LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Popes: Rome
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During the period when the Popes left Rome for Avignon most of the towns of their Italian possessions fell under the rule of local families as was the case in other parts of central and northern Italy. Cardinal Gil de Albornoz was charged with the task to reconquer at least the areas closest to Rome to pave the way for the return of the Pope.
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Because of the internal corruption within the church of Rome the question of heretical popes did from time to time surface. The problem was how to deal with a heretical pope when no earthly power was deemed capable of judging a pope. The definition of heresy has changed since the dark ages. Then any one that seemed a threat to the survival of the church of Rome was deemed a heretic. Any one that attacked the teachings of the church of Rome was deemed a heretic. Now not so much those that seem a threat but all those who oppose the canon laws of the church of Rome are deemed heretics.
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Part of the collection contains letters purportedly written by the ante-Nicene popes, beginning with Clement (in office:88-97). The collection was suppose to prove that from the earliest days the Church of Rome had the right to issue laws, validate council decisions and depose bishops. These documents are known today to be forgeries. They were actually deceitfully composed by the Frankish Court around the year 850.
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Hermannus Contractus may have been the first historian to number the popes continuously. His list ends in 1049 with Pope Leo IX as the number 154. On that basis, the current Pope Benedict XVI would be the 267th pope of Rome.
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It is the most important and venerated crypt of the cemetery, called "the little Vatican" as it was the official burial place of nine popes and, probably, of eight dignitaries of Rome's 3rd century Church. In the walls you can still see the original inscriptions, in Greek, of five popes. On four tombstones, near the name of the pope, there is the title of "bishop", since the Pope was regarded as the head of the Church of Rome, and on two of them there is the Greek abbreviation of MPT for "Martyr".
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There is no official list of popes, but the Annuario Pontificio, published every year by the Vatican, contains a list that is generally considered to be the most authoritative. Its list is the one given here. The Annuario Pontificio's list gives Benedict XVI as the 265th pope of Rome.
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