Listed by the year they took office:
1404: Innocent VII was excommunicated by the antipope of Avignon, who was backed by Scotland, much of Spain and France and parts of Italy. The split between pope and antipope, called the Great Western Schism, began in 1377.
1406: Gregory XII was one of three Catholic popes. In addition to the antipope of Avignon there was also Antipope John XXIII, accused of piracy, rape, incest and sodomy. The Council of Constance (1414-1418) got John and Gregory to step down and undermined the support for Avignon, ending the schism in:
1417: Martin V: with the schism over, the pope could now turn his attention to – war. Martin got Queen Joanna II of Naples to withdraw her troops from Rome, he won the Battle of L’Aquila and crushed an uprising in Bologna. He recovered the papal treasury, enriching his family.
1431: Eugene IV fled Rome in disguise during an uprising. He was not able to return for nine years. With Constantinople about to fall to the Turks, he was able to get the Orthodox Church to agree to rejoin the Catholic Church. The deal fell apart when he called a crusade and it failed. In “Illius qui” (1442), he called the Portuguese raids on Africa a “crusade”, allowing Portugal to bring back Africans as slaves.
1447: Nicholas V gave us what would become the Vatican Library and the Doctrine of Discovery – the right of Christians to take any non-Christian lands they “discover”. In “Dum diversas” (1452), to get Portugal interested in a crusade against the Turks, he allowed the Portuguese to put non-Christian Africans into “perpetual servitude”.
1455: Callistus III, the first Spanish pope and a Borgia, became pope two years after the fall of Constantinople. He called a crusade to take it back, but with little success.
1458: Pius II also called a crusade against the Turks. He led it in person – but died just as the ships for the crusade arrived. Illegitimate children: 18.
1464: Paul II, the playboy nephew of Eugene IV, also called a crusade with little success. He promised to reform the Church but did not.
1471: Sixtus IV gave us the Sistine Chapel (named after him), Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition and Renaissance Rome. His wars and his family emptied the papal treasury, leading to the sale of indulgences, leading to the Protestant Reformation in 1517. He overturned what reforms were made by the Council of Constance. Oh, and he took part in a murder plot against the Medicis of Florence.
1484: Innocent VIII created and sold offices in the Church to pay off the debts of Sixtus. Called yet another unsuccessful crusade. Illegitimate children: 3.
1492: Alexander VI was the rich and corrupt nephew of Callistus III and the father of Cesare Borgia. He was the second (and so far last) Spanish pope. He had mistresses and illegitimate children both before and after he bought his popedom. He gave half the non-Christian world to his home country of Spain in the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494). Portugal got the other half. He was so Machiavellian that he appears as an evil pope in Machiavelli.
– Abagond, 2015.
See also:
- pope
- Pope Francis – the current pope
- Protestant
- Portuguese Empire
- slaveries compared
- Crusades
- jihad
- Machiavelli
523
LOM Read your history, sir. Luther did for years try to REFORM within the framework of Catholicism instead of breaking off. His original 95 theses were a call to clean up the Church not break away from it.
LikeLike
A thousand years before these dudes it seemed somewhat common to have popes who were either African or of partial-African parentage. When did the church decide that those from Europe were more deserving?
LikeLike
Yeah the current pope is so great noone from philly can use public transit this weekend during his visit ugh…
LikeLike
Why does he travel with a submachinegun squad anyway?
LikeLike
A recent comment from African Bishops:-
Africa’s bishops denounce the West’s anti-family agenda as a ‘new slavery’
September 21, 2015
As the United Nations prepares to officially adopt the controversial post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals, 48 African bishops and ten cardinals have released a letter demanding that western powers stop pushing their “filthy campaigns that promote a civilization of death on our continent” under the guise of humanitarian aid.
“It can no longer be denied that under the euphemism of ‘sexual and reproductive health and rights,’ such programs are plainly imposed as a condition for development assistance,” the letter titled Common Declaration of the Bishops of Africa and Madagascar states. The letter was written in June but released for publication this month in view of the New York Summit this weekend for the adoption of the “post-2015 global development agenda.”
“These political and economic pressures have but one objective: the drastic control and reduction of the African population, the planned destruction of marriage and the family.”
The African prelates state how they are “all wounded in the depths of our hearts as Pastors” by witnessing the constant sexually ideological bombardment from Western powers against “life, the family, all that is sacred, the healthy human development of our youth who are the future of Africa, the full blossoming of women and respect for our elderly – realities of which our African cultures have such a keen sense.”
“These political and economic pressures have but one objective: the drastic control and reduction of the African population, the planned destruction of marriage and the family.”
“We Africans must categorically say ‘No’ to this plan, which is killing our continent. Pope Francis exhorts us to ‘be on guard against colonization by new ideologies. There are forms of ideological colonization which are out to destroy the family,” the letter states.
The prelates say that the time has come for Africa to reject the Western “masters” and their “ideological objectives.”
“We, African Pastors, do not want Africans to be reduced to ‘servile partners.’ This is a new type of slavery! We want the dignity of our people to be respected.”
The prelates take special issue with various treaties — such as the Maputo Protocol, Addis-Ababa Declaration on Population and Development in Africa beyond 2014, and the about-to-be-adopted Sustainable Development Goals — that they say only destroy the African family unit through their promotion of contraception, abortion, and sex-ed bereft of morals.
“These documents, even though they appear, in their external presentation and formulation, to procure elements of well-being and prosperity for all, are in reality real programs of destruction of the poor and humanity’s values, and not of a development that would respect the dignity and sacredness of the human person and the well-being of the family, when they integrate, often in hidden ways, the agenda of the western sexual revolution.”
“The billions of dollars allotted to the production and distribution of condoms and contraceptives and to the establishment of sex-education programs that do not respect universal moral norms are a scandal that cries to heaven for vengeance, a new slavery at the service of the idol ‘money.’ The objective that is clearly being pursued is, inter alia, the efficient control of demographic growth in Africa, according to the western ‘model,’ which has become a zero growth model in Europe today,” the letter states.
The prelates beg all Africans, including heads of states and governments, to make a strong stand for the good of their continent.
“Wake up your conscience! Remember that every human person will have to render an account of their actions before God.”
“Our wishes, our desire, our prayer, our pastoral labors are that in this era of globalization, Africa will today offer humanity its unique and irreplaceable contribution, according to the gifts she has received from God and are properly hers,” the letter concludes.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/africas-bishops-denounce-the-wests-anti-family-agenda-as-a-new-slavery?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=56caf8bd54-LifeSiteNews_com_Intl_Headlines_06_19_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0caba610ac-56caf8bd54-397590901
LikeLike
@Uglyblackjohn
How many popes of African descent were there? Not sure there were more than a few, but my guess is the pool dried up once Islam spread in North Africa.
@v8driver
“Why does he travel with a submachinegun squad anyway?”
I guess his faith in God is not as strong as he preaches it should be.
LikeLike
@res77w lol maybe its the sins of the fathers so to speak
LikeLike
@ resw77
I think there were three, but the popes prior to Constantine are more than uncertain. The last one was Gelasius at the end of the 5th century. that there were no more between him and the spread of Islam across North Africa was due to the regionalization of the West Empire, so I’m not certain about that.
LikeLike
LOM
It’s like anything. You try to change the system until the system kicks you out. What else can you do? At some point you have no choice because the system no longer gives you any choice but: “fall into line” vs. “stand by your beliefs.”
LikeLike
Very concise and very enlightening post on these so called holy men of God. They were nothing but devils.
LikeLike
The early Catholic church was corrupt. Evil popes with illegitimate children, instrumental in enslaving Africans. Avarice and greed. Disgusting pigs. But I learned something new today. Thank you for this. I was watching the news and it showed the Holy Father in Cuba, and I think he is a benevolent man. But someone in Cuba referred to him as Lucifer incarnated.
LikeLike
Pope Francis has rock star status.
LikeLike
The Pope is just as famous as Beyoncé.😄
LikeLike
As with most organized religions there is politics and corruption.
LikeLike
Great post, Abagond (still perplexes me why so many choose to exalt these mortal men/popes, as opposed to just orthodoxically worshipping Jesus/God Directly themselves-no “middle man” needed)..Sidenote: @ Mary, he is even more famous than she is as his Pope peers have often been-I mean, gurlie these men have P.O.W.E.R. you feel me!? ; )
LikeLike
@v8driver, “Yeah the current pope is so great noone from philly can use public transit this weekend during his visit ugh…” East Coast problems, (having previously lived there), I can relate! LOL
LikeLike
@v8driver
Well if it’s about the sins of the prior popes, I’d travel with an army and a pope mobile for my pope mobile if I were Pope Francis.
@Kartoffel
I think it has more to do with Islam nearly wiping out Catholicism in North Africa (and southwestern Europe).
LikeLike
Great post Abagond! Your article truly reveals how much of a corrupt; false church/religion and morally bankrupt institution that we refer to as Catholicism truly was since its inception, just like it is even today. The Popes of Catholicism are hoarders of false doctrines which needless to say are anti-Christ!
LikeLike
@ resw77
Certainly true for the time after the Islamic Expansion, I meant for the 150 years between Gelasius and that. But according to Wikipedia the vast majoritiy of popes between 300 and 650 were from Italy anyway, so Gelasius was just an exception and we don’t have to look for a reason why there were no other popes from Africa.
LikeLike
^^^666^^^
LOL
Okay! Here we go!
LikeLike
@ Uglyblackjohn
The last African pope of the Catholic Church was Gelasius I, a Berber, in 496. The main Christian church in Africa, the Coptic Church, was declared heretical at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. It has popes of its own.
LikeLike
So the differences became more about theology than race?
It just always seems odd to me when people are so adamant that there was no African blood in European royalty yet Africans (at one point in time) could run the most powerful institution in Europe?
LikeLike
Are you going to see the current Pope while he’s in New York?
LikeLike
The Holy Father seems to be a compassionate man. He reminds me of Mother Teresa whom I felt was a beautiful human being. He cares about human suffering and tolerance of others who are marginalized or oppressed.
LikeLike
But isn’t the pope just a politician who is elected to office by cardinals?
LikeLike
Hmm…….Gelasius have to read up on him.
LikeLike
..I hope the pope is as compassionate and non-corrupt as one should be-as for calling someone Father (with a capital F, as in a title of Reverence), I preserve that for my Creator (God) Only, that is but one of my biggest bones of contention with Catholic doctrine..and also one of the reasons that I do not put it on par with the average “Christian (orthodox) sect” in general.
LikeLike