Ship of Fools: What's in a (Papal) Name?

Thread: What's in a (Papal) Name? Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

To visit this thread, use this URL:
http://forum.ship-of-fools.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=70;t=024097

Posted by Aggie (# 4385) on :

Probably a strange question, but I have a book at home about the history of the papacy, and I am fascinated by some of regnal names that popes have chosen in the past.

I know that the earliest popes did not change their given or birth names on their accession to the papacy, and that the custom started in the 10th. Since then, a new pope's choice of name often shows in what direction he wants his papacy to go, or which one of his predecessors he wants to honour or emulate, e.g. taking the regnal name Pius or Gregory might denote that a new pope would be a traditionalist or a conservative.

Why have there not been any popes called Urban, Innocent, Boniface, Gregory or Clement or Stephen in the last 200 or more years? Why did these regnal names fall out of favour? If any future pope were to choose a name such as Innocent or Urban what sort of papacy might we expect to see?

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :

Presumably any new Pope Urban would want to show that he was down wid da yoof...

Posted by Thurible (# 3206) on :

I've always thought that I'd quite like to take 'Innocent Pius' were I to be elected.

Thurible

Posted by Ariston (# 10894) on :

If you want to go to names that really fell out of favor for a while, how about John? We had 22 of them in the first 1300 years, but had to wait over 600 for another. I rather suspect John XXII and the Babylonian Captivity had a little something to do with that—oh, and nobody really wants a name that's already been used by an antipope.

Personally, I'm waiting for Hilarius II.

Posted by Aggie (# 4385) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Albertus:
Presumably any new Pope Urban would want to show that he was down wid da yoof...

Very good!

Posted by sebby (# 15147) on :

who will dare to be Pius XIII?

Posted by Sarumriterules (# 16032) on :

Or Formosus? The last (and only) one got dug up a year after his death and was put on trial by his successor for being unworthy of the Pontificate. Tricky.

Posted by Angloid (# 159) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ariston:

Personally, I'm waiting for Hilarius II.

A (rather pagan) uncle of mine wrote a song once about Pope Hilarius. It began, IIRC

quote:
My name is Pope Hilarius
My jokes are many and various.
And all day long fresh tricks I plan
Up there inside the Vatican.

Posted by sebby (# 15147) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sarumriterules:
Or Formosus? The last (and only) one got dug up a year after his death and was put on trial by his successor for being unworthy of the Pontificate. Tricky.

Oh they just want to do that to faded out-of-date dead DJs these days.

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

I've always thought Joan was a lovely name for a pope...

Posted by Pasco (# 388) on :

quote:
Originally posted by sebby:
who will dare to be Pius XIII?

(Psst, I'm Under Suspicion) XII

[Helping ‘Im To Lead ‘Ere Reich]

[Razz]

Posted by Pasco (# 388) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Golden Key:
I've always thought Joan was a lovely name for a pope...

"I'm Pope (Joking Only, Am Not)" - ?

UBB.classic^TM 6.5.0