Three popes

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kendy
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
K

Kendy

Guest
At a party, a group of dissenting catholics got to criticizing the church and one lady said there have not been an unbroken line of popes. She said there was once three popes.

I knew these people were wrong (well, because I have faith in the church and I know these dissenters will say anythingt to undermine her), but I didn’t really know what they were talking about.

Has anyone heard of this? What does it refer to? Any good reading materials to help me deal with these types of thing?

Kendy
 
Kendy said:
At a party, a group of dissenting catholics got to criticizing the church and one lady said there have not been an unbroken line of popes. She said there was once three popes.

I knew these people were wrong (well, because I have faith in the church and I know these dissenters will say anythingt to undermine her), but I didn’t really know what they were talking about.

Has anyone heard of this? What does it refer to? Any good reading materials to help me deal with these types of thing?

Kendy
Click to expand...
Nope. That never happen. Though there was a time called the Avignon Papacy in which the Pope was held captive in Avignon, France.

the Avignon Papacy was the period from 1309 to 1377 during which seven popes, all French, resided in Avignon.

Pope Clement V: 1305–1314
Pope John XXII: 1316–1334
Pope Benedict XII: 1334–1342
Pope Clement VI: 1342–1352
Pope Innocent VI: 1352–1362
Pope Urban V: 1362–1370
Pope Gregory XI: 1370–1378
 
The pope was never “held captive” in Avignon, although the period of the Avignon papacy is often unofficially and rather facetiously called the Babylonian Capitvity. All those popes were there very willingly. It was the papacy itself that was snatched from Rome. In contrast, many popes over the centuries who resided in Rome were literal captives of secular rulers.

For a period of a couple of centuries called the “Western Schism,” there were two rival popes, one in Avignon and one in Rome. It took what seemed forever and the greatest efforts of the most saintly figures such as Catherine of Sienna to sort this out so that one line was the true papacy (in fact, Avignon won) and the other was a line of antipopes. And yes, at one point there were three candidates for the true pope. I don’t remember the details, but someone else will.
 
in 1378 the Great schism in the west led to 3 simultaneous Popes!
 
Mannyfit75 said:
The Pope in Rome is the real Pope. The one in France was the Anti-Pope.
Click to expand...
After Gregory XI died, the Romans rioted to ensure a Roman was elected. The cardinals, fearing the crowds, elected a Neapolitan, when no viable Roman candidates presented themselves. Pope Urban VI, né Bartolomeo Prignani, the Archbishop of Bari, was elected in 1378. Urban had been a respected administrator in the papal chancery at Avignon, but as pope he proved suspicious, overbearing, and prone to violent outbursts of temper. The cardinals who had elected him soon regretted their decision: the majority of them removed themselves from Rome to Fondi, where they elected Robert of Geneva as a rival pope on September 20 of the same year. Robert took the name Pope Clement VII and reestablished a papal court in Avignon. The second election threw the church into turmoil. There had been antipopes, rival claimants to the papacy, before, but most of them had been appointed by various rival factions; in this case, the legitimate leaders of the church themselves had created both popes.
 
myfavoritmartin said:
After Gregory XI died, the Romans rioted to ensure a Roman was elected. The cardinals, fearing the crowds, elected a Neapolitan, when no viable Roman candidates presented themselves. Pope Urban VI, né Bartolomeo Prignani, the Archbishop of Bari, was elected in 1378. Urban had been a respected administrator in the papal chancery at Avignon, but as pope he proved suspicious, overbearing, and prone to violent outbursts of temper. The cardinals who had elected him soon regretted their decision: the majority of them removed themselves from Rome to Fondi, where they elected Robert of Geneva as a rival pope on September 20 of the same year. Robert took the name Pope Clement VII and reestablished a papal court in Avignon. The second election threw the church into turmoil. There had been antipopes, rival claimants to the papacy, before, but most of them had been appointed by various rival factions; in this case, the legitimate leaders of the church themselves had created both popes.
Click to expand...
Where does the third pope come in?
 
Kendy said:
Where does the third pope come in?
Click to expand...
A church council was held at Pisa in 1408 to try to solve the dispute but added to the problem by electing a third pope, Alexander V. He reigned briefly from June 26, 1409, to his death in 1410, when he was succeeded by John XXIII.
The bad J23.
 
It’s true that we have three men at same time claiming to be pope. But it’s not the same thing as saying there were three popes reigning at the same time.
 
myfavoritmartin said:
A church council was held at Pisa in 1408 to try to solve the dispute but added to the problem by electing a third pope, Alexander V. He reigned briefly from June 26, 1409, to his death in 1410, when he was succeeded by John XXIII.
The bad J23.
Click to expand...
What happened to the other two popes?
 
Kendy said:
What happened to the other two popes?
Click to expand...
Council of Constance, 1417, deposed John XXIII and the Avignon Pope Benedict XIII, secured A resignation of the Roman Pope Gregory XII, and elected Pope Martin V, thereby permanently ending the schism.
 
myfavoritmartin said:
Council of Constance, 1417, deposed John XXIII and the Avignon Pope Benedict XIII, secured A resignation of the Roman Pope Gregory XII, and elected Pope Martin V, thereby permanently ending the schism.
Click to expand...
Well, it seems to me if they were properly elected how could they just be deposed?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top