Christopher was an antipope from October 903 to January 904, probably dying that year. Some say he was a legitimate pope, and although he did not become pope in the usual way, he was recognized as pope some time later. He was included in most modern lists of popes until the first half of the 20th century. He's now considered an antipope by the Church authorities. Antipope Felix V, the last historical Antipope. ... Events Vikings invade England. ... Events Accession of Sergius III Destruction of Changan, the capital of Tang Dynasty and the largest city in the ancient world. ... The Pope (from Greek: pappas, father; from Latin: papa, Papa, father) is the head of the Catholic Church. ...

Reign

He was a Roman, his father was named Leo. He was cardinal-priest of the title of St. Damasus when he became pope by forcibly dethroning his predecessor, Leo V, and putting him into prison, seemingly about October 903. As Leo appears to have soon died in his prison, Christopher may be regarded as pope after his death. One writer, indeed, Eugenius Vulgarius, who was interested in blackening the character of Sergius III, pretends that Sergius murdered both Leo V and Christopher. But his evidence is unsatisfactory in itself, and is opposed to evidence better substantiated. At this period, however, the darkest ever known in papal Rome, when its barons were making and unmaking popes at their pleasure, and when both Italy and Rome were in such a state of turmoil that men could find no leisure to write history, we have to grope about in the dark and when we have grasped some detail we can scarcely tell whether it is fact or fiction. A Greek eleventh-century document (Mon. Græca ad Photium pertinent., p. 160, ed. Hergenröther, Ratisbon, 1869) says that Christopher was the first pope who, in his profession of faith which he sent according to custom to Sergius, Patriarch of Constantinople, stated that the Holy Ghost proceeded "from the Father and from the Son". The difficulty in the way of accepting this statement is that there was no Patriarch Sergius at this time. City motto: Senatus Populusque Romanus – SPQR (The Senate and the People of Rome) Founded 21 April 753 BC mythical, 1st millennium BC Region Latium Area  - City Proper  1285 km² Population  - City (2004)  - Metropolitan  - Density (city proper) 2,553,873 almost 4,300,000 1. ... Cardinal Priests are the most numerous of the three orders of Cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church. ... Leo V, a native of Ardea, was Pope for some thirty days in 903 after the death of Pope Benedict IV (900–903). ... Pope Sergius III, scion of Benedictus, of a noble Roman family, reigned in two intervals between 897 and April 14, 911, during a period of feudal violence and disorder in central Italy, where the Papacy was a pawn of warring aristocratic factions. ...

Dethroning

Christopher was driven from the papacy by his successor, Sergius III (904 — 901), and compelled to end his days as a monk (Chronicle of Hermannus Contractus, ad an. 904), though Vulgarius says he was strangled in prison [Dümmler, Auxilius und Vulgarius (Leipzig, 1866), 160, 135]. Pope Sergius III, scion of Benedictus, of a noble Roman family, reigned in two intervals between 897 and April 14, 911, during a period of feudal violence and disorder in central Italy, where the Papacy was a pawn of warring aristocratic factions. ... Events Accession of Sergius III Destruction of Changan, the capital of Tang Dynasty and the largest city in the ancient world. ... Events Mesoamerican ballgame court dedicated at Uxmal Kingdom of Taebong established in Korean peninsula Fuzhou city was expanded with construction of a new city wall (Luo City). Births Deaths February 18 - Thabit ibn Qurra, Arab astronomer and mathematician Categories: 901 ...

Legitimacy

Some hold that Christopher, although his manner of taking possession of the papacy was wholly uncanonical, was a legitimate pope. Hence we find his name included in all the more or less contemporary catalogues of the popes (Liber Pontificalis, II, ed. Duchesne; Watterich, Pontificum Romanorum Vitae, I; and Origines de l'Église romaine, I, par les membres de la communauté de Solesmes, Paris, 1836). His portrait figures among the other likenesses of the popes in the church of St. Paul Outside the Walls, at Rome, and among the frescoes of tenth-century popes painted in the thirteenth century on the walls of the ancient church of San Pier-in-Grado, outside Pisa. He was, moreover, acknowledged as pope by his successors; for, in confirming the privileges of the Abbey of Corbie in France, St. Leo IX mentioned the preceding grants of Benedict and Christopher (Jaffe, Regesta RR. Pont., I, n. 4212). This privilege is the only one of Christopher's acts which is extant (ibid., 3532, 2d ed.) However, he is no more considered a legitimate pope since the first half of the 20th century and has been erased from the Annuario pontificio's list of popes. The Book of the Popes or the Liber Pontificalis is a major source for early medieval history but was also met with intense critical scrutiny. ... The Annuario Pontificio or Pontifical Yearbook is the annual directory of the Holy See of the Roman Catholic Church. ... Popes buried in St. ...

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Catholic Encyclopedia. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Catholic Encyclopedia (also referred to as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia today) is an English-language encyclopedia published in 1913 by the The Encyclopedia Press, designed to give authoritative information on the entire cycle of Catholic interests, action and doctrine. // History The writing of the encyclopedia began on January 11...

External link

• Catholic Encyclopedia: Pope Christopher