papacy
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papacy
papacy (pāˈpəsē), office of the pope, head of the Roman Catholic Church. He is pope by reason of being bishop of Rome and thus, according to Roman Catholic belief, successor in the see of Rome (the Holy See) to its first bishop, St. Peter. The pope therefore claims to be the shepherd of all Christians and representative (vicar or vicegerent) of Christ. The claim of Petrine supremacy and (by virtue of Peter's connection to Rome) Roman supremacy, is based on Matthew 16:18–19. Papal supremacy is not acknowledged outside the Roman Catholic Church. The church further holds that God will not permit the pope to make an error in a solemn official declaration concerning a matter of faith or morality (see infallibility).
The pope has also traditionally been regarded as patriarch of the West, with the great majority, although not all, of the Christians recognizing his authority as pope also under his authority as patriarch. This question of areas of authority is practical only with regard to some of the Eastern-rite patriarchs in communion with the pope who may, for example, appoint bishops without papal confirmation. In 2006 Pope Benedict XVI dropped patriach of the West from among his official titles in an ecumenical gesture toward the Orthodox Eastern churches; the title had been assumed by Pope Theodore I in 642. The pope generally lives in Rome, of which a portion (Vatican City) is politically independent and under his rule; the pope is thus head of a state and owes no political allegiance (see Vatican City; cardinal; papal election).
For a chronological list of popes and antipopes see the table entitled Popes of the Roman Catholic Church. For the ecclesiastical framework, the teaching, the history, and the geographical distribution of the church, see Roman Catholic Church. See also Christianity.
In the Early Church
There is no unequivocal evidence about the status of the pope in the earliest days of the church. That he was accorded special honor as the successor of St. Peter is acknowledged, but whereas Roman Catholic historians hold that the peculiar position of the Holy See was recognized and accorded authority, non-Catholic historians in general contend that the bishop of Rome was accorded honor over the other bishops, not authority. As missionaries sent directly from the city founded new churches throughout the West, more and more reverence was given to the pope. The Roman church was being enriched with gifts by converts, and it supported struggling young churches everywhere and supplied funds for charitable foundations all over Italy.
As the political power of the city of Rome declined, the pope inherited some of the Roman emperor's position as symbol and defender of civilization. The combination of assurance and intrepidity in dealing with barbarian attacks and rulers of emerging states in this period (300–700) was a mark of the great popes—saints Julius I, Innocent I, Leo I, Gregory I, and Martin I. The papacy gained prestige in the West and was powerful in doctrinal disputes, especially in the struggles over Arianism, Monophysitism, and Monotheletism.
In the Middle Ages
A fateful event for the papacy was the donation of lands made to the pope by the Frankish king Pepin the Short in 756. The papacy had already been given lands (since the 4th cent.), but it was the Donation of Pepin that came to be considered the real as well as the symbolic founding of the Papal States. The pope thus became a powerful lay prince as well as an ecclesiastical ruler. This intermingling of powers was a determining condition in the struggle between church and state that was a main theme in the history of the West in the Middle Ages. Strong lay princes attempted to direct the church just as the pope tried to establish secular as well as spiritual supremacy over the rulers.
A central point at issue in the 11th and 12th cent. was investiture, but the conflict was far wider and deeper. Although all in the West affirmed that Christendom was under the pope in Rome, that affirmation had little bearing on the question of papal supremacy in secular affairs. By crowning (800) Charlemagne, Leo III at once sponsored the empire and sanctioned the creation of a state which, as the Roman Empire (see Holy Roman Empire), was to be the chief antagonist of the papacy for centuries.
The papacy reached a high point of corruption in the 10th cent., when the Holy See was cynically bought and sold. Under Leo IX reform began, but bitter feeling between East and West brought the break with patriarch of Constantinople (1054); late in the 11th cent. sweeping reforms were carried out by the forceful Gregory VII. From that time forward the relative power of the papacy in quarrels with the emperor and with the kings of England, France, Naples, and Spain depended largely on the successes of individual popes and individual rulers. Pope Alexander III was pitted against Roman Emperor Frederick I and against King Henry II of England, and Pope Innocent III, despite opposition by Emperor Otto IV and Emperor Frederick II, made himself virtual arbiter of the West.
Innocent's reign (1198–1216) marked the zenith of papal secular power. As a religious leader Innocent worked to reform clerical morals and combat heresy. He ordered (1208) a crusade against the heretical Albigenses in S France that ended disastrously and cast a shadow over his pontificate. A century later Boniface VIII, an able canon lawyer, proved himself no match for the ruthless king of France, Philip IV.
Pope Clement V in 1309 deserted Rome for Avignon and the domination of France. During the so-called Babylonian captivity (1309–78) all the popes were French, all lived at Avignon, and all were under the control of the French kings. The Avignonese papacy represented the culmination of the administrative structure of the church, which reached into almost all corners of Europe.
Pope Gregory XI—acting partly on the advice of St. Catherine of Siena and St. Bridget of Sweden—moved the papacy back to Rome. But the church was immediately plunged into the disorder of the Great Schism (1378–1417). There were two or even three rival popes at a time (in later determination of true succession, those claimants ruled out of the succession are called antipopes). The schism ended in the Council of Constance (see Constance, Council of). Since then, apart from the abortive revolt at the Council of Basel (see Basel, Council of), there has been no schism in the papacy.
Subsequently, the pope had little real power outside Italy, and no 15th-century pope was prepared to attempt serious reform, which would have required challenging the vested interests of bishops, cardinals, and princes. Indeed, in the 15th cent. the papal court made Rome a brilliant Renaissance capital, enriched by some of the finest art of the West. The Renaissance popes, however, were little distinguished from other princes in the extravagance and immorality of their courts.
In the Reformation
Papal corruption during the Renaissance provided the background for the Protestant Reformation and alienated many followers of the established church. Martin Luther and his colleagues entered upon a basic theological revolution, reacting in part to the state of the papacy. They denounced the whole accepted view of God's relation to humanity and began a movement that split the Western Church.
Although reformation within the church began in the 1520s, papal involvement did not begin until the election (1534) of Paul III (see Counter Reformation). The Council of Trent (1545–47, 1551–52, 1562–63; see Trent, Council of) undertook to lay out the new definitions and regulations that reconstructed the church, including the papacy. The other major work of the 16th-century popes was the new development of foreign missions, which, as in ancient times, enhanced papal prestige. Of the several orders concerned with reform and missions, the Jesuits (see Jesus, Society of) were the best known. The 16th cent. also saw the stabilization of the Papal States as they would remain until the 19th cent.
In the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
After the Counter Reformation, the papacy continued to be plagued by another problem, one that reform had (of necessity) left untouched. This was the position in the church of the rulers of largely Roman Catholic states. Once one of these Catholic princes, whether devout or notoriously immoral, was sure of his power, he determined to include the church within it (e.g., insisting on the deciding voice in selecting the clergy). The kings of Spain even conducted their own Inquisition. It was accepted that Catholic rulers should hold a veto in papal elections.
By the 18th cent. every Catholic prince was at odds with the papacy. Spain had the longest record of this sort, lasting into the 20th cent. In France the triumphant Bourbons developed Gallicanism as a theory to justify their ecclesiastical pretensions; Louis XIV was its chief proponent, but the revolutionists of 1790 used it (in the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, banned by Pius VI), and so did Napoleon I as soon as he had signed the Concordat of 1801. Most extreme, and least enduring, were the schemes of Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II.
In the 18th cent. the papacy seemed doomed; its weakness became a spectacle when Clement XIV was forced into suppressing the Jesuits, the only group in the church consistently loyal to the pope. Early in the 19th cent., when Pius VII tried to protect the sanctity of the Holy See, Napoleon had him ignominiously imprisoned. After the fall of Napoleon, with the increasing decline of the old absolutist states, the papacy imperceptibly gained. Papal opposition to the reunification of Italy deepened the suspicious dislike of most liberals for the papacy.
The loss (1870) of the Papal States proved in the end a blessing for the papacy, although it took 60 years to solve the Roman Question—the problem of assuring the pope nonnational status in a nationally organized world (see Lateran Treaty). The First Vatican Council enunciated the doctrine of papal infallibility in 1870. In the modern world, the popes no longer faced trouble with Catholic princes but did engage in struggles with secular states over anticlerical or specifically anti-Catholic legislation (e.g., Otto von Bismarck's Kulturkampf in Germany and the anticlericalism in France, Portugal, and Mexico) or overt attacks on all religion.
In the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries
The popes at the end of the 19th cent. turned more toward pure spiritual and moral leadership in a tangled world. The growth of Catholicism in areas outside Europe tended to make the pope more and more the single unifying force in the church and therefore fundamentally an international figure. A singular succession of dynamic popes strengthened this effect; Leo XIII, Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XI, Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul II all strove to reorient the church in the modern world, to combat secularism, and to extend Roman Catholic morality in social relations. The social encyclical of Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum (1891), was echoed in the encyclical of Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno (1931); reinforced and restated by John XXIII in Mater et Magistra (1961); reaffirmed once again by Paul VI in Populorum Progressio (1967); and restated several times by John Paul II in Laborem Exercens (1981), Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987), and Centessimus Annus (1991, the 100th anniversary of Leo's encyclical). The recommendations made in these encyclicals are international in scope, and the international prestige of the papacy has been increased by its steady advocacy of peace and its aid to the oppressed and destitute of the world.
Politically, the role of the papacy has been more controversial. Pius XII was criticized by some for not condemning more strongly the Nazi regime in Germany (especially in its persecution of the Jews); these critics suggest that he was far more implacably hostile to Communism. The encouragement of greater lay participation in the church itself (e.g., approval of the liturgical movement), fostering of the varied contributions of the parts of the church, desire to unite all Christians, encouragement of the “progressive” renewal within the church itself—all these came to the fore when Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council. The efforts of the council, under the close direction of John XXIII and Paul VI, to renew the spiritual and organizational life of the church had the paradoxical effect of increasing challenges to papal authority.
The council's stress on the collegiality of bishops and pope in the rule of the universal church led to the establishment of national conferences of bishops, a step that tended to disrupt the direct exercise of papal authority over individual bishops and increase the autonomy of local churches. Following the council there arose discussions among Catholic theologians of the limits of papal jurisdiction and infallibility. Paul VI attempted to uphold the primacy of the papal teaching office in his reassertion, in the encyclical Humanae Vitae (1968), of the traditional doctrine prohibiting artificial birth control; his attempt was met with subtle evasion by some of the national conferences of bishops and by open defiance by some priests and theologians.
John Paul I was pope for 34 days in 1978 before his death. The nearly three decade pontificate of his successor, John Paul II (r.1978–2005), was marked by an increased papal presence in the international sphere through extensive travel outside Rome. He also broadened international representation in the College of Cardinals and in the Roman Curia. Although John Paul II worked to implement the mandates of the Second Vatican Council, he firmly and successfully reasserted the primacy and authority of the pope and the Vatican while also convening an unprecedented number of consistories to advise him. The first non-Italian pope since Adrian VI (1522–23), John Paul II was also the first Polish and Slavic pope. He was succeeded in 2005 by Benedict XVI, a German who had worked closely with John Paul in the Curia. Benedict XVI largely continued the policies of his predecessor, but surprisingly for a pope who was generally a traditionalist, he broke 600 years of tradition and chose to resign (for reasons of age) in 2013. Benedict's successor, Francis, an Argentinian, was the first non-European elected in more than 1,000 years as well as the first person from the Americas and the first Jesuit to be elected.
Bibliography
For general works dealing with the papacy, see bibliography under Roman Catholic Church. See also J. B. Bury, A History of the Papacy in the Nineteenth Century (1930, repr. 1964); Geoffrey Barraclough, The Medieval Papacy (1968); Peter Nichols, The Politics of the Vatican (1968); Walter Ullmann, The Growth of Papal Government in the Middle Ages (3d ed. 1970); Ludwig von Hertling, Communio: Church and Papacy in Early Christianity (tr. 1972); J. N. D. Kelly, Oxford Dictionary of Popes (1986); B. Schimmelpfennig, The Papacy (tr. by James Sievert, 1992); E. Duffy, Saints & Sinners (1997); P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes (1997); P. G. Maxwell-Stuart, Chronicle of the Popes (1997); O. Chadwick, A History of the Popes, 1830–1914 (1998); J. J. Norwich, Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy (2011); E. Duffy, Ten Popes Who Shook the World (2011); G. Posner, God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican (2015).
Papacy
the religious monarchical center of the Catholic Church, headed by the pope, who is considered by Catholics to be the successor of the apostle Peter. The pope is elected for life by a conclave. (Since 1389 all the popes have been chosen from among the cardinals, and since 1523 almost every pope has been an Italian.)
The authority of the pope in the church is virtually unlimited. Under a decision adopted by Vatican Council II (1962–65), the college of bishops, which includes the entire Catholic episcopate, participates nominally in the administration of the church, but only jointly with the pope, who is head of the episcopal college. A new church body, the Synod of Bishops, which was established by Pope Paul VI in September 1965, has only consultative and informative functions. It is convened by the pope, who presides over it himself (or through his representatives) and designates the agenda. The pope also convokes the ecumenical councils and confirms their decisions. He appoints the cardinals and bishops. The superiors general of the monastic orders are under his authority. At the same time, he is the absolute ruler of the Vatican, the state where his permanent residence is located. In exercising his sociopolitical and religious authority, the pope relies on the extensive bureaucracy of the Catholic Church and on the religious and secular organizations associated with the church; on the Curia Romana, which is subordinate to him; on the diplomatic representatives of the Vatican; and on the legates, his special personal representatives. Directives addressed by the pope to the entire Catholic Church or to Catholics in particular countries are known as encyclicals. Through the bishops the papacy influences Catholic political parties, Christian trade unions, and Catholic secular organizations.
The papacy developed out of the bishopric of Rome. From the middle of the second century, leadership in the Christian communities gradually passed to the bishops. By the fourth century, the greatest influence had been acquired by the bishops of Rome, who possessed major landholdings and who claimed, as bishops of the capital of the Roman Empire, a special position in the church. The transfer of the capital to Constantinople (A.D. 330), followed by the division of the empire (395) and the overthrow of the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire (476), contributed to the political independence of the Roman episcopate, which was the sole representative of authority in Rome. From the fifth century the bishops of Rome took the title of pope (from the Greek pappas—“father,” “mentor”). Leo I (ruled 440–461) obtained from the Roman emperor a rescript declaring all bishops subordinate to the papal court and giving the pope’s decisions the force of law. In 756, the Donation of Pepin the Short made possible the creation of the Papal States, laying the foundation for the secular authority of the popes, for the justification of which the Donation of Constantine (eighth century) and the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals (ninth century) were fabricated. The papacy proved to be dependent on the Frankish kings and later on the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire.
From the 11th through 13th centuries the papacy grew stronger, using the Cluniac reform in its struggle with the Holy Roman emperors over investiture. The Concordat of Worms (1122), which ended the investiture conflict, increased the papacy’s authority over the bishops.
The rise of the papacy was promoted by the Lateran Synod of 1059 in a decree declaring that the popes were to be elected only by the cardinals, without the participation of the rest of the clergy and the secular magnates. The emperor retained only the right to confirm the results of the election. (Previously, the popes, like other bishops, had been chosen by the clergy and the feudal aristocracy. The emperors of the Holy Roman Empire had begun to interfere in papal elections in the tenth century.) The Lateran Synod of 1179 ruled that the votes of at least two-thirds of the participants in a conclave were required for the election of a pope.
Among the most prominent advocates of papal theocracy were Gregory VII (ruled 1073–85), Innocent III (1198–1216), and Boniface VIII (1294–1303), who claimed supremacy over secular sovereigns. The papacy declared itself superior to the church councils. It endeavored to spread Catholicism beyond Western Europe and even tried (unsuccessfully) to convert Rus’. At the end of the 11th century, having broadened its authority, the papacy initiated and organized the Crusades. It fought against antifeudal, heretical popular uprisings. To conduct the struggle against heresies and opponents of church authority, the papacy established the Inquisition in the 13th century. The papacy’s political role in medieval Europe rested on the fact that the Catholic Church was “the great international center of feudalism. … It surrounded feudal institutions with the halo of divine consecration” (F. Engels, in K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 22, p. 306).
With the formation of centralized states in Europe, the influence of the papacy declined. Gallicanism, which emerged in 13th-century France, gained independence from the papacy for the French Catholic Church. As a result of its defeat in the struggle with the royal authority in France, the papacy became dependent on the French kings, under whose pressure the papal residence was shifted from Rome to Avignon in the 14th century. The return of the popes to Rome in 1377 did not strengthen the papacy. Among the factors contributing to the decline of papal authority was the Great Western Schism (1378–1417), when two or three popes simultaneously laid claim to the papal throne. (Only one of them is recognized as legitimate by the modern church, which has proclaimed the others antipopes.) The conciliar movement, which emerged among the upper church hierarchy and among representatives of the secular feudal lords, advanced the idea of the supremacy of the church councils over the authority of the popes. Although the supporters of the papacy won the struggle that developed between them and the adherents of the conciliar movement at the Council of Basel (1431–49), the papacy was in fact unable to regain its former importance. As a result of the Reformation (16th century) and the establishment of the Protestant churches, the papacy lost its power in a number of European countries. To some extent, the papacy’s position was reinforced by the Counter-Reformation, and especially by the Council of Trent (1545–63).
With the strengthening of the nation-states in Europe, the papacy had to renounce its claims to political supremacy over the secular sovereigns. It shifted to a policy of supporting the secular authority in the Western European states. Reacting with hostility to the bourgeois revolution, the papacy remained a bulwark for feudal monarchical forces until the mid-19th century. In the second half of the 19th century the papacy began to develop closer ties with reactionary bourgeois circles, with which it shared an interest in the struggle against the labor movement and socialism. In 1864, Pius IX issued the Syllabus of Errors, in which he denounced democratic freedoms, socialism, and communism and demanded that the pope’s temporal power be preserved. Vatican Council I (1869–70) proclaimed the dogma of papal infallibility.
At the end of the 19th century, when class contradictions and the class struggle grew more intense, the papacy began to alter its policies, striving by means of social demagoguery to divert the workers from the revolutionary struggle. The foundation for this course was laid by Leo XIII, whose encyclical Rerum novarum (1891) contained elements of Christian socialism. Although it called for collaboration between labor and capital, Rerum novarum essentially defended as eternal phenomena both private property and the division of society into classes. Leo XIII’s antisocialist program served as the basis for his successors’ policies. The papacy adopted a hostile stance toward the Great October Socialist Revolution and the Soviet state, and in subsequent years its policies were openly anticommunist. In 1929, Pope Pius XI concluded the Lateran Treaty with fascist Italy, providing for the establishment of a papal state, the Vatican. In 1930, Pius XI proclaimed a crusade against the USSR, in 1933 he signed a concordat with Hitlerite Germany, and in 1937 he issued an encyclical against communism. Pope Pius XII welcomed Franco’s victory in Spain in 1939. In 1949 he signed a decree excommunicating Communists.
The Catholic Church is going through a period of crisis, as a result of the change in the world balance of forces in favor of socialism after World War II (1939–45), the development of the national liberation movement, and scientific progress. To strengthen Catholicism, the papacy has decided on a policy of adaptation to modern times in matters of religion, doctrine, and organization, as well as in international politics. The foundation for the papacy’s new course was laid by Pope John XXIII (1958–63). Although he remained an opponent of socialism, he adopted a more realistic position toward the socialist countries than had his predecessors, and he advocated peace, disarmament, and the resolution of controversial international problems through negotiations. These new tendencies have been reflected in the decisions of Vatican Council II (1962–65) and in the policies of Pope Paul VI (elected in 1963).
REFERENCES
Lozinskii, S. G. Istoriia papstva. Moscow, 1961.Sheinman, M. M. Papstvo. Moscow, 1966.
Sheinman, M. M. Ot Piia IX do Ioanna XXIII. Moscow, 1966.
Zaborov, M. A. Papstvo i krestovye pokhody. Moscow, 1960.
Winter, E. Papstvo i tsarizm. Moscow, 1964. (Translated from German.)
Hayward, F. Histoire des papes, 3rd ed. Paris, 1953.
Pastor, L. Geschichte der Päpste seit dem Ausgang des Mittelalters, vols. 1–16. [Freiburg] 1955–61.
M. M. SHEINMAN
| Table 1. List of popes and antipopes1 |
|---|
| 1Officially recognized by the Catholic Church- In fact, relatively accurate information about the popes of Rome (until the fifth century, the bishops of Rome) is available only from the third century, and even then there are gaps. The list is from the Annuariopontificio. Vatican City, 1969. 2After Felix II was declared an antipope, the numerical designation of Felix III was changed. 3Actually, Stephen III. His immediate predecessor, Stephen II, who is not included in the official list, was pope for only three days. 4The Annuario pontificio does not include Leo VIII among the popes. He was installed by Otto I. Other sources list Leo VIII as a pope and Benedict V as an antipope. |
| Peter, the apostle |
| Linus (67–76) |
| Anacletus (Cletus) (76–88) |
| Clement I (88–97) |
| Evaristus (97–105) |
| Alexander I (105–115) |
| Sixtus I (115–125) |
| Telesphorus (125–136) |
| Hyginus (136–140) |
| Pius I (140–155) |
| Anicetus (155–166) |
| Soter (166–175) |
| Eleutherius (175–189) |
| Victor I (189–199) |
| Zephryinus (199–217) |
| Callistus I (217–222) |
| Hippolytus (217–235), antipope |
| Urban I (222–230) |
| Pontian (230–235) |
| Anterus (235–236) |
| Fabian (236–250) |
| Cornelius (251–253) |
| Novatianus (251-c. 258), antipope |
| Lucius I (253–254) |
| Stephen I (254–257) |
| Sixtus II (257–258) |
| Dionysius (259–268) |
| Felix I (269–274) |
| Eutychian (275–283) |
| Caius (283–296) |
| Marcellinus (296–304) |
| Marcellus I (308–309) |
| Eusebius (309 or 310) |
| Miltiades (Melchiades) (311–314) |
| Sylvester I (314–335) |
| Marcus (336) |
| Julius I (337–352) |
| Liberius (352–366) |
| Felix II (355–365), antipope |
| Damasus I (366–384) |
| Ursinus (366–367), antipope |
| Siricius (384–399) |
| Anastasius I (399–401) |
| Innocent I (401–417) |
| Zosimus (417–418) |
| Boniface I (418–422) |
| Eulalius (418–419), antipope |
| Celestine I (422–432) |
| Sixtus III (432–440) |
| Leo I (440–461) |
| Hilarius (461–468) |
| Simplicius (468–483) |
| Felix III (II)2 (483–492) |
| Gelasius I (492–496) |
| Anastasius II (496–498) |
| Symmachus (498–514) |
| Lawrence (498, 501–505), antipope |
| Hormisdas (514–523) |
| John I (523–526) |
| Felix IV (III) (526–530) |
| Boniface II (530–532) |
| Dioscurus (530), antipope |
| John II (533–535) |
| Agapetus I (535–536) |
| Silverius (536–537) |
| Vigilius (537–555) |
| Pelagius I (556–561) |
| John III (561–574) |
| Benedict I (575–579) |
| Pelagius II (579–590) |
| Gregory I (590–604) |
| Sabinianus (604–606) |
| Boniface III (607) |
| Boniface IV (608–615) |
| Deusdedit (Adeodatus I) (615–618) |
| Boniface V (619–625) |
| Honorius I (625–638) |
| Severinus (640) |
| John IV(640–642) |
| Theodore I(642–649) |
| Martin I (649–655) |
| Eugene I (654–657) |
| Vitalian (657–672) |
| Adeodatus II (672–676) |
| Donus (676–678) |
| Agatho (678–681) |
| Leo II (682–683) |
| Benedict II (684–685) |
| John V (685–686) |
| Conon (686–687) |
| Theodore (687), antipope |
| Paschal (687), antipope |
| Sergius I (687–701) |
| John VI (701–705) |
| John VII (705–707) |
| Sisinnius (708) |
| Constantine (708–715) |
| Gregory II (715–731) |
| Gregory III (731–741) |
| Zachary (741–752) |
| Stephen II3 (752–757) |
| Paul I (757–767) |
| Constantine (767–769), antipope |
| Philip (768), antipope |
| Stephen III (IV) (768–772) |
| Adrian I (772–795) |
| Leo III (795–816) |
| Stephen IV (V) (816–817) |
| Paschal I (817–824) |
| Eugene II (824–827) |
| Valentine (827) |
| Gregory IV (827–844) |
| John (844), antipope |
| Sergius II (844–847) |
| Leo IV (847–855) |
| Benedict III (855–858) |
| Anastasius (855), antipope |
| Nicholas I (858–867) |
| Adrian II (867–872) |
| John VIII (872–882) |
| Marinus I (882–884) |
| Adrian III (884–885) |
| Stephen V (VI) (885–891) |
| Formosus (891–896) |
| Boniface VI (896) |
| Stephen VI (VII) (896–897) |
| Romanus (897) |
| Theodore II (897) |
| John IX (898–900) |
| Benedict IV (900–903) |
| Leo V (903) |
| Christopher (903–904), antipope |
| Sergius III (904–911) |
| Anastasius III (911–913) |
| Lando (913–914) |
| John X (914–928) |
| Leo VI (928) |
| Stephen VII (VIII) (928–931) |
| John XI (931–935) |
| Leo VII (936–939) |
| Stephen VIII (IX) (939–942) |
| Marinus II (942–946) |
| Agapetus II (946–955) |
| John XII (955–964) |
| Leo VIII4 (963–965) |
| Benedict V4 (964–966) |
| John XIII (965–972) |
| Benedict VI (973–974) |
| Boniface VII (974, 984–985), antipope |
| Benedict VII (974–983) |
| John XIV (983–984) |
| John XV (985–996) |
| Gregory V (996–999) |
| John XVI (997–998), antipope |
| Sylvester II (999–1003) |
| John XVII (1003) |
| John XVIII (1004–09) |
| Sergius IV (1009–12) |
| Benedict VIII (1012–24) |
| Gregory (1012), antipope |
| John XIX (1024–32) |
| Benedict IX (1032–44) |
| Sylvester III (1045) |
| Benedict IX (1045) |
| Gregory VI (1045–46) |
| Clement II (1046–47) |
| Benedict IX (1047–48) |
| Damasus II (1048) |
| Leo IX (1049–54) |
| Victor II (1055–57) |
| Stephen IX (X) (1057–58) |
| Benedict X (1058–59), antipope |
| Nicholas II (1059–61) |
| Alexander II (1061–73) |
| Honorius II (1061–72), antipope |
| Gregory VII (1073–85) |
| Clement III (1084–1100), antipope |
| Victor III (1086–87) |
| Urban II (1088–99) |
| Paschal II (1099–1118) |
| Theodoric (1100), antipope |
| Albert (1102), antipope |
| Sylvester IV (1105–11), antipope |
| Gelasius II (1118–19) |
| Gregory VIII (1118–21), antipope |
| Callistus II (1119–24) |
| Honorius II (1124–30) |
| Celestine II (1124), antipope |
| Innocent II (1130–43) |
| Anacletus II (1130–38), antipope |
| Victor IV (1138), antipope |
| Celestine II (1143–44) |
| Lucius II (1144–45) |
| Eugene III (1145–53) |
| Anastasius IV (1153–54) |
| Adrian IV (1154–59) |
| Alexander III (1159–81) |
| Victor IV (1159–64), antipope |
| Paschal III (1164–68), antipope |
| Callistus III (1168—78), antipope |
| Innocent III (1179–80), antipope |
| Lucius III (1181–85) |
| Urban III (1185–87) |
| Gregory VIII (1187) |
| Clement III (1187–91) |
| Celestine III (1191–98) |
| Innocent III (1198–1216) |
| Honorius III (1216–27) |
| Gregory IX (1227–41) |
| Celestine IV (1241) |
| Innocent IV (1243–54) |
| Alexander IV (1254–61) |
| Urban IV (1261–64) |
| Clement IV (1265–68) |
| Gregory X (1271–76) |
| Innocent V (1276) |
| Adrian V (1276) |
| John XXI (1276–77) |
| Nicholas III (1277–80) |
| Martin IV (1281–85) |
| Honorius IV (1285–87) |
| Nicholas IV (1288–92) |
| Celestine V (1294) |
| Boniface VIII (1294–1303) |
| Benedict XI (1303–04) |
| Clement V (1305–14) |
| John XXII (1316–34) |
| Nicholas V (1328–30), antipope |
| Benedict XII (1334–42) |
| Clement VI (1342–52) |
| Innocent VI (1352–62) |
| Urban V (1362–70) |
| Gregory XI (1370–78) |
| Urban VI (1378–89) |
| Clement VII (1378–94), antipope |
| Boniface IX (1389–1404) |
| Benedict XIII (1394–1423), antipope |
| Innocent VII (1404–06) |
| Gregory XII (1406–15) |
| Alexander V (1409–10), antipope |
| John XXIII (1410–15), antipope |
| Martin V (1417–31) |
| Eugene IV (1431–47) |
| Felix V (1439–49), antipope |
| Nicholas V (1447–55) |
| Callistus III (1455–58) |
| Pius II (1458–64) |
| Paul II (1464–71) |
| Sixtus IV (1471–84) |
| Innocent VIII (1484–92) |
| Alexander VI (1492–1503) |
| Pius III (1503) |
| Julius II (1503–13) |
| Leo X (1513–21) |
| Adrian VI (1522–23) |
| Clement VII (1523–34) |
| Paul III (1534–49) |
| Julius III (1550–55) |
| Marcellus II (1555) |
| Paul IV (1555–59) |
| Pius IV (1559–65) |
| Pius V (1566–72) |
| Gregory XIII (1572–85) |
| Sixtus V (1585–90) |
| Urban VII (1590) |
| Gregory XIV (1590–91) |
| Innocent IX (1591) |
| Clement VIII (1592–1605) |
| Leo XI (1605) |
| Paul V (1605–21) |
| Gregory XV (1621–23) |
| Urban VIII (1623–44) |
| Innocent X (1644–55) |
| Alexander VII (1655–67) |
| Clement IX (1667–69) |
| Clement X (1670–76) |
| Innocent XI (1676–89) |
| Alexander VIII (1689–91) |
| Innocent XII (1691–1700) |
| Clement XI (1700–21) |
| Innocent XIII (1721–24) |
| Benedict XIII (1724–30) |
| Clement XII (1730–40) |
| Benedict XIV (1740–58) |
| Clement XIII (1758–69) |
| Clement XIV (1769–74) |
| Pius VI (1775–99) |
| Pius VII (1800–23) |
| Leo XII (1823–29) |
| Pius VIII (1829–30) |
| Gregory XVI (1831–46) |
| Pius IX (1846–78) |
| Leo XIII (1878–1903) |
| Pius X (1903–14) |
| Benedict XV (1914–22) |
| Pius XI (1922–39) |
| Pius XII (1939–58) |
| John XXIII (1958–63) |
| Paul VI (1963–1978) |
papacy
www.wayoflife.org/papacy