List of popes

This chronological list of popes of the Catholic Church corresponds to that given in the Annuario Pontificio under the heading "I Sommi Pontefici Romani" (The Roman Supreme Pontiffs), excluding those that are explicitly indicated as antipopes.

Published every year by the Roman Curia, the Annuario Pontificio no longer identifies popes by regnal number, stating that it is impossible to decide which pope represented the legitimate succession at various times.

[1] The 2001 edition of the Annuario Pontificio introduced "almost 200 corrections to its existing biographies of the popes, from St Peter to John Paul II".

The corrections concerned dates, especially in the first two centuries, birthplaces and the family name of one pope.

This title in English usage usually refers to the head of the Catholic Church.

Each title has been added by unique historical events and unlike other papal prerogatives, is not incapable of modification.

Christopher was considered a legitimate pope for a long time but was removed due to how he obtained the papacy.

The decisions of the Council of Pisa (1409) were reversed in 1963 in a reinterpretation of the Western Schism, extending Gregory XII's pontificate to 1415 and classifying rival claimants Alexander V and John XXIII as antipopes.

The first ancient lists of popes were not written until the late 2nd century, after the monarchical episcopate had already developed in Rome.

The years given for the first 30 popes follow the work of Richard Adelbert Lipsius, which often show a 3-year difference with the traditional dates given by Eusebius of Caesarea.

Pope Julius II allowed people seeking indulgences to donate money to the Church which would be used for the construction of Saint Peter's Basilica.

Tutor of Emperor Charles V. Came to the papacy in the midst of one of its greatest crises, threatened not only by Lutheranism to the north but also by the advance of the Ottoman Turks to the east.

He refused to compromise with Lutheranism theologically, demanding Luther's condemnation as a heretic.

Adrian's remarkable admission that the turmoil of the Church was the fault of the Roman Curia itself, was read at the 1522–1523 Diet of Nuremberg.

Forbade the divorce of Henry VIII; crowned Charles V as emperor at Bologna (1530).

The first pope to bestow the Immaculate Conception as patroness to the Philippine Islands through the bull Ilius Fulti Præsido (1579).

Promulgated the apostolic constitution Cum occasione (1653), which condemned five doctrines of Jansenism as heresy.

Decorated the bridge of Sant' Angelo with the ten statues of angels and added one of the two fountains that adorn the piazza of St. Peter's.

Completed the Trevi Fountain and affirmed the teachings of Thomas Aquinas; founded academies of art, liturgy, religion and science.

Authorized the publication of an edition of Galileo's complete scientific works which included a mildly censored version of the Dialogue.

At the time, no high-level Church pronouncement attacked head-on the theory of evolution as applied to non-human species.

[41] Even before the development of the scientific method, Catholic theology had allowed for biblical texts to be read as allegorical rather than literal where they appeared to contradict that which could be established by science or reason.

Issued the 1917 Code of Canon Law; supported the missionaries in Maximum illud.

Signed the Lateran Treaty with Italy (1929), establishing Vatican City as a sovereign state.

Invoked papal infallibility in the encyclical Munificentissimus Deus; defined the dogma of the Assumption.

Credited with intervening for peace during World War II; controversial for his reactions to the Holocaust.

Published the Humani generis, the first encyclical to specifically refer to evolution and took up a neutral position, concentrating on human evolution: "The Church does not forbid that ... research and discussions, on the part of men experienced in both fields, take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter.

Founded World Youth Day (1984) and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (1994).

The first pope who chooses a unique name is not usually identified by an ordinal, John Paul I being the exception.

Antipopes are treated as pretenders, and their numbers are reused by those considered to be legitimate popes.