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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture >The custom of new popes selecting a new name started with John XII, >whose pontificate ran 955-964. His original name was Octavian. >Before that, only one pope is known to have changed his name---John >II in 533 (whose baptismal name was Mercury). Over the century >following John XII, a pattern started to appear of names chosen for >programmatic purposes. The first obvious one is Sylvester II, who >was harking back to the legendary close relationship between >Sylvester I and Constantine. There's an amazing run of "seconds" >starting with Clement II in 1046, as a run of reforming popes >identified themselves with the early papacy. It was extremely easy to have an antipope (or two or three) before the Papal Election Decree of 1059, which established the basic principles of papal elections as still followed today (election by the cardinals, acclamation by the populace of Rome, no role for the German emperor). Before that, there seem to have been a variety of edicts by various popes trying to fix an election principle that didn't include either 1) the most important aristocratic family in Rome imposing their candidate by force, or 2) a pontiff on his deathbed choosing his own successor. But they were ineffective. Both of this abuses took place in the "election" of John XII, by the way---he was the bastard son of Alberic II, who controlled Rome 932-954. Alberic when dying had forced all the nobility and clergy (including Pope Agapitus II) to swear that they would accept his son as both prince of Rome and pope. John XII, also by the way, is that charming pope who is reported to have had a stroke and died (in his mid-twenties) while in bed with a married woman. An extremely handy reference book on the papacy is J.N.D. Kelly's *The Oxford Dictionary of Popes*, 1986. Phyllis >medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture > >Doctissimi, >The event of today (2 April) sent me to a list of popes because I'm >always interested in the names chosen by people who enter the >religious life and do not keep their given names. I found this >statement as I was perusing the list:" Leo VII, 963–65, or Benedict >V, 964–66 (one of these was an antipope)." So I have a few papal >questions. First, can anyone explain how it was that the Church did >not know (?) or could not decide which of these men was legitimate? >Second, does anyone know who was the first pope to choose a name >different from his given name? Third, considering the variety of >names of the popes of the first millennium, why do the same names >begin to pop up in _about_ the year 1000 ff.? We've had 23 "John,"s >and several other names are used quite frequently. There seems to be >a certain lack of imagination from about 1000 on. Finally, does >anyone but me remember the old notion that a pope's choosing the >name "Peter" would signal/bring about the end of the world? It seems >we were quite certain of the latter factoid when we were children. >MG > >_________________________________________________________________ >Don’t just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! >http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/ > >********************************************************************** >To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME >to: [log in to unmask] >To send a message to the list, address it to: >[log in to unmask] >To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion >to: [log in to unmask] >In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: >[log in to unmask] >For further information, visit our web site: >http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html -- Dr. Phyllis G. Jestice [log in to unmask] History Department University of Southern Mississippi ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html