From the beginning, the Bishop of Rome exercised influence beyond the Eternal City, becoming a rock of doctrinal orthodoxy that would help the universal Church weather many storms. Rome was never an ordinary city in the history of the Petrine ministry, attracting clergy and faithful alike from across the ancient world and medieval Christendom both as pilgrims and officials. It’s common to hear of stats about Popes who came from various ethnic and geographic backgrounds, but the way in which this happened varied greatly throughout Church history. Below are some of the major time periods to give some helpful context.
But, first of all, one major clarification. It would take a thousand years for the Church to import clergy from other regions to be Pope. When we speak of North Africans, Greeks, and Syrians as Popes in the first millennium, it’s important to remember that they were clergy of the city of Rome. A conclave, which didn’t exist yet, didn’t meet and choose an international figure. That would come later. Popes were chosen by local clergy, as was the custom throughout the Church. Eventually, key clergy, known as Cardinals, received the exclusive right to vote, with the modern organization of the conclave only coming in the 13th century. I have some other reflections on this development, which you can read here. For the first thousand years, however, Rome acted like a magnet, drawing capable men from throughout the Roman Empire to serve in this most influential See.
It’s also important to reflect on what it means to speak of Italian popes. This could be descendants of the Romans, the Greeks who settled southern Italy, migrants coming from throughout the Mediterranean, or the Germanic tribes, such as the Ostrogoths and Lombards, who settled in the Italian peninsula. Overtime, a new Italian language and culture would emerge, but throughout the history of the papacy the meaning of being Italian developed. The creation of the modern nation of Italy was not complete until 1871, and included the demise of the Papal States of course.
I began working on this before the election of Leo XIV, but, since we have another “foreign” pope, I thought it was interesting to give some context on how candidates arose both from Rome and the outside.
1. The Melting Pot of Ancient Rome
The early Popes came from all over, because the population of Rome came from all over. The first Popes were Jewish, Greek, and Roman, drawn to the Eternal City like so many others. Greek was the lingua franca of the eastern Roman Empire, not Latin, and the Church in Rome prayed in this tongue, reflecting the international character of the church in Rome, stemming from the Holy Land. This was a time of building, with the popes teaching, encouraging, and correcting as they tried to hold the Church together through the many persecutions unleashed by Roman emperors and local officials.
Even if they originated from various places throughout the Roman Empire, they came to Rome to serve within the Church there, and were drawn from the ranks of the Roman clergy to serve as the city’s bishop. If the initial popes of the first century were missionaries drawn to Rome, the popes of the succeeding centuries were largely born in Rome or the surrounding regions of Italy to parents of diverse ethnic backgrounds, but largely Roman and Greek, with one additional Jew after Peter (Evaristus), a Syrian (Anicetus), and three Africans.
Within the first phase of the papacy, the three Africans get a lot of attention as the only popes to originate from that continent. In the late second century, the first African Pope, St. Victor I, was elected, reigning 189-99, originating from the Roman province of Africa. It was from this province that the use of Latin in the liturgy and a distinct Latin theological vocabulary developed and spread to Rome. The next North African Pope, Miltiades, reigned 311-14, in the crucial years of Constantine’s edict of Milan. Gelasius I, reigning from 492-96, was also North African but accounts differ as to whether he was born there or born in Rome to parents who originated there. All of them, as was usual, rose to the office of Bishop of Rome as Roman clergy. As of yet, candidates were not brought in from other nations. The ethnicity of these popes is impossible to determine but the North African population would have reflected a mix of Roman, Phoenician, and Berber influences.
2. The Byzantine Papacy: Greeks and Syrians
After Justinian reconquered Italy and other parts of the Western Empire, the papacy fell under the orbit of Byzantine influence from 537-752. The emperors occasionally insisted on the election of their candidates and, more generally, to approve the result of papal elections, which could delay the inauguration of a new pontificate. This is a transitional time, as popes sought to preserve the legacy of classical culture and the primacy of their See, while also engaging the barbarians, largely Arians, that had settled the West, seeking to bring them into the orbit of the faith.
We hear of Greeks and Syrians dominating the papacy in this time period but these mostlly originated in Italy. We have to remember that parts of southern Italy and Sicily were settled by Greeks and they maintained their language and customs in these regions. The Syrians were refugees from Islamic conquest who settled in Italy and Sicily. Once again, these candidates were not plucked up from other regions of the Mediterranean world but were members of the clergy of Rome (some coming there in exile from the Islamic conquest of Sicily) and were often emissaries sent to Constantinople on behalf of the Pope and were, therefore, known and trusted by the emperor.
3. The Frankish Alliance
Barbarians led to fall of the Roman Empire in the West again in the 8th century, with Byzantine influence surviving only in pockets. Popes looked increasingly to the Franks, which gave them leverage against the Byzantines and protection from the Lombards. Pepin the Short is credited with the creation of the Papal States, and, in return, he received coronation as King of the Franks in a new Carolingian royal line. Christendom was built on a foundation laid by the alliance of the Franks, Popes, and Benedictine monks, reforming monasteries and bishoprics, creating new missionary dioceses, and laying a foundation that would endure the onslaught of the Vikings, Magyars, and Saracenes.
Early on in this period we do see some residual Easterners, such as the Sicilian Greek, Stephen III, or the Greek (or possibly Arab) Leo III. Nonetheless, the Popes of this time (756-857), came predominately from the area of the Papal States, reflecting a shift away from the influence from Eastern Mediterranean culture. Instead, we see a rise of aristocratic families rooted in central Italy who sought to dominate the papacy in order to use it as a vehicle for their own influence. Like the Byzantine Emperors, however, the Carolingians made their preferences known and also sought to establish the right of confirming elections.
4. Regionalism and the Dark Age of the Papacy
The Carolingian influenced waned as their Empire dissolved, and the pieces were picked up by regional rulers. This left the papacy to its own devices, leading it fall into the hands of the aristocratic families that had begun to assert their influence in the last period. This new period started off with some competent popes, like Pope St. Nicholas I, who acted assertively toward the East, setting a precedent for his successors, such as Stephen V. By the late 9th century, things quickly descended to the lowest point in the entire history of the papacy (which is saying something), the Saeculum obscurusum (the Dark Age of the Papacy), also known as the Pornocracy, lasting from 904-65. The key point for this overview is that as the papacy became a plaything for corrupt noble families, making some outside intervention necessary, which would set up the first truly international popes.
5. The Transalpine Popes: German Reformers and Agents
In 963, Otto I, who resurrected a stronger Empire in Germany, sought to end the papal dark ages by installing Leo VIII, who initially was considered an antipope until he was later accepted at the death of his rival. It would take time for the German Emperors to break the power of the local families. This would lead to the appointment of the first “imported” Pope, brought in from outside the Roman clergy in 996 when Otto III appointed his cousin Gregory V. Given the fact that they were many popes of different ethnicities living in Italy–Jewish, Roman, North African, Greek, Syrian, and even Germanic–it would be easy to miss the significance of importing someone from outside the clergy of Rome for the first time. This would drastically shift the nature of the papacy and the college of cardinals both, making them open to the clergy of other nations.
The next pope, Sylvester II, was a Frenchman and a great scholar. After him, however, the local nobility regained control and returned the papacy to its former chaos, epitomized by the three distinct reigns of Benedict IX. With the papacy of the Bavarian Damasus II, however, the corner was turned. From there, things opened to popes from France, Burgundy, and the Holy Roman Empire who became predominate in the late 11th century, firmly wresting the papacy out of the hands of Roman nobility for a time. Northern popes initally meant reform, but, by no means did they crowd out Italian candidates.
6. The Gregorian Reform, an Italian Reaction, and the First International Papacy
It was the German Emperors who broke the grip of local factions, but who would then break their own grip on the papacy and the episcopate more broadly? The Gregorian reform, named for the Italian Pope St. Gregory VII, sought to stake out the independence of the papacy, which was a noble goal so long as the pornocracy remained a distant memory. A compromise would be reached, and even as the emperors remained influential, new rules for conclaves sought to stake out more independence in the election of popes by Cardinals.
In what was likely an attempt to keep the German influence out, as popes became rivals of emperors, Italians dominated the papacy again in 12th and early 13th centuries, with an exception in 1154 with the election of an Englishman Adrian IV, who had been serving as a papal legate, The momentum of the Gregorian Reform reached its peak with Innocent III deposing kings and making them his vassals.
Something happened in the late 13th century, however, with a sudden flood of foreign popes that were not foisted unto the city through the influence of the emperors. Perhaps the popes had pushed too hard against Christian nations? First there were a few Frenchmen, Urban IV in 1261, Clement IV in 1265, and the Dominican Innocent V in 1276, then the lone Portuguese Pope, John XXI in 1276, and two more French popes by the end of the century.
It’s in this period, that we truly have an international papacy with internationally appointed cardinals (no longer simply the prominent clergy of Rome and the surrounding region) gathering to decide which of them should be pope without regard to a direct connection to the city of which he would be bishop. Making international prelates Roman cardinals did preserve some semblance of electing the clergy of Rome, though, of course, cardinals could still act out of national and political interests. In this period popes exerted broad claims of authority over kings, which Boniface VIII articulated most forcefully in Unam Sanctum. Philip IV responded to this assertion with force, leading to Boniface’s death, which led to the papacy falling under French influence.
7. The Avignon Papacy
It’s not technically correct to say that the papacy relocated to France during the Avignon Papacy. Avignon was part of a little enclave of the Papal States (the Comtat Venaissin) within the Languedoc region, having a distinct language and culture. Avignon was located in the County of Provence (which changed political hands frequently), with the Church having land rights there due to the Albigensian Crusade, and did not become part of the Kingdom of France until 1481. Nonetheless, with Avignon nearby, the French king did exert more influence on the seven popes who lived there from 1309 to 1376, who were either French or from the Languedoc. The fallout, however, of what has been dubbed the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, continued much longer with the Great Western Schism and its rival popes occurring from 1378-1417 and the prestige of the papacy taking a hit in a lasting way.
8. The Renaissance
The insistence on an Italian pope after Gregory XI returned to Rome caused the great schism, as the mostly French cardinals claimed to have been cooerced. Nonetheless, it made sense to choose Italians to root the Holy See back in Rome where it belonged.
In the Renaissance period, however, the cardinals showed some renewed openness to candidates from other nations. There’s the two Borgia popes from Spain, who did not necessarily renew confidence in foreign popes, and then the Dutch Adrian VI in 1522, the last non-Italian until Pope John Paul II’s election in 1978. Apart form these exceptions, Italian noble families often fought over the papacy, returning unhappy memories from the past.
9. The Italian Lockdown
Reformation, religious wars, a violent sack of Rome, squabbles of colonial powers, absolute monarchs wanting dominance over the church, attacks from secularizing intelligentsia, and then endless political revolution. This litany, in a nutshell, describes why the Church hunkered down with non-Italian popes for over 450 years, trusting the Italians to provide stability, protect the Church, and ensure continuity, even when tyrants like Napoleon would capture two successive popes (Pius VI and VII). We can thank that Italians for persevering in this difficult stretch, including the demise of the Papal States, giving credence to our Lord’s promise that the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church.
10. A New International Papacy
There are particular moments when the Church looks beyond Rome and even Italy to draw in talent and different approaches from other nations. When John XXIII sought to open the windows of the Church, and much beyond fresh air entered, it also created an opening for more non-Italians. Modern transportation allowed cardinals to travel from the ends of the earth quickly (the first American cardinals mostly could not vote in conclaves because the boat took too long). Modern media allowed the pope to become an international figure with more than spiritual authority, continuing the Holy See’s political influence in new ways through diplomacy and a message aimed at awakening the conscience of the world. The Bishop of Rome has become an important voice in world affairs, guiding 1.4 billiion Catholics throughout the world and capturing attention beyond his own flock.
We are clearly in one of those patches when outside influence is welcomed with four non-Italian popes in a row, and the first two popes born outside of Europe since the Syrian-refugee pope Gregory III in the 8th century. This is truly a new era for the Church that is increasingly global. A majority of the world’s Catholics are now in North and South America, with significant growth in Africa and Asia. Many expect the leadership of the Church, especially the papacy, to reflect these demographics shifts away from European centrality even further. We may well have our first popes from sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia within the next century. After an American pope, anything is possible.
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