Year of Three Popes
Encyclopedia
The Year of Three Popes is a common reference to 1978, when the College of Cardinals
of the Catholic Church was required to elect two new pope
s within the same calendar year. This resulted in the Catholic Church being led by three different popes during the same calendar year.
The Popes involved were:
There have been several instances in which three or more popes have held office in a given calendar year. Years in which the Roman Catholic Church was led by three different popes include:
There was also a year in which the Roman Catholic Church was led by four popes, called the Year of Three Popes Plus One:
College of Cardinals
The College of Cardinals is the body of all cardinals of the Catholic Church.A function of the college is to advise the pope about church matters when he summons them to an ordinary consistory. It also convenes on the death or abdication of a pope as a papal conclave to elect a successor...
of the Catholic Church was required to elect two new pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
s within the same calendar year. This resulted in the Catholic Church being led by three different popes during the same calendar year.
The Popes involved were:
- Pope Paul VIPope Paul VIPaul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
, who died on August 6 - Pope John Paul IPope John Paul IJohn Paul I , born Albino Luciani, , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and as Sovereign of Vatican City from 26 August 1978 until his death 33 days later. His reign is among the shortest in papal history, resulting in the most recent Year of Three Popes...
, who was elected on August 26 but died thirty-three days later on September 28 - Pope John Paul IIPope John Paul IIBlessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
, who was elected on October 16 and who held office until his death in 2005
There have been several instances in which three or more popes have held office in a given calendar year. Years in which the Roman Catholic Church was led by three different popes include:
- 827827Year 827 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.- Europe :* Beginning of the invasion of Sicily by the Aghlabid dynasty of Ifriqiya . The campaign in the island against Byzantium will take 51 years...
: Pope Eugene IIPope Eugene IIPope Eugene II, , pope was a native of Rome and was chosen to succeed Paschal I. Another candidate, Zinzinnus, was proposed by the plebeian faction, and the presence of Lothair I, son of the Frankish emperor Louis the Pious was necessary in order to maintain the authority of the new pope...
— Pope ValentinePope ValentinePope Valentine, , pope for thirty or forty days in 827, was a Roman by birth, and, according to the Liber Pontificalis, was first made a deacon by Paschal I...
— Pope Gregory IVPope Gregory IVPope Gregory IV was chosen to succeed Valentine in December 827, on which occasion he recognized the supremacy of the Frankish emperor Louis the Pious in the most unequivocal manner.... - 896896Year 896 was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar.- Europe :* Decisive Bulgarian victory over Magyars in the Battle of Southern Buh....
: Pope FormosusPope FormosusPope Formosus was Pope of the Catholic Church from 891 to 896. His brief reign as Pope was troubled, and his remains were exhumed and put on trial in the notorious Cadaver Synod.-Biography:...
— Pope Boniface VIPope Boniface VIPope Boniface VI, pope, a native of Rome, was elected in April 896 as a result of riots soon after the death of Pope Formosus. Prior to his reign, he had twice incurred a sentence of deprivation of orders, as a subdeacon and as a priest...
— Pope Stephen VIPope Stephen VIPope Stephen VI was Pope from May 22, 896 to August 897.He had been made bishop of Anagni by Pope Formosus. The circumstances of his election are unclear, but he was sponsored by one of the powerful Roman families, the house of Spoleto, that contested the papacy at the time.Stephen is chiefly... - 897897Year 897 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar.- Asia :* Emperor Uda of Japan is succeeded by Emperor Daigo....
: Pope Stephen VIPope Stephen VIPope Stephen VI was Pope from May 22, 896 to August 897.He had been made bishop of Anagni by Pope Formosus. The circumstances of his election are unclear, but he was sponsored by one of the powerful Roman families, the house of Spoleto, that contested the papacy at the time.Stephen is chiefly...
— Pope RomanusPope RomanusPope Romanus was Pope from August to November 897.He was born in Gallese, Italy near Civita Castellana.He was elected to succeed the murdered Pope Stephen VI and was deposed a few months later by one of the factions, which then governed Rome. His short rule was regarded as a virtuous one by the...
— Pope Theodore IIPope Theodore IIPope Theodore II was ordained as a priest by Pope Stephen V; also his brother Theotius was a bishop. He was pope for twenty days during December 897 before he died. He reinstated the clerics who had been forced from office by Pope Stephen VI, recognizing the validity of the ordinations of Pope... - 928928Year 928 was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.- Asia :* Dao Kang Di succeeds Gong Hui Di and is followed in the same year by Tai Zu, all of the Dali Gu Dynasty in southeast China.* Jayavarman IV succeeds Isanavarman II in the Khmer Empire, and moves the capital north from...
: Pope John XPope John XPope John X, Pope from March 914 to May 928, was deacon at Bologna when he attracted the attention of Theodora, the wife of Theophylact, Count of Tusculum, the most powerful noble in Rome, through whose influence he was elevated first to the see of Bologna and then to the archbishopric of...
— Pope Leo VI — Pope Stephen VIIPope Stephen VIIPope Stephen VII . Stephen was a Roman by birth, the son of Theodemundus, and perhaps a member of the Gabrielli family. He was elected—probably handpicked—by Marozia from the Tusculani family, as a stop-gap measure until her own son John was ready to assume the throne of Peter... - 965965Year 965 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar.- Europe :* The Khazar fortress of Sarkel falls to the Kievan Rus....
: Pope Leo VIIIPope Leo VIIIPope Leo VIII , a Roman by birth, is considered by the Church an Antipope from 963 to 964 and a true Pope from 964 to 965. He held the lay office of protoserinus when he was elected pope by the Roman synod in December 963, when it also invalidly deposed Pope John XII , who was still alive...
— Pope Benedict VPope Benedict VPope Benedict V , Pope in 964, was elected by the Romans on the death of Pope John XII . However the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I did not approve of the choice and had him deposed after only a month and the ex-Pope was carried off to Hamburg and was placed under the care of Adaldag, Archbishop of...
— Pope John XIIIPope John XIIIPope John XIII of Crescenzi family served as Pope from October 1, 965, until his death.Born in Rome, he spent his career in the papal court... - 1003: Pope Silvester IIPope Silvester IIPope Sylvester II , born Gerbert d'Aurillac, was a prolific scholar, teacher, and Pope. He endorsed and promoted study of Arab/Greco-Roman arithmetic, mathematics, and astronomy, reintroducing to Europe the abacus and armillary sphere, which had been lost to Europe since the end of the Greco-Roman...
— Pope John XVIIPope John XVIIPope John XVII , born John Sicco, and the son of another John Sicco, was born in the region of Rome then referred to as Biveretica...
— Pope John XVIIIPope John XVIIIPope John XVIII was Pope in Pisa from 1004 to 1009. He was born Fasanius at Rapagnano, near Ascoli Piceno, the son of a Roman priest named Leo.... - 1187: Pope Urban IIIPope Urban IIIPope Urban III , born Uberto Crivelli, was Pope from 1185 to 1187. He was made cardinal and archbishop of Milan by Pope Lucius III, whom he succeeded on November 25, 1185...
— Pope Gregory VIIIPope Gregory VIIIPope Gregory VIII , born Alberto di Morra, was Pope from October 25, 1187 until his death.-Early life:...
— Pope Clement IIIPope Clement IIIPope Clement III , born Paulino Scolari, was elected Pope on December 19, 1187 and reigned until his death.-Cardinal:... - 1503: Pope Alexander VIPope Alexander VIPope Alexander VI , born Roderic Llançol i Borja was Pope from 1492 until his death on 18 August 1503. He is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, and his Italianized surname—Borgia—became a byword for the debased standards of the Papacy of that era, most notoriously the Banquet...
— Pope Pius IIIPope Pius IIIPope Pius III , born Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini, was Pope from September 22 to October 18, 1503.-Career:...
— Pope Julius IIPope Julius IIPope Julius II , nicknamed "The Fearsome Pope" and "The Warrior Pope" , born Giuliano della Rovere, was Pope from 1503 to 1513... - 1555: Pope Julius IIIPope Julius IIIPope Julius III , born Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte, was Pope from 7 February 1550 to 1555....
— Pope Marcellus IIPope Marcellus IIPope Marcellus II , born Marcello Cervini degli Spannochi, was Pope from 9 April 1555 to 1 May 1555, succeeding Pope Julius III. Before his accession as Pope he had been Cardinal-Priest of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. He is the most recent Pope to choose to retain his birth name as his regnal name...
— Pope Paul IVPope Paul IVPope Paul IV, C.R. , né Giovanni Pietro Carafa, was Pope from 23 May 1555 until his death.-Early life:Giovanni Pietro Carafa was born in Capriglia Irpina, near Avellino, into a prominent noble family of Naples... - 1590: Pope Sixtus VPope Sixtus VPope Sixtus V , born Felice Peretti di Montalto, was Pope from 1585 to 1590.-Early life:The chronicler Andrija Zmajević states that Felice's family originated from modern-day Montenegro...
— Pope Urban VIIPope Urban VIIPope Urban VII , born Giovanni Battista Castagna, was Pope for thirteen days in September 1590. He was of Genoese origin, although born in Rome. He was created Cardinal-Priest of S. Marcello in 1584...
— Pope Gregory XIVPope Gregory XIVPope Gregory XIV , born Niccolò Sfondrati, was Pope from 5 December 1590 until his death in 1591.- Early career :... - 1605: Pope Clement VIIIPope Clement VIIIPope Clement VIII , born Ippolito Aldobrandini, was Pope from 30 January 1592 to 3 March 1605.-Cardinal:...
— Pope Leo XIPope Leo XIPope Leo XI , born Alessandro Ottaviano de' Medici, was Pope from 1 April 1605 to 27 April of the same year.-Biography:...
— Pope Paul VPope Paul V-Theology:Paul met with Galileo Galilei in 1616 after Cardinal Bellarmine had, on his orders, warned Galileo not to hold or defend the heliocentric ideas of Copernicus. Whether there was also an order not to teach those ideas in any way has been a matter for controversy... - 1978: Pope Paul VIPope Paul VIPaul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
— Pope John Paul IPope John Paul IJohn Paul I , born Albino Luciani, , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and as Sovereign of Vatican City from 26 August 1978 until his death 33 days later. His reign is among the shortest in papal history, resulting in the most recent Year of Three Popes...
— Pope John Paul IIPope John Paul IIBlessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
There was also a year in which the Roman Catholic Church was led by four popes, called the Year of Three Popes Plus One:
- 1276: Pope Gregory XPope Gregory XPope Blessed Gregory X , born Tebaldo Visconti, was Pope from 1271 to 1276. He was elected by the papal election, 1268–1271, the longest papal election in the history of the Roman Catholic Church....
— Pope Innocent VPope Innocent VPope Blessed Innocent V , born Pierre de Tarentaise, was Pope from January 21 to June 22, 1276.He was born around 1225 near Moûtiers in the Tarentaise region of the County of Savoy, then part of the Kingdom of Arles in the Holy Roman Empire, but now in southeastern France...
— Pope Adrian VPope Adrian VPope Adrian V , born Ottobuono de' Fieschi, was pope in 1276.-Biography:Ottobuono belonged to a feudal family of Liguria, the Fieschi, Counts of Lavagna....
— Pope John XXIPope John XXIPope John XXI, , born Pedro Julião Pope John XXI, , born Pedro Julião Pope John XXI, , born Pedro Julião (Latin, Petrus Iulianus (c. 1215 – May 20, 1277), a Portuguese also called Pedro Hispano (Latin, Petrus Hispanus; English, Peter of Spain), was Pope from 1276 until his death about eight...
See also
- List of popes by length of reign
- List of ages of popes
- Western SchismWestern SchismThe Western Schism or Papal Schism was a split within the Catholic Church from 1378 to 1417. Two men simultaneously claimed to be the true pope. Driven by politics rather than any theological disagreement, the schism was ended by the Council of Constance . The simultaneous claims to the papal chair...
, which from 1409-1414 saw three simultaneous claimants to the Papacy