Woollcombe also states that no one questioned the apostolicity of the See of Alexandria despite the fact that its Popes were consecrated by the college of presbyters up till the time of the Council of Nicaea in 325.

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.

Despite this, " there is ample evidence that the medieval clergy were the main practitioners of magic and therefore the owners, transcribers, and circulators of grimoires " while several grimoires were actually attributed to various Popes.

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.

In fact, Popes Vigilius, Pelagius I ( 556-61 ), Pelagius II ( 579-90 ), and Gregory the Great ( 590-604 ) were only aware the Fifth Council specifically dealt with the Three Chapters and make no mention of Origenism or Universalism, nor spoke as if they knew of its condemnation even though Gregory the Great was opposed to the belief of universalism.

Popes were variously imprisoned, starved, killed, and deposed by force.

Popes like Alexander VI, an ambitious if spectacularly corrupt politician, and Pope Julius II, a formidable general and statesman, were not afraid to use power to achieve their own ends, which included increasing the power of the papacy.

This name, based on the black colour of his cassock, was used to suggest a parallel between him and the " White Pope " ( since the time of Pope Pius V the Popes dresses in white ) and the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples ( formerly called the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith ), whose red cardinal's cassock gave him the name of the " Red Pope " in view of the authority over all territories that were not considered in some way Catholic.

Rosemary and Darroll Pardoe, authors of The Female Pope: The Mystery of Pope Joan, theorize that if a female pope did exist, a more plausible time frame is 1086 and 1108, when there were several Antipopes ; during this time the reign of the legitimate Popes Victor III, Urban II, and Paschal II was not always established in Rome, since the city was occupied by Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, and later sacked by the Normans.

It has been speculated that they originally were Roman bidets or imperial birthing stools, which because of their age and imperial links were used in ceremonies by Popes intent on highlighting their own imperial claims ( as they did also with their Latin title, Pontifex Maximus ).

Popes Martin IV – V were actually the second and third popes by that name.

Because of the similarity of the names Marinus and Martinus, Popes Marinus I and Marinus II were, in some sources, mistakenly given the name Martinus ( and were then listed respectively as Martinus II and Martinus III ).

Because of the similarity of the names Marinus and Martinus, Popes Marinus I and Marinus II were, in some sources, mistakenly given the name Martinus ( and were then listed respectively as Martinus II and Martinus III ).

Shortly after his accession at the conclusion of the papal election of December 1187, Clement succeeded in allaying the conflict which had existed for half a century between the Popes and the citizens of Rome, with an agreement by which the citizens were allowed to elect their magistrates, while the nomination of the governor of the city remained in the hands of the Pope.

These decrees, and others made by preceding Popes, were confirmed by Pope Clement XI ( 1700 – 21 ) in 1704.

There have been other Popes who were suspected of sorcery, for example John XXI ( 1276 – 77 ) and Benedict XII ( 1334 – 42 ).

* Saint Malachy, the Archbishop of Armagh, to whom were attributed several miracles and a vision of the identity of the last 112 Popes

In the fresco by Melozzo da Forlì he is accompanied by his Della Rovere and Riario nephews, not all of whom were made cardinals: the protonotary apostolic Pietro Riario ( on his right ), the future Pope Julius II standing before him, and Girolamo Riario and Giovanni della Rovere behind the kneeling Platina, author of the first humanist history of the Popes.

Because of their authority, they were often criticized by Radical Reformers as being too much like the Roman Popes.

As they were not particularly strong fortifications, the Popes relied instead on the immensely strong fortifications of their palace, the " Palais des Papes ".

Popes have gradually been forced to give up temporal power, and papal authority is now almost exclusively restricted to matters of religion.

It was originally used for all bishops, but from the 7th century on, it was only used for Popes, Patriarchs and some secular rulers, and from the 14th century on its use has been restricted to the Supreme Pontiff.

Accordingly, recent Popes have reaffirmed the importance of Latin for the Church and in particular for those undertaking ecclesiastical studies.

In particular, as political rulers of Rome they had effective control over the election of new Popes.

In particular, Popes are often styled " the Holy Father, His Holiness Pope ...".

In a passage of his inauguration homily, quoted above, Pope John Paul II remarked that both his immediate predecessor and he himself had wished neither a coronation nor a tiara, and added: " This is not the time to return to a ceremony and an object considered, wrongly, to be a symbol of the temporal power of the Popes.

The triple tiara still featured as one of the ornaments on the personal coat of arms of Popes John Paul I and John Paul II, who never used the actual object.

Referring in his inauguration homily to coronation with the papal tiara, John Paul II said: " This is not the time to return to a ceremony and an object considered, wrongly, to be a symbol of the temporal power of the Popes.

Popes were traditionally enthroned and crowned with the papal tiara in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran.

Popes, bishops, and priests married and sired children for over a thousand years after Christ Celibacy was first written into law for all priests in the 12th century at the First Lateran Council ( 1123 ).

) Since Popes can dispense from church laws, they have sometimes brought the number of cardinals under the age of 80 to more than 120, perhaps calculating that the number would be sufficiently reduced by the time the need for a conclave would arise.

It closed with a series of ritual acclamations honouring the reigning Pope, the Popes who had convoked the Council, the emperor and the kings who had supported it, the papal legates, the cardinals, the ambassadors present, and the bishops, followed by acclamations of acceptance of the faith of the Council and its decrees, and of anathema for all heretics.

The Liber Pontificalis ( Latin for Book of the Popes ) is a book of biographies of popes from Saint Peter until the 15th century.

Great defenders of Trinitarian faith included the Popes, especially Pope Liberius, who was exiled to Berea by Constantius II for his Trinitarian faith, Damasus I, and several other bishops.

It was around this time when a long series of busts of past Popes was made for the Duomo of Siena, which included one of the female Pope, named as " Johannes VIII, Foemina de Anglia " and included between Leo IV and Benedict III.

The Oxford Dictionary of Popes acknowledges that this legend was widely believed for centuries, even among Catholic circles, but declares that there is " no contemporary evidence for a female Pope at any of the dates suggested for her reign ," and goes on to say that " the known facts of the respective periods make it impossible to fit female Pope in ".

All these witnesses prove the correctness of the dates given in the lives of Leo IV and Benedict III, and there was no interregnum between these two Popes, so that at this place there is no room for the alleged Popess.

Having reigned for just 22 calendar days, Pope Marcellus II ranks sixth on the list of 10 shortest-reigning Popes.

Somewhat unusually for Popes of the era, Clement IX did not have his name displayed on monuments he built.

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church indicates instead that it was in the fifteenth century ( when the Renaissance stirred up new interest in ancient Rome ) that " Pontifex Maximus " became a regular title of honour for Popes.

The basis for this is because Pope Sixtus III's list of saints buried in St. Callistus ' Catacomb does not include Urban in the succession of Popes but rather in a list of foreign bishops.

In the meantime, Philip, eager to prove his loyalty to Rome and thus secure Papal support for his planned invasion, announced at Soissons his reconciliation with his estranged wife Ingeborg of Denmark which the Popes had been pushing.

On the other hand, many historians now point out that most of the negative social factors popularly associated with the medieval period – poverty, warfare, religious and political persecution, for example – seem to have worsened in this era which saw the rise of Machiavellian politics, the Wars of Religion, the corrupt Borgia Popes, and the intensified witch-hunts of the 16th century.

The success of the early crusades added greatly to the prestige of the Popes as secular leaders of Christendom, with monarchs like the Kings of England, France, and even the Emperor merely acting as Marshals for the popes and leading " their " armies.

Following the impasse during the previous conclave and to escape from the infighting of the powerful families that had produced earlier Popes, such as the Colonna and the Orsini, the Roman Church looked for a safer place and found it in Avignon, which was surrounded by the lands of the papal fief of Comtat Venaissin.

His career falls naturally into three phases and three styles, first described by Giorgio Vasari: his early years in Umbria, then a period of about four years ( from 1504 – 1508 ) absorbing the artistic traditions of Florence, followed by his last hectic and triumphant twelve years in Rome, working for two Popes and their close associates.

During the Acacian schism, Gelasius affirmed the primacy of Rome over the entire Church, East and West, and he presented this doctrine in terms that set the model for subsequent popes asserting the claims of papal supremacy, due to the succession of the Roman Popes from the Apostle Peter.