Alphabetical list of Popes

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

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

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

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

THE VATICAN YEAR BOOK Annuario Pontificio,  lists all the popes, but other references sometimes arrange them in a slightly different order especially before the 3rd century. Much of our information about the early popes comes fromLiber Pontificalis   (LP)  and the Liberian Catalogue  (LC)   Both were started  in the 4th century, with the former (which eventually incorporated LC) updated until 1464. There is an 1886 French translation of LP with commentary by Abbe Louis Duchesne, and a 1916 English translation by Louise Ropes Loomis, published by Columbia University Press. The earliest historians--Clement of Rome  c. 95; Ignatius of Antioch c.100;  Tertullian (c. 160-225);  Eusebius c. 260; and Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, who (c. 190) wrote five books comparing the doctrines of rival sects--are credited in the text that follows as (C), (Ig), (T), (Eu) or (Ir),  respectively.

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

OTHER BOOKS consulted or quoted from include Bede's Ecclesiastical History; Legends of theSaints (The Golden Legend (GL) by Jacobus de Voragine, the 13th century archbishop of Genoa; Butler's Lives of the Saints  (B) first published in 1756; A CatholicDictionary , Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1851; (ACD) The Popes' Rights & Wrongs  (PRW) published by Truber & Co., 1860; History of the Popes  (HP) by Dr Ludwig Pastor, 1885 (Kraus Reprint, 1969); The Dictionary of Sects, Heresies &c (DSH) by John Blunt (Longmans, Green & Co.,1874); History of the Catholic Church  by Richard Henry Clarke (Gebbie, 1891);  Life & Works of St Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux  ed, by Dom. John Mabillon (John Hodges, 1896); History of the Popes  (P.F.  Collier & Son, 1901) by Leonard Van Renke (LVR) who cites numerous 16th c. documents; The History of the Papacy   by Joseph McCabe (London, 1916); A Biographical Dictionary of the Saints  (BDS) by the Rt. Rev. F.G. Holbeck (B. Herder Book Co, 1924); History & Literature of Christianity from Tertullian to Boethius   by Pierre de Cabriolle, tr. by Herbert Wilson  (Knopf, 1925);The Book of Popes  (BP) by Dr. F.J. Bayer  (Methuen & Co, 1925); A Source Book  (SB) for Ancient Church History    by J.C. Ayer (Chas Scribners' Sons, 1926);Their Name Was Pius  by Lillian Browneolf  (Bruce Publishing, 1941); Saints & Their Emblems in English Churches  (StE) by R.L.P. Milburn, OUP 1949; Pageant of the Popes  by John Farrow (Sheed & Ward  1950); A Catholic Dictionarary-CD (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1951); A History of Christianity  by Kenneth Scott Latourette  (Harper & Bros, 1953); The Papal Encyclicals in Their Historical Context  ed. by Anne Fremantle  (G.P. Putnams's Sons, 1956); Vatican Diplomacy   by Robert A. Graham (Princeton University Press, 1959); A History of the Christian Church  by Willis Walker (Charles Scribners' Sons,1959); Church & State in Italy (1850-1950)  by A.C. Jemolo (Basil Blackwell, 1960); The Papal Princes   by  Glenn D. Kittler (Funk & Wagnalls,1960); The Correspondence of Pope Gregory VII , tr. with intro by Ephraim Emerton (Octagon Books, 1960); Popes in the Modern World  by Frances Sugrue (Thomas P. Crowell, 1961); The Popes, a concise biographical history, (tP) ed. Eric John (Burns & Oates, 1964);  The Bad Popes  (TBP)  by E.R. Chamberlin (Dial Press, 1965);  History of the Catholic Church  by Thomas P. Neill and Raymond H Schmandt (Bruce Publishing Co., 1965); The Popes in  the World   by Anton Henze (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1965); The Silence of Pope Pius XII   by  Carlo Falconi (Little Brown & Co, 1965); the Penguin Dictionary of the Saints  (PDS) by Donald Attwater (1965); Popes from the Ghetto  by Joachim Prinz (Horizon Press, 1966); The Popes in the 20th Century : from Pius X to John XXIII  by Carlo Falconi (Little, Brown & Co. 1967); New Catholic Encyclopedia   (NCE) published by McGraw Hill, 1967; Unzipped, the popes bare all  by Arthur Frederick Ide (American Atheist Press, 1967); The Medieval Papacy  by Geofrey Barraclough  (Harcourt Brace & World, 1968); Divine Disobedience  by Francine du Plessix Gray (Knopf, 1970); The Vatican in the Age of Dictators  by Anthony Rhodes (Holt, Rinehart & Winston 1973); Catholic America  by John Cogley (Dial Press, 1973); the Dictionary of the Christian Church (Paternoster Press, 1974); The Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire  (D&F)  by Edward Gibbon  (Harvard University Press, 1977); The Popes & the Papacy  in the Early Middle Ages  by  Jeffrey Richards  (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979); The Final Conclave  by Malachi Martin (Stein & Day, 1978); Continuity & Change in Roman Religion  by J.H.W.G. Liebeschuetz  (Clarendon Press, 1979); Decline & Fall of the Roman Church  by Malachi Martin (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1981); How the Pope Became Infallible  by August Bernhard Hasler  (Doubleday 1981); The Popes & the European Revolution  by Owen Chadwick (Clarendon Press 1981); A Short History of the Catholic Church  by J. Derek Holmes & Bernard W Bickers (Burns & Oates, 1984); Rome: The Biography of a City    by Christopher Hibbert (W.W. Norton, 1985); the Oxford Dictionary of Popes (ODP)  (Oxford University Press, 1986); The Catholic Fact Book   by John Deedy (Thomas More Press, 1986);   Somni Pontifici Romani   (ISPR),  a colorful poster published by Realizzato da Memmo Caporilli, Rome;  1987); the Book of Saints  (BS) published by A.C. Black, 1989; Saints & Sinners (S&S) by Eamon Duff (Yale University Press, 2002).

The book is available from Xlibris