An antipope is a person who, in opposition to the legitimately elected pope, makes a significant attempt to occupy the position of Bishop of Rome and leader of the Catholic Church. At times between the 3rd and mid-15th centuries, antipopes were supported by important factions within the Church itself and by secular rulers.
The First Council of the Lateran was the 9th ecumenical council recognized by the Catholic Church. It was convoked by Pope Callixtus II in December 1122, immediately after the Concordat of Worms. The council sought to bring an end to the practice of the conferring of ecclesiastical benefices by people who were laymen, free the election of bishops and abbots from secular influence, clarify the separation of spiritual and temporal affairs, re-establish the principle that spiritual authority resides solely in the Church and abolish the claim of the Holy Roman Emperor to influence papal elections.
Pope Benedict VIII was Bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 18 May 1012 until his death. He was born Theophylact to the noble family of the counts of Tusculum. Unusually for a medieval pope, he had strong authority both in Rome and abroad.
Pope Gregory VIII, born Alberto di Morra, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States for two months in 1187. Becoming Pope after a long diplomatic career as Apostolic Chancellor, he was notable in his brief reign for reconciling the Papacy with the estranged Holy Roman Empire and for initiating the Third Crusade.
The Avignon Papacy was the period from 1309 to 1376 during which seven successive popes resided in Avignon rather than in Rome. The situation arose from the conflict between the papacy and the French crown, culminating in the death of Pope Boniface VIII after his arrest and maltreatment by Philip IV of France. Following the further death of Pope Benedict XI, Philip forced a deadlocked conclave to elect the French Clement V as pope in 1305. Clement refused to move to Rome, and in 1309 he moved his court to the papal enclave at Avignon, where it remained for the next 67 years. This absence from Rome is sometimes referred to as the "Babylonian captivity of the Papacy".
Clemente Domínguez y Gómez was a self-proclaimed successor of Pope Paul VI and was recognised as Pope Gregory XVII by supporters of the Palmarian Christian Church schismatic breakaway movement in 1978. His claim was not taken seriously by mainstream Catholics, the vast majority of whom were unaware of his existence.
Antipope Gregory XVII may refer to:
The Western Schism, also known as the Papal Schism, the Vatican Standoff, the Great Occidental Schism, or the Schism of 1378, was a split within the Catholic Church lasting from 1378 to 1417 in which bishops residing in Rome and Avignon both claimed to be the true pope, and were joined by a third line of Pisan popes in 1409. The schism was driven by personalities and political allegiances, with the Avignon papacy being closely associated with the French monarchy. These rival claims to the papal throne damaged the prestige of the office.
Saeculum obscurum was a period in the history of the Papacy during the first two-thirds of the 10th century, following the chaos after the death of Formosus in 896 which saw seven or eight papal elections in as many years. It began with the installation of Pope Sergius III in 904 and lasting for sixty years until the death of Pope John XII in 964. During this period, the popes were influenced strongly by a powerful and allegedly corrupt aristocratic family, the Theophylacti, and their relatives and allies. The era is seen as one of the lowest points of the history of the Papal office.
The Christian Palmarian Church of the Carmelites of the Holy Face, also called the Palmarian Christian Church, the Palmarian Church, or the Palmarian Catholic Church, is an independent Traditionalist Catholic denomination with an episcopal see in El Palmar de Troya, Spain, founded in 1978 by Clemente Domínguez y Gómez. The church does not recognize any popes after Paul VI as Catholic, and holds that the Palmarian Christian Church has continued the papacy.
Gregory VIII, born Mauritius Burdinus, was antipope from 10 March 1118 until 22 April 1121.
A papal renunciation occurs when the reigning pope of the Catholic Church voluntarily steps down from his position. As the reign of the pope has conventionally been from election until death, papal renunciation is an uncommon event. Before the 21st century, only five popes unambiguously resigned with historical certainty, all between the 10th and 15th centuries. Additionally, there are disputed claims of four popes having resigned, dating from the 3rd to the 11th centuries; a fifth disputed case may have involved an antipope.
Pope John may refer to:
- Pope John I (523–526)
- Pope John II (533–535)
- Pope John III (561–574)
- Pope John IV (640–642)
- Pope John V (685–686)
- Pope John VI (701–705)
- Pope John VII (705–707)
- Pope John VIII (872–882)
- Pope John IX (898–900)
- Pope John X (914–928)
- Pope John XI (931–935)
- Pope John XII (955–964)
- Pope John XIII (965–972)
- Pope John XIV (983–984)
- Pope John XV (985–996)
- Pope John XVII (1003)
- Pope John XVIII (1003–1009)
- Pope John XIX (1024–1032)
- Pope John XXI (1276–1277)
- Pope John XXII (1316–1334)
- Pope John XXIII (1958–1963)
On the death of Pope Sergius IV in June 1012, "a certain Gregory" opposed the party of the Theophylae, and had himself made pope, seemingly by a small faction. Gregory VI was the first to claim to be pope as successor to Sergius IV, and that Benedict VIII's claim was subsequent.
Peter of Candia, also known as Peter Phillarges, named as Alexander V, was an antipope elected by the Council of Pisa during the Western Schism (1378–1417). He reigned briefly from June 26, 1409 to his death in 1410, in opposition to the Roman pope Gregory XII and the Avignon antipope Benedict XIII. In the 20th century, the Catholic Church reinterpreted the Western Schism by recognizing the Roman popes as legitimate. Gregory XII's reign was extended to 1415, and Alexander V is now regarded as an antipope.
Sergio María Ginés Jesús Hernández y Martínez, known by his religious name as Sergio María and by his papal name as Gregory XVIII, is the former Pope of the Palmarian Christian Church. Hernández was in office from 2011 until his 2016 abdication.
Our Lady of Palmar, known formally as Our Crowned Mother of Palmar, is a Palmarian Christian title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with an alleged Marian apparition in the Spanish village of El Palmar de Troya in 1968. The apparition is not recognized by the Roman Catholic Church but is recognized by the Palmarian Christian Church, a schismatic Independent Catholic denomination. The Cathedral-Basilica of Our Crowned Mother of Palmar, the mother church of the Palmarian Christian Church, serves as the major shrine of Our Lady of Palmar and was built on the site of the alleged apparition.
