The movie Conclave has left us all wondering: Do cardinals really behave that badly? Are elections for new popes always so politically fraught? And most pressingly, where do they shop for those amazing robes?
As an historian of Late Antiquity (ca. 250-700 CE) who wrote a book about popes and the papacy (before there really was a papacy, in fact!), I have a few answers.
As is always the case, however, historical context matters – a lot. The elaborate conclave rituals depicted in the movie, including the burning of electoral ballots and the colored smoke, are for the most part modern inventions. In fact, the college of cardinals did not exist until the eighth or ninth century.
The early version was small (around 30 clerics) and comprised only of “cardinal priests” who served parishes inside the city of Rome. Along with the city’s deacons, they elected a new pope upon the death of a previous prelate; the entire process was decidedly local.
Additionally, papal selections before the early Middle Ages were undertaken in a far more “free form” manner via popular acclamation; voting, in other words, came later.
In what follows, I present my personal top ten popes. My criteria are simple: overall historical significance, appetite for intrigue, and messy electoral politics.
(And a note before we begin: The English “pope” derives from the Latin papa (cf. Greek pappa) an informal word meaning “father.” Until the Middle Ages, it was a title used broadly by bishops across Christendom and was not the exclusive titular of the Church of Rome.)
10. St. Peter (ca. 30-64 CE)
Arguably the “first” pope.
Roman Catholics observe the tradition that the apostle Peter travelled to Rome, where he was arrested and executed by the emperor Nero in ca. 64 CE. His body, we are told, was buried in the Vatican cemetery, underneath the modern basilica of St. Peter’s. Before his martyrdom, Peter supposedly founded the first church in Rome, perhaps in cooperation with the apostle Paul, whom tradition also places in Rome at the same time.
Peter’s leadership role is said to have been in fulfillment of Christ’s directives in Matthew 16:18, from whom Peter is given the “keys to the kingdom of heaven.” Unfortunately, very little of this tradition can be verified with historical evidence, and most scholars think that Peter died somewhere far from Rome, probably never having even visited.
Nevertheless, Christians in Rome from the third century commemorated Peter as their founding apostle and first bishop, a claim that helped popes promote themselves as leaders at the “top” of the ecumenical hierarchy. Peter and his iconic keys can be found today on the papal monogram.
9. Alexander VI, born Roderic Llançol i de Borja (1492-1503)
Quite possibly the sleaziest pope before 1500.
A Spaniard from Valencia, Alexander VI hailed from the eminent de Borja family – a name better known by its Italianized version, Borgia. A product of pure nepotism, Alexander VI snaked his way up the clerical ladder but not without having some illicit fun: he fathered the infamous sibling duo Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia along with numerous other children with mistresses – a theoretical red line for aspiring popes. Fittingly, Alexander founded the biggest papal bash still held today: the Jubilee celebration, first held in 1500.
8. Symmachus (498-514) and Laurentius (498-506)
My favorite pope and “anti-pope” pair.
As we all know, not everyone accepts the outcome of an election, including the popes. Clergy in 498 were split in their support: Some wanted the deacon Symmachus, others the priest Laurentius. Rather than peacefully resolve their dispute, supporters from both sides rioted on the streets for months, bringing about deaths and an eight-year papal schism.
Ultimately, the king of Italy weighed in to end the conflict. He picked Symmachus (hence why we call Laurentius “the anti-pope”), but not before Laurentius’s men spread salacious (mis?)information about their opponent, including that he had solicited bribes, sold church property, and cavorted with a woman called Conditoria (“Spicy”) on an Italian beach.
7. Damasus (366-384)
Damasus was also the product of a contested election and a divided Christian community. His simultaneous acclamation with Ursinus led to street violence and deaths, and the conflict was sufficiently extreme to elicit government interference.
However, I rank Damasus higher than Symmachus because he was artsier. Not only did he commission Jerome to create the Vulgate, a superior Latin translation of the Hebrew Bible (from Hebrew) and New Testament (from Greek); but he was also a decent poet, who authored dozens of epigrams commemorating Roman martyrs, which he had inscribed on giant marble plaques and displayed at the martyrs’ tombs around Rome.
6. Boniface VIII (1294-1303)
Alas, a more “serious pope.”
Boniface is the architect of a document known as the Unam sanctam, a papal “bull” that is arguably the foundation charter for the Papacy (note capitalization) in its popular understanding as the politico-spiritual institution overseeing Christendom, to which all Christians must belong if they wish to attain salvation. It also explicitly articulated the superior authority of popes over all secular rulers.
5. Silvester I (315-325)
According to a fascinating but completely invented tradition, Silvester is personally responsible for conversion of Rome’s first Christian emperor, Constantine.
The story goes like this: Constantine had leprosy and failed to find a cure until the saints Peter and Paul visited him in a dream. They told him to meet Silvester, who promptly healed the sick emperor though a full immersion baptism at the Lateran. Constantine was so grateful and moved that he embraced Christianity on the spot, ended the persecution of Christians, gave the Roman church loads of money, and declared Silvester to be the #1 bishop in the empire.
While a total fabrication of the early Middle Ages designed to bolster papal power, it’s a super cool story.
4. Gregory I (590-604)
Gregory “the Great” is important not simply because he was an aristocratic ascetic who led the Roman church during an especially tumultuous period, when the Lombards were seizing territory in Italy and the Roman (Byzantine) government was holding on to it by a thread.
He’s significant because we have an exceptionally large number of his writings, including over 800 letters, which provide granular details about the administration of the early papacy’s people (including slaves) and properties.
3. Vigilius (537-555)
This pope’s rise to power demonstrates the limits of papal elections and the power of emperors, even those in Constantinople, to call the shots back in Rome.
Vigilius was no local favorite, but Emperor Justinian liked him because he agreed to tow the court’s line in a messy doctrinal dispute. According to a hostile source, Vigilius was complicit in the overthrow of his predecessor Pope Silverius, whom he delivered to an imperial general after accusing him of being a traitor to Rome.
Silverius’s deposition and death opened the way for the general to appoint Vigilius directly without any local clerical input. That same source claims Vigilius quickly abandoned the city on the eve of a major war, and that Rome’s citizens said their goodbyes by throwing pots and pans at him.
2. Gregory VII (1015-1085)
A true spiritual warrior with a fixation on “owning the secs” (seculars), Gregory pushed through extensive reforms on the less-than-holy lifestyles of monks and clergy, forcing the latter to adopt celibacy. Many before had married.
He also went head-to-head with the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV at Canossa, where the excommunicated king lay on the snow at Gregory’s feet seeking absolution. Never mind that Henry did it to shore up his own power back home in Germany.
1. John Anglicus, aka “Pope Joan”
Johanna or “Joan” tops our list of popes before 1500 as the one and only female pontiff, who supposedly passed as a man from a young age and ruled the Roman church for two years in the ninth century.
A complete concoction of the later Middle Ages, the legend holds that Joan studied the liberal arts in Athens while living as Joannes Anglicus, or “John the Englishman,” a name that further confuses given that the fictional biography places her birthplace in Mainz.
From Athens, Joan travels to Rome and is quickly elected pope based on a reputation of erudition. However, Pope John’s true female identity is soon revealed during a papal procession when she gives birth to a child conceived with another cleric.
While one version of the tale has her die immediately, another claims that she went on to raise her son to become the Bishop of Ostia.
A tall tale if there ever was one, the myth has given rise to early modern Protestant polemic and several modern interpretations, including, one may surmise, the plotline of Conclave.
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