Transcription
Hi, this is Matt Baker. Today, I'm going to show you a giant family tree of Roman Catholic Popes. I've been wanting to do a video about Popes for a long time now, but I wasn't quite sure how to go about doing it. Well, thankfully, a fan of the Channel created this chart, and it turns out it's a perfect way to show how every modern Pope is connected.
But before I go any further, I need to point out to you that what you're looking at here is not a normal family tree, meaning that it's not one that shows biological relationships. Instead, this is a tree of Episcopal genealogy, meaning that it shows who appointed who as a bishop.
Now, in case you're not familiar with why this is important for Catholics, let me introduce you to the concept of apostolic succession. According to Christian tradition, Jesus appointed his Apostles with the task of building the early church. The apostles, therefore, became the first Bishops, a word that originally just meant overseers. As the church grew, the apostles appointed more Bishops, and then those Bishops appointed Bishops, and so forth. The theory is, therefore, that every Bishop today should be able to trace a line directly from Bishop to Bishop all the way back to one of the original Apostles and then, of course, to Jesus himself.
And the Catholic church is not the only only church to claim Apostolic succession. The Eastern Orthodox Churches claim it, as well as do the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Church of the East, the Anglican church, and some Lutheran Churches. So basically, what we're going to do today is see how far back along the line of succession we can go, starting with the most recent Roman Catholic Pope.
But before we do that, let me tell you about today's sponsor, MyHeritage. If you want to learn about your family's history, MyHeritage is a great place to start. Their database now has over 20 billion records—that's right, 20 billion. This includes census lists, birth certificates, baptismal records, newspaper articles, obituaries, last will and testament, travel documents, military records, yearbooks, and even phone books. These are things that you cannot access simply by using Google. However, with MyHeritage, you can access them all. You have to do is enter an ancestor's name, year of birth, and location, or you can simply start building your family tree using MyHeritage's easy-to-use family tree builder. If you do this, MyHeritage will automatically find records related to the people on your tree, and these records will help you to expand your tree even further. So if you want to give MyHeritage a try, you can get a 14-day free trial right now by clicking the link in the description or pinned comment. After that, as a useful charts viewer, you will qualify for 50% off a premium membership.
Okay, back to the family tree of Popes. The first thing you need to know is the difference between the terms Bishop, Cardinal, and Pope. Nowadays, the Catholic church is divided into regions called dioceses, and in the United States, there are 194 of them. Each of these dioceses has many churches, each with one or more priests. However, there is only ever one Bishop per diocese because the bishop is the person who is in charge of that whole region. If we count retired Bishops as well as those in other roles, the total number of Catholic Bishops worldwide ends up being around 5,600. Now, of those 5,600 Bishops, approximately 4% have an additional title: that of Cardinal. This is a title that can only be given by the Pope and tends to be reserved for those who oversee important dioceses or for those who work directly for the Vatican. Technically, a person doesn't need to be a bishop to be named a cardinal, but they almost always are. Finally, there's the Pope, who is the Bishop of Rome but also the head of the entire Catholic Church. Whenever a Pope dies or, in rare cases, resigns, it's the job of all the Cardinals under the age of 80 to vote for the next Pope, and they almost always choose someone from within their own ranks. The last time a non-cardinal was elected Pope was over 600 years ago.
Okay, so on the chart we're going to look at, take note that Popes are shown in yellow, Cardinals are shown in red, and Bishops are shown in either green or blue. Let's start with the current Pope, Pope Francis. As you might know, Pope Francis is from Argentina, and he's also the first ever Pope from the Americas. He's been Pope since 2013, but he's been a bishop since 1992, which is when he was consecrated by the then Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Antonio Quarino. He, in turn, was consecrated by another Argentinian Bishop who was consecrated by another Argentinian Bishop. We then come to Filippo Cesi, who is notable because he was the Vatican's main ambassador to Poland at the start of World War II. However, if we go two more steps up, we come to an even more notable person: Mariano Rampolla. You see, Mariano Rampolla very nearly became Pope. In fact, during the papal conclave of 1903, he was on track to easily win the majority of votes when all of a sudden, one of the Cardinals, acting on behalf of the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I, issued a veto against him. This was actually something that the Catholic monarchs of Europe in those days—namely, Spain, France, and Austria—were unofficially allowed to do. It happened 11 times between 1644 and 1903, with the veto of Rampolla being the last example.
Continuing up the line, we go through a British Cardinal and an Italian Cardinal before we reach this Italian Cardinal, Giacomo Filippo Fransoni. And this is where we get the first link between two Popes because not only is Fransoni an Episcopal ancestor of Pope Francis, he's also an Episcopal ancestor of the previous Pope, Pope Benedict XVI. That's because he also consecrated this Cardinal who, in turn, consecrated this German Bishop. As you might know, Pope Benedict XVI was German, so we get a series of German Bishops all the way down to him.
Now, if we return to Giacomo Fransoni and go four steps up from him, we come to Pope Clement XIII, who is the most recent papal ancestor in the Episcopal genealogy of the current Pope. And this is where lots of Popes start to get really connected. Of the 18 Popes chosen after Clement XIII, 14 of them were his own Episcopal descendants, including the most recent six. And if we go up three more steps to this Cardinal who had the very cool name Paolo Pallavicino, we'll find that 22 out of the last 24 Popes are his Episcopal descendants. Finally, if we want to get all 24 of those Popes, which is basically everyone from the year 1700 onwards, we just have to go up a few more levels to this man here, Cardinal Scipione Riva, who lived in the 14th century. Not only do the most recent 24 Popes all descend from him in an Episcopal sense, of course, over 90% of the Catholic Bishops serving in the church today descend from him as well. That's why his name is used to label this entire lower branch of this tree, which is called the Riva lineage.
Now, unfortunately, due to certain records being destroyed in a fire many centuries ago, we do not know who consecrated Cardinal Riva as a bishop. So, when it comes to the Episcopal lineage of most Catholic Bishops today, including the Pope, this is as far back as we can go. So sorry if you are hoping we were going to be able to go all the way back to Jesus. Well, that's just not going to happen. A little later in this video, I will show you a line that can go back a bit farther, but before I do that, I want to tell you more about the 12 most recent Popes, all of which belong to the Riva lineage.
I'll start with Pope Pius IX, who became Pope in 1846 and is the first Pope who we have photographs of. He served for 31 years, which is the longest reign of any Pope ever, unless you count the Apostle Peter, whose tenure cannot be historically verified. During Pius IX's time as Pope, he was responsible for making official two dogmas that are today strongly associated with Catholicism, especially in the minds of Protestants. The first is that of the Immaculate Conception, which holds that Mary was born free from original sin. The second is that of papal infallibility, which holds that whenever the Pope makes an official statement about church doctrine, he's speaking with the authority of Jesus Christ and, therefore, cannot be in error. This particular Dogma was made during the Vatican I Council, which, at the time, was the first major Council to be held by the Catholic church in over 300 years. The other major event that occurred during the tenure of Pius IX was Italian unification. Prior to this, Rome and all of central Italy was a separate country called the Papal States, with the Pope serving as its Monarch in addition to being the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church. However, in 1870, Rome fell to the newly formed Kingdom of Italy, completing the process of Italian unification. At this point, Pius IX refused to capitulate to the new Italian king and instead declared himself prisoner in the Vatican, refusing to leave Vatican Hill or even to appear on the balcony at St. Peter's. This situation continued with the reign of the next Pope, Leo XIII, who ended up having the third longest reign of any Pope at 25 years, as well as the next Pope, Pius X. He's the Pope that was voted in after Mariano Rampolla was vetoed, as well as the next Pope, Benedict XV, who was Pope during World War I. But then, during the reign of the next Pope, Pius XI, the prisoner in the Vatican problem was finally solved. In 1929, Pius XI agreed to the creation of Vatican City, which is now independent of Italy and is the world's smallest country. He thus became the Vatican's first Monarch and the first Pope since Italian unification to appear on the balcony at St. Peter's. Take note also that when it comes to his Episcopal genealogy, he's the least connected of all the modern Popes. He's at the end of this really long sequence of Bishops that aren't connected to anyone else.
All right, next up came Pius XII, who had been made a bishop by Benedict XV, who, in turn, had been made a bishop by Pius X. This is the only example in modern history of three Popes in a row in an Episcopal genealogy. But more important is the fact that Pius XII was the Pope during World War II. Because of this, he became a very controversial figure. On one hand, he did use his position to secretly save thousands of Jews during the Holocaust. On the other hand, he could have done much more, and his general silence during the Great Catastrophe is widely criticized today. Even his death resulted in a controversy, this time within the Catholic Church itself. As I mentioned earlier, whenever a Pope dies, it's up to all of the Cardinals under the age of 80 to choose a new one. Nowadays, the Cardinals meet privately in the Sistine Chapel, and usually several rounds of voting are required. After each vote, smoke is released from a chimney. If it's black, it's a signal that no Pope has been elected yet, but if it's white, that means that the voting is over, and the new Pope will be announced very soon. Well, in 1958, at the end of the first day of voting, the smoke appeared white, and it was announced to the world that a new Pope had been chosen. However, after 30 minutes, the smoke changed to black, and the announcement had to be cancelled. It then took two more days and a total of 11 rounds of voting before the new Pope, John XXIII, was announced. According to a conspiracy theory, here's what actually happened on the first day: This man, Cardinal Giuseppe Siri, who was a staunch conservative and favored to win, was in fact elected. He even chose the name Gregory XVII. However, as the story goes, he was then bullied into turning the job down. The voting continued, and the more liberal John XXIII was eventually elected. Now, if you watched my series on Christian denominations, you might remember me mentioning a small group of Catholics known as Sedevacantists. Well, many of them support the Siri Theory and, therefore, they hold that there has been no legitimate Pope since 1958. But for the vast majority of Catholics, John XXIII was indeed a valid Pope. Take note that John is the most common papal name, followed by Gregory, Benedict, and Clement. Although, due to mistakes made by medieval scribes, there's actually only ever been 21 official Pope Johns, not 23. Anyhow, it was John XXIII that initiated the Vatican II Council, which ended up being the largest gathering of Catholic Bishops ever, with 2,625 in attendance. A lot of changes occurred because of Vatican II, most of which were aimed at modernizing the church, such as allowing Mass to be performed in local languages rather than Latin. However, John XXIII died before Vatican II was completed, so it was actually the next Pope, Paul VI, who completed it. Paul VI was the first Pope to travel outside of Italy since Italian unification, and he was the last Pope to be crowned with a three-tiered papal tiara. That's because the next Pope, John Paul I, chose not to have a papal coronation, opting for a more simple inauguration instead—a practice that has continued to this day. He was also the first Pope to have a double name. He chose John Paul in order to honor the previous two Popes, John XXIII and Paul VI. However, John Paul I died after just 33 days as Pope. You'd think that that would be a record, but there's actually been 10 other Popes with even shorter reigns. In fact, the number one spot is held by Urban VII, who, in 1590, died of malaria after just 13 days. As for John Paul I, the official story is that he died of a heart attack in his sleep. However, he was only 65 and in relatively good health, so his unexpected death has led to all sorts of conspiracy theories, the leading one being that it had something to do with corruption at the Vatican Bank.
John Paul I was followed by John Paul II, who most of you probably remember well, even if you're not Catholic. He was the first non-Italian Pope in over 450 years, and he ended up serving for 26 years, which is second only to Pius IX, who I mentioned earlier. However, John Paul II is mostly remembered for being the first Pope to become a world traveler. During his papacy, he visited 129 countries, and wherever he went, he was greeted by massive crowds. He is thus widely thought to be the most seen person in all of world history, if, of course, you don't count seeing people on screens. John Paul II died in 2005 and was followed by Benedict XVI, who then served until 2013 when he became the first Pope in 600 years to resign. Yep, it's rare, but the Pope is allowed to do that. Because of the resignation, we ended up with two Popes for a while: the new one, Pope Francis, as well as the old one, who became known as the Pope Emeritus. Benedict XVI died, however, in 2022, so we're currently back to just one.
Okay, so that gives you an overview of the last 12 Popes, all of whom can be traced back through their Episcopal lineage to Cardinal Riva. However, as I mentioned earlier, there are still a few Catholic Bishops—less than 10%—who belong to other lineages. One example is the current Archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich. Note that he is shown in blue instead of green; that's because he comes from a different lineage. His line consists entirely of French Cardinals and Bishops until we reach an Italian Cardinal named Nicola Cugno, who, in turn, was consecrated by another Italian Cardinal named Antonio Barberini. And what do you know, Barberini also consecrated the Cardinal who consecrated Pope Innocent XII, who happens to be the most recent Pope who does not belong to the Riva lineage. Instead, he belonged to an older lineage called the Dezzi lineage, which was the dominant lineage before things switched in the year 1700 to the Riva lineage. The Dezzi lineage goes all the way back to 1440 to a French Cardinal named Gombaut de D'Amboise and includes most of the Popes during the 1500s and 1600s. During this period, some Popes were not only episcopally related, they were biologically related too. For example, Julius II, who was the Pope who initiated the construction of the current St. Peter's Basilica, was the nephew of Sixtus IV, after whom the Sistine Chapel is named. Also, Clement XII, who was the Pope who wouldn't allow Henry VIII to divorce his wife, was the nephew of Leo X, who is the Pope who excommunicated Martin Luther. So basically, 1440 is as far back as any current Catholic bishop can go in terms of their Episcopal ancestry.
However, Anglican Bishops can actually go a bit further. You see, all Anglican Bishops today trace their lineage back to Matthew Parker, who, in 1559, became the first Archbishop of Canterbury under the Elizabethan Settlement, which is when the Church of England permanently separated from the Catholic Church. However, we can, in turn, trace Matthew Parker's line back to Cardinal Henry Bowet, who became a bishop in 1398. Although there is some debate over whether or not Matthew Parker was consecrated properly, so as far as I know, 1398 is as far back as anyone can go when it comes to Episcopal genealogy.
Okay, if you're interested in learning more about historical Popes, I've actually done two previous videos that you might find interesting. This one talks about the Renaissance Popes and it includes a lot of really important people and events. And this one goes back even further and talks about a dozen Popes who are all related to one woman, Marozia of Tusculum. And don't forget, if you're interested in building a chart of your own biological ancestors, be sure to check out MyHeritage by using the link in the description or pinned comment. They're offering a 14-day free trial followed by 50% off their premium subscription. Thanks for watching. [Music] [Music]