** Pope Sixtus I

* 1483 – Pope Sixtus IV consecrates the Sistine Chapel.

In 1589 Pope Sixtus V united to the Congregation of St Ambrose the monasteries of a group known as the " Brothers of the Apostles of the Poor Life " ( or " Apostolini " or " Brothers of St. Barnabas "), whose houses were in the province of Genoa and in the March of Ancona.

Pope Sixtus IV gave the nuns canonical status in 1474.

Pope Paul II suppressed this college ; but Sixtus IV ( Constitutio 16, " Divina ") reestablished it.

After the murder in that year of Henry III of France, Pope Sixtus V sent Enrico Caetani as legate to Paris to negotiate with the Catholic League of France, and chose Bellarmine to accompany him as theologian.

In 1589, by the bull Cum pro nostri temporali munere, Pope Sixtus V re-organised the choir of St Peter's, Rome specifically to include castrati.

Pope Sixtus V limited the number of cardinals to 70, composed of six cardinal bishops, 50 cardinal priests, and 14 cardinal deacons ; however, Pope John XXIII began to exceed the overall limit of 70, and this continued under his successors.

In 1587 Pope Sixtus V sought to arrest this growth by fixing the maximum size of the College at 70, including 50 cardinal priests, about twice the historical number.

Under the 1587 decree of Pope Sixtus V, which fixed the maximum size of the College of Cardinals, there were 14 cardinal deacons.

Their family is notable for their bitter feud with the Orsini family over influence in Rome until it was stopped by Papal Bull in 1511 ; in 1571 the Chiefs of both families married nieces of Pope Sixtus V.

The church and monastery of San Pietro in Montorio originally belonged to the Celestines in Rome ; but they were turned out of it by Sixtus IV to make way for Franciscans, receiving from the Pope in exchange the Church of St Eusebius of Vercelli with the adjacent mansion for a monastery.

He was previously revered in the Roman Catholic Church, but his cult was suppressed in 1586 by Pope Sixtus V due to concerns about his orthodoxy.

More likely, Pope Sixtus IV granted Cesare a release from the necessity of proving his birth in a papal bull of 1 October 1480.

Coming from modest beginnings in Savona, Liguria, the family rose to prominence through nepotism and ambitious marriages arranged by two Della Rovere popes, Francesco della Rovere, who ruled as Pope Sixtus IV ( 1471 – 1484 ) and his nephew Giuliano ( Pope Julius II, 1503 – 1513 ).

Pope Sixtus IV is known for having built the Sistine Chapel, which is named for him.

* 1521 – Pope Sixtus V ( d. 1590 )

" She is only a woman, only mistress of half an island ," marvelled Pope Sixtus V, " and yet she makes herself feared by Spain, by France, by the Empire, by all ".

The Spanish manuscript also contains a preface by one assuming the pseudonym ' Fra Marino ', claiming to have stolen a copy of the Italian version from the library of Pope Sixtus V. Fra Marino reports that, having a post in the Inquisition Court, he had come into possession of several works, which led him to believe that the Biblical text had been corrupted, and that genuine apostolic texts had been improperly excluded.

On 28 February 1476, Pope Sixtus IV, a Franciscan after whom the Sistine Chapel is named, authorized those dioceses that wished to introduce the feast to do so, and introduced it to his own diocese of Rome in 1477, with a specially composed Mass and Office of the feast.

In Rome, the papal collections were brought together by Pope Nicholas V, in separate Greek and Latin libraries, and housed by Pope Sixtus IV, who consigned the Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana to the care of his librarian, the humanist Bartolomeo Platina in February 1475.

In the 16th century Sixtus V bisected Bramante's Cortile del Belvedere with a cross-wing to house the Apostolic Library in suitable magnificence. The 16th and 17th centuries saw other privately endowed libraries assembled in Rome: the Vallicelliana, formed from the books of Saint Filippo Neri, with other distinguished libraries such as that of Cesare Baronio, the Biblioteca Angelica founded by the Augustinian Angelo Rocca, which was the only truly public library in Counter-Reformation Rome ; the Biblioteca Alessandrina with which Pope Alexander VII endowed the University of Rome ; the Biblioteca Casanatense of the Cardinal Girolamo Casanate ; and finally the Biblioteca Corsiniana founded by the bibliophile Clement XII Corsini and his nephew Cardinal Neri Corsini, still housed in Palazzo Corsini in via della Lungara. The Republic of Venice patronized the foundation of the Biblioteca Marciana, based on the library of Cardinal Basilios Bessarion. In Milan Cardinal Federico Borromeo founded the Biblioteca Ambrosiana.

* 1923 – Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria ( d. 2012 )

* Pope Adrian III ( died 885 )

Pope Innocent III espoused the cause of Ingeborg ; but Philip did not submit until 1200, when, nine months after interdict had been added to excommunication, he consented to a separation from Agnes.

* Pope Alexander III, pope from 1159 to 1181

* 1215 – Pope Innocent III declares Magna Carta invalid.

In 1204 his doctrines were condemned by the university, and, on a personal appeal to Pope Innocent III, the sentence was ratified, Amalric being ordered to return to Paris and recant his errors.

According to Hosea Ballou, then Pierre Batiffol ( 1911 ) and George T. Knight ( 1914 ) Amalric was a believer that all people would eventually be saved and this was one of the counts upon which he was declared a heretic by Pope Innocent III.

Afonso wed Maud of Savoy, daughter of Amadeus III, Count of Savoy, and sent ambassadors to Rome to negotiate with the Pope.

In the papal bull Manifestis Probatum, Pope Alexander III acknowledged Afonso as King and Portugal as an independent crown with the right to conquer lands from the Moors.

After being excommunicated for his audacities by Pope Honorius III, Afonso II promised to make amends to the church, but he died in 1223 before making any serious attempts to do so.

He was buried in the Church of Santa Maria in Monserrato degli Spagnoli, the Spanish national church in Rome, immediately below the tombs of Pope Callixtus III and Pope Alexander VI.

Autpert's election as abbot caused internal dissent at St. Vicenzo, and both Pope Stephen III and Charlemagne intervened.

# REDIRECT Pope Anastasius III

* Pope Anastasius III – Pope 911 – 913

In the beginning of 1198, Pope Innocent III requested that Andrew fulfill his father's last wishes and lead a Crusade to the Holy Land.

Finally, Andrew made an agreement with his son with the mediation of Pope Honorius III and the junior king took over again the government of Slavonia, Dalmatia and Croatia.

The junior King Béla IV started, with the authorization of Pope Honorius III, to take back the royal domains in his provinces that Andrew had granted to his partisans during the first half of his reign.

However, during the schism between Pope Alexander III and Antipope Victor IV, Absalon stayed loyal to Valdemar even as he joined the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barberossa in supporting Victor IV.

* 1149 – Pope Eugene III takes refuge in the castle of Ptolemy II of Tusculum.

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.

This Felix was later confused with a Roman martyr named Felix, with the result that he was included in lists of the Popes as Felix II and that the succeeding Popes of the same name ( Pope Felix III and Pope Felix IV ) were given wrong numerals, as was Antipope Felix V.

* Pope Victor III ( c 1026 – 87, r. 1086 – 87 )