Every Pope in History

From a Galilean fisherman to the first American pope: 267 pontificates across two thousand years, the eras that shaped them, and why each one mattered.

267
pontificates: 265
men: 15
eras: 1,996
years

Begin at Saint Peter

I30-99
The Apostolic Age
From the fisherman Peter to the first successors: the papacy before anyone called it that.
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1. PeterSaint
  No. 1 · c. 30-c. 64
  The Galilean fisherman Jesus renamed the rock, crucified under Nero and buried, tradition holds, beneath the basilica that bears his name.
2. 30
  religiousCrucifixion of Jesus
  The event from which the entire Christian movement, and the office of Peter, flows; dated to 30 or 33 by most reckonings.
3. 49
  councilCouncil of Jerusalem
  The apostles rule that Gentile converts need not keep the Mosaic law. Peter speaks first; James delivers the verdict.
4. 49
  politicalClaudius expels the Jews from Rome
  Suetonius records disturbances 'at the instigation of Chrestus'; the Christians of Rome already exist, a decade before either apostle arrives.
5. 64
  politicalGreat Fire of Rome
  Nero blames the Christians; tradition places the martyrdoms of Peter and Paul in the persecution that follows.
6. LinusSaint
  No. 2 · c. 67-c. 79
  The first successor: a name in Paul's last letter, a line in Irenaeus, and almost nothing else that history can confirm.
7. 70
  politicalDestruction of the Temple
  Rome levels the Jerusalem Temple, and Christianity's center of gravity shifts decisively toward the imperial capital.
8. AnacletusSaint
  No. 3 · c. 79-c. 92
  One man with two names, counted for a thousand years as two popes: the third bishop of Rome, who reigned through Domitian's early years.
9. Clement ISaint
  No. 4 · c. 92-c. 99
  Author of the oldest surviving papal letter, a summons to order sent to Corinth around 96, and hero of a legend that ends with an anchor.
10. 95
  politicalDomitian turns on his household
  The emperor executes his cousin the consul Flavius Clemens for 'atheism' and exiles Domitilla; Clement's letter opens amid 'sudden and repeated misfortunes.'
II99-311
The Age of Persecution
Two centuries underground: bishops of Rome elected to an office that could be a death sentence.
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1. EvaristusSaint
  No. 5 · c. 99-c. 107
  The first pope of whom nothing is known but a name and a place in the list; the Liber Pontificalis supplied the rest four centuries later.
2. Alexander ISaint
  No. 6 · c. 107-c. 115
  A Roman of Trajan's reign, later confused with a martyr of the same name on the Via Nomentana and credited with rites he never knew.
3. 112
  politicalPliny writes to Trajan about the Christians
  A provincial governor asks what to do with people denounced as Christians; the emperor's reply, do not seek them out, sets imperial policy for a century.
4. Sixtus ISaint
  No. 7 · c. 115-c. 125
  Xystus of Rome, whose Greek name became a Latin pun and a papal dynasty: five popes and a chapel would carry it after him.
5. TelesphorusSaint
  No. 8 · c. 125-c. 136
  The one second-century pope whose martyrdom is vouched for by a witness who could have known: Irenaeus called his death glorious.
6. HyginusSaint
  No. 9 · c. 136-c. 140
  An Athenian philosopher, by tradition, whose short reign saw the Gnostic teachers Valentinus and Cerdo arrive in Rome and stay.
7. Pius ISaint
  No. 10 · c. 140-c. 155
  Brother of a former slave who wrote the most-read book in early Christian Rome, and the bishop who showed Marcion the door.
8. 144
  schismMarcion expelled from the Roman church
  The shipowner who rejected the God of the Old Testament is put out of the church and his money returned; his rival church outlives the pope who expelled him.
9. AnicetusSaint
  No. 11 · c. 155-c. 166
  The Syrian bishop who disagreed with Polycarp about Easter, gave him the altar anyway, and parted with him in peace.
10. SoterSaint
  No. 12 · c. 166-c. 175
  Praised by a grateful bishop of Corinth as a loving father: the pope who kept Rome's ancient custom of sending money to churches in need.
11. EleutheriusSaint
  No. 13 · c. 175-c. 189
  The deacon who became bishop, received Irenaeus from prisons of Lyon, and closed the list in Against Heresies: twelfth from the apostles.
12. Victor ISaint
  No. 14 · c. 189-c. 199
  The African who wrote in Latin, tried to excommunicate the churches of Asia over the date of Easter, and was told by Irenaeus to calm down.
13. 190
  schismThe Easter controversy
  Victor I orders the churches of Asia to keep Easter on Sunday and moves to cut them off; Irenaeus and other bishops tell him that custom is no ground for schism.
14. ZephyrinusSaint
  No. 15 · c. 199-c. 217
  Eighteen years in the chair, known mostly through the contempt of Hippolytus, who called him ignorant, greedy, and led by his deacon.
15. 202
  politicalPersecution under Septimius Severus
  An edict against conversion brings arrests from Alexandria to Carthage, where Perpetua and Felicity die in the arena; Rome's Christians keep their heads down.
16. Callixtus ISaint
  No. 16 · c. 217-c. 222
  A slave and Sardinian convict who rose to the chair of Peter, forgave the sinners his rival would expel, and gave the catacombs his name.
17. Urban ISaint
  No. 17 · c. 222-c. 230
  Eight quiet years under a tolerant emperor, remembered mainly through a legend about Saint Cecilia and a rival bishop who would not go away.
18. PontianSaint
  No. 18 · 230-235
  The first pope to resign: deported to the Sardinian mines with his rival Hippolytus, he gave up the chair so Rome could elect a successor.
19. AnterusSaint
  No. 19 · 235-236
  Forty-three days in the chair during Maximinus's purge, and the first pope laid in the papal crypt on the Appian Way.
20. FabianSaint
  No. 20 · 236-250
  Chosen, the story goes, when a dove landed on his head: fourteen years building the Roman church, then the first death under Decius.
21. 250
  politicalDecian persecution
  The first empire-wide persecution requires every subject to sacrifice to the Roman gods; Pope Fabian is among the first to die, and thousands lapse.
22. CorneliusSaint
  No. 21 · 251-253
  Elected after fourteen months of terror, opposed by Novatian, backed by Cyprian: the pope who counted his church and readmitted the lapsed.
23. Lucius ISaint
  No. 22 · 253-254
  Banished within weeks of his election and back within months, he held Cornelius's line on the lapsed for a reign of eight months.
24. Stephen ISaint
  No. 23 · 254-257
  The first pope known to claim Peter's chair against other bishops: he fought Cyprian over rebaptism, won the argument, and lost his allies.
25. Sixtus IISaint
  No. 24 · 257-258
  A peacemaker who healed the breach with Africa, then was seized while preaching in the catacomb and beheaded with four deacons.
26. 258
  politicalValerian's persecution
  Clergy are ordered to sacrifice on pain of death. Sixtus II is beheaded in the catacomb with four deacons; Lawrence dies four days later; Cyprian in September.
27. DionysiusSaint
  No. 25 · 259-268
  Elected after a year's vacancy, he rebuilt what Valerian had broken, corrected Alexandria on the Trinity, and ransomed Cappadocian captives.
28. Felix ISaint
  No. 26 · 269-274
  The pope in whose reign a pagan emperor, asked who owned a church in Antioch, answered: whoever the bishops of Italy and Rome recognize.
29. 272
  politicalAurelian rules on the church of Antioch
  Asked who owns Antioch's church building, the pagan emperor awards it to whichever bishop the bishops of Italy and Rome recognize: the first imperial nod to Roman precedence.
30. EutychianSaint
  No. 27 · 275-283
  Nine peaceful years between persecutions, and the last pope laid to rest in the papal crypt of the Appian Way.
31. CaiusSaint
  No. 28 · 283-296
  Twelve years of peace on the eve of the storm: a Dalmatian pope, said to be Diocletian's kinsman, who set the ladder of clerical orders.
32. MarcellinusSaint
  No. 29 · 296-304
  The pope of the Great Persecution, accused of handing over the scriptures and offering incense, and quietly left off the church's own lists.
33. 303
  politicalDiocletianic persecution
  The last and fiercest general persecution burns churches and scriptures across the empire; Rome's bishop Marcellinus is accused of handing over the books.
34. Marcellus ISaint
  No. 30 · 308-309
  After four years without a bishop, the pope who demanded penance from the lapsed was driven out by his people and banished by the emperor.
35. EusebiusSaint
  No. 31 · 309
  Four months, a riot over the lapsed, and a death in Sicilian exile: the last pope of the persecutions, remembered in verse by Damasus.
36. 311
  politicalEdict of Galerius
  A dying emperor admits the persecution has failed and grants Christians the right to exist; the next pope takes office in a church that is, for the first time, legal.
III311-483
The Imperial Church
Constantine changes everything: the persecuted sect becomes the empire's church, and Rome's bishop becomes a public figure.
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1. MiltiadesSaint
  No. 32 · 311-314
  The African elected in an illegal church who, within two years, was judging bishops in the emperor's own palace.
2. 313
  religiousEdict of Milan
  Constantine and Licinius grant freedom of worship; within the year Constantine lends Miltiades the Lateran palace to sit in judgment on the Donatists.
3. Sylvester ISaint
  No. 33 · 314-335
  Twenty-two years as Constantine built the basilicas, absent from Nicaea, and the subject of the most consequential forgery in papal history.
4. 325
  councilCouncil of Nicaea
  The first ecumenical council defines Christ's divinity; Sylvester stays in Rome and sends two presbyters, a pattern the popes keep for a thousand years.
5. 330
  politicalFoundation of Constantinople
  Constantine dedicates a new Rome on the Bosporus, the city whose bishop will contest Rome's precedence at every later council.
6. MarkSaint
  No. 34 · 336
  Nine months in 336: two churches founded, the bishop of Ostia given the pallium, and a tomb on the Via Ardeatina dated to the day.
7. Julius ISaint
  No. 35 · 337-352
  Athanasius's host, who told the bishops of the East that Rome should have been consulted first, and won a right of appeal at Sardica.
8. Liberius
  No. 36 · 352-366
  Exiled for refusing to condemn Athanasius, restored after signing something, and the first pope the Western church declined to call a saint.
9. Damasus ISaint
  No. 37 · 366-384
  Elected in a riot that left 137 dead, he made Rome a city of shrines, set Jerome on the Bible, and named his chair the apostolic see.
10. 380
  religiousEdict of Thessalonica
  Theodosius makes the faith which the apostle Peter delivered to the Romans, and which Damasus now professes, the religion of the empire.
11. 382
  culturalJerome begins the Vulgate
  Damasus asks his secretary Jerome to revise the Latin Bible against the Greek; the result becomes the West's scripture for eleven centuries.
12. SiriciusSaint
  No. 38 · 384-399
  The first surviving decretal: rules on baptism, penance, and clerical continence, asked for by one Spanish bishop and sent to all the West.
13. Anastasius ISaint
  No. 39 · 399-401
  Two years, a condemnation of Origen, and a son who succeeded him; Jerome said he was taken so he would not see the sack.
14. Innocent ISaint
  No. 40 · 401-417
  A pope's son who ruled the West by letter, broke with the East over Chrysostom, missed Alaric's sack, and closed the case against Pelagius.
15. 410
  politicalAlaric sacks Rome
  The Goths hold the city for three days, the first time in eight centuries; Innocent I is away in Ravenna, and Augustine begins The City of God.
16. ZosimusSaint
  No. 41 · 417-418
  Twenty-one months of misjudgment: he acquitted Pelagius's disciple, reversed under African pressure, and quoted canons Nicaea never passed.
17. Boniface ISaint
  No. 42 · 418-422
  Elected against the archdeacon Eulalius and confirmed by an emperor: the first papal election a Roman court had to settle.
18. Celestine ISaint
  No. 43 · 422-432
  Condemned Nestorius and let Cyril execute it, sent Germanus to Britain and Palladius to the Irish, and told Gaul's bishops how to dress.
19. 431
  councilCouncil of Ephesus
  Celestine's legates and Cyril of Alexandria depose Nestorius and proclaim Mary Theotokos; Sixtus III answers with Santa Maria Maggiore.
20. Sixtus IIISaint
  No. 44 · 432-440
  The builder of Santa Maria Maggiore, who turned the verdict of Ephesus into mosaic and made peace between Antioch and Alexandria.
21. Leo ISaint
  No. 45 · 440-461
  Elected in his absence, he wrote the Tome, faced Attila on the Mincio, and explained why every pope is Peter: the first pope called Great.
22. 451
  councilCouncil of Chalcedon
  The bishops acclaim Leo's Tome, Peter has spoken through Leo, then rank Constantinople second in canon 28, which Leo refuses to accept.
23. HilariusSaint
  No. 46 · 461-468
  Leo's legate who escaped the Robber Council, then as pope built the Lateran oratories in thanks and told an emperor off in Saint Peter's.
24. SimpliciusSaint
  No. 47 · 468-483
  He watched the last Western emperor deposed without comment, protested to Constantinople about heretics, and built Santo Stefano Rotondo.
25. 476
  politicalFall of the Western Empire
  Odoacer deposes the boy Romulus Augustulus and sends the regalia to Constantinople; the bishop of Rome is now the city's most permanent authority.
IV483-752
The Byzantine Papacy
Popes under Constantinople's shadow: elected in Rome, confirmed by an emperor a thousand miles east.
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1. Felix IIISaint
  No. 48 · 483-492
  A widowed Roman aristocrat, ancestor of Gregory the Great, who excommunicated the patriarch of Constantinople and opened a 35-year schism.
2. Gelasius ISaint
  No. 49 · 492-496
  The Roman of African family who told an emperor there were two powers in the world, the priests' the weightier, and fed Rome as he said it.
3. Anastasius II
  No. 50 · 496-498
  The pope who tried to end the schism with the East, split his own clergy doing it, and was put in hell by Dante for his trouble.
4. SymmachusSaint
  No. 51 · 498-514
  A Sardinian convert who won a double election, survived four years of street war, and left the rule that no one judges the pope.
5. HormisdasSaint
  No. 52 · 514-523
  A widower whose son would also be pope, he ended the Acacian schism with a formula that 250 Eastern bishops signed: Rome had never erred.
6. 519
  schismThe Acacian schism ends
  The patriarch and 250 Eastern bishops sign the Formula of Hormisdas: in the apostolic see the Catholic religion has always been kept unblemished.
7. John ISaint
  No. 53 · 523-526
  The first pope to visit Constantinople, sent by an Arian king to plead for Arians, who crowned an emperor and died in the king's prison.
8. Felix IVSaint
  No. 54 · 526-530
  Theodoric's choice, who settled the doctrine of grace for the West, built a church in the Forum, and tried to hand the papacy to his deacon.
9. 529
  religiousBenedict writes his Rule
  Monte Cassino's founder composes the rule that will quietly organize Western monasticism, and much of Europe, for a millennium.
10. Boniface II
  No. 55 · 530-532
  The first pope of Germanic blood, named by a dying predecessor against the majority's choice Dioscorus, and saved by his rival's death.
11. John II
  No. 56 · 533-535
  Named after a pagan god, he became the first pope to change his name, elected after a simony scandal and remembered for bowing to Justinian.
12. Agapetus ISaint
  No. 57 · 535-536
  Sent to Constantinople to stop a war, he failed, deposed the patriarch instead, consecrated his successor, and died in the imperial city.
13. SilveriusSaint
  No. 58 · 536-537
  A pope's son forced on Rome by a Gothic king, deposed by Belisarius on a forged letter, and starved to death on an island by his successor.
14. 536
  politicalBelisarius takes Rome
  Justinian's reconquest reaches the city; for two centuries the pope's Rome belongs to an emperor in Constantinople and his exarch in Ravenna.
15. Vigilius
  No. 59 · 537-555
  Theodora's candidate, installed over a living pope, seized at Mass by Justinian and broken over the Three Chapters: the papacy's low point.
16. 553
  councilSecond Council of Constantinople
  Justinian's council condemns the Three Chapters; Vigilius, a prisoner in the city, refuses for a year and then submits.
17. Pelagius I
  No. 60 · 556-561
  Justinian's nominee, so distrusted that only two bishops would consecrate him and he swore in Saint Peter's that he had not harmed Vigilius.
18. John III
  No. 61 · 561-574
  Thirteen years in which the Lombards arrived, the general who might have stopped them sulked, and the pope moved to a catacomb to keep him.
19. 568
  politicalThe Lombards enter Italy
  Alboin's Lombards cross the Alps; within a decade Rome is a besieged island in a Lombard peninsula, fed by sea from Sicily and Egypt.
20. Benedict I
  No. 62 · 575-579
  Elected after eleven months' wait for the emperor's leave, he fed a besieged city on Egyptian grain and died with the Lombards at the walls.
21. Pelagius II
  No. 63 · 579-590
  Consecrated in a siege without imperial leave, he begged the Franks to fight the Lombards and died of the plague that made Gregory pope.
22. Gregory ISaint
  No. 64 · 590-604
  The prefect turned monk turned unwilling pope: he fed Rome, sent Augustine to Kent, and called himself servant of the servants of God.
23. 597
  religiousAugustine lands in Kent
  Gregory's monk baptizes King Ethelbert at Canterbury; the English church is Rome's from birth, and will repay the debt in missionaries.
24. Sabinian
  No. 65 · 604-606
  Gregory's successor, who sold grain in a famine where Gregory had given it away, and whose funeral had to detour to avoid the crowd.
25. Boniface III
  No. 66 · 607
  Nine months in 607, in which a usurping emperor declared Rome the head of all the churches and a synod forbade talk of the succession.
26. Boniface IVSaint
  No. 67 · 608-615
  Gregory's treasurer, who turned the Pantheon into a church, received Columbanus's rebuke, and turned his own house into a monastery.
27. Adeodatus ISaint
  No. 68 · 615-618
  An elderly priest who favored clergy over Gregory's monks, left the oldest papal lead seal, and is said to have kissed a leper well.
28. Boniface V
  No. 69 · 619-625
  A Neapolitan who waited a year for a usurping exarch to die, then wrote to England: to Justus, and to a pagan king's Christian queen.
29. 622
  religiousThe Hijra
  Muhammad's migration to Medina founds the Islamic era; within a century Syria, Egypt, Africa, and Spain are under Muslim rule.
30. Honorius I
  No. 70 · 625-638
  A builder and Gregory's imitator who answered one letter about Christ's will carelessly and became the only pope anathematized by a council.
31. Severinus
  No. 71 · 640
  Elected in 638 and consecrated twenty months later, after the emperor's soldiers had plundered the Lateran; he reigned two months.
32. John IV
  No. 72 · 640-642
  The Dalmatian who condemned the one-will doctrine, defended the dead Honorius, and ransomed his homeland's captives from the Slavs.
33. Theodore I
  No. 73 · 642-649
  A bishop's son from Jerusalem, first of the Greek popes, who deposed two patriarchs and signed one sentence with a pen dipped in the wine.
34. Martin ISaint
  No. 74 · 649-655
  Consecrated without imperial leave, he condemned the emperor's doctrine, was seized at the altar, tried for treason, and died in the Crimea.
35. Eugene ISaint
  No. 75 · 654-657
  Elected under pressure while Martin I still lived, a mild priest whose people stopped him at the altar when he bent toward Constantinople.
36. VitalianSaint
  No. 76 · 657-672
  Fifteen years of careful peace with an emperor who visited Rome and stripped its roofs; the pope who sent Theodore of Tarsus to Canterbury.
37. Adeodatus II
  No. 77 · 672-676
  A monk of Saint Erasmus on the Caelian, generous to his clergy, who left the patriarch's letter unanswered and the record almost empty.
38. Donus
  No. 78 · 676-678
  An elderly Roman who paved the atrium of Saint Peter's, dispersed a nest of Nestorian monks, and received Ravenna's submission.
39. AgathoSaint
  No. 79 · 678-681
  The Sicilian whose letter became the rule of faith at the Sixth Council, which cried that Peter spoke through him and condemned Honorius.
40. 681
  councilThird Council of Constantinople
  Monothelitism is condemned with Agatho's letter as its standard; the same council anathematizes a dead pope, Honorius, by name.
41. Leo IISaint
  No. 80 · 682-683
  A Sicilian musician who waited eighteen months to be confirmed, then confirmed the council that condemned a pope and softened the sentence.
42. Benedict IISaint
  No. 81 · 684-685
  A Roman chanter who waited a year for the emperor's leave and then obtained the decree that no pope after him would have to.
43. John V
  No. 82 · 685-686
  A Syrian legate at the Sixth Council, the first pope consecrated without waiting for the emperor, and ill for the whole of his year.
44. Conon
  No. 83 · 686-687
  An old priest of Thracian family and Sicilian schooling, chosen as the compromise when Rome's clergy and army each elected their own man.
45. Sergius ISaint
  No. 84 · 687-701
  Elected over two rivals, he refused the emperor's council, was saved from arrest by Italy's militia, and gave the Mass the Agnus Dei.
46. John VI
  No. 85 · 701-705
  A Greek who shielded the exarch from Rome's own soldiers, bought off a Lombard duke, and ruled for Wilfrid of York a second time.
47. John VII
  No. 86 · 705-707
  An official's son who moved the papacy to the Palatine, put his portrait in two churches, and sent the emperor's canons back unsigned.
48. Sisinnius
  No. 87 · 708
  Twenty days in the chair, too crippled by gout to lift his hand to his mouth, and still ordering lime burned to repair the walls of Rome.
49. Constantine
  No. 88 · 708-715
  The Syrian who sailed to Constantinople and had an emperor kiss his feet, the last pope to visit the East until 1967.
50. Gregory IISaint
  No. 89 · 715-731
  He sent Boniface to Germany, refused the emperor's taxes and icon ban, and received Sutri, the first territory the papacy ever held.
51. 726
  schismIconoclasm begins
  Leo III orders the destruction of images; Gregory II refuses, and the cities of Italy refuse the emperor's taxes.
52. Gregory IIISaint
  No. 90 · 731-741
  The last pope to ask the exarch's leave: he excommunicated the iconoclasts, lost the Sicilian estates, and sent Charles Martel Peter's keys.
53. 732
  politicalBattle of Tours
  Charles Martel halts the Umayyad advance into Francia, marking the Franks as the military power the papacy will soon court.
54. ZacharySaint
  No. 91 · 741-752
  The last Greek pope, who talked two Lombard kings into retreat and told Pepin that the man with the power should have the crown.
55. 751
  politicalPepin becomes king of the Franks
  Pepin asks Zachary whether the man with the power should have the title; the pope says yes, and the Carolingians replace the Merovingians.
V752-903
The Carolingian Papacy
The Frankish bargain: popes crown emperors, emperors defend popes, and the Papal States are born.
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1. Stephen II
  No. 92 · 752-757
  He crossed the Alps in winter to ask a Frankish king for an army, and came home with the exarchate: the Papal States begin here.
2. 754
  politicalPepin's promise at Quierzy
  Pepin swears at Ponthion and Quierzy to restore the exarchate to Saint Peter, and Stephen II anoints him and his sons at Saint-Denis.
3. Paul ISaint
  No. 93 · 757-767
  Stephen II's brother, who kept the Frankish alliance alive by letter, feared a Greek fleet, and moved the martyrs out of the catacombs.
4. Stephen III
  No. 94 · 768-772
  Elected after a layman and a monk had both been made pope by force, he legislated against it and ended a prisoner of his own court.
5. Adrian I
  No. 95 · 772-795
  Charlemagne's friend for twenty-three years, he saw the Lombard kingdom fall, coined money in his own name, and rebuilt Rome.
6. 774
  politicalCharlemagne takes Pavia
  The Lombard kingdom falls after a winter siege; Charlemagne becomes king of the Lombards and, at Easter in Rome, renews his father's promise to Adrian I.
7. 782
  culturalAlcuin joins Charlemagne's court
  The schoolmaster of York takes charge of the palace school, and the Carolingian revival of letters, scripts, and corrected texts begins.
8. 787
  councilSecond Council of Nicaea
  The empress Irene's council restores the veneration of images with Adrian I's legates present; Charlemagne's theologians reject it on a bad translation.
9. Leo IIISaint
  No. 96 · 795-816
  Beaten in the street, judged by no one, he set a crown on Charlemagne's head on Christmas Day 800 and made an emperor.
10. 800
  politicalCoronation of Charlemagne
  On Christmas Day, Leo III crowns Charlemagne emperor in St. Peter's, binding papacy and empire for seven centuries.
11. Stephen IV
  No. 97 · 816-817
  Seven months as pope, most of them on the road to Reims to anoint Louis the Pious with a crown said to have been Constantine's.
12. Paschal ISaint
  No. 98 · 817-824
  Patron of the mosaics of Santa Prassede and Santa Cecilia, keeper of the Frankish pact, and a pope Rome refused to bury in Saint Peter's.
13. Eugene II
  No. 99 · 824-827
  The pope who accepted the Constitutio Romana, putting Rome under an imperial oath, and then wrote the reform canons of 826.
14. Valentine
  No. 100 · 827
  Elected by clergy, nobles, and people together, and dead within about forty days: the hundredth pope, and one of the briefest.
15. Gregory IV
  No. 101 · 827-844
  Consecrated only when the emperor's men approved, he crossed the Alps to make peace between Louis the Pious and his sons, and was used.
16. 843
  politicalTreaty of Verdun
  The sons of Louis the Pious divide the empire into three kingdoms; the popes will never again have a single Frankish protector to deal with.
17. Sergius II
  No. 102 · 844-847
  A gouty aristocrat whose brother sold bishoprics while the Saracens landed at Ostia and stripped the tomb of Saint Peter.
18. 846
  politicalSaracens sack Saint Peter's
  A fleet from Muslim Sicily lands at Ostia and strips Saint Peter's and Saint Paul's, both outside the walls; Leo IV answers with the Leonine City.
19. Leo IVSaint
  No. 103 · 847-855
  He walled the Vatican after the Saracen sack, blessed the fleet that beat them at Ostia, and gave the Leonine City its name.
20. Benedict III
  No. 104 · 855-858
  Deposed and jailed by the emperor's envoys in favor of an excommunicated priest, restored by a city that would not have the intruder.
21. Nicholas ISaint
  No. 105 · 858-867
  He deposed archbishops, refused a king his divorce, excommunicated a patriarch, and told the world the pope was judged by no one.
22. 863
  schismThe Photian Schism
  Rome and Constantinople excommunicate over the see of Constantinople, rehearsing the arguments of the final rupture of 1054.
23. 863
  religiousCyril and Methodius reach Moravia
  Two brothers from Thessalonica bring a Slavonic alphabet and liturgy to Moravia; Rome will bless the liturgy, ban it, and bless it again.
24. Adrian II
  No. 106 · 867-872
  Elected at seventy-five, he lost his wife and daughter to a murderer and Bulgaria to the Greeks, and blessed the Slavonic books.
25. John VIII
  No. 107 · 872-882
  He built a fleet against the Saracens, crowned two emperors who could not save him, blessed the Slavonic Mass, and was murdered.
26. Marinus I
  No. 108 · 882-884
  The first bishop of another see to become pope, three times a legate to Constantinople, and the man who brought Formosus back.
27. Adrian IIISaint
  No. 109 · 884-885
  Sixteen months of hard justice in Rome, then a summons to Worms and a death on the road near Modena, where a cult grew at his tomb.
28. Stephen V
  No. 110 · 885-891
  He fed Rome from his own fortune, crowned the duke of Spoleto emperor when the Carolingians ran out, and banned the Slavonic Mass.
29. 888
  politicalThe Carolingian Empire dissolves
  Charles the Fat dies deposed, and the empire breaks into kingdoms under kings who are not Carolingians; the popes must crown whoever holds Italy.
30. Formosus
  No. 111 · 891-896
  Missionary to the Bulgars, exile under John VIII, pope at seventy-five, and nine months after his death the defendant at his own trial.
31. Boniface VI
  No. 112 · 896
  Twice degraded for immorality by John VIII and elected by a mob, he was pope for fifteen days in the spring of 896.
32. Stephen VI
  No. 113 · 896-897
  He put the corpse of Formosus on trial in the Lateran, condemned it, threw it in the Tiber, and was strangled in prison within the year.
33. Romanus
  No. 114 · 897
  Four months in the autumn of 897, between a strangled pope and a twenty-day one; he may have ended in a monastery.
34. Theodore II
  No. 115 · 897
  Twenty days in December 897, long enough to annul the Cadaver Synod and bury Formosus again in Saint Peter's.
35. 897
  councilThe Cadaver Synod
  Stephen VI has the corpse of Formosus exhumed, robed, tried, and condemned; the body goes into the Tiber and Stephen is strangled within the year.
36. John IX
  No. 116 · 898-900
  A monk ordained by Formosus, seated against a rival with an emperor's help, who burned the Cadaver Synod's acts and gave Moravia bishops.
37. Benedict IV
  No. 117 · 900-903
  A Formosan of generous repute who crowned Louis of Provence emperor, saw him driven out within a year, and closed the Carolingian era.
VI903-1046
The Iron Century
The papacy's darkest stretch: Roman clans install, depose, and occasionally murder the popes they own.
Read about this era→
1. Leo V
  No. 118 · 903
  A country priest elected in July 903 and in prison by September, the first victim of the century that followed.
2. Sergius III
  No. 119 · 904-911
  Elected in 897 and thrown out, he returned with Theophylact's soldiers, made the Cadaver Synod's verdict law again, and rebuilt the Lateran.
3. 910
  religiousCluny founded
  A Burgundian abbey answerable only to Rome begins the monastic reform movement that will eventually rescue the papacy itself.
4. Anastasius III
  No. 120 · 911-913
  Two quiet years under Theophylact's hand, a few privileges, and a name the chroniclers barely mention.
5. Lando
  No. 121 · 913-914
  Six months in 913 and 914, one surviving grant, and the last new papal name for a thousand years.
6. John X
  No. 122 · 914-928
  He rode with the league that burned the Saracens out of the Garigliano, then watched Marozia's men kill his brother in the Lateran.
7. 915
  politicalThe league of the Garigliano
  John X rides with Byzantines, Spoletans, and Campanians against the Saracen colony at the river mouth; after thirty-five years it is burned out.
8. Leo VI
  No. 123 · 928
  Marozia's first pope, put in the Lateran while John X lay in prison, and dead within seven months.
9. Stephen VII
  No. 124 · 928-931
  Two years as Marozia's second placeholder while her son came of age; a handful of privileges and no recorded act of his own.
10. John XI
  No. 125 · 931-935
  Marozia's son, pope at about twenty, who watched his half-brother seize the city and spent the rest of his reign under house arrest.
11. Leo VII
  No. 126 · 936-939
  Alberic's first pope, a Benedictine who brought Odo of Cluny to Rome to reform its monasteries and make its peace with a king.
12. Stephen VIII
  No. 127 · 939-942
  Alberic's second pope, remembered in France for saving Louis IV's crown and in legend, wrongly, as a German mutilated by the Romans.
13. Marinus II
  No. 128 · 942-946
  Alberic's third pope, a monastic reformer who took no step without the prince's consent and left the see as quietly as he found it.
14. Agapetus II
  No. 129 · 946-955
  Alberic's last pope, who opened Germany's eastern missions to Otto and was made to swear that the prince's son would succeed him.
15. John XII
  No. 130 · 955-964
  Prince of Rome and pope at eighteen, he called Otto I in as emperor, turned on him within a year, and was deposed by the emperor's synod.
16. 955
  politicalOtto I defeats the Magyars
  The German king destroys the Magyar army near Augsburg; the raids end, and the strongest ruler in the West begins to look toward Rome.
17. 962
  politicalOtto I crowned emperor
  The German king revives the empire and claims a veto over papal elections, trading one master in Rome for another.
18. Leo VIII
  No. 131 · 963-965
  The layman Otto's synod made pope in a week, rejected by Rome, restored by siege, and counted legitimate by a list that never decided.
19. Benedict V
  No. 132 · 964
  The Grammarian, elected by Rome in defiance of Otto, surrendered after a siege, broken of his staff, and exiled to Hamburg, where he died.
20. John XIII
  No. 133 · 965-972
  Otto's pope, driven out by Rome and brought back with a rope for the prefect; he crowned Otto II and married him to a Byzantine princess.
21. Benedict VI
  No. 134 · 973-974
  Otto's confirmed pope, seized within a year of the emperor's death and strangled in Castel Sant'Angelo on the orders of an antipope.
22. Benedict VII
  No. 135 · 974-983
  A bishop of Sutri chosen after an antipope fled with the treasury, who kept the peace with Otto II for nine years and preached reform.
23. John XIV
  No. 136 · 983-984
  Otto II's chancellor, made pope as the emperor lay dying; the antipope came back from Constantinople and starved him in Castel Sant'Angelo.
24. John XV
  No. 137 · 985-996
  Crescentius's pope for eleven years, who canonized Ulrich of Augsburg, refused Gerbert Reims, and died before Otto III could reach him.
25. 987
  politicalThe Capetians take France
  The last Carolingian king of the West Franks dies and Hugh Capet is elected; the quarrel over Reims that follows will make Gerbert a pope.
26. 988
  religiousVladimir of Kiev is baptized
  The prince of the Rus takes baptism from Constantinople and a Byzantine bride; the largest of the Slav peoples goes to the Greek church.
27. Gregory V
  No. 138 · 996-999
  Otto III's cousin and the first German pope, who crowned the emperor, was chased out by Crescentius, restored, and dead at twenty-seven.
28. Sylvester II
  No. 139 · 999-1003
  Gerbert of Aurillac, who brought the abacus and the astrolabe north and was made pope by the emperor he had taught: the first French pope.
29. 1000
  politicalGniezno and Esztergom
  Otto III kneels at Adalbert's tomb in Gniezno and Stephen of Hungary is crowned; Poland and Hungary enter Latin Europe with archbishops of their own.
30. John XVII
  No. 140 · 1003
  Seven months in 1003, put in by John Crescentius and forgotten by everyone but the list, which skipped a number to reach him.
31. John XVIII
  No. 141 · 1003-1009
  Six years as Crescentius's pope, who restored Merseburg, blessed Bamberg, and ended as a monk at Saint Paul's, whether by choice or not.
32. Sergius IV
  No. 142 · 1009-1012
  A shoemaker's son nicknamed Pig's Snout, Crescentius's third pope, who fed a famished city and died a week after his patron.
33. Benedict VIII
  No. 143 · 1012-1024
  A Tusculan layman made pope in a day, who crowned Henry II, let the Filioque into Rome's Creed, and fought the Saracens and the Greeks.
34. 1014
  religiousThe Filioque sung in Saint Peter's
  At Henry II's coronation the Creed is sung in Rome with the words Leo III had refused two centuries before; Constantinople takes note.
35. John XIX
  No. 144 · 1024-1032
  Benedict VIII's brother, pope in a day, who crowned Conrad II with Canute looking on and nearly sold Constantinople its title.
36. 1025
  culturalGuido of Arezzo writes music on lines
  A Benedictine shows John XIX an antiphoner with notes set on a staff; Western music can now be read by singers who have never heard it.
37. 1030
  politicalThe Normans get Aversa
  The duke of Naples grants Rainulf Drengot the county of Aversa, the first Norman lordship in Italy; within a century they will hold the south.
38. Benedict IX
  No. 145 · 1032-1044, 1045, 1047-1048
  Pope at twenty, driven out, restored, sold the office to his godfather, deposed at Sutri, and back once more: the Iron Century's last word.
39. Sylvester III
  No. 146 · 1045
  Bishop of Sabina, elected by Benedict IX's enemies in 1045, driven out in March, sentenced at Sutri, and a bishop still for years after.
40. Gregory VI
  No. 148 · 1045-1046
  The honest man who bought the papacy from his godson Benedict IX, welcomed by the reformers, resigned at Sutri; Hildebrand went with him.
41. 1046
  councilThe Synod of Sutri
  Henry III deposes Sylvester III and Gregory VI at Sutri and Benedict IX at Rome, names a German bishop Clement II, and the reform papacy begins.
VII1046-1198
Reform and Investiture
The papacy breaks free: simony condemned, elections handed to the cardinals, and an emperor kneeling in the snow.
Read about this era→
1. Clement II
  No. 149 · 1046-1047
  The bishop of Bamberg whom Henry III made pope at Sutri, and the only pope who lies buried in German soil.
2. Damasus II
  No. 151 · 1048
  Henry III's second German nominee, who needed a Tuscan margrave to clear Benedict IX out of Rome, then reigned twenty-three days.
3. Leo IXSaint
  No. 152 · 1049-1054
  The Alsatian who refused to be pope until Rome had elected him, then crossed the Alps again and again to judge the church in person.
4. 1054
  schismThe East-West Schism
  Papal legates and the patriarch of Constantinople excommunicate one another, a quarrel later remembered as the moment Rome and the Orthodox East divided.
5. Victor II
  No. 153 · 1055-1057
  The emperor's kinsman and shrewdest bishop, who ended by burying Henry III and governing the empire for his six-year-old heir.
6. Stephen IX
  No. 154 · 1057-1058
  A duke's brother and abbot of Monte Cassino, elected in four days without asking the German court whether it agreed.
7. Nicholas II
  No. 155 · 1059-1061
  The pope of the 1059 decree that took the choice of popes away from the Roman nobility and gave it to the cardinals.
8. Alexander II
  No. 156 · 1061-1073
  The Milanese who blessed William of Normandy's invasion banner and spent twelve years outlasting an antipope backed by the empire.
9. 1066
  politicalThe Norman Conquest of England
  William sails for England under a banner blessed by Alexander II, and a pope's approval helps decide who wears a crown.
10. 1071
  politicalThe Battle of Manzikert
  The Seljuks destroy a Byzantine army and open Asia Minor, setting in train the appeal for western help that ends at Clermont.
11. Gregory VIISaint
  No. 157 · 1073-1085
  The monk who claimed a pope could depose an emperor, proved it once at Canossa, and died in exile when he tried it a second time.
12. Victor III
  No. 158 · 1086-1087
  The abbot who rebuilt Monte Cassino into the wonder of Italy, was made pope against his will, and kept trying to go home.
13. Urban II
  No. 159 · 1088-1099
  The Cluniac who inherited a broken papacy, rebuilt it out of councils and diplomacy, and at Clermont sent armed Europe to Jerusalem.
14. 1088
  culturalThe Law School at Bologna
  Teaching on the rediscovered Roman law begins at Bologna, and Europe starts producing the professional lawyers the papacy will run on.
15. 1095
  religiousThe First Crusade
  Urban II's summons at Clermont sends armed Christendom east and makes the papacy the moral commander of Europe.
16. 1098
  religiousThe Founding of Cîteaux
  A handful of monks leave Molesme for a marsh in Burgundy, beginning the Cistercian order that will dominate the next century's religious life.
17. Paschal II
  No. 160 · 1099-1118
  Eighteen years of investiture war, and the pope who tried to end it by offering to give away every estate the church held in Germany.
18. Gelasius II
  No. 161 · 1118-1119
  Seized by a Roman baron on the day of his election, driven out by an emperor, and dead in a Burgundian abbey within the year.
19. Callixtus II
  No. 162 · 1119-1124
  A count's son related to half the thrones of Europe, who ended the fifty-year investiture war with a compromise at Worms.
20. 1122
  politicalThe Concordat of Worms
  Empire and papacy compromise on investiture: the emperor gives up ring and staff, the church concedes the bishop's lands are held from the crown.
21. Honorius II
  No. 163 · 1124-1130
  A blacksmith's son by tradition, and one of the negotiators of Worms, who owed his election to the swords of the Frangipani.
22. Innocent II
  No. 164 · 1130-1143
  Elected in a hurry by half the cardinals, he won an eight-year schism by leaving Rome and letting Bernard of Clairvaux argue for him.
23. 1140
  culturalGratian's Decretum
  A Bologna master reconciles a thousand years of contradictory church rulings into one textbook, and canon law becomes a science.
24. Celestine II
  No. 165 · 1143-1144
  A pupil of Abelard who reached the papacy for five months and used them to lift the interdict lying on the kingdom of France.
25. Lucius II
  No. 166 · 1144-1145
  The pope who led an assault on his own capital and was carried off the Capitol with a head wound that killed him.
26. Eugene III
  No. 167 · 1145-1153
  Bernard of Clairvaux's own monk, made pope overnight, who launched the Second Crusade and spent most of his reign locked out of Rome.
27. 1147
  religiousThe Second Crusade
  Preached by Bernard of Clairvaux for Eugene III, the expedition of two kings ends in failure outside Damascus.
28. Anastasius IV
  No. 168 · 1153-1154
  An old Roman who bought seventeen months of peace with his own city by conceding nearly everything his predecessors had fought for.
29. Adrian IV
  No. 169 · 1154-1159
  The only English pope: a clerk's son turned away by his own abbey, who built the church of Norway and faced down an emperor over a stirrup.
30. Alexander III
  No. 170 · 1159-1181
  Twenty-two years against Barbarossa and four antipopes, and the council that fixed the two-thirds rule still used to elect a pope.
31. 1176
  politicalThe Battle of Legnano
  The infantry of the Lombard League break Frederick Barbarossa's cavalry, forcing the emperor to come to terms with Alexander III at Venice.
32. Lucius III
  No. 171 · 1181-1185
  An old Cistercian who could not hold Rome, and whose decretal against heretics laid the first stone of the inquisition.
33. Urban III
  No. 172 · 1185-1187
  A Milanese who had watched Barbarossa raze his city, kept the archbishopric while pope, and never forgave the emperor anything.
34. Gregory VIII
  No. 173 · 1187
  Fifty-seven days, one bull, and the call that sent Barbarossa, Philip of France and Richard of England to the Third Crusade.
35. Clement III
  No. 174 · 1187-1191
  The Roman who negotiated the papacy back into Rome after forty-five years of exile, and dispatched the Third Crusade.
36. 1187
  politicalSaladin Takes Jerusalem
  Hattin destroys the kingdom's army and Jerusalem surrenders, news that kills one pope and moves his successor to call the Third Crusade.
37. Celestine III
  No. 175 · 1191-1198
  Elected at eighty-five, he crowned the emperor who imprisoned a crusading king, and asked to resign at ninety-two.
VIII1198-1305
The Papal Monarchy
The papacy at its medieval zenith: Innocent III judges kings, and Boniface VIII discovers the limits.
Read about this era→
1. Innocent III
  No. 176 · 1198-1216
2. 1204
  politicalSack of Constantinople
  The Fourth Crusade turns on Christian Constantinople, poisoning East-West relations beyond medieval repair.
3. 1209
  religiousRise of the mendicant orders
  Francis of Assisi wins papal approval for a movement of radical poverty that reshapes the church from below.
4. 1215
  councilFourth Lateran Council
  Innocent III's great council legislates for all Christendom, the medieval papacy's most complete display of authority.
5. Honorius III
  No. 177 · 1216-1227
6. Gregory IX
  No. 178 · 1227-1241
7. Celestine IV
  No. 179 · 1241
8. Innocent IV
  No. 180 · 1243-1254
9. Alexander IV
  No. 181 · 1254-1261
10. Urban IV
  No. 182 · 1261-1264
11. Clement IV
  No. 183 · 1265-1268
12. Gregory X
  No. 184 · 1271-1276
13. Innocent V
  No. 185 · 1276
14. Adrian V
  No. 186 · 1276
15. John XXI
  No. 187 · 1276-1277
16. Nicholas III
  No. 188 · 1277-1280
17. Martin IV
  No. 189 · 1281-1285
18. Honorius IV
  No. 190 · 1285-1287
19. Nicholas IV
  No. 191 · 1288-1292
20. Celestine V
  No. 192 · 1294
21. Boniface VIII
  No. 193 · 1295-1303
22. Benedict XI
  No. 194 · 1303-1304
IX1305-1378
The Avignon Papacy
Seven French popes beside the Rhone: the Babylonian captivity that emptied Rome and filled the papal treasury.
Read about this era→
1. Clement V
  No. 195 · 1305-1314
2. John XXII
  No. 196 · 1316-1334
3. Benedict XII
  No. 197 · 1335-1342
4. 1337
  politicalThe Hundred Years' War begins
  England and France begin their generational war, with popes seated in France struggling to look neutral.
5. Clement VI
  No. 198 · 1342-1352
6. 1347
  culturalThe Black Death
  Plague kills perhaps half of Europe; Clement VI opens Avignon's purse and defends the Jews against massacre libels.
7. Innocent VI
  No. 199 · 1353-1362
8. Urban V
  No. 200 · 1362-1370
9. Gregory XI
  No. 201 · 1371-1378
X1378-1447
The Western Schism
Two popes, then three: forty years in which Europe genuinely could not tell who held the keys.
Read about this era→
1. Urban VI
  No. 202 · 1378-1389
2. Boniface IX
  No. 203 · 1389-1404
3. Innocent VII
  No. 204 · 1404-1406
4. Gregory XII
  No. 205 · 1406-1415
5. 1414
  councilCouncil of Constance
  A general council deposes rival claimants, elects Martin V, and ends the schism, while burning Jan Hus under safe conduct.
6. Martin V
  No. 206 · 1417-1431
7. 1419
  religiousThe Hussite Wars
  Bohemia rises for the executed Hus, a rehearsal of the confessional wars a century before Luther.
8. Eugene IV
  No. 207 · 1431-1447
XI1447-1513
The Renaissance Papacy
Patrons, princes, and Borgias: the papacy rebuilds Rome in splendor while its spiritual credit runs down.
Read about this era→
1. Nicholas V
  No. 208 · 1447-1455
  The physician's son who ended the last schism, founded the Vatican Library, and decided Rome should be believed by being beautiful.
2. 1453
  politicalFall of Constantinople
  The Ottomans take the second Rome; refugee scholars and a crusading anxiety reshape the papal agenda.
3. Callixtus III
  No. 209 · 1455-1458
  The Valencian jurist who preached crusade after Constantinople, rehabilitated Joan of Arc, and made his nephew Rodrigo a cardinal.
4. 1455
  culturalThe Gutenberg Bible
  Print arrives; the same press that spreads indulgences will soon spread Luther faster than Rome can answer.
5. Pius II
  No. 210 · 1458-1464
  The humanist who wrote an erotic novel, became pope, told Europe to reject Aeneas and accept Pius, and died leading a crusade nobody joined.
6. Paul II
  No. 211 · 1464-1471
  The Venetian who fired Rome's humanists, jailed their historian, and paid for it with the worst press of any pope of his century.
7. Sixtus IV
  No. 212 · 1471-1484
  The Franciscan who built the Sistine Chapel, founded the Vatican Library, licensed the Spanish Inquisition, and made nepotism a system.
8. 1478
  religiousThe Spanish Inquisition
  Sixtus IV authorizes Ferdinand and Isabella's tribunal, a royal instrument in ecclesiastical dress that will outlive every pope of the era.
9. Innocent VIII
  No. 213 · 1484-1492
  The Genoese who acknowledged his children, took Ottoman gold to jail the sultan's brother, and signed the bull that armed the witch-hunters.
10. Alexander VI
  No. 214 · 1492-1503
  The Borgia pope: an able administrator whose children, bribes, and murders made his name a byword for everything the Reformation attacked.
11. 1492
  politicalColumbus reaches the Americas
  A new world enters history; within a year Alexander VI is drawing the line dividing it between Spain and Portugal.
12. 1494
  politicalThe Italian Wars begin
  Charles VIII marches through Italy to Naples; for sixty years the peninsula is the battlefield of France, Spain, and the Empire, with the papacy both player and prize.
13. Pius III
  No. 215 · 1503
  Twenty-six days: the gouty, upright nephew of Pius II, ordained priest eight days after his election and dead ten days after his coronation.
14. Julius II
  No. 216 · 1503-1513
  The warrior pope who led armies in armor, grew a beard against the French, and laid the first stone of the church Luther would help pay for.
15. 1508
  culturalMichelangelo begins the Sistine ceiling
  Four years on a scaffold for Julius II produce the image of God that the West still carries in its head.
XII1513-1605
Reformation and Counter-Reformation
The century the church broke and rebuilt itself: from Leo X's Rome to the disciplined papacy of Trent.
Read about this era→
1. Leo X
  No. 217 · 1513-1521
  The Medici prince whose brilliant, spendthrift Rome mistook Martin Luther for a passing squabble among friars.
2. 1517
  religiousLuther's Ninety-five Theses
  An Augustinian friar's protest against the indulgence trade detonates into the permanent division of western Christianity.
3. Adrian VI
  No. 218 · 1522-1523
  The austere Dutch reformer who admitted Rome's guilt out loud, and was mocked by Rome for twenty months until he died.
4. Clement VII
  No. 219 · 1523-1534
  The unluckiest Medici: his hesitations bought the Sack of Rome and lost England, in the same seven years.
5. 1527
  politicalSack of Rome
  Unpaid imperial troops storm and ravage Rome for months while Clement VII watches from Castel Sant'Angelo.
6. Paul III
  No. 220 · 1534-1549
  The last Renaissance pope and the first Counter-Reformation one: he approved the Jesuits and finally opened Trent.
7. 1534
  schismEnglish Act of Supremacy
  Henry VIII makes himself head of the Church of England, subtracting a kingdom from papal obedience over a divorce.
8. 1540
  religiousSociety of Jesus approved
  Paul III approves Ignatius of Loyola's company, giving the Counter-Reformation its schoolmasters and missionaries.
9. 1545
  councilCouncil of Trent opens
  The council that will define Catholic doctrine and discipline for four centuries finally convenes after decades of delay.
10. Julius III
  No. 221 · 1550-1555
  He reopened Trent and restored England to Rome for a moment, then retreated to his villa and let the momentum die.
11. Marcellus II
  No. 222 · 1555
  Twenty-two days of the reform papacy everyone had been waiting for, remembered forever by a Mass that bears his name.
12. Paul IV
  No. 223 · 1555-1559
  Reform as inquisition: the Index, the ghetto, and a Rome so cowed it rioted with joy the day he died.
13. Pius IV
  No. 224 · 1559-1565
  The genial lawyer who ended Trent, published its decrees, and gave the church its first modern profession of faith.
14. Pius VSaint
  No. 225 · 1566-1572
  The Dominican inquisitor who made Trent real, standardized the Mass for four centuries, and forged the fleet that won Lepanto.
15. 1571
  politicalBattle of Lepanto
  The Holy League assembled by Pius V shatters the Ottoman fleet in the largest galley battle ever fought.
16. Gregory XIII
  No. 226 · 1572-1585
  The lawyer pope who gave the world its calendar, Europe its Jesuit colleges, and the missions their global reach.
17. 1582
  culturalThe Gregorian calendar
  Gregory XIII deletes ten days from October and gives the world the calendar it still runs on.
18. Sixtus V
  No. 227 · 1585-1590
  Five volcanic years: he broke the bandits, rebuilt Rome around its pilgrim roads, raised the obelisk, and finished the dome.
19. Urban VII
  No. 228 · 1590
  Twelve days: the shortest accepted pontificate, remembered for charity to the poor and history's first public smoking ban.
20. Gregory XIV
  No. 229 · 1590-1591
  A pious invalid pushed by Spain into France's wars, who still found time to ban gambling on papal elections.
21. Innocent IX
  No. 230 · 1591
  A capable veteran given sixty-two days, spent steadying finances, policing the Tiber, and dying after a pilgrimage in the rain.
22. Clement VIII
  No. 231 · 1592-1605
  He absolved Henry IV, freed the papacy from Spain's leash, ran the Jubilee of 1600, and burned Giordano Bruno the same year.
23. 1598
  politicalEdict of Nantes
  Henry IV grants French Protestants toleration, closing the wars of religion that defined the century's politics.
XIII1605-1799
Baroque and Enlightenment
From Bernini's colonnade to Napoleon's shadow: two centuries of splendor and shrinking leverage.
Read about this era→
1. Leo XI
  No. 232 · 1605
2. Paul V
  No. 233 · 1605-1621
3. 1618
  politicalThe Thirty Years' War
  Europe's confessional catastrophe begins; its peace will be signed over papal protest, a sign of the new order.
4. Gregory XV
  No. 234 · 1621-1623
5. Urban VIII
  No. 235 · 1623-1644
6. 1633
  culturalTrial of Galileo
  The Holy Office forces Galileo's abjuration, the emblematic collision of papal authority with the new science.
7. Innocent X
  No. 236 · 1644-1655
8. 1648
  politicalPeace of Westphalia
  The settlement ending the wars of religion ignores Innocent X's protest entirely; Europe now negotiates without Rome.
9. Alexander VII
  No. 237 · 1655-1667
10. Clement IX
  No. 238 · 1667-1669
11. Clement X
  No. 239 · 1670-1676
12. Innocent XI
  No. 240 · 1676-1689
13. Alexander VIII
  No. 241 · 1689-1691
14. Innocent XII
  No. 242 · 1691-1700
15. Clement XI
  No. 243 · 1700-1721
16. Innocent XIII
  No. 244 · 1721-1724
17. Benedict XIII
  No. 245 · 1724-1730
18. Clement XII
  No. 246 · 1730-1740
19. Benedict XIV
  No. 247 · 1740-1758
20. Clement XIII
  No. 248 · 1758-1769
21. Clement XIV
  No. 249 · 1769-1774
22. 1773
  religiousSuppression of the Jesuits
  Under Bourbon pressure, Clement XIV dissolves the papacy's most loyal order, the era's starkest surrender.
23. Pius VI
  No. 250 · 1775-1799
24. 1789
  politicalThe French Revolution
  The revolution nationalizes the French church and will soon carry a pope off to die in captivity.
XIV1799-1958
The Age of Revolution
The papacy loses its state and finds its voice: from Napoleon's prisoner to prisoner of the Vatican to moral superpower.
Read about this era→
1. Pius VII
  No. 251 · 1800-1823
  The Benedictine monk who was kidnapped by Napoleon, outlasted him, and then gave his family shelter in Rome.
2. 1804
  politicalNapoleon crowns himself
  At Notre-Dame, with Pius VII looking on, Napoleon places the crown on his own head; within five years he will annex the Papal States and jail the pope.
3. Leo XII
  No. 252 · 1823-1829
  The frail zealot whose six years turned the restored Papal States into a police state and walled Rome's Jews back into the ghetto.
4. Pius VIII
  No. 253 · 1829-1830
  Twenty months of a sick, scholarly canonist who accepted a revolution in France and Catholic emancipation in Britain.
5. 1830
  politicalThe revolutions of 1830
  The July Revolution topples the Bourbons in France and sets off the risings that leave the Papal States dependent on Austrian bayonets.
6. Gregory XVI
  No. 254 · 1831-1846
  The Camaldolese monk who condemned the slave trade and the railway in the same decade, and left the Papal States ungovernable.
7. Pius IX
  No. 255 · 1846-1878
  Elected as a liberal hope in 1846, he lost Rome, defined papal infallibility, and reigned longer than any pope whose dates can be verified.
8. 1848
  politicalThe revolutions of 1848
  Europe's year of revolutions drives Pius IX from Rome in disguise and cures him of liberalism for good.
9. 1869
  councilFirst Vatican Council
  Vatican I defines papal infallibility just before the pope's temporal kingdom disappears.
10. 1870
  politicalThe Capture of Rome
  Italian troops breach the Porta Pia; eleven centuries of Papal States end and the popes retreat behind Vatican walls.
11. Leo XIII
  No. 256 · 1878-1903
  The sixty-seven-year-old 'transitional' pope who reigned a quarter century and wrote the charter of Catholic social teaching.
12. 1891
  culturalThe industrial working class
  Steel, rail, and factory cities have made an industrial proletariat; Rerum novarum gives the church an answer to the social question.
13. Pius XSaint
  No. 257 · 1903-1914
  The postman's son from the Veneto who gave children communion, the church a legal code, and Modernism an oath against it.
14. Benedict XV
  No. 258 · 1914-1922
  The Genoese diplomat who called the Great War the suicide of Europe, was ignored by both sides, and spent the Vatican dry on its victims.
15. 1914
  politicalThe First World War
  The suicide of civilized Europe, in Benedict XV's phrase; every belligerent rejects the Holy See's peace proposals.
16. Pius XI
  No. 259 · 1922-1939
  The mountaineering librarian who founded Vatican City, made peace with Mussolini, and then denounced Fascist and Nazi idolatry.
17. 1929
  politicalThe Lateran Treaty
  Italy and the Holy See settle the Roman Question, creating Vatican City as the world's smallest sovereign state.
18. 1933
  politicalHitler takes power
  The Holy See signs a concordat with the new German government within months and spends the decade watching it broken.
19. Pius XII
  No. 260 · 1939-1958
  The aristocratic diplomat whose wartime silences and secret rescues still divide historians, and who defined the last dogma.
20. 1939
  politicalThe Second World War
  Pius XII steers the Holy See through occupation and genocide, a record still debated document by document.
XV1958-present
The Global Papacy
From the Second Vatican Council to the first American pope: the office goes worldwide in person and in reach.
Read about this era→
1. John XXIIISaint
  No. 261 · 1958-1963
  The seventy-six-year-old caretaker who called a council instead, and changed how the church speaks to the world.
2. 1962
  councilSecond Vatican Council
  John XXIII's council opens the windows: vernacular liturgy, religious freedom, and a new posture toward the modern world.
3. 1962
  politicalCuban missile crisis
  Thirteen days at the edge of nuclear war; John XXIII's radio appeal for peace runs on the front page of Pravda.
4. Paul VISaint
  No. 262 · 1963-1978
  The anxious intellectual who finished the council, flew the world, and carried Humanae vitae for the rest of his life.
5. 1968
  culturalThe year 1968
  Student revolt from Paris to Mexico City, the Prague Spring crushed, and a sexual revolution that makes Humanae vitae the most contested papal text of the century.
6. John Paul I
  No. 263 · 1978
  Thirty-three days of a smiling pope, the first double name in history, and a death that bred forty years of rumor.
7. John Paul IISaint
  No. 264 · 1978-2005
  The pope from Kraków who turned the office into a global stage and helped bring down the empire that had ruled his homeland.
8. 1989
  politicalFall of the Berlin Wall
  Communism collapses in Europe, with John Paul II's Poland as the first domino and the pope as a protagonist.
9. 2001
  politicalSeptember 11 attacks
  Al-Qaeda's attacks on New York and Washington open two decades of war and turn interreligious dialogue from a courtesy into a necessity.
10. Benedict XVI
  No. 265 · 2005-2013
  The shy Bavarian theologian who guarded doctrine for a quarter century, then did what no pope had freely done in 700 years: he resigned.
11. Francis
  No. 266 · 2013-2025
  The Jesuit from Buenos Aires who took the papacy out of the palace, toward the peripheries, and reopened arguments the council had left.
12. 2020
  culturalCOVID-19 pandemic
  A pandemic empties the world's squares; Francis prays alone in the rain before a deserted Saint Peter's for a locked-down planet.
13. 2022
  culturalGenerative AI goes public
  Chatbots and image models reach hundreds of millions of users within months and reopen the question of what is human; the next pope takes his name with it in mind.
14. Leo XIV
  No. 267 · 2025-present
  The Chicago-born Augustinian and Peruvian missionary elected in 2025 as the first American pope, with the machine age as his chosen theme.