Antipope

An antipope is a person who claims to be Bishop of Rome and leader of the Roman Catholic Church in opposition to the officially elected pope. Between the 3rd and mid-15th centuries, antipopes were supported by factions within the Church itself and secular rulers. While modern claimants to the papacy still take place, they are rarely given serious consideration by either the public or the Church.
Sometimes it was difficult to distinguish which of two claimants should be called pope and which antipope, as in the case of Pope Leo VIII and Pope Benedict V.

History

is commonly considered to be the earliest antipope, as he headed a separate group within the Church in Rome against Pope Callixtus I. Hippolytus was reconciled to Callixtus's second successor, Pope Pontian, and both he and Pontian are honoured as saints by the Catholic Church with a shared feast day on 13 August. Whether two or more persons have been confused in this account of Hippolytus and whether Hippolytus actually declared himself to be the Bishop of Rome remains unclear, since no such claim by Hippolytus has been cited in the writings attributed to him.
Eusebius quotes from an unnamed earlier writer the story of Natalius, a 3rd-century priest who accepted the bishopric of the Adoptionists, a heretical group in Rome. Natalius soon repented and tearfully begged Pope Zephyrinus to receive him into communion.
Novatian, another third-century figure, certainly claimed the See of Rome in opposition to Pope Cornelius, and if Natalius and Hippolytus were excluded because of the uncertainties concerning them, Novatian could then be said to be the first antipope.
The period in which antipopes were most numerous was during the struggles between the popes and the Holy Roman Emperors of the 11th and 12th centuries. The emperors frequently imposed their own nominees to further their own causes. The popes, likewise, sometimes sponsored rival imperial claimants in Germany to overcome a particular emperor.
The Western Schism – which began in 1378, when the French cardinals, claiming that the election of Pope Urban VI was invalid, elected antipope Clement VII as a rival to the Roman Pope – led eventually to two competing lines of antipopes: the Avignon line as Clement VII moved back to Avignon, and the Pisan line. The Pisan line, which began in 1409, was named after the town of Pisa, Italy, where the council had elected antipope Alexander V as a third claimant. To end the schism, in May 1415, the Council of Constance deposed antipope John XXIII of the Pisan line. Pope Gregory XII of the Roman line resigned in July 1415. In 1417, the council also formally deposed antipope Benedict XIII of Avignon, but he adamantly refused to resign. Afterwards, Pope Martin V was elected and was accepted everywhere except in the small and rapidly diminishing area of influence of Benedict XIII.

List of historical antipopes

The following table gives the names of the antipopes included in the list of popes and antipopes in the Annuario Pontificio, with the addition of the names of Natalius and Antipope Clement VIII.
An asterisk marks those who were included in the conventional numbering of later popes who took the same name. More commonly, the antipope is ignored in later papal regnal numbers; for example, there was an Antipope John XXIII, but the new Pope John elected in 1958 was also called John XXIII. For the additional confusion regarding popes named John, see Pope John numbering.
The list of popes and antipopes in the Annuario Pontificio attaches the following note to the name of Pope Leo VIII :

At this point, as again in the mid-11th century, we come across elections in which problems of harmonising historical criteria and those of theology and canon law make it impossible to decide clearly which side possessed the legitimacy whose factual existence guarantees the unbroken lawful succession of the successors of Saint Peter. The uncertainty that in some cases results has made it advisable to abandon the assignation of successive numbers in the list of the popes.

Thus, because of the obscurities about mid-11th-century canon law and the historical facts, the Annuario Pontificio lists Sylvester III as a pope, without thereby expressing a judgement on his legitimacy. The Catholic Encyclopedia places him in its List of Popes, but with the annotation: "Considered by some to be an antipope". Other sources classify him as an antipope.
As Celestine II resigned before being consecrated and enthroned in order to avoid a schism, Oxford's A Dictionary of Popes considers he "...is classified, unfairly, as an antipope", an opinion historian Salvador Miranda also shares.
Those with asterisks were counted in subsequent papal numbering.

Pontificate	Common English name	Regnal name	Personal name	Place of birth	Age at election/ Death or resigned	Years as antipope	Notes	In opposition to
	Natalius	Natalius	Natalius	Rome, Roman Empire	38 / 48		Later reconciled	Zephyrinus
20 Dec 217 – 28 Sep 235	Saint Hippolytus	Hippolytus	Hippolytus	170 Rome, Roman Empire	45 / 65		Later reconciled with Pope Pontian	Callixtus I
20 Dec 217 – 28 Sep 235	Saint Hippolytus	Hippolytus	Hippolytus	170 Rome, Roman Empire	45 / 65		Later reconciled with Pope Pontian	Urban I
20 Dec 217 – 28 Sep 235	Saint Hippolytus	Hippolytus	Hippolytus	170 Rome, Roman Empire	45 / 65		Later reconciled with Pope Pontian	Pontian
Mar 251 – Aug 258	Novatian	Novatianus	Novatian	c. 200 Rome, Roman Empire	51 / 58		Founder of Novatianism	Cornelius
Mar 251 – Aug 258	Novatian	Novatianus	Novatian	c. 200 Rome, Roman Empire	51 / 58		Founder of Novatianism	Lucius I
Mar 251 – Aug 258	Novatian	Novatianus	Novatian	c. 200 Rome, Roman Empire	51 / 58		Founder of Novatianism	Stephen I
Mar 251 – Aug 258	Novatian	Novatianus	Novatian	c. 200 Rome, Roman Empire	51 / 58		Founder of Novatianism	Sixtus II
20 Apr 309 – 16 Aug 310	Heraclius	Heraclius	Heraclius	c. 265 Rome, Roman Empire	45 / 46			Eusebius
355 – 26 Nov 365	Felix II*	Felix secundus	Felix	c. 270 Rome, Roman Empire	80 / 90		Installed by Roman emperor Constantius II	Liberius
1 Oct 366 – 16 Nov 367	Ursicinus	Ursicinus	Ursinus	c. 300 Rome, Roman Empire	66 / 67			Damasus I
27 Dec 418 – 3 Apr 419	Eulalius	Eulalius	Eulalius	c. 370 Rome, Roman Empire	38 / 39			Boniface I
22 Nov 498 – Aug 506/08	Laurentius	Laurentius	Lorenzo Celio	c. 460 Rome, Roman Empire	38 / 46		Supported by Byzantine emperor Anastasius I	Symmachus
22 Sep 530 – 14 Oct 530	Dioscorus	Dioscurus	Dióskoros	c. 450 Alexandria	70 / 70			Boniface II
16 Jun 687 – 21 Sep 687	Theodore	Theodorus	Theodore	c. 599 Rome, Duchy of Rome	88 / 88			Sergius I
21 Sep 687 – 27 Dec 687	Paschal	Paschalis	Pascale	c. 598 Rome, Duchy of Rome	89 / 89			Sergius I
28 Jun 767 – 6 Aug 768	Constantine II	Constantinus secundus	Konstantinus	c. 700 Rome, Duchy of Rome	67 / 68			Between Paul I and Stephen III
31 Jul 768	Philip	Philippus	Philip	c. 701 Rome, Duchy of Rome	68 / 68		Installed by envoy of Lombard King Desiderius	Stephen III
25 Jan – 31 May 844	John VIII	Joannes octavus	Giovanni	c. 800 Rome, Papal States	44 / 44		Elected by acclamation	Sergius II
Jan 855 – 31 Mar 855	Anastasius III Bibliothecarius	Anastasius tertius	Anastasius	c. 810 Rome, Papal States	45 / 45			Benedict III
3 Oct 903 – 27 Jan 904	Christopher	Christophorus	Christoforo	c. 850 Rome, Papal States	53 / 54			Between Leo V and Sergius III
6 December 963 – 26 February 964	Leo VIII*	Leo octavus	Leone	c. 915 Rome, Papal States	48 / 49		Installed by emperor Otto the Great, opposed to John XII, later succeeded Benedict V as a legitimate Pope	John XII
Jul 974	Boniface VII*	Bonifacius	Franco Ferrucci	c. 900 Rome, Papal States	73 / 73 and 84 / 85	total 364 days		Between Benedict VI and Benedict VII
20 Aug 984 – 20 Jul 985	Boniface VII*	Bonifacius	Franco Ferrucci	c. 900 Rome, Papal States	73 / 73 and 84 / 85	total 364 days		Between John XIV and John XV
Apr 997 – Feb 998	John XVI*	Joannes	John Filagatto	c. 941 Rossano, Calabria, Papal States	56 / 56		Supported by Byzantine emperor Basil II	Gregory V
Jun 1012	Gregory VI	Gregorius Sextus	Gregorio	c. 960 Rome, Papal States	52 / 52			Benedict VIII
4 Apr 1058 – 24 Jan 1059	Benedict X*	Benedictus Decimus	Giovanni Mincio dei Conti di Tusculo	Rome, Papal States,	58 / 59		Supported by the Counts of Tusculum	Nicholas II
July 1061 – 31 May 1064	Honorius II	Honorius Secundus	Pietro Cadalus	1010 Verona, Papal States	51 / 54		Supported by Agnes, regent of the Holy Roman Empire	Alexander II
25 Jun 1080, 21 Mar 1084 – 8 Sep 1100	Clement III	Clemens Tertius	Guibert of Ravenna	Parma, Papal States	51 / 51, 54 / 71		Supported by Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor	Gregory VII
25 Jun 1080, 21 Mar 1084 – 8 Sep 1100	Clement III	Clemens Tertius	Guibert of Ravenna	Parma, Papal States	51 / 51, 54 / 71		Supported by Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor	Victor III
25 Jun 1080, 21 Mar 1084 – 8 Sep 1100	Clement III	Clemens Tertius	Guibert of Ravenna	Parma, Papal States	51 / 51, 54 / 71		Supported by Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor	Urban II
25 Jun 1080, 21 Mar 1084 – 8 Sep 1100	Clement III	Clemens Tertius	Guibert of Ravenna	Parma, Papal States	51 / 51, 54 / 71		Supported by Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor	Paschal II
8 Sep 1100 – Jan 1101	Theodoric	Theodoricus	Theodoro	Rome, Papal States,	70 / 71		Successor to Clement III	Paschal II
Jan 1101 – Feb 1102	Adalbert or Albert	Adalbertus	Albert	Atella, Campania, Papal States,	55 / 56		Successor to Theodoric	Paschal II
8 Nov 1105 – 11 Apr 1111	Sylvester IV	Sylvester Quartus	Maginulf	c. 1050 Rome, Papal States	49 / 55		Supported by Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor	Paschal II
10 Mar 1118 – 22 Apr 1121	Gregory VIII	Gregorius Octavus	Maurice Burdain	c. 1057 Limousin, Occitania, France	61 / 65		Supported by Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor	Gelasius II
10 Mar 1118 – 22 Apr 1121	Gregory VIII	Gregorius Octavus	Maurice Burdain	c. 1057 Limousin, Occitania, France	61 / 65		Supported by Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor	Callixtus II
16 Dec 1124	Celestine II	Cœlestinus Secundus	Teobaldo Boccapecci	c. 1050 Rome, Papal States	74 / 74			Honorius II
14 Feb 1130 – 25 Jan 1138	Anacletus II	Anacletus Secundus	Pietro Pierleoni	c. 1090 Rome, Papal States	48 / 48			Innocent II
25 Jan 1138 – 28 Mar 1138	Victor IV	Victor Quartus	Gregorio Conti	c. 1057 Ceccano, Papal States	81 / 81		Successor to Anacletus II	Innocent II
7 Sep 1159 – 20 Apr 1164	Victor IV	Victor Quartus	Ottavio di Montecelio	c. 1095 Tivoli, Papal States	64 / 69		Supported by Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor	Alexander III
22 Apr 1164 – 28 Sep 1168	Paschal III	Paschalis Tertius	Guido di Crema	c. 1110 Crema, Lombardy, Papal States	54 / 58		Supported by Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor	Alexander III
Sep 1168 – 29 Aug 1178	Callixtus III	Callixtus Tertius	Giovanni of Struma	c. 1090 Arezzo, Papal States	78 / 88		Supported by Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor	Alexander III
29 Sep 1179 – Jan 1180	Innocent III	Innocentius Tertius	Lanzo of Sezza	c. 1120 Sezze, Papal States	59 / 60		Supported by Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor	Alexander III
12 May 1328 – 12 Aug 1330	Nicholas V	Nicolaus Quintus	Pietro Rainalducci	c. 1258 Corvaro, Papal States	70 / 74		Supported by Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor	John XXII
20 Sep 1378 – 16 Sep 1394	Clement VII	Clemens	Robert of Geneva	1342 Annecy, France	36/52		Avignon	Urban VI
20 Sep 1378 – 16 Sep 1394	Clement VII	Clemens	Robert of Geneva	1342 Annecy, France	36/52		Avignon	Boniface IX
28 Sep 1394 – 23 May 1423	Benedict XIII	Benedictus	Pedro de Luna	25 November 1328 Illueca, Aragon	65/94		Avignon	Boniface IX
28 Sep 1394 – 23 May 1423	Benedict XIII	Benedictus	Pedro de Luna	25 November 1328 Illueca, Aragon	65/94		Avignon	Innocent VII
28 Sep 1394 – 23 May 1423	Benedict XIII	Benedictus	Pedro de Luna	25 November 1328 Illueca, Aragon	65/94		Avignon	Gregory XII
28 Sep 1394 – 23 May 1423	Benedict XIII	Benedictus	Pedro de Luna	25 November 1328 Illueca, Aragon	65/94		Avignon	Martin V
25 Jun 1409 – 3 May 1410	Alexander V*	Alexander	Pietro Philarghi	c. 1339 Crete, Republic of Venice	70 / 71		Pisa	Gregory XII
25 May 1410 – 29 May 1415	John XXIII	Ioannes Vicecimus Tertius	Baldassare Cossa	c. 1365	45 / 50		Pisa	Gregory XII
10 Jun 1423 – 26 Jul 1429	Clement VIII	Clemens Octavus	Gil Sánchez Muñoz y Carbón	1370 Teruel, Aragon	52 / 59		Avignon	Martin V
1424–1430	Benedict XIV	Benedictus Quartus Decimus	Bernard Garnier	1370 France	54 / 59		Claimed successor to Benedict XIII – aka "The hidden pope"	Martin V
1430–1437	Benedict XIV	Benedictus Quartus Decimus	Jean Carrier	c. 1370 France	59 / 66			Martin V
5 Nov 1439 – 7 Apr 1449	Felix V	Fœlix	Duke Amadeus VIII of Savoy	4 September 1383 Chambéry, Savoy	56/65		Elected by the Council of Basel	Eugene IV
5 Nov 1439 – 7 Apr 1449	Felix V	Fœlix	Duke Amadeus VIII of Savoy	4 September 1383 Chambéry, Savoy	56/65		Elected by the Council of Basel	Nicholas V