Cardinals also serve as advisors to the pope and hold positions of authority within the structure of the Catholic Church.

The pope, in addition to being the Bishop of Rome and spiritual head of the Catholic Church, is also the Patriarch of the Latin Rite.

In the Catholic Church the Congregation for Bishops oversees the selection of new bishops with the approval of the pope.

In those instances where the pope does grant reconciliation, those deemed to be clerics within the Independent Old Catholic movement are invariably admitted as laity and not priests or bishops.

The possibility of monarchy declining morally, overturning natural law, and degenerating into a tyranny oppressive of the general welfare was answered theologically with the Catholic concept of extra-legal tyrannicide, ideally ratified by the pope.

Antichristus, a woodcut by Lucas Cranach the Elder of the pope using the temporal power to grant authority to a ruler contributing generously to the Catholic Church

The French Huguenot nobles and clergy, having rejected the pope and the Catholic Church, were left only with the supreme power of the king who, they taught, could not be gainsaid or judged by anyone.

Thus, despite widely held popular belief outside the Orthodox cultures, there is not one bishop at the head of the Orthodox Church ; references to the Patriarch of Constantinople as a leader equivalent or comparable to a pope in the Roman Catholic Church are mistaken.

Other Catholic historians, such as Warren Carroll, dispute this view, arguing that the pope rejected the council.

After he became pope in 1978, John Paul II continued on the Catholic Theology of the Body of his predecessors with a series of lectures, entitled Theology of the Body, in which he talked about an original unity between man and women, purity of heart ( on the Sermon on the Mount ), marriage and celibacy and reflections on Humane Vitae, focusing largely on responsible parenthood and marital chastity.

Modern examples include the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia and the pope of the Roman Catholic Church, who serves as Sovereign of the Vatican City State and is elected to a life term by the College of Cardinals.

In line with the " Declaration of Utrecht " of 1889, they accept the first seven ecumenical councils and doctrine formulated before 1054, but reject communion with the pope and a number of other Roman Catholic doctrines and practices.

In 1853 Pope Pius IX received guarantees of religious freedom from the Dutch King Willem II and established a Catholic hierarchy, loyal to the pope, in the Netherlands.

Thereafter in the Netherlands the Utrecht hierarchy was referred to as the ' Old Catholic Church ' to distinguish it from those in union with the pope.

The most notable leader of the movement, though maintaining a certain distance from the Old Catholic Church as an institution, was the renowned church historian and priest Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger ( 1799 – 1890 ), who had been excommunicated by the pope because of his support for the affair.

The pope ( from ; from ( pappas ), a child's word for father ) is the Bishop of Rome and the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church.

Catholics recognize the pope as a successor to Saint Peter, whom, according to Roman Catholic teaching, Jesus named as the " shepherd " and " rock " of the Catholic Church, which according to Catholic dogma is the one true Church founded by Christ.

The Catholic Church teaches that Jesus personally appointed Peter as leader of the Church and in its dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium makes a clear distinction between apostles and bishops, presenting the latter as the successors of the former, with the pope as successor of Peter in that he is head of the bishops as Peter was head of the apostles.

A similar warning against papal hubris made on this occasion was the traditional exclamation " Annos Petri non videbis ", reminding the newly crowned pope that he would not live to see his rule lasting as long as that of St. Peter, who according to tradition headed the church for 35 years and has thus far been the longest reigning pope in the history of the Catholic Church.

Some New Religious Movements, especially those that have disassociated themselves from the Catholic Church yet retain a Catholic hierarchical framework, will use the designation " pope " for a movement's founder or current leader.

Peter Stanford, a Catholic journalist and writer, wrote, regarding Fatal Silence: the pope, the resistance and the German occupation of Rome ( written by Robert Katz ; ISBN 0-297-84661-2 ; Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003 ): " Vatican still refuses to open all its files from the period – which seems to me to be a conclusive admission of guilt – but Katz has winkled various papers out of God's business address on earth to add to the stash of new information he has uncovered in America in the archives of the Office of Strategic Services.

To the pope, head of the universal Church, to the duke of Burgundy, taking full advantage of his position on the borders of France and of the Empire, or to Othon, who found it quite natural that he should do homage to Edward for Tipperary and to the count of Savoy for Grandson, Flotte's outspoken nationalism was completely incomprehensible.

A decree of Pope Alexander III, 1170, gave the prerogative to the pope thenceforth, so far as the Western Church was concerned .”

A well-known instance of the " John Cardinal Doe " style is that in the proclamation, in Latin, of the election of a new pope by the cardinal protodeacon: " Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum ; habemus Papam: Eminentissimum ac Reverendissimum Dominum, Dominum ( first name ) Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem ( last name ), ..." ( Meaning: " I announce to you a great joy ; we have a Pope: The Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord, Lord ( first name ) Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church ( last name ), ...")

In the Roman Church, positive ecclesiastical laws, based upon either immutable divine and natural law, or changeable circumstantial and merely positive law, derive formal authority and promulgation from the office of pope, who as Supreme Pontiff possesses the totality of legislative, executive, and judicial power in his person.

No longer would kings and emperors think themselves equals of the pope, or the head of the Church in their kingdom.

Gregory XII's cardinals were accepted as true cardinals by the Council, but the members of the council delayed electing a new pope for fear that a new pope would restrict further discussion of pressing issues in the Church.

He referred to the conditions under which the condemnation of his 18 theses was brought about ; and the same may be said of his books dealing with the Church, the office of king, and the power of the pope – all completed within the space of two years ( 1378 – 79 ).

No pope may say that he is the head, for he cannot say that he is elect or even a member of the Church.

Peter never bore the title of " pope ", which came into use three centuries later, but Catholics traditionally recognize him as the first pope, while official declarations of the Church only speak of the popes as holding within the college of the Bishops a role analogous to that held by Peter within the college of the Apostles, of which the college of the Bishops, a distinct entity, is the successor.

Following his election as pope, John spent a year in Bologna and then joined forces with Louis II of Anjou to march against Ladislaus.

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

Finding Rome locked against him and held by Ageltrude, he had to take the city by force on 21 February 896, freeing the pope.

He acquaints the pope with the imputations brought against him, and he is particularly severe with the memory of Pope Vigilius.

However, fearing that withholding Rome's approval would be interpreted as a rejection of the entire council, in 453 the pope confirmed the council ’ s canons with a protest against the 28th.

The new pope, Adrian VI, sent his nuncio Chieregati to the Diet, to insist both that the edict of Worms be executed, and that action be taken promptly against Luther.

The final vote, with a choice only between placet and non placet, was taken on 18 July 1870, with 433 votes in favour and only 2 against defining as a dogma the infallibility of the pope when speaking ex cathedra.

A sentence of excommunication was pronounced against Henry V, who had extorted through violence from the pope the concessions documented in the Privilegium.

Now the Frankish kings were set up as protectors of the pope, and Charles the Great launched a decades-long military campaign against their heathen rivals, the Saxons and the Avars.

The pope proceeded to open the Council of Trent, which resulted in decrees against the reformers.

He returned to Lutterworth, and sent out tracts against the monks and Urban VI, since the latter, contrary to the hopes of Wycliffe, had not turned out to be a reforming pope.

Pacepa indicated that he was involved in contacting eastern bloc agents close the Vatican in order to fabricate the story to be used for the attack against the wartime pope.

Next, he attempted to turn the Lombard king and dukes against the pope, but they retained their ambivalent stance, not committing one way or the other.

On July 8 833, Gregory wrote to the bishops of “ Gaul, Europe and Germany ” declaring that Aldric had every right to appeal to the pope, and that until the pope had issued a judgement one way or the other, no-one could pass a sentence against him.

The pope urged a crusade against the Turks who had captured Constantinople in 1453, but his call did not receive support among the Christian princes.

Within Fulcher of Chartres account of pope Urban ’ s speech there was a promise of remission of sins for whoever took part in the crusade. All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission of sins.

Putting himself at the head of a faction of the nobility, he revolted against Christopher, and asked Sergius to return to Rome to become pope.

The pope was won over by the calculated conduct of Caelestius, and said that it was not certain whether he had really maintained the false doctrine rejected by Innocent, and therefore Zosimus considered the action of the African bishops against Caelestius too hasty.

After the new synodal letter of the African council of 1 May 418 to the pope, and after the steps taken by the emperor Honorius against the Pelagians, Zosimus issued his Tractoria, in which Pelagianism and its authors were finally condemned.

The pope called for crusades against militant heretics like the Cathars as well as Muslims.

In June 1135, Bernard of Clairvaux took a leading part in the Council of Pisa, asserting the claims of pope Innocent II against those of pope Anacletus II, who had been elected pope in 1130 with Norman support but was not recognised outside Rome.