Hmmm. I don't know the answer to this question: do antipopes have to be people irregularly elected by otherwise legitimate electors? Because if so that would explain why there hasn't been one since the 15th century (the Cardinals are behaving more regularly) and why there were so many early on (the whole clergy of the city of Rome had some say in the matter, if not exactly a vote, and could mobilize mobs). It would also expalin why sedevacantist groups don't have antipopes - none of them has ever gotten a cardinal in the first place, so they have to just proclaim themselves pope. I dunno. This sounds reasonable, but I can't find anything in print or online to support it, and I'm too lazy to make a special trip to the library over it. --MichaelTinkler
I would think at the very least an antipope needs wide acceptance -- I think some of the medieveal antipopes had large political support -- and I think in some cases competiting temporal powers would each support different claimants to be Pope, as in the great schism (the one where there were three popes, not the one that split east and west). The 'popes' of modern sedevacantists, by comparison, have no large scale following, political or religious. Their following and influence is absolutely miniscule in comparison to the that of the official Pope, unlike medieveal antipopes whose following often could at least begin to rival the official ones. -- Simon J Kissane
While your speculations about some of the medieval Antipopes is correct, the idea that wide acceptance is required isn't very useful. Some of the early 'Antipopes' had little or no influence, in fact some of them have only been 'discovered' in relatively modern times through scholarship (e.g. Felix II). That is to say, that some of them were so insignificant that their titles and names have been confused with others. Surely, the Roman Catholic Church is the only arbiter of who is and who is not a 'Pope' and thusly, who is an 'Antipope'. Some of the modern sedevacantist 'Popes' would have a larger following numerically than did Antipopes from the early or high middle ages. Further, I don't think a separate entry is justified for the modern sedevacantists, and therefore this article is the most reasonable place to have them listed for readers who are seeking information about them. --Nicodemus75 18:42, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)
I think it would be nice to order in some way this page, eg section for each schism and subsection for each branch of the schism. --Ann O'nyme 01:34, 29 Aug 2003 (UTC)
I hereby declaire myself pope. Everyone kiss my ring.
First Sentence
I really don't like the first sentence. I'm going to try to split it if I do it incorrectly, correct it but try to keep it split up. It's needlessly complicated as is.
69.242.10.19 21:15, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)
First Sentence
I really don't like the first sentence. I'm going to try to split it if I do it incorrectly, correct it but try to keep it split up. It's needlessly complicated as is.
Superm401 21:16, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Something's wrong with the Sedevacantist numbering. We have two Antipope Gregory XVIIs, then jump to Antipope Gregory XIX. It would seem that the second XVII should be XVIII, except that the article on Antipope Gregory XVII matches with that person's name. Can anyone fix things? LizardWizard 02:47, Jan 18, 2005 (UTC)
There are two modern antipopes who have styled themselves "Gregory XVII" - they are from two separate groups which have broken with Rome. It is unclear who Reinaldus Michael Benjamins would consider to be popes Gregory XVII and Gregory XVIII, but he does not recognize either of the groups in Quebec or Spain. --Nicodemus75 08:08, 18 Jan 2005 (UTC)
Gregory VI
A recent editor (Henry Williams) fixed the link to Gregory VI, revealing that Gregory, classified as an antipope in the "Antipope" article, is listed as a pope in his own article.
Is it standard for antipopes to be called popes in their main Wikipedia entries? If not, this is a discrepancy that should be fixed.
Lawrence King 09:25, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)