There were fewer than 10 'bad' popes: Paul Hurley sorts the sinners from the saints among the 263 popes since St Peter
They came from rich and poor, peasant and princely families. A few were very young or very old, but most were middle-aged. Among them were saints, scholars, statesmen and at least one who led an army to war wearing armour and a helmet.
The 264 popes from St Peter to John Paul II make a fascinating study. Baron Ludwig von Pastor, the Austrian Catholic historian, wrote a 40-volume history of the popes - but this covers only the 55 who reigned from 1417 to 1799.
The papacy is the only institution that has existed continuously from the time of the early Roman Empire to the present day. Its history began at Caesarea Philippi in Palestine when Christ, making a pun on the Apostle's name, said, "You are Peter (Kepha in Aramaic, or rock) and on this rock I will build my Church. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven".
The most remarkable thing about the 264 keepers of the keys is their holiness. So far 79 popes have been canonised and 11 beatified, most of them in the early centuries. Of the 51 popes in the first 500 years of the church, only two were not canonised, whereas only five of the 124 in the last 1,000 years were canonised. Two of the 36 antipopes (popes who established themselves in opposition to the true pope) were also canonised; the last antipope, a French count, died in 1451.
St Siricus (d. 399) was the first to be called pope - from the Latin papa, also meaning papa in English. And Innocent III (d. 1216) was the first to use the title Vicar of Christ.
More than 200 or three-quarters of the popes were Italian. There were also 14 Frenchmen, 14 Greeks, seven Germans, four Syrians, two Spaniards and one each from Croatia, England, the Netherlands, Poland and Portugal. The first pope was, of course, a Jew, while two others, St Victor (d. 198) and St Gelasius (d. 496), are thought to have been Africans.
The first pope was an apostle, two others were disciples of apostles and some 50 later popes were members of 14 religious orders. Among them were 24 Benedictines, six Franciscans, four Cistercians and four Dominicans. Gregory XVI, a Camaldolese monk elected in 1831, was the last who was a member of a religious order. St Callistus I (d. 222) had been a slave and St Symmachus (d. 514) was a convert from paganism.
Before clerical celibacy was introduced in 1123, many of the early popes were married and some, such as St Felix III (d. 492), a widower, were sons of priests. St Innocent I (d. 417) was the son of St Anastasius and, 500 years later, John XI was the son of Sergius III. Boniface VI (d. 896) was a bishop's son.
Others were also closely related. John XIX (d. 1032), one of three laymen elected pope, was a brother of Benedict VIII. Gregory XI (d. 1378), the last French pope, was a nephew of Clement VI; Leo XI (d. 1605) was a nephew of Leo X, a Medici nepotist who made him a cardinal at the age of 13; and Gregory IX (d. 1241) was a nephew of Innocent III, who was a nephew of Clement III.
The youngest pope was John XII, elected at 18 in 955; and the oldest was Celestine III, elected at 86 in 1191 and who died seven years later. Five others also lived to be over 90, but only six died under 50.
St Peter probably had the longest reign, though the date of his death is uncertain. The longest known reigns are Blessed Pius IX's 32 years and John Paul II's 26 years. Nine others reigned for between 20 and 25 years. Urban VII had the shortest reign, 12 days in 1590, while another six also reigned for less than a month.
The 264 popes had 81 different names, ranging alphabetically from Adeodatus to Zosimus. There was only one Peter; six were named Paul, 14 Clement, 15 Benedict, 16 Gregory and 21 John; John XVI was an antipope and, due to a mistake in the numbering, there was no John XX. Half of the popes, 131, were known by only 10 names and 43 others had names used only once, such as Mark and Christopher - as well as Eleutherus and Zephyrinus. All the popes since Lando (d. 914) used the names of earlier popes. Three were known as "the Great", the last being St Nicholas I, the first to be solemnly crowned, in 858. Only the last two popes had double names.
Benedict IX was the only one who reigned three times, at least de facto; he was also excommunicated, as was his successor Silvester III (d. 1056). A few were deposed: Gregory VI (d. 1047) for simony (buying or selling of ecclesiastical privileges), Benedict V (d. 966) as a usurper and John XII (d. 964) as an "apostate".
St Celestine V, a Benedictine hermit, was elected aged 85 in 1294 and resigned five months later. At least three others resigned, the last being Gregory XII, who was elected aged 81, resigned aged 90 in 1415 and died three months later. But no pope resigned for health reasons, though Clement XII was blind for eight years before he died aged 88 in 1740.
There were fewer than 10 "bad" popes. Benedict IX (d. 1056), elected in his 20s, was described by the English Catholic historian Mgr Philip Hughes as "a precocious little blackguard". One of the most notorious was the Spaniard, Alexander VI, who was elected by bribery in 1492, led an openly licentious life and had eight children. Paul III (d. 1549) had four children and Pius IV (d. 1565) had three. Many popes were nepotists, such as Sixtus IV (d. 1484), who made six of his nephews cardinals.
Yet there have been fewer bad popes, about four per cent, than bad apostles - and far fewer than bad temporal rulers of any time or place.
The last of 33 martyred popes, St Martin I, was tried for treason, flogged and banished to Russia, where he was imprisoned and died of starvation in 653. Many others also suffered violent deaths. Stephen VI, Leo V, Stephen VIII and John X all died violently in prisons. Benedict VI was strangled and John VIII was clubbed to death. Lucius II died while leading a military attack on the Capitol in Rome in 1145 and John XXI, the only Portuguese pope, was killed when the roof of his study at Viterbo collapsed on him in 1277.
Viterbo is one of 20 places outside Rome where popes were elected - such as Pisa, Venice and Verona in Italy, Konstanz in Germany and Lyons and Avignon in France, where seven French popes lived in the 14th century. The laity took part in papal elections up to the ninth century, when bishops and priests became the only electors. In 1059 voting rights were restricted to cardinals. Urban VI, elected in 1378, was the last pope who was not a cardinal.
Ten popes never set foot in Rome and many others are not buried there, though most of the early ones rest in its catacombs and 146 are entombed in St Peter's. Some popes travelled widely in Europe and died and were buried in 33 different places, such as Bologna, Florence, Naples and Pisa in Italy, on the islands of Sardinia and Sicily, in Avignon, Cluny and Marseilles in France, Bamberg and Cologne in Germany and Istanbul in Turkey.
Paul Hurley SVD is former editor of The Word and retired mission secretary of the Divine Word Missionaries in Maynooth, Co Kildare
Papal figures: key numbers
18 The age the youngest pope was elected; the oldest was elected at 86.
Sons and brothers Two popes were sons of other popes and two were brothers.
12 days The shortest reign was 12 days; the longest 32 years.
14 and 7 While most popes were Italian, 14 were French, 14 Greek and seven German
81: Popes have had 81 different names, from Adeodatus to Zephyrinus