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When and Why Did Popes Start Changing Their Names?
One Roman Catholic correspondent criticized my list of popes that denied the immaculate conception (link to list and discussion) on the basis that some of the statements were made by the popes before they took office. He actually went so far as to claim: Men who become Pope change their names precisely to show that…
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Pope Joan
Peter Stanford’s work, The She-Pope, is apparently being turned into a film. The basic gist of the work is that one woman managed to become pope, only to give birth to a child in public (thereby betraying her secret). Allegedly this all took place in the late 9th century. The story should be taken with…
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Same Church? We report, you decide.
Example 1Pope John Paul II: “[It] is everyone’s duty to work to ensure that the poor have access to credit on equitable terms and at affordable interest rates.” (source) (1 January 1998) Example 2Pope Sixtus V famously declared interest to be “detestable to God and man, damned by the sacred canons and contrary to Christian…
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Question to Romanists
Given the statement: “Religious minorities are entitled to be respected in their own religious convictions and practices. They are also entitled to their own places of worship, and their founding figures and symbols they consider sacred should not be subject to any form of mockery or ridicule.” a) Do you agree with the statement? b)…
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Pope Gregory VII from the German Perspective
The Character of Pope Gregoryextracted fromThe Variations of PoperybySamuel Edgar, D.D. (1855 ed., pp. 111-12) Gregory the Seventh, who obtained the papacy in 1073, was another pontifical patron of iniquity. He was elected on the day of his predecessor’s funeral, by the populace and soldiery, through force and bribery, without the concurrence of the emperor…