A brief ‘Popery potpourri’

All the recent furor about the new Pope piqued my inter­est in the his­to­ry of popes.  Even if one is not Catholic, that his­to­ry has many inter­est­ing aspects.

So, here’s a short Popery pot­pour­ri.  (Sorry ‘bout that.)

The first Pope is reput­ed to be Peter, who alleged­ly served for 38 years, begin­ning in 30 CE.  Early records of the Church are ques­tion­able, so dates may be uncer­tain.  In fact, the list of popes was not writ­ten before the late sec­ond cen­tu­ry, with the first writ­ten dates going back to 222 CE.

Of the 267 popes, Leo XIV being the 267^th, only one has assumed the name Peter, and he was born Simon. The fact that no oth­er Popes have tak­en the name Peter may be a recog­ni­tion of his place as the first and the ven­er­a­tion of him as the first leader of the Church.

A great many popes have tak­en names of pre­vi­ous popes, includ­ing John (23 times), Gregory (16 times), Benedict (16 times), Clement (14 times), Leo (14 times), Innocent (13 times), and Pius (12 times).

Forty-four popes’ names occur only once in the 2000-year his­to­ry of the Church, includ­ing Linus, Hilarius, and Simplicius.

The longest-serv­ing popes — after Peter — were: Pius IX, 1846–1878 (31 years, 7 months, 23 days); John Paul II, 1978–2005 (26 years, 5 months, 17 days); Leo VII, 1878–1903 (25 years, 5 months, 1 day).

The popes who served for the short­est peri­od include: Urban VII, 13 days in 1590; Boniface VI, 16 days in 896, and Celestine IV, 17 days in 1241.  A good many oth­er popes served for less than a full year.

Prior to the 21^st Century, only five popes had resigned their posi­tion, with his­tor­i­cal cer­tain­ty, all between the 10^th and 15^th cen­turies.  The lat­est pope to resign was Benedict XVI in 2013.  Prior to his res­ig­na­tion, the last pope to do so was Gregory XII in 1415. 

There is some indi­ca­tion that some popes may have been deposed, but the records are uncer­tain, and it’s pos­si­ble that some of those who faced being forcibly removed chose resignation.

Though the vast major­i­ty of popes have come from Italy (217), many oth­er coun­tries and regions are rep­re­sent­ed in the his­to­ry of the papa­cy includ­ing France (17), Greece (9), Syria/Lebanon (7), Germany (4), Africa (3), Spain (2) and Portugal (2).  England, Poland, Argentina, and the United States have each pro­vid­ed one pope.

Wikipediaoffers a wealth of infor­ma­tion about the lin­eage of the popes, includ­ing the years they reigned, their ori­gins, and more.

While research­ing infor­ma­tion about the popes, some ques­tions arose about the his­to­ry of the popes, the Vatican, and most espe­cial­ly St. Peter’s Basilica. The cur­rent edi­fice was begun in 1506 and com­plet­ed in 1626, replac­ing the old St. Peter’s, which was built under the reign of Constantine the Great in the fourth cen­tu­ry.  The design of the new­er basil­i­ca is cred­it­ed to Bramante, although four­teen oth­er archi­tects are list­ed as part of its con­struc­tion, includ­ing Michelangelo (who can ever for­get Charlton Heston and Rex Harrison in The Agony and the Ecstasy?)  Since its con­struc­tion last­ed some 120 years, it’s easy to see why so many archi­tects may have come and gone dur­ing the period.

Michelangelo’s con­tri­bu­tion to the build­ing includ­ed the stat­ue of the Pieta, the design of the dome, and, of course, the paint­ing of the ceil­ing of the Sistine Chapel.