Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, the spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic Church and head of state of Vatican City.

The office of the Pope is called the papacy. His ecclesiastical jurisdiction is often called the "Holy See" (Sancta Sedes in Latin), or the "Apostolic See" based upon the Church tradition that the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul were martyred in Rome.

A its inception, the pope was elected by a body of clergymen. The Sacred College of Cardinals, which dates to the 9th Century, became the entity primarily responsible for selecting the pope.

While the office was not temporal at its founding, it did gain substantial temporal powers through the course of history, peaking in the Middle Ages. In recent centuries, the papacy's temporal powers have been considerably reduced.

This article lists the known popes found in the works of Harry Turtledove after the Point of Divergence. Many popes who served before the POD of a given alternate history are mentioned in passing. Also stories set in OTL may reference past popes, or even the sitting pope.

"Under St. Peter's"
Each and every pope since St. Peter was fed upon by Jesus, who was transformed into a vampire shortly after he was crucified. This practice was kept secret from the world, and was known only by the reigning pope and the Order of the Pipistrelle, which was responsible for maintaining the practice.

At least one pope, Honorius I, became a vampire himself as a result of this practice. Pope John Paul I did not turn into one, but his health never recovered, and he died not long after ascending to the papacy.

Referenced Popes

 * St. Peter[[Image:Peter.jpg|40px]]
 * Pope Honorius I[[Image:Honorius1.jpg|40px]]
 * Pope John Paul I[[Image:JohnPaul1.jpg|40px]]
 * Pope John Paul II[[Image:JohnPaul2.jpg|40px]]
 * Pope Benedict XVI[[Image:BenedictXVI.jpg|40px]]

"Islands in the Sea"
With the fall of Constantinople, Pope Constantine II in Rome was scrambling to hold back the rising tide of Islam, with limited success.

"Before the Beginning"
When the time-viewer revealed that the Jews were indeed God's chosen people, the pope led the Vatican in converting to Judaism.

Agent of Byzantium
In the seventh century, Emperor Constans II succeeded in regaining Italy from the Lombards. He installed his own Bishop of Rome since he disapproved of the doctrines of the incumbent. That individual fled to the Franco-Saxon kingdoms. The Byzantines remained in control of Rome and took care that all subseqent Popes would be subservient politically to the Throne and theologically to the Patriarch of Constantinople. The exiled Pope started his own rival line, under the Franco-Saxon protection, whose authority was also accepted by the Anglelanders who were politically opposed to the Franco-Saxons, and was also accepted (secretly) by some people under the Imperial rule. Thus, there was created a permanent situation of two rival Popes. Generation after generation, each of the competing Popes strongly condemened his rival as a heretic, but neither had the power to end the schism. It was still like that nearly seven hundred years later, at the time of Basil Argyros, and likely to go on indefinitely.

In High Places
In an alternate where the Great Black Deaths wiped out 80% of the population of Europe, the papacy was forever changed. As the plague ran for decades, the reigning pope was horrified by the arrival of a religious leader named Henri, who preached patience and modesty, with the promise of a better world. When he was proclaimed the Second Son of God, the sitting Pope, then headquartered in Avignon, colluded with the King of France in ordering Henri's torture and execution on the wheel. The next day, both the Pope and the King went to church to give thanks for Henri's death. In a freak accident, the church collapsed, killing both men. Shortly thereafter, the Great Black Deaths ran its course, validating Henri in the eyes of his followers. The death of the pope was seen as a miracle, and the Second Revelation and the Final Testament quickly overran Christianity as it had been practiced.

Also deeply effecting the Papacy was the fact that soon afterwards, the Muslim armies started their swift advance into weakened Christian countries which could hardly resist them. Among others, the whole of Italy was overrun, including the city of Rome which had been the original seat of the Pope - Bishop of Rome - and to which the Popes of Avignon had hoped to return once upon a time.

Justinian
The novel Justinian, set in OTL, references several former popes, as well the contemporary popes. Since the story is told from the perspective of the Eastern Orthodox ruler Justinian II, the papacy is not presented in a favorable light.

Ruled Britannia
Pope Sixtus V kept his promise to pay one million gold ducats to Spain for conquering heretical England in Ruled Britannia.

"But It Does Move"
The story "But It Does Move" is set during the reign of Pope Urban VIII. The story adds an additional twist to the Galileo affair by having Galileo submit to a psychoanalysis by Cardinal Sigismondo Gioioso.

Southern Victory
A Pope, possibly Benedict XV as in OTL, reigns during the Great War in the Southern Victory series. Pope Pius XII is specifically named during the Second Great War, although whether or not that person is meant to be the historical Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli is debatable.

Worldwar
Pius XII also reigns in Worldwar until he is killed by a German atomic bomb in 1943. While the papacy is referenced in the subsequent Colonization series, the reigning popes go unnamed.

The War That Came Early
Pope Pius XI is obliquely referenced in Hitler's War. Pope Pius XII is directly referenced in Coup d'Etat.

The Gladiator
The fictional Pope Pius XIV reigns at the end of the 21st Century in the Crosstime Traffic novel, The Gladiator, despite a Soviet victory at the end of the Cold War. This is understood to be because the Soviet government don't want to risk the anger of Catholic populations in Italy and other staunchly Christian countries.