7 from the Republic slash Duchy of Florence, and 7 others from the Kingdom of Italy slash the modern Italian Republic
Popes. The head of the Holy See, ruler of the Vatican and leader of the Catholic Church
Throughout history, since the establishment of Catholicism, there has been one man at a time in charge of Catholicism
Save a couple situations where there were two conflicting popes, and now that there is one retired pope and one in office
But usually the papacy is a lifelong position and it is only when the current Pope dies that the College of Cardinals
Gathers and elects a new one the current Pope Pope Francis is from Argentina
But this is a rare if not a one-of-a-kind occasion of a Pope not being of European origin as throughout history
That has been the norm the Pope that preceded Pope Francis the one now retired Pope Benedict
the 16th was German, his predecessor Pope John Paul II was Polish and his predecessor
John Paul I was Italian. As you can see on the thumbnail of the video, many, in fact most of the popes throughout
time have been Italian. The difference is so large that the graph on the thumbnail couldn't even beat the scale
But there's one key detail that we need to know about these numbers before we learn
where each pope has been from. Those 216 or 217 Italian popes weren't all from Italy, the country
They were from the territory where Italy now exists. And throughout time, many of the popes that are now associated with a specific nationality
are simply from that specific region. For example, Portugal is pointed as having two popes, when in fact they only had one
with the other having been from the Lusitania province of the Roman Empire, where Portugal
now is, but the country didn't exist at the time. The same goes for the three African popes that existed
They were in fact from Africa, but Roman Empire Africa. So now that we've understood this detail, let's get into it
Where have all the popes been from? Before we go case by case, here is a table that summarizes all of it
In case you don't want to watch the entire video, we can instantly see the gigantic difference
between the Italian peninsula and all other locations. So let understand why this is the case Let start with the ones that were from the Roman Empire along those of the Byzantine Empire which continued after the collapse of the western part of the Roman Empire We can do this alphabetically by location of origin of the Pope remember this is in
chronological order of when each Pope was in office. The Africa Province of the Roman Empire
has had three Popes, Pope Victor, Pope Militiades and Pope Galassius, all three from a long time
ago and from the Roman African province which corresponds to current day Tunisia, Libya and
also a little bit of Algeria or at least the coastal regions of these countries. This was
actually one of the wealthiest provinces in the western part of the Roman Empire second only to
Italia itself. Another Roman province that had two popes was Dalmatia which is today equivalent to
Croatia. These were Pope Caius, Pope John IV who at the time was from the Byzantine Empire and no
longer the full Roman Empire. And then we have the Greek popes, which existed in the same condition
as those from Dalmatia, Croatia, some being from the Roman Empire and others from the Byzantine
These were Pope Telesphorus, Iginus, Eleuterus, Anterus, Sixtus II, Dionysius, Zosimus, John VI, and Pope John VII. A great number of popes, not only from the Roman Empire
but also the entire history of the papacy, have been from Roman and Byzantine Italy
35 from Roman Italy and 26 from Byzantine Italy. I won't read all of their names because that's a
little pointless but you can see them here on screen. A total of 61 popes, over 20% of the
current total of people that have been in charge of the Catholic Church. And if we count all the
ones from the Roman and Byzantine empires altogether, they account for 91 popes, 34
of the total number. Additional Roman and Byzantine papacies were from Roman Galilee and Udua province
in the Middle East, Saint Peter, the first Pope, Pope Evaristus and Pope Theodore I, a native of
Jerusalem. The Middle East also had other popes from Roman and Byzantine Syria, Pope Anicetus
John V, Cisinius, Constantine and Gregory III. I think a few of these names are repeated
so let me know in the comments if there's any incongruency. And finally, two additional Roman
popes, Pope Damasus I from Lusitania and Pope Conan from Sicily. As we see the dates corresponding
to each pope we understand that their ruling years weren that many life expectancy used to be much smaller and the stability of the church and political context of the Holy See wasn as stable as it is now so many popes are likely to
have been killed by their opposition. This somewhat justifies the number of popes that existed during
the Roman Empire. In the complete history of the papacy, 29 popes are seen as martyrs
having suffered very aggressive deaths, 7 have been confirmed as being murdered
and six others are suspected of having been so as well. So not a great job to have had in the past
And up to this point, we can understand that despite the popes being from different areas of the Roman Empire
they were in fact Roman. They may have had some features of their own ethnicity or culture
but they belong to the same country or empire, with the concept of nationality only having arisen a little during the Middle Ages
So now let's move further ahead in history to the time when countries as we know them today were already established
and take a look at which countries have in fact had a Pope
All of these modern Popes have been from Europe, save the current one, which really shows the dominance the European nations have had in the control of the Catholic Church
despite the fact that today there are just as many, if not more, Catholic people in America, Africa or Asia as there are in Europe
a sign that perhaps the next Pope will be African or Asian. Just like the Italian province was dominant in the origins of Popes within the Roman Empire
the same happens again with Europe and Italy, or at least the Italian territory
114 of all popes have been from the Italian papal states, 42% of the total number
Three others were from Italian territory within the Holy Roman Empire, three were from the Republic of Genoa, Pope Innocent IV, Pope Hadrian V, and Pope Innocent VII
three more from the Republic of Venice, seven from the Republic slash Duchy of Florence
and 7 others from the Kingdom of Italy slash the modern Italian Republic
oh, and 7 more from the Italian Ostrogothic Kingdom. In total, throughout all history, there have been 217 popes from what is now the territory of Italy
81% of the total of popes that have ever been in office
This really goes to show the importance and control that the Roman Empire and the Papal States
have had in the ruling of the Catholic Church worldwide So after this ridiculous Italian dominance of the papacy which other countries have in fact had their own popes Like we saw Argentina has one the current Pope Francis
England had one pope, Adrian IV, French is the most common non-Italian papal ancestry
17 popes have had French origin, 7 of which during the Avignon papacy, where the French
kingdom essentially held a pope hostage and then forced French popes to be elected after the
Avignon papacy ended and the Pope returned to Rome, no other French person has been elected
Pope. Maybe Rome still holds a grudge after all this time. After Italian and French popes
the most common origin is the Holy Roman Empire. Although this empire also encompassed many
territories and places, there are now their specific countries. The Netherlands, for instance
had one Pope within the HRE, Pope Adrian VI from the Bishopry of Utrecht, which was a part of the
Empire. Five other popes came from duchies, kingdoms, or counties within the Holy Roman Empire
like one from the Duchy of Swabia, another from the Duchy of Lorraine, one from the Kingdom of
Burgundy, and another from the Kingdom of Arles. Modern Germany itself only had one pope, the
current retired pope, Benedict XVI, and all the other German popes were from the Holy Roman Empire
as well. Gregory V, Clement II, the Mazus II, and Victor II. Poland had one pope
John Paul II, and Portugal had one as well, Pope John XXI
And in the Spanish territory today, the Kingdom of Valencia had two popes, Pope Calixtus III
and Pope Alexander VI. So, that is where each pope has been from, what areas of the Roman and
Byzantine Empire they have been from, which territories they came from despite being a
part of other republics, duchies, or kingdoms corresponding to modern nations, and which
specific countries in the more modern sense of the word, popes have effectively been from
Understanding the utter dominance that Italy has had in the papacy throughout history and
how the same has also been the case for Europe in general
Although with the current Argentinian Pope Francis and the landscape of Catholicism throughout
the world, that might begin to change. Thanks so much for watching this video, subscribe if you want and I will see you next time for
more general knowledge