when his Holiness Pope John 23, first called for an Ecumenical Council, and at the same time voiced his yearning for Christian unity, the enthusiasm among Catholic and Protestant ecumenicists was immediate.

First of all, it is now known that Pope John sees the renewal and purification of the Church as an absolutely necessary step toward Christian unity.

Equally significant, Pope John has said that Catholics themselves bear some responsibility for Christian disunity.

McClellan's letter incensed Radical Republicans, who successfully pressured Lincoln to appoint John Pope, a Republican, as head of the new Army of Virginia.

* 1329 – The Roman Catholic Diocese of Quilon, the first Indian Christian Diocese, is erected by Pope John XXII ; the French-born Jordanus is appointed the first Bishop.

* 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Cedar Mountain – At Cedar Mountain, Virginia, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson narrowly defeats Union forces under General John Pope.

Ozanam was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1997.

In 2004, Pope John Paul II's efforts to unite Europe were honoured with an ‘ Extraordinary Charlemagne Medal ’, which was awarded for the first time ever.

But John having died, the Pope and the English aristocracy changed their allegiance to his nine-year-old son, Henry, forcing the French and the Scots armies to return home.

He went to Rome in 1007 to receive his pallium — symbol of his status as an archbishop — from Pope John XVIII, but was robbed during his journey.

* 2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church following the death of Pope John Paul II.

Baldassarre Cossa ( c. 1370 – 21 December 1418 ) was Pope John XXIII ( 1410 – 1415 ) during the Western Schism.

John XXIII was acknowledged as pope by France, England, Bohemia, Prussia, Portugal, parts of the Holy Roman Empire, and numerous Northern Italian city states, including Florence and Venice ; however, the Avignon Pope Benedict XIII was regarded as pope by the Kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, and Scotland and Gregory XII was still favored by Ladislaus of Naples, Carlo I Malatesta, the princes of Bavaria, Louis III, Elector Palatine, and parts of Germany and Poland.

Pope Martin V protested in vain against the inscription on the sarcophagus: " John the former pope ".

He should not be confused with Pope John XXIII of the twentieth century.

When Angelo Cardinal Roncalli was elected and became Pope John, there was some confusion as to whether he would be John XXIII or John XXIV ; he then declared that he was John XXIII to put this question to rest.

His brothers were equally willing to save the dowager queen, but Otto got an army into the field: they subsequently met at the old Lombard capital of Pavia and were married in 951 ; he was crowned emperor in Rome, 2 February 962 by Pope John XII, and, most unusually, she was crowned empress at the same ceremony.

They are first mentioned in the papal bulls Extravagantes of Pope John XXII and of Pope Benedict XII.

To regulate the proper expedition of these reserved benefices, Pope John XXII instituted the rules of chancery to determine the competency and mode of procedure of the Chancery.

Other authors reject this early institution and ascribe it to Pope John XXII ( 1316 ).

It is in the form of a letter submitted to Pope John XXII, dated 6 April 1320, intended to confirm Scotland's status as an independent, sovereign state and defending Scotland's right to use military action when unjustly attacked.

* 1334 – Pope John XXII ( b. 1249 )

In 1320 the Declaration of Arbroath, a remonstrance to the Pope from the nobles of Scotland, helped convince Pope John XXII to overturn the earlier excommunication and nullify the various acts of submission by Scottish kings to English ones so that Scotland's sovereignty could be recognised by the major European dynasties.

* 1328 – William of Ockham, Franciscan Minister-General Michael of Cesena and two other Franciscan leaders secretly leave Avignon, fearing a death sentence from Pope John XXII.

In fact several Popes were suspected of having a strong interest or practicing alchemy and it was only with Pope John XXII, who was himself suspected of being a magician, that sorcery became another form of heresy and thus liable of persecution by the Inquisition.

* 1329 – Pope John XXII issues his In Agro Dominico condemning some writings of Meister Eckhart as heretical.

Fournier succeeded Pope John XXII as Pope in 1334, being elected on the first ballot of the papal conclave.

The Irish chief, Donal O ' Neil, for instance, later justified his support for the Scots to Pope John XXII by saying " the Kings of Lesser Scotia all trace their blood to our Greater Scotia and retain to some degree our language and customs.

Pope John XXII eventually lifted Bruce's excommunication.

The city was first mentioned in written sources in 1323, when the Letters of Grand Duke Gediminas were sent to German cities inviting German members of the Jewish community to settle in the capital city, as well as to Pope John XXII.

This brought them into conflict with Pope John XXII.

For doing this Ockham was solemnly excommunicated by Pope John XXII, while Ockham believed that John XXII was himself guilty of heresy for refusing to accept the Franciscan claim.

* December 20 – Pope Benedict XII succeeds Pope John XXII as the 197th pope.

* December 4 – Pope John XXII ( b. 1249 )

17th-century engraving of Pope John XXII

Pope John XXII ( 1244 – 4 December 1334 ), born Jacques Duèze ( or d ' Euse ), was pope from 7 August 1316 until his death.

In 1143, he wrote to Pope Innocent II to declare himself and the kingdom servants of the Church, swearing to pursue driving the Moors out of the Iberian Peninsula.

Immediately after, he received several marks of distinction: he was made President of the Accademia di San Luca, the main artistic institution in Rome, and by the hand of the Pope himself his name was inscribed in " the Golden Volume of the Capitol ", and he received the title of Marquis of Ischia, with an annual pension of 3000 crowns.

The pope, as Bishop of Rome, may open a process and has the authority to waive the five year waiting period, as was done for Mother Teresa by Pope John Paul II, and for Lúcia Santos and for John Paul II himself by Pope Benedict XVI.

The hermit Pope found time in the few short months of his Papacy to confirm the rule of the order, which he had himself composed, and to confer on the society a variety of special graces and privileges.

Pope Cyril IV established very friendly relations with other denominations, to the extent that when the Greek Patriarch in Egypt had to absent himself for a long period of time outside the country, he left his Church under the guidance of the Coptic Patriarch.

Meetings between Pope John Paul II and the Assyrian Patriarch Mar Dinkha IV led to a common Christological declaration on 11 November 1994 that " the humanity to which the Blessed Virgin Mary gave birth always was that of the Son of God himself ".

Louis accordingly bolted the gates of Bourges against the new Bishop ; the Pope, recalling William X's similar attempts to exile Innocent's supporters from Poitou and replace them with priests loyal to himself, blamed Eleanor, saying that Louis was only a child and should be taught manners.

One of the most famous Imperial coronation ceremonies was that of Napoleon, crowning himself Emperor in the presence of Pope Pius VII ( who had blessed the regalia ), at the Notre Dame de Paris | Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. The painting by Jacques-Louis David | David commemorating the event is equally famous: the gothic cathedral restyled Empire ( style ) | style Empire, supervised by the Letizia Ramolino | mother of the Emperor on the balcony ( a fictional addition, while she had not been present at the ceremony ), the pope positioned near the altar, Napoleon proceeds to crown his then wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais as Empress.

He also embroiled himself in another conflict with the Papacy by supporting a candidate elected by a minority against Pope Alexander III ( 1159 – 81 ).

While from a Catholic viewpoint there have been tensions concerning some developments of the practice, the Pope said, there is no denying the goodness of the intention that inspired its defence, which was to stress that man is offered the concrete possibility of uniting himself in his inner heart with God in that profound union of grace known as theosis, divinization.

Again, Justinian moved toward compromise in the religious edict of 15 March 533, and congratulated himself that Pope John II admitted the orthodoxy of the imperial confession.

He acquitted himself of his functions as abbot with the greatest wisdom, and his reputation spread so far that, according to the Vita, Pope Gregory the Great wrote to recommend himself to his prayers, and sent him a sum of money for the hospital of Sinai, in which the pilgrims were wont to lodge.

The two were married in 1053 or 1054 in the church of San Pietro at Mantua by Pope Leo IX himself as he returned from a trip to Germany.

Philip of Burgundy, 57th Bishop of Utrecht ( 1517 – 1524 ), through a family connection with Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, secured a significant concession from Pope Leo X, granting internal autonomy in both church and temporal affairs for himself and his successors without interference from outside their jurisdictional region.

In January 1901 he was also chosen, by Pope Leo XIII himself, according to an official account, to deliver condolences on behalf of the Vatican to Edward VII of the UK after the death of Queen Victoria.

At a synod which Pope Agatho convoked in the Lateran to investigate the affair, it was decided that Wilfrid's diocese should indeed be divided, but that Wilfrid himself should name the bishops.

Since Celestine had not been formally consecrated pope, the wounded candidate declared himself willing to resign, but the Pierleoni family and their supporters refused to accept Lamberto, who in the confusion had been proclaimed Pope under the name Honorius II.

In his first audience with the Ambassadors of France and Spain, he warned the Ambassadors that their monarchs should keep the peace that had been agreed upon, and that if they did not, not only would they be sent Nuncios and Legates, but that the Pope himself would come and admonish them.

The Pope promoted peace in Italy by allying himself with the Normans, orchestrating the defeat of the Saracens in Sardinia and subjugating the Crescentii.

However, in the summer of 980, Boniface was even able to establish himself temporarily in Rome during Pope Benedict ’ s absence.

Boniface VIII put forward some of the strongest claims to temporal, as well as spiritual, power of any Pope and constantly involved himself with foreign affairs.

He solicited from the Pope the title of Czar, which, however, he had already conferred upon himself.