Notable Popes in Church history?

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Who are some notable Popes? Not necessarily saints or holiness — just any with a major influence/importance in the Church and world.

While not necessarily looking for holiness, I’m not asking for negatives either. Just any Pope that had some major role to play.

Alternatively, if you could pick 5 notable Popes for every 500 year chunk (so first century thru fifth, sixth century thru 10th, and so on), who would they be, and why?
 
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I say Pius XI is tied with St Paul VI, both being more important than Pius V (Council of Trent) or Pope Urban II (the Crusades) simply because they upheld teachings on marriage and procreation in Casti Connubii and Humanae Vitae in the 20th century, of all centuries. They persisted.
 
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Innocent III in the early 13th Century was pretty influential and notable. The important Lateran Council , also dealt with crusades in Spain and the Holy Land, as well dealing with Catholic monarchs.
 
Pope Pius XII, Pope John XXIII, Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and now, Pope Francis.
 
Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto
Pope St. Pius X
Well known for his works on Modernism:
Lamentabili Sane (July 3, 1907), Pascendi Dominici Gregis (Sept. 8, 1907), and Sacrorum Antistitum (Sept. 1, 1910).
 
I just want to go on record as stating that I find this to be a wonderful thread as well as being very positive. All of the Popes listed thus far have left their mark on history. And I am motivated to learn more about them as a result of this thread.
 
lilypadrees said:
Pope Pius XII, Pope John XXIII, Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and now, Pope Francis.
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I go along with you @lilypadrees , but include Pope John Paul I as well .

They are the popes I have known in my lifetime , and I consider them all notable . We have been blessed to have such men as popes in the 20/21st centuries .
 
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@Rob2, I was going to mention the smiling Pope (John Paul I) as well. But his time was so short. 😭
 
joeybaggz said:
Calling all church historians. Please report to this thread.
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Present and reporting for duty, Sir!:raising_hand_man:

66AD (I’m not including Peter for obvious reasons) - 500AD
  1. Pope St. Clement I - 1st Pope whose writings have survived and provides the earliest evidence for the apostolic authority of the clergy
  2. Pope St. Soter - 1st Pope to endorse Marriage as a sacrament
  3. Pope St. Sylvester 1 - Pope during the Edict of Milan which legalized Christianity, friend of Emperor Constantine from whom was given the Lateran lands to build the Cathedral of Rome, St. John Lateran; Roman legend holds that he first baptized Constantine before he moved the Roman Capital; Eastern tradition holds that Constantine was baptized again on his death bed.
  4. Pope St. Julius I - Pope during the Arian controversy, crediting with splitting Epiphany and Christmas into two celebrations and setting the traditional date of Christmas as December 25
  5. Pope St. Leo I (the Great) - Convinced Atilla the Hun not to attack Rome; wrote the Tome of Leo which was used at the Council of Chalcedon and defined the Hypostatic Union
501AD - 1000AD
  1. Pope St. Gregory I (the Great) - Last Imperial Roman Pope; established Gregorian chant; known as the Father of Christian Worship;
  2. Pope St. Leo III - Crowned Charlemagne Emperor and creating what will be the Holy Roman Empire
  3. Popes Formosus and Boniface VI - These two are together simply for the fact of the infamous Cadaver Synod where Formosus’s bones were dressed up like a Pope and put on trial. He was excommunicated posthumously and thrown in the Tiber River.
  4. Pope Sergius III - Begins the infamous Saeculum Obscurum period of Papal history; was the first to be depicted wearing the Tiara
  5. Pope Leo VIII - First antipope to be elected the true Pope; originally he was an appointee of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I in opposition to the two previous legitimate Popes
 
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1001AD - 1501AD (some really BIG stuff happened in this period, so I’m going to need more than 5 slots)
  1. Popes Sylvester III, Benedict IX, Gregory VI, Clement II - The whole mess solved at the Council of Sutri. It is too complicated to explain here, but it is a historian’s nightmare: Let’s Play, ‘Who’s Pope?’!
  2. Pope St. Leo IX - excommunicated Patriarch Michael I Cerularius which was the historical start to the Great Schism.
  3. St. Gregory VII - Instituted the Gregorian Reforms; political struggle with Emperor Henry IV
  4. Bl. Urban II - Began the 1st Crusade
  5. Pope Innocent II - one of the most powerful Medieval Popes; called the 4th Lateran Council; organized the 4th crusade; approved the Franciscan Order
  6. Pope Lucius III - Instituted the first Inquisition in France against the Albagensian heresy
  7. St Celestine V - widely believed to be one of the worst Popes in History; one of the few Popes to abdicate voluntarily; believed to have been murdered in prison by his successor
  8. Pope Clement V - Suppressed the Knights Templar; Moved the Papal Court to Avignon
  9. Gregory XI - Returns Papal Court to Rome on the urging of St. Catherine of Sienna; the election of his successor triggers the Western Schism
  10. Pope Martin V - Officially ended the Western Schism via abdicating at the Council of Basil
  11. Pope Alexander Vi - Infamous Borgia pope known for lavish lifestyle of excess; divided the New World between Spain and Portugal
1501AD - 1876AD (Considered the Golden Age of the Papacy)
  1. Pope Julius II - Tore down the Old St. Peter’s Basilica to rebuild it; formed the Papal States through conquest
  2. Pope Paul III - Called Council of Trent
  3. Pope Innocent XIII - Pope presiding over the Chinese Rites controversy
  4. Pope Benedict XIV - Instituted reforms for the education of priests and the calendar of feasts; reaffirmed the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas; founded pontifical academies of art, religion and science
  5. Pope Pius VI - Condemned the French Revolution and was expelled from the Papal States by French Troops; last Pope to be exiled from Papal States until their dissolution under Bl. Pius IX
 
1878AD - Present (Almost every Pope during this period was notable and each one was a holy man, hence the title ‘Golden Age of the Papacy’)
  1. Bl. Pius IX - Lost Papal states to Italian unification; defined dogma of Immaculate conception and papal infallibility; instituted world’s first wide-spread public relations campaign; first to take the title, ‘Prisoner of the Vatican’; longest serving Pope in history (barring the legendary dates of St. Peter)
  2. Benedict XV - Considered the smartest man ever elected Pope; intervened for peace during World War I; issued the 1917 Code of Canon Law; promoted and supported missionaries.
  3. Ven. Pius XII - Intervened for Peace during World War II; public silence during the Holocaust, but fostered and assisted the underground movement to hide Jews and help them escape; defined the Dogma of the Assumption
  4. Sts. John XXIII and Paul VI - Convened the Second Vatican Council; John: Intervened for peace during the Cuban Missle Crisis; issued an encyclical on peace and nuclear disarmament; Paul: Issued Humanae Vitae, last pope to be crowned with the tiara, first pope to travel to the USA
  5. Pope St. John Paul II - 1st non-Italian pope in 450 years, most personally seen man in the history of the world, founded World Youth Day; second longest Papal reign; instrumental in the fall of Communism; canonized more saints (482) than all of his predecessors combined.
Phew… There were a lot of good ones between, but these are the biggies.

God Bless,
Br. Ben, CRM

P. S. - Sorry for the long post
 
Most influential and important Popes of all 21 centuries of Church history:

1st century:

St. Pope Peter the Apostle
St. Pope Linus the Second
St. Pope Clement I

2nd century:

St. Pope Victor I
St. Pope Zephyrinus

3rd century:

St. Pope Pontian
St. Pope Marcellinus

4th century:

St. Pope Sylvester I
St. Pope Mark
St. Pope Damasus I

5th century:

St. Pope Leo I, the Great
St. Pope Gelasius I

6th century:

St. Pope Hormisdas
St. Pope Gregory I, the Great, the Dialogues

7th century:

St. Pope Adeodatus I
St. Pope Martin I
St. Pope Sergius I

8th century:

St. Pope Leo III

9th century:

St. Pope Paschal I
St. Pope Nicholas the Great

10th century - the first century where we don’t find any canonized Popes, in fact there aren’t even any Beati or even Servants of God. The 10th century is also when the Medieval Papacy is beginning to come to its peak of temporal power, where it will remain for the next 6 or 7 centuries. The most influential in the 10th, IMO:

Pope Leo V
Pope John X
Pope John XII
Pope Benedict V

11th century:

St. Pope Leo IX
St. Pope Gregory VII
Blessed (Bl.) Pope Urban II

12th century:

Bl. Pope Eugene III

13th century:

Bl. Pope Gregory X
Bl. Pope Innocent V
St. Pope Celestine V

14th century:

Bl. Pope Benedict XI
Pope Clement V
Bl. Pope Urban V

15th century (the second century with no canonised Pontiffs):

Pope Alexander VI
Pope Innocent VIII

16th century:

Pope Leo X
St. Pope Pius V
Pope Gregory XIII

17th century:

Bl. Pope Innocent XI
Pope Clement X

18th century (third and latest/last century with no Saints or Beati or even Venerables, only one Servant of God):

Servant of God (S.D.) Pope Benedict XIII
Pope Clement XIII

19th century:

S.D. Pope Pius VII
Pope Pius VIII
Bl. Pope Pius IX (first Pope to ever be photographed, which was quite controversial in that day and age for a Pope)
Pope Leo XIII (who IMO should be a Saint, but as far as I’m aware any potential cause for his canonisation is stalled).

20th century:

St. Pope Pius X
Pope Benedict XV
Venerable (Ven.) Pope Pius XII
St. Pope John XXIII
St. Pope Paul VI
Ven. Pope John Paul I

20th/21st centuries:

St. Pope John Paul II, the Great (the latest and fourth Roman Pontiff to bear the moniker ‘the Great’).

And of course our saintly and beloved Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, and our beloved and saintly reigning Roman Pontiff Pope Francis.

I spent a good deal of time and effort compiling this, I hope it is helpful or interesting to some.
 
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I spent a good deal of time and effort compiling this, I hope it is helpful or interesting to some.
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It is definitely worthwhile. I’m making a poster of popes, and I want to have a separate sheet that explains some of the notable Popes.

Could you provide a brief explanation for why you chose the ones you chose?
 
Oh man I dunno… It took me like an hour to compile and write up that list.

An explanation for why I chose each one would probably be a 2 hour project…

I can tell you after about the 4th century I chose the Blessed and Saints because they were the only ones who were Blesseds or Saints in their particular centuries…

Tidbit of info: every single Pope of the first, second, and third century is a Saint. Every single Pope of the fourth century (aside from Liberius in the West - Eastern Catholics venerate Liberius as a Saint) is a Saint. Only one Pope of the fifth century (Anastasius II) is not reckoned as a Saint in either the Orient nor the Occident. My point being the people who complain about “too many” Popes being canonized today need to learn their history and go look at the early Church. Or take a look at the Oriental Orthodox Pope of Alexandria… Because their Popes have been elected at much earlier ages than our Roman Popes, they have only had 118 Popes… But only about a dozen are not considered glorified Saints.
 
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@ChristMyLife

As a fair compromise 😉 can you explain why you chose the ones from the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries?

And your effort is not in vain! I will use your lists to look up info.
 
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Absolutely…

I’ll get it done for you within the next day or so… Should be able to do that amount in 15 or 20 mins.
 
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A typo was pointed out to me. Pope Innocent II was supposed to be Pope Innocent III and thus, came after Lucius III. Just wanted to make that correction, but I can’t edit the post anymore.
 
In the recent years I would say Benedict XVI.
He boosted the Tridentine Mass, removing the power to silence that the bishops had until Summorum Pontificum, and that he lifted the excommunications on the SSPX bishops, carving a good new way to further dialogue.
I also love how he tried to bring back some of the grandeur of the “old days” to the Church.
Of corse he had some bad moments, like when he removed his shoes to enter a mosque, or when he unfortunatelly left his position as Bishop of Rome, but in the end he did more good than bad things.
 
Ioannes_L said:
Of corse he had some bad moments, like when he removed his shoes to enter a mosque, o
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Why is that bad?

Would it have been better if he ran through a mud puddle then stomped into the Mosque, spit on a Koran and flipped the bird to the Imam?
 
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