Hippolytus of Rome ( d. 235 ) is commonly considered to be the earliest antipope, as he headed a separate group within the Church in Rome against Pope Callixtus I. Hippolytus was reconciled to Callixtus's second successor, Pope Pontian, and both he and Pontian are honoured as saints by the Roman Catholic Church with a shared feast day on 13 August.

It remained for his successor, Henry V to agree with Pope Calixtus II in 1122 to a compromise of the conflict over lay investitures known as the Concordat of Worms.

The most recent Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria and the Patriarch of All Africa on the Holy See of Saint Mark was Pope Shenouda III, who died on March 17, 2012, for whom a successor has not yet been chosen.

Pope Gregory XI's return to Rome in 1377, followed by his death and the controversial election of his successor, Pope Urban VI, resulted in the defection of a number of cardinals and the election of a rival pope based at Avignon in 1378.

Justus became Archbishop of Canterbury in 624, receiving his pallium — the symbol of the jurisdiction entrusted to archbishops — from Pope Boniface V, following which Justus consecrated Romanus as his successor at Rochester.

Liutprand's successor Aistulf conquered Ravenna for the Lombards for the first time, but was subsequently defeated by the king of the Franks Pippin III, called by the Pope, and had to leave it.

Zachary's successor, Pope Stephen II, confirmed and anointed Pepin the Short, in 754 beginning the Carolingian monarchy.

In 1513, Pope Julius II died and his successor Pope Leo X, of the Medici family, commissioned Michelangelo to reconstruct the façade of the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence and to adorn it with sculptures.

Joseph Ratzinger, then a member of the faculty at the University of Tübingen but later a much more conservative figure as the head of the successor to the Holy Office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and later still Pope Benedict XVI.

Pope Celestine III proclaimed a crusade against the Baltic heathens in 1195, which was reiterated by Pope Innocent III and a crusading expedition led by Meinhard's successor, Bishop Berthold of Hanover, landed in Livonia ( part of present-day Latvia, surrounding the Gulf of Riga ) in 1198.

In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle.

The ambassador of Louis XIV of France ( 1643 – 1715 ) succeeded in procuring his election on 6 October 1689, as successor to Pope Innocent XI ( 1676 – 89 ); nevertheless, after months of negotiation Alexander VIII finally condemned the declaration made in 1682 by the French clergy concerning the liberties of the Gallican church.

On 7 September 1159, he was chosen the successor of Pope Adrian IV.

It is notable that decisions of Pope Alexander III, his successor, Pope Lucius III, and King Henry VIII in proclaiming the Crown of Ireland Act 1542 were predicated on this document.

One of John XXI's few acts during his brief reign was the reversal of a decree recently passed at the Second Council of Lyon ( 1274 ) that not only confined cardinals in solitude until they elected a successor Pope, but also progressively restricted their supplies of food and wine if their deliberations took too long.

His successor, Pope Paschal II, made Lamberto a Canon of the Lateran before elevating him to the position of cardinal bishop of Ostia in 1117.

It was left to his successor, Pope Gregory IX, to insist upon their accomplishment.

He returned to France as a legate for Urban IV and also for his successor Pope Clement IV in 1264 – 1269 and again in 1274 – 1279 under Pope Gregory X.

On the death of Pope Sabinian in February 606, Boniface was elected his successor, although his return from Constantinople to Rome was delayed by almost a year.

His successor was Pope Boniface IX.

Pope Stephen VI, the successor of Boniface, influenced by Lambert and Agiltrude, sat in judgment of Formosus in 897, in what was called the Cadaver Synod.

* 606: Boniface elected papal successor on the death of Pope Sabinian.

Following the strife between Boniface VIII and Philip IV of France, and the death after only eight months of his successor Benedict XI, a deadlocked conclave finally elected Clement V, a Frenchman, as Pope in 1305.

Meanwhile Saint Lullus, successor of Boniface as archbishop of Mainz, tried to absorb the abbey into his archbishopric, but failed.

Cardinal Franco Ferrucci then crowned himself as Benedict VI's successor, becoming Antipope Boniface VII.

Felix attempted to designate his own successor: Pope Boniface II.

Vigilius was chosen by Pope Boniface II as his successor and presented to the clergy assembled in St. Peter's Basilica.

The opposition to such a procedure led Boniface in the following year to withdraw his designation of a successor and to burn the decree respecting it.

The second successor of Boniface, Pope Agapetus I ( 535 – 536 ), appointed Vigilius papal representative ( apocrisiary ) at Constantinople.

Poppo was quickly sent back to Boniface, carrying with him a letter from the Emperor which ordered him to arrange the expulsion of Benedict and the enthroning of his successor.

After the abdication of Celestine V, his successor, Boniface VIII, revoked all Celestine's concessions, and they emigrated to Greece, where some of them attacked the legality of the papal action.

Boniface VIII's successor, Benedict XI, lasted only nine months before dying in exile.

Boniface established the first bishopric in Germany outside the boundaries of the old Roman Empire on a hill ( Büraburg ) across the Eder river, but after the death of Witta, its first and only bishop, in 747 the bishopric was incorporated into the diocese ( later archdiocese ) of Mainz by Lullus, the disciple and successor of Boniface as archbishop of Mainz.

Boniface subsequently ( 742 ) elevated Büraburg to a bishopric, the first in Germany east of the Roman Limes, but after the death of the only bishop, Witta, in 748 the bishopric was incorporated by Lullus, Boniface's successor as archbishop of Mainz, into his own diocese.

King Pippin confirmed him one year later as bishop of Mainz and in 754 he became archbishop, as Saint Boniface resigned and appointed Lullus his successor.

* Boniface, his successor to Montferrat and founder of the Kingdom of Thessalonica

After the council, Cuthbert continued to correspond with Boniface up until Boniface's martyrdom in 754, and then sent condolences to Boniface's successor.

* Boniface, his successor to Montferrat and founder of the Kingdom of Thessalonica

His successor was Gregory VIII.

On 6 August 1623, after the papal conclave following the death of Pope Gregory XV, he was chosen as Gregory's successor and took the name Urban VIII.

The 1644 conclave for the election of a successor to Urban VIII was long and stormy, lasting from 9 August to 15 September.

Philip's son by Isabelle de Hainaut, Louis VIII, was his successor.

Through his strict monetary strategy, he was able to leave a considerable amount of money in the Treasury for his son and successor, Henry VIII.

Cnut's possession of England's dioceses and the continental Diocese of Denmark – with a claim laid upon it by the Holy Roman Empire's Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen – was a source of great leverage within the Church, gaining notable concessions from Pope Benedict VIII, and his successor John XIX, such as one on the price of the pallium of his bishops.

He groomed the headstrong Piero II to follow as his successor in civil leadership ; Giovanni ( future Pope Leo X ) was placed in the church at an early age ; and his daughter Maddalena was provided with a sumptuous dowry to make a politically advantageous marriage to a son of Pope Innocent VIII.

However, he later asked his brother and successor Constantine VIII to be buried in the Church of St. John the Theologian ( i. e. the Evangelist ), at the Hebdomon Palace complex, outside the walls of Constantinople.

After the death of Obizzo's successor ( Azzo VIII, in 1308 ) the commune reasserted itself, but by 1336 the Este family was permanently in power.

His successor, the young Henry VIII, had little time for his father's cautious diplomacy, and was soon heading towards a war with France, Scotland's ancient ally.

John VIII Palaiologos named his brother Constantine XI, who had served as regent in Constantinople in 1437 – 1439, as his successor.

Thomas was attainted in 1547 for his part in supporting the claim of Mary to the throne ; Henry VIII died the day before Thomas was due to be executed at the Tower, and his successor, Mary's half-brother Edward VI, reprieved Thomas but kept him in the Tower, giving Framlingham to Mary.

The Oireachtas, whilst accepting the abdication of King Edward VIII on December 11th, 1936, nevertheless did not proclaim his successor.

It was accepted by most of those responsible for British foreign policy in the 1930s and by leading journalists and academics – even by members of the royal family, such as Edward VIII and his successor, George VI.

Gerhard VI died in 1404, and soon afterwards war broke out between his sons and Eric of Pomerania, Margaret's successor on the throne of Denmark, who claimed South Jutland as an integral part of the Danish monarchy, a claim formally recognised by the emperor Sigismund in 1424, it was not till 1440 that the struggle ended with the investiture of Count Adolphus VIII, Gerhard VI's son, with the hereditary duchy of Schleswig by Christopher III of Denmark.

In 1460, King Christian called the nobility to Ribe, and on March 2, 1460, the nobles agreed to elect him as successor of Count Adolphus VIII as the new count of Holstein-Rendsburg, in order to prevent the separation of the two provinces.

The Act made then yet unborn Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King Henry VIII by Anne Boleyn, the true successor to the Crown by declaring Princess Mary, daughter of the King by Catherine of Aragon, a bastard.

Clement VIII died in March 1605, and the attitude of his successor Pope Paul V strained the limits of papal prerogative.

Either Henry VII or his son and successor Henry VIII may have caused a somewhat more elaborate version of the imperial crown to be made, which is first described in detail in an inventory of royal jewels in 1521, and again in 1532, 1550, 1574, and 1597, and was carefully depicted in a painting by Daniel Mytens of King Charles I in 1631.

Charles VIII, Louis ' successor, was an admirer of the saint and during his reign kept him near the court and frequently consulted him.