. This was followed by coupling of the guests, with the pope, Cesare, and Lucrezia watching all the while. Weeks later, they watched as Cesare shot down a mass of unarmed criminals driven into the courtyard of the Vatican. On the last day of 1501, Lucrezia was married to the heir of another distinguished Italian family. To finance the week long wedding celebration and the 100,000 ducat dowry, Alexander created 80 new offices in the curia and sold them for 780 ducats each. At the same time he received a total of 120,000 ducats from the five new Cardinalships he gave away, and he seized the great wealth of Cardinal Giovanni Michele, who is believed to have been poisoned by Cesare. During his pontificate he appointed 43 cardinals, all for a price. Alexander VI died in 1503, some say from fever, while the rumor of the day had it as poisoning. He is considered by many as the worst pope in history. Cesare was killed in battle in 1506.
213. Pius III (1503) died after seventeen days in office.
214. Julius II (1503-1513). As a Cardinal he had fathered three children. He concentrated his pontificate on winning back papal lands and expelling the French from Italy. He even led troops into battle on occasion. Erasmus caricatured his military exploits in Praise of Folly. Julius hired the Swiss guard as the Vatican's protectors. To win lands back from Venice he excommunicated the city and allied himself with the French. Then to expel the French from Italian soil he allied himself with Venice and Spain. He was seen as the liberator of Italy. Julius commissioned Bramante to plan the new St. Peter's and began to raise funds for it by selling indulgences. He commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo's Moses was created for his tomb. Julius commissioned Raphael to paint his frescoes in the Vatican. Julius issued the dispensation (special permission) that allowed Henry VIII to marry Catherine of Aragon.
215. Leo X (1513-1521). Sometime after Giovanni de' Medici had become pope Leo X he is reputed to have said, "God has given us the Papacy -- let us enjoy it." His pontificate was one of festivities, banquets, carnivals, theatre, balls, and hunting parties. At one banquet given by Agostino Chigi, the gold dishes, after being used to serve parrots' tongue and fish from Byzantium, were thrown out the window into the Tiber. His inaugural pageant cost 100,000 ducats. Julius II had left him a surplus of 700,000 ducats in the papal treasury but he quickly used it up. Leo borrowed heavily. He created 31 new Cardinals on a single day in 1517, bringing in 500,000 ducats. He was a great patron of the arts. He made Rome the cultural center of the western world. Leo made two cousins and three nephews Cardinals. Catherine de' Medici, eventual queen of France, was Leo's great-niece, daughter of his nephew. His great passion was to make his nephew Lorenzo the Duke of Urbino. The unfruitful war for this cause cost 800,000 ducats. In 1515 Leo X agreed to a Concordat with France. By this agreement, which lasted until the French Revolution, the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges was removed, restoring some papal rights in France, but the right to name all higher church offices was reserved to the French crown. Leo X renewed the distribution of indulgences in Germany authorized by Julius II so that a young noble, Albrecht of Brandenburg could pay off the debts he owed to the Fuggers, the famous banking family. Albrecht had borrowed the money in order to pay Leo for a bishop's post and two archbishoprics. The Dominican friar Johann Tetzel began preaching the indulgences. Half the money would go to the pope and half the money would go to the Fuggers. In 1517 Martin Luther, angered by these and other abuses, nailed the 95 theses on the Wittenburg Chapel doors. Also in 1517, Cardinal Petrucci plotted to poison Leo X. Petrucci was executed, strangled by a Moor with a red silk noose, and the other plotters were pardoned for payments ranging from 5,000 to 50,000 ducats. In 1520 Leo excommunicated Luther. In 1521 Leo bestowed the title of defender of the faith on Henry VIII for his book defending the seven sacraments against Luther. It is estimated that Leo spent 5,000,000 ducats during his reign.
216. Hadrian VI (1522-1523), a Fleming, was the last non-Italian pope elected until 1978. He tried to reform the abuses of the church and restrain the spread of the Reformation. But, already old when elected, Hadrian VI died before he accomplished much.
217. Clement VII (1523-1534). Giulio de' Medici became Clement VII. During his reign the Protestants made huge gains in Germany and Scandinavia. In England, in 1527, King Henry VIII asked Clement VII to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Unfortunately for Clement, Catherine was the aunt of the uncrowned Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. The pope could not politically afford to grant the request. Henry VIII was refused and the English church broke with Rome. Clement got caught in the middle of Italian and European politics and mismanaged his treaties with both France and the Empire. First he supported Francis I, thereby angering Emperor Charles V. Then, after a French defeat, he sought protection from Charles V. Then he joined an alliance with France, Milan, Florence, and Venice against the emperor. This mismanagement and intrigue led to the invasion of Italy and Rome by Charles V in 1527. As his troops attacked Rome, the pro-imperial Colonna family killed fellow-citizens and captured the Vatican. The pope was able to escape to Castel Sant' Angelo by a secret passage in the Vatican built by Alexander VI. The pope and the emperor agreed to terms, but the pope violated the agreement to lay waste to Colonna family properties. Charles V agreed to a truce bought for the price of 60,000 ducats. However, his 30,000 troops mutinied and sacked Rome. The Swiss guard (the pope's protectors) was cut down to the last man. Rome was ravaged for eight days, and off and on for nine months. Massacre, plunder, rape, and fire raged out of control. Clergy were brutalized, nuns were drug off to brothels or sold to soldiers in the streets. Palaces were plundered, churches and monasteries sacked for treasure, and tombs broken into in search of treasure. The Vatican was used as a stable. 2,000 bodies were thrown into the Tiber River, 9,800 buried. Loot and ransom were estimated at three to four million ducats. As part of the eventual settlement Charles V was crowned King of Italy and Naples and emperor in 1530, the last emperor to be crowned by a pope.
Clement spent the rest of his pontificate restoring his family's fortunes in Florence. The Medici had been overthrown in Florence by a republican government. With help from the army of Charles V, Medici rule was reestablished in Florence after a ten month siege. He was also able to marry Catherine de' Medici to the French king's second son and her brother to a daughter of Charles V. When he died he was universally hated. His corpse was dug up, mutilated, and thrust through the heart with a sword. Clement was a patron of Cellini, Raphael, and Michelangelo. He commissioned the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel. His political difficulties kept him from effectively dealing with the Protestant problem.
218. Paul III (1534-1549) was the brother of Alexander VI's mistress. Because of this he was nicknamed "Cardinal Petticoat." He himself had fathered several children before his nomination as a bishop. As pope he was a determined nepotist, provoking protest when he made his 14 and 16 year-old grandsons cardinals. He loved to hunt. He staged masked balls, magnificent banquets, and revived the carnival. He commissioned Michelangelo to finish painting the Last Judgment of the Sistine Chapel during his papacy, but censored the artist for the nude figures. This led Michelangelo to paint Paul III into the painting, with donkey ears among the souls of the damned. Paul called for the Council of Trent to be held. It opened in 1545 and met until 1548. This council hammered out decrees on Scripture and tradition, original sin, justification, and the sacraments. It set the course for Catholic theology and practice for the next 400 years and is one of the most influential church councils ever. Paul reestablished the "Holy Roman and General Inquisition" which had lagged since the destruction of the Cathars in the thirteenth century. He approved the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). Paul excommunicated the English king, Henry VIII, in 1538 and placed England under interdict.
219. Julius III (1550-1555) was lazy, generous to relatives, pleasure loving, a patron of the arts, and devoted to banquets, theatre, and hunting. He created a scandal by his infatuation with a fifteen-year-old youth, Innocenzo, whom he picked up on the streets of Parma. He had his brother adopt him and made the lad a cardinal. Julius III reconvened the Council of Trent in 1551. It met until 1552. The pope spent much of his last three years at his beautiful villa at the edge of Rome pursuing idle activities. Queen Mary, a Catholic, ascended the throne in England in 1553 and returned that country for a short while to the Catholic fold.
220. Marcellus II (1555) eagerly and energetically set about to reform the church. But he died after 22 days in office.
221. Paul IV (1555-1559) was an ascetic. A reform minded pope, who was 79 when elected, he extended and intensified the Inquisition. Under him it was arbitrary and secretive. He was the first to draw up an Index of Forbidden Books. He confined Jews in Rome to ghettos and made them wear distinctive headwear. When he died the Roman mob burned down the Inquisition's headquarters, knocked the head off the Pope's marble statue and threw it into the Tiber River. Paul IV denounced the Peace of Augsburg of 1555. This treaty recognized the co-existence of Catholics and Protestants in Germany. In 1556 Charles V entered a monastery and gave Spain and Italy to his son Philip. Paul refused to recognize the abdication. Spanish control of Italy remained intact until 1713. When Mary I of England died in 1558, Paul helped assure the Protestant victory of England by demanding from Queen Elizabeth the church lands that had earlier been confiscated.
222. Pius IV (1559-1565) slowed down the Inquisition and revised the Index of Forbidden Books. He reconvened the Council of Trent (1562-1564) partially because of the spread of Calvinism in France. Pius IV subsidized France in its war with the Calvinist Huguenots. Because the Papal States were in such poor financial condition, Pius IV raised taxes. This created great resentment toward him and even an assassination attempt. He commissioned Michelangelo's last architectural work, the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli. Michelangelo used part of the walls of the ruined Baths of Diocletian in this work.
223. Pius V (1566-1572) was a reformer. He had been Paul III's Grand Inquisitor. Pius intended to wipe out immorality in Rome and imposed strict standards of lifestyle in Rome. The clergy were subjected to more discipline. Beggars and prostitutes were outlawed. Fasts and feasts were to be strictly observed. Doctors were told to insist on their patients confessing and receiving sacraments. Women were not allowed to see the papal collections of classical sculpture. He ordered the nudity of the Last Judgment to be overpainted. He excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I in 1570. The number of men accused and condemned by the Inquisition soared. With a few exceptions he expelled the Jews from the Papal States. He opposed nepotism and limited the use of indulgences. He gave Catherine de Medici of France military and financial assistance in her fight against the Huguenots. Pius V had Thomas Aquinas declared a doctor of the church. He helped form the holy league with Venice and Spain that defeated the Turkish fleet at Lepanto in the Gulf of Corinth in 1571, shattering Turkish superiority in the Mediterranean.
224. Gregory XIII (1572-1585) sought to promote reform and carry out the decrees of the Council of Trent. He was a strong supporter of the Jesuits. He probably was not personally involved in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of Huguenots perpetrated by Catherine de Medici in 1572, but when he heard about it he ordered a Te Deum to be sung and attended a thanksgiving mass. Gregory was able to win Poland permanently to Catholicism and stop the spread of Protestantism in Germany. He gave personal support to assassination plots against Elizabeth I of England, after his encouragement to Philip II of Spain to invade England did not work out. He ordered the reform of the Julian calendar, used since 46 BC, and gave his name to the Gregorian calendar. This calendar dropped ten days and introduced the leap year. During the last few years of Gregory's reign law and order broke down in the Papal States and even in Rome. Building projects and military ventures had depleted the papal treasury. Gregory XIII's financial policies had caused problems among the nobles and many who had lost their lands struck back in ways that led to disorder.
225. Sixtus V (1585-1590) restored order in Rome, executing thousands of bandits and even displaying some of their heads on the bridge of Sant' Angelo. He became one of the richest princes in Europe by raising taxes, slashing spending, selling church offices, offering loans, and wise agricultural policies. He reorganized the central administration of the church and set the number of cardinals at 70, a total not exceeded until John XXIII (1958-63). He revived the practice, still in place, of having the bishops come to Rome once every five years to report on their dioceses (church districts). He used thousands of workers to renovate Rome. He was the founder of the Baroque city of the left bank, which revived the dignity of ancient Rome. The dome of St. Peter's was completed in his reign. Much of Rome's beauty today is due to Sixtus V. Sixtus V encouraged Philip II of Spain to attack England, promising him huge subsidies. When the huge Spanish armada was defeated in 1588, the pope refused to pay.
226. Urban VII (1590) died twelve days after election without being crowned.
227. Gregory XIV (1590-1591) was ill during most of his pontificate. His reign was characterized by food shortages, plague, lawlessness, and the incompetent administration of Gregory XIV's nephew whom he had made cardinal-secretary of state. Gregory XIV banned gambling on papal elections, length of papal reigns, or the naming of cardinals.
228. Innocent IX ( 1591) served two months.
229. Clement VIII (1592-1605) was a strong pope who sought reform. He fasted, meditated, said mass, and went to confession often. He encouraged the reform of religious orders. He sharpened the severity of the Inquisition, sending at least thirty heretics to the stake, including Giordano Bruno, a former monk who taught that the universe was infinite. He expanded the Index of Forbidden Books, including a ban on all Jewish books. The Jubilee Year of 1600 brought millions of pilgrims to Rome. 80,000 witnessed the opening of the Holy Door at St. Peter's on Dec. 31, 1599 (The opening of the Holy Door takes place during Jubilees and is where the pope knocks three times on the door with a golden mallet and then is allowed to enter the sanctuary). Clement VIII grudgingly accepted the ex-Protestant, now Catholic, Henry IV as king of France. This meant that he also had to accept the Edict of Nantes, granting religious toleration to Protestants in France.
230. Leo XI (1605) was pope for 26 days.
231. Paul V (1605-1621) excommunicated the senate in Venice and placed the city under interdict in 1606 over the issue of papal authority in Italy. Venice threatened to go Protestant. King Henry IV of France mediated. Paul V lifted the interdict in 1607. The pope's condemnation of Gallicanism (the view that the French church was mostly autonomous from Rome) led the French legislature, the Estates-General, to declare in 1614 that the French king derives his authority from God, not the pope. Paul V is most famous for censuring Galileo Galilei in 1616 for teaching that the earth revolves around the sun (In 1979 Pope John Paul II declared that the church had erred in judgment in this matter). In 1616 Copernicus's works were placed on the Index of Forbidden Books. Paul V from the Borghese family made his family as powerful and wealthy as the Orsini and Colonna families in Rome.
232. Gregory XV (1621-1623) declared that papal elections should be closed to the public and conducted by secret written ballot. He furthered decreed that no candidate could vote for himself and that two-thirds majority is required for election.
233. Urban VIII (1623-1644). Matteo Barberini became Urban VIII. His two passions were the enrichment of his family and the embellishment of Rome. Urban made a brother and two nephews cardinals and funneled immense amounts of papal funds into his family's coffers. Among the artists patronized by him were Bernini and Poussin. The colonnade of the piazza at St. Peter's was begun during his reign. During the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) Urban VII held back financial and political support from the emperor because he feared Habsburg domination in Italy. Thus the pope showed some favoritism to Cardinal Richelieu of France, even though Richelieu was allied with Protestant German and Swiss princes against the Catholic Habsburgs of the Holy Roman Empire. Urban VIII was pope when Galileo (his personal friend) was hauled in front of the inquisition for the second time in 1633 and forced to recant his heliocentric teachings. In 1639 he forbid slavery among the Indians in Brazil, Paraguay, and the West Indies. Urban VIII fought a little war of his own in 1642-1644 with the Duke of Parma because he wanted some of his territory. When excommunication did not convince the Duke to hand over the duchies of Castro and Ronciglione, the pope invaded. He was beaten back and the Duke counter attacked, ravaging papal territory. The pope's reinforcing of the walls of Rome with materials from ancient buildings provoked the quip, "Quod non fecerunt barbari fecerunt Barberini" (What the barbarians did not do, the Barberini did).
234. Innocent X (1644-1655) condemned Jansenism in 1653. Jansenism, based largely in France, propounded an extreme Augustinian understanding of grace and predestination, which denied free will and asserted the efficacy of all grace. Despite the condemnation, these teachings would continue to exist. Future popes made further condemnations. Innocent X tried to make prisons in the Papal States more humane. During his reign the Piazza Navona was restored and it received its beautiful fountains.
235. Alexander VII (1655-1667) argued with King Louis XIV of France over French diplomatic immunity in Rome. He was forced to back down and build a pyramid to acknowledge his guilt.
236. Clement IX (1667-1669) was a poet and invented the comic opera as a dramatic form.
237. Clement X (1670-1676). It had been the custom of the last several popes to make a nephew a cardinal and use him as a close advisor. Clement assigned Cardinal Paluzzi degli Albertoni, whose nephew had married Clement's niece, the role of cardinal-nephew. Paluzzi took complete control of affairs, reducing the secretaries of state to mere secretaries, and accumulating riches and offices for himself and his family. Clement battled Louis XIV on several issues. Louis confiscated church property, diverted income from religious houses to his military preparations, kept income from vacant sees and abbeys, and appointed people to ecclesiastical offices. Some of this Clement failed to protest. The complaints that he did register were ignored.
238. Innocent XI (1676-1689) was completely free of personal scandal, no nepotism and no immorality. He called for strict observance of monastic vows, and the rigorous selection of priests and bishops. He reduced papal spending. When he died he left the papacy financially solvent and spiritually confident. He was generous to the poor. He was canonized in 1956, but his austere ways did not make him very popular while he was alive.
Through most of his pontificate he struggled with Louis XIV
of France who claimed the right to appoint bishops. In 1682 the
French clergy adopted, at Louis's instigation, the Gallican Articles
denying the pope any authority in temporal affairs or over kings,
asserting the superior authority of general councils, and reaffirming
the ancient liberties of the Gallican Church. Innocent rejected
the articles and refused to ratify any bishops who had subscribed
to them. By 1688, 35 bishoprics in France lay vacant. In that
year, in January, Innocent XI secretly informed Louis XIV that
he and his ministers were excommunicated. In September, Louis
XIV sent forces of occupation into the papal territories of Avignon
and Venaissin. Louis thought that his persecutions of the Huguenots
and his revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 would convince
the pope to be cooperative. Innocent did approve of the revocation
but deplored the violent methods of persecution unleashed on the
Protestants.
The "Glorious Revolution of 1688" occurred in Britain
during Innocent's pontificate, as did the failed siege of Vienna
by the Turks in 1683.
239. Alexander VIII (1689-1691) restored the nepotism that was absent from the previous two pontificates, giving high offices to two of his nephews. He was quite popular, having lowered taxes and food prices in the Papal States. He condemned 31 Jansenist propositions.
240. Innocent XII (1691-1700) was devout, charitable, and simple in his personal life. He tried to reform the administration and finances of the papal states. He established institutions to help the poor and downtrodden. He issued a bull designed to do away with nepotism. The bull stated that the pope should not give estates, revenues, or offices to his relatives. It also said that if a pope's nephew was taken into the College on merit, his revenues could not exceed 12,000 scudi. Innocent XII was able to reconcile relations to a degree with Louis XIV. He ratified the appointments of the bishops that Louis XIV had made and accepted the king's insistence that he be able to administer vacant dioceses and abbeys. Louis XIV agreed to repeal his demand that French bishops accept and adhere to the Gallican Articles. By 1693 the relationship between the pope and the French king was greatly improved.
241. Clement XI (1700-1721). Just after Clement XI became pope in 1700, Charles II of Spain died without any heirs. Louis XIV of France claimed Spain for his grandson, Philip V. The Holy Roman Emperor Leopold wanted Spain for his son Charles (to become Emperor Charles VI in 1711). This precipitated the war of the Spanish Succession 1702-1713 between France and a coalition of England, Holland, and the Holy Roman Empire. Italy became a battleground. The pope at first favored Philip V, then tried to remain neutral, and then was forced to favor Charles when Habsburg troops invaded the Papal States. France lost the war, but Louis's grandson became Philip V of Spain anyway. The Treaty of Utrecht, that ended the conflict in 1713, changed the map of Europe. Among other things it gave much of Italy to Austria. In 1704 Clement XI prohibited the Jesuit missionaries in China from using Chinese rites, such as the cult of ancestors, in their ministry. This practice had been approved by Alexander VII in 1656. The new prohibition caused missions to be closed and persecutions of Chinese Catholics. Also in 1713, Victor Amadeus II of the House of Savoy, later Italy's ruling dynasty, became king of Sicily. In 1720 he traded this island for Sardinia. Thereafter, the duchy of Savoy included Sardinia, and was known as the kingdom of Sardinia.
242. Innocent XIII (1721-1724) was ill for most of his reign and did not accomplish much.
243. Benedict XIII (1724-1730) visited the sick, administered sacraments, gave religious instruction, and spoke against the extravagance of cardinals. Unfortunately he placed great trust in an advisor named Niccolo Coscia, who isolated Benedict from the cardinals and used his position to make himself and his friends rich, by selling church offices and accepting bribes. The finances of the Papal States were reduced to almost nothing. In spite of his personal piety, because of the mismanagement of Coscia, Benedict was very unpopular with the people of Rome.
244. Clement XII (1730-1740) had Niccolo Coscia and his group brought to trial and imprisoned for 10 years in Castel Sant' Angelo. The pope tried but was unsuccessful at straightening out papal finances. He presided at a time when the papacy's international prestige continued to decline, as it had over the last few administrations. During the War of the Polish Succession (1733-1738), Rome was overrun with Spanish troops. Clement embellished Rome with beautiful buildings, particularly the facade of St. John Lateran. He also had the Trevi Fountain built. He went blind in the second year of his administration.
245. Benedict XIV (1740-1758) was universally respected. Horace Walpole described him as "a priest without insolence or interest, a prince without favourites, a pope without nephews." Even Voltaire dedicated a play to him. He eased relationships with several foreign governments, reduced taxes and drastically cut the papal military expenditures. He liberalized the Index of Forbidden Books and sought high standards for the clergy. He promoted humane treatment of the Indians in South America. He supported the arts and sciences and scholarly pursuits. In 1748, after the War of the Austrian Succession, in which Maria Theresa of Austria defended most of her territory from Spain and France, Italy was partitioned in 1748 at the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle between France, Spain, and Austria. The kingdom of Sardinia was the only genuinely Italian state left, except for the republics of Genoa and Venice, both of which retained a semblance of independence.
246. Clement XIII (1758-1769). During much of his papacy, Clement XIII faced pressure from France, Spain, Portugal, Naples, and Parma to do away with the Jesuits. He supported the order, even publishing a bull expressing his support and naming their accomplishments. He also faced a movement in Germany called Febronianism. Febronianism sought to push local authority of the bishops in Germany above that of the pope.
247. Clement XIV (1769-1774). The prestige of the papacy had been declining for several years and continued to do so under Clement. Faced with pressure from several nations, Clement did away with the Jesuit Order in 1773. The Jesuits had been sanctioned since 1540 and had had great success as preachers, missionaries, and teachers. In 1773 they ran 800 colleges with 200,000 students. These colleges were especially prevalent in France, the Low Countries, and the Holy Roman Empire. They taught the humanities, the sciences, religion, rhetoric, and good manners. By emphasizing the humanities the Jesuits unwittingly assured the transition from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. The Jesuit belief system was a mixture of mysticism and activism, meditation with the work ethic. They believed in justification by divine grace and human works. They adapted Christian belief to local traditions. They took a special vow of obedience to the pope.
248. Pius VI (1775-1799) had to deal with the wave of liberal ideas spreading forth from Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the difficulties of the French Revolution. He was worldly and revived nepotism. In the empire the Emperor, Joseph II, set up a system involving complete religious toleration, the restriction of papal intervention in spiritual matters, and the subjection in all things of church to state. In 1781 he issued the Toleration Edict, suppressing certain religious orders and transferring monasteries from the jurisdiction of the pope to diocesan bishops. In 1786 the German archbishops informed Pius that the German church did not need his intervention. In 1789 at the opening of the French Revolution, the French clergy, under heavy pressure, renounced its feudal privileges and was deprived of its tithes. All church lands were nationalized and sold. In 1790 the Civil Constitution of the Clergy became law. It provided that all bishops and priests were to be chosen by the lay electorate and paid out of a public fund. The people and most clergy rejected this constitution, so the National Assembly demanded that all clergy take an oath to uphold it. Only six bishops did. Pius condemned the constitution in 1791. By 1792, Joseph II of Austria was dead, and Pius threw his support to the coalition fighting against France, thereby earning that nation's enmity. In 1796, under instruction of the Directory, Napoleon invaded the papal states and forced a one-sided treaty with Pius. The Pope was required to give Avignon and Comtat to France, pay another 15,000,000 scudi, worth about a dollar each, (he had just recently paid 21,000,000 when Napoleon had conquered Milan), and submit to the removal of hundreds of ancient manuscripts and artworks to France. Napoleon's brother Joseph became ambassador to Rome with instructions to prepare for the extinction of papal rule. The institution of the papacy was in grave danger of extinction. When papal troops fired on pro-French demonstrators in 1796 and killed the French general Duphot, General Berthier was ordered to occupy Rome and set up a republic. In Feb. 1797 the French installed a puppet government. The old, half-paralyzed pope was forced to go to Siena, then to Florence, then to Briancon, and finally to Valence where he died.
249. Pius VII (1800-1823) saw Napoleon come to power in France. They, Napoleon and Pius VII, signed the concordat in 1801 that restored Catholicism in France, though the church lands confiscated in the revolution remained lost. In 1804 Napoleon became Emperor of France. He had Pius VII come to Paris to crown him in Notre Dame Cathedral. The pope refused to crown him until he had first married Napoleon and Josephine. The day after the wedding Napoleon was crowned, though he made the pope wait an hour and then crowned himself. In 1805 Napoleon traveled to Milan where he was crowned King of Italy in the cathedral using the old iron crown of the Lombards. In 1808 Napoleon insisted that Pius VII support his naval blockade of England. The pope refused and remained neutral. Napoleon thereupon occupied Rome and annexed the Papal States. In retaliation, without mentioning names, Pius excommunicated all "robbers of Peter's patrimony." For this Napoleon had Pius VII arrested in 1809 and sent first to Genoa (Italy) and then to Fontainebleau (outside Paris). He remained there until 1814. The supremacy of the French made the later Italian unity possible, in that it created three governments (Italy, Naples, and the part ceded to France) instead of a dozen states; Feudalism was abolished, political barriers were thrown down, commerce was made more free, enlightened laws were imposed, and industry stimulated; A spirit of nationalism was engendered. The Congress of Vienna in 1815, after the defeat of Napoleon, redivided Italy into ten different states. Most of the Papal States were returned to the pope, except for Avignon and Venaissin which were located in France. The only independent powers left in Italy were the Papal States and the kingdom of Sardinia, which now included Genoa. Its king was Victor Emmanuel I. In 1814 Pius restored the Jesuits. He was a strong and patient individual who helped bring respect to the papacy. After the downfall of Napoleon he spent his time trying to reorder the affairs of the Papal States after the occupation of the French. He tried to steer a middle course between the old ways and the new ideas introduced by the French.
250. Leo XII (1823-1829) was a weak personality who allowed his clerical assistants to turn the papal government to a regressive and repressive police state. In Rome censorship was imposed, the Jews were confined to their ghettos, and educational opportunities were narrowed. Punishments, ranging all the way to execution, and papal spies kept the liberals from pushing for change. Feudal aristocracy was reestablished in the Papal States. In May 1825 he issued a condemnation of religious toleration. He founded the Egyptian and Etruscan museums in the Vatican. He left an empty papal treasury because of the military costs needed to keep order in the Papal States.
251. Pius VIII (1829-1830) published an encyclical blaming the breakdown of religion and society on the activities of Protestant Bible societies, attacks on Catholic dogma and the sacredness of marriage, and the existence of secret societies. But he was much more liberal than Leo XII and eased many of his predecessor's severe policies.
252. Gregory XVI (1831-1846) tightened the repression in Rome and the papal states. His reactionary nature is maybe best seen by his ban of railroads in the papal states because they were modern. He denounced notions of freedom of conscience and the press, and of separation of church and state. He faced mounting discontent and simmering rebellion throughout his pontificate from citizens who wanted greater freedom and an Italian republic. Twice he had to call on the Austrian armies to crush revolts in the Papal States. He promoted the idea of papal infallibility.
253. Pius IX (1846-1878) proclaimed an amnesty that released 2,000 prisoners, one month after his election. The Austrian minister, Metternich, pointed out that this type of liberal measure gave dangerous impulses to nationalist attitudes. Nonetheless, Pius continued to introduce liberal reform movements meant to transform the papal theocracy into a constitutional monarchy. However, he was philosophically unprepared for just how far liberal democratic changes would take Italy. He did not want a republic. In 1848, as revolution swept Europe, Sardinia made war on Austria, as did Milan and Venice. Naples, Tuscany, and Sardinia all forced constitutions from their sovereigns. Revolutionary republicans and the Roman mob forced the Pope to flee to Naples. In 1849 King Charles Albert of Sardinia was defeated by the Austrians and forced to abdicate. His son Victor Emmanuel II succeeded him. A French army defeated the republicans in Rome and allowed Pius to return, which he did in 1850.
In 1853 Camillo di Cavour became the prime minister of Sardinia and quickly began to prove himself a great statesman. He set out to unify Italy. In 1855 Sardinia joined with England and France in declaring war on Russia. As a result Sardinia was given a place at the Congress of Paris in 1856 and won the sympathy of Emperor Napoleon III of France. In 1859 Cavour secured the powerful alliance of France for the price of Nice and a strip of Savoy. Austria was provoked to declare war on Sardinia and Louis Napoleon came to its aid. After winning two battles Napoleon weakened in will and refused to carry out Sardinia's full desires. The hasty peace of Villafranca transferred Lombardy with Milan to Sardinia but Austria kept Venice, and Italy was not yet united.
In 1860 Sardinia annexed Tuscany, Parma, and Modena. Also in 1860 Giuseppe Garibaldi in a grassroots movement, without the support of Cavour, led the Legion of Thousand to overthrow the Bourbons in Sicily and Naples. The people of both places voted to join Sardinia. Also the pope's forces were defeated by Sardinia in 1860. Only Rome and its immediate environs remained in the pope's hands. In 1866, Italy allied with Prussia in a war against Austria. Though Italy was defeated badly, Prussia won. Austria was forced to concede Venice. Italy was at last united except for Rome and Rome was protected by French troops. The downfall of Napoleon III came in 1870, in the Franco-Prussian War. In this war Rome was occupied by Italian troops. The people of Rome then voted 133,681 to 1,507 to join Italy. Pius IX refused to acknowledge the loss of his lands, considered himself a prisoner, and never set foot outside the Vatican. In 1871, the Italian government enacted the Law of Papal Guarantees. This law granted the pope sovereign honors and personal inviolability, full freedom for the exercise of his spiritual authority, the right to send and receive ambassadors, extra territorial privileges in the Vatican and Lateran palaces in Rome and in the papal residence of Castel Gandolfo, and a yearly pension of 3,250,000 lire. The pope not only refused to acknowledge the law, but urged the Catholic rulers of Europe to restore his temporal possessions. In 1854 Pius proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, the idea that Mary was exempt from original sin. In 1864 he published the "Syllabus of Errors," which denounced the errors of the times, including the view that the pope can or should reconcile himself to progress, liberalism, and modern civilization. In 1870 the First Vatican Council declared that the definitions of the pope in faith and morals were infallible in their own right, not as a result of the consent of the Church. Pius IX was very popular. However, this popularity did not stop an anticlerical Roman mob from interrupting his funeral procession with an unsuccessful attempt to throw his body into the Tiber River.
254. Leo XIII (1878-1903) was the first pope to turn the church's attention to the social problems of the industrial age. In his encyclical Rerum Novarum he insisted on the worker's right to a fair wage and, while refuting Marxism, castigated the callous behavior of contemporary capitalism. However, he did not believe in the redistribution of wealth by the state. He believed that justice and harmony between workers and employers could only be solved by recognition of Christian principles. Leo tried to bring the papacy into the modern age. He fostered the study of astronomy and natural sciences at the Vatican, and called on Catholic historians to write objectively. He opened the Vatican archives to scholars of all religions. Leo helped establish the international prestige of the papacy. He was the first pope to speak of non-Catholics as "separated brethren." In 1878, King Victor Emmanuel II died and was succeeded by his son, Humbert I. His 22 year reign was marked by domestic disorders, graft, bank scandals, increasing deficits in the national budget, the rise of labor unions, the spread of socialist doctrines, the extension of the franchise, the degeneration of parliamentary democracy, the worsening of Franco-Italian relations, the conclusion of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria, the revival of irredentism (the popular movement that aimed at making Trentino and Trieste part of Italy), and the failure of the attempts at colonial expansion in Africa. In July 1900 King Humbert was assassinated. He was succeeded by his son Victor Emmanuel III.
255. Pius X (1903-1914) was less conciliatory than Leo XIII and irritated various groups by insisting on the church's rights. He was critical of democratic ways and governments. He attacked Catholic theologians and scholars with modern tendencies. His support of Catholic minorities in Poland and Ireland angered the Russian and British governments. He offended some in the USA by refusing to receive ex-President Theodore Roosevelt, after he lectured at a Methodist church in Rome. He did several things to revitalize the church. First, he reorganized the Curia. Second, he revised the canon law. This revision included a prohibition of the veto power traditionally exercised by Catholic nations at papal elections. Third, he tried to improve the spiritual and moral level of the clergy, by revising seminaries and the catechism. Fourth, he proclaimed many decrees aimed at improving the spiritual life of the church, such as allowing children to receive communion at the age of reason.
256. Benedict XV (1914-1922) was pope when Italy joined WWI on the side of the allies in 1915. Italy lost 600,000 lives but gained the territories of Trentino and Trieste. Benedict maintained strict neutrality during the war. In 1917 he proposed a seven-point peace plan based on justice rather than military triumph that both sides rejected. He saw the number of countries with diplomatic representation at the Vatican rise from 14 in 1914 to 27 by 1922. In 1914 he called for an end to the theological wrangling between liberal and conservative Catholics. His call did not end the animosity but was a step in the right direction. The Bolshevik Revolution occurred in Russia in 1918. In 1920 Benedict canonized Joan of Arc. In that same year the Turks erected a statue of him in Istanbul.
257. Pius XI (1922-1939). After World War I, Italy had many problems including chronic poverty, high prices, disorganized transportation, inequitable distribution of food, strikes and worker disruptions, and peasant riots. In the midst of these problems, the Fascist party of Benito Mussolini gained more and more popularity. On Oct. 28, 1922, Victor Emmanuel III appointed him as prime minister. Mussolini soon consolidated his power and then launched Italy into a military build up bent on foreign conquest. In 1929 Mussolini negotiated a treaty with Pius XI recognizing Vatican City as an independent foreign state. Italy accepted Catholicism has its official religion. The pope received 1,750,000,000 lira as compensation for the loss of his territory. The pope in return, officially recognized the kingdom of Italy. Pius XI was actively involved in promoting overseas missions, requiring every religious order to engage in missionary work. The number of native priests around the world grew during his papacy from 3,000 to 7,000.
258. Pius XII (1939-1958). In WWII Mussolini allied himself with Hitler and Japan, declaring war in June 1940. Pope Pius XII tried to keep Italy out of the war but was unsuccessful. He made Vatican City an asylum for countless refugees, including numerous Jews. He came under criticism for failure to speak out forcefully against Nazism, even though he made many general denunciations. By June 1944, the Allies had liberated Rome. In the same month Victor Emmanuel III turned over his powers to his son Humbert II. Mussolini was executed in 1945. In 1946 the Italian people voted to do away with the monarchy and establish a republic. The king and his family went into exile in Portugal. Since that time Italy has held democratic elections. Pius created a large number of cardinals, over 50. He reduced the Italian element to one-third.
259. John XXIII (1958-1963) published the encyclical Mater et Magistra in which he endorsed the welfare philosophy of the post-war years. He believed that the state had the right to help the individual to assert his natural rights, including health, education, and housing. John increased the number of cardinals past 70 to 87. It had stood at 70 since Sixtus V. He called on the richer nations of the world to help the poorer nations in 1961. He tried to open up dialogue among other Christian groups. He was the first pope to receive the Archbishop of Canterbury, which he did in 1960. In 1961 he sent envoys to the patriarch in Istanbul. He exchanged greetings with the patriarch of Moscow. He removed words offensive to the Jews from the Good Friday liturgy. His greatest achievement was to convene the Second Vatican Council. He opened and closed the first session in 1962. Vatican II had a great liberalizing effect on the church. When John XXIII he was one of the most loved and respected people in the world. He is regarded as a great pope.
260. Paul VI (1963-1978) presided over the second and third and fourth sessions of Vatican II in 1963 and 1964 and 1965. This council made changes in the breviary (the liturgical book containing the Liturgy of the hours), the lectionary (the book containing scripture readings for the mass), the order of mass, sacred music, and canon law. It decreed that God uses other churches and non-Christian religions in offering salvation to humankind. Paul met with Patriarch Athenagoras I in Jerusalem in 1964. In 1965 he and the Patriarch read a joint resolution deploring the mutual anathemas pronounced by their respective churches in 1054. In 1966 he held meetings with the archbishop of Canterbury in Rome and with Patriarch Athenagoras in Rome in 1967. In 1977 he and the archbishop of Canterbury issued a Common Declaration pledging united work towards reunion. Paul issued decrees in 1967 reaffirming priestly celibacy and in 1968 condemning artificial methods of birth control. In 1970 Paul decreed that priests and bishops should retire at 75, and cardinals over 80 should not participate in curial business. By 1976 he had raised the number of cardinals to 138.
261. John Paul I (1978) dispensed with a papal coronation, simply being invested with the pallium in St. Peter's Square. He died after three weeks in office. There was some talk about him being poisoned. There was no autopsy done. There was also little evidence of foul play.
262. John Paul II (1978-2 April 2005) also refused to have a coronation. He is the first non-Italian pope since Hadrian VI. On a visit to Turkey in 1979, he and the patriarch of Istanbul attended each other's liturgies, without however sharing communion. In 1981 he was shot in St. Peter's Square by a young Turk, Mehmet Ali Agca. While recovering he published his encyclical, Laborem exercens, in which he called for a new economic order, neither capitalist nor Marxist, but based on the rights of workers and the dignity of labor. In 1984, John Paul concluded a revision of the Lateran treaty of 1929 with the Italian government. In this revision the separation of church and state in Italy was formalized. John Paul has traveled widely. In 1980 he reconfirmed the church's teachings on marriage, contraception, abortion, and homosexuality. Also in 1980, the German bishops withdrew the preaching license of theologian Hans Kung, with the express approval of the pope. John Paul has moved energetically to revitalize the Jesuits. He has tended to be more conservative in theological matters than some in the church would like.