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There was a certain rich man, which
was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously
every day....
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Luke 16:19
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  Successive
popes have informed the world that they are set above the rest
of mankind, and enjoy direct communications with the deity.
The Holy Spirit guides their election, and their power extends
not merely to God's eternal Church, but beyond this world to
the next. When speaking ex cathedra on faith or morals
they are literally infallible, just like the Byzantine
Emperors used to be before them.
Despite the theory, it is fair to say that popes have proved
their fallibility in all manner of circumstances*.
Some have contradicted others. Some have contradicted themselves.
Some have been guilty of heresy, by departing from what their
predecessors and their successors regarded as orthodoxy. The
Eastern Churches have condemned Roman popes for a number of
heresies — tampering with the creeds, Sabellianism (see
page 123), enforcing clerical celibacy, and so on. The first
two popes in the third century, Zephyrinus and Callistus, were
both accused of heresy*
by Tertullian and also by St Hippolytus. Marcellinus, who was
Bishop of Rome from 296 to 304, offered incense to the pagan
gods. For this his name was afterwards omitted from official
lists of popes. Three of the next four popes seem to have assisted
him, despite being already in Holy Orders, but all of them,
including Marcellinus, are now revered as saints. In the middle
of the fourth century Pope Liberius condemned Athanasius, the
champion of orthodoxy against Arian heretics. This act provided
absolute proof that a pope could fall into error. Early in the
fifth century Pope Zosimus accepted the Pelagian heresy (see
page 127) and changed his mind only when obliged to do so by
the Emperor. He then issued a document known as his Tractoria,
which reversed his earlier position. The fifth century popes
Innocent I and Gelasius I both claimed that babies who died
after baptism but before receiving Communion would go straight
to Hell. This view was later contradicted and condemned by the
Council of Trent , but is now open again since Pope Benedict
XVI teaches Original Sin but denies the existence of Purgatory.
Pope Vigilius, in 548, formally condemned the Three Chapters
already mentioned, which had been formally approved by the Ecumenical
Council of Chalcedon in 451. He subsequently wavered, trying
to appease both supporters and opponents, withdrawing his condemnation
in 551. He was himself declared a heretic and excommunicated
by the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 553, which he
refused to attend. In exile, but under no duress, except the
knowledge that a new pope was to be elected, he wrote a letter
admitting that he had been deluded by the wiles of the Devil.
He confirmed his error and accepted the decrees of Constantinople.
This incident provided proof that a council was superior to
a pope.
In the seventh century Pope Honorius I was condemned for a
heresy called Monothelitism, the view that Christ had only one
will (rather than two — one human and one divine). In 649
Pope Martin I condemned the Monothelete doctrine accepted by
Honorius. Subsequently, Honorius was condemned not only by the
Sixth General Council, but also by Pope Leo II, who stated that
he had tried with profane treachery to subvert the immaculate
faith. Subsequent popes were required at their consecration
to take an oath condemning Honorius's heresy. In 1046 the
Emperor Henry III presided over a synod at Sutri that deposed
two popes, secured the abdication of a third, and appointed
a fourth (Clement II). The most significant acts of Pope Celestine
II in the twelfth century were reversals of decisions made by
his predecessor Innocent II. Also in the twelfth century Pope
Adrian VI declared Pope Celestine III a heretic for extending
the conditions under which marriages could be dissolved. Again,
the timeless validity of the bull Super cathedram,
issued by Pope Boniface VIII in 1301, was somewhat compromised
by his blessed successor, Pope Benedict XI, who annulled it
because of its unpopularity.
One way out of the problem of fallible popes up to this date
is to say that popes were infallible only when addressing the
whole Church. The first bull explicitly to do so was Boniface
VIII's Unam sanctam in 1302. But this opens up
the question of why no pope made an infallible statement for
over 1250 years, and admits that until that time only councils
expressed the mind of the Church — a most uncomfortable
admission for the Vatican.
 Later,
in the fourteenth century, Pope John XXII preached that saints
in Heaven are not yet permitted to see God. The Church hierarchy
felt this matter to be of the greatest importance. The established
teaching was that the saints did see God. John was obliged to
reconsider under threat of deposition, and with a gentle reminder
that heretics get burned. His reconsideration led him to change
his mind. In 1523 Pope Adrian VI summed up the official line
on papal infallibility with specific reference to John's heresy:
If by the Roman Church you mean its head or pontiff, it is
beyond question that he can err even in matters touching the
faith. He does this when he teaches heresy by his own judgement
or decretal. In truth, many Roman Pontiffs were heretics.
The last of them was John XXII*.
The traditional teaching of the Church has been that embryos
do not acquire a soul until 40 days (if they are male) or 80
days (if they are female) after conception. One consequence
of this was that abortion could not possibly be homicide if
carried out up to 40 days after conception. This view was confirmed
on a number of occasions, notably by Gregory XIII in the sixteenth
century. However, his successor Sixtus V, in his bull Effraenatum
of 1588, stated that all abortion amounted to homicide and was
punishable by excommunication. His successor Gregory XIV had
different ideas and decided that Sixtus's censures were
to be disregarded. Modern Popes, starting with Pius IX in 1869,
have made a third U-turn.
Even the greatest of popes seem to have been surprisingly fallible.
Pope Gregory I (St Gregory the Great), for example, taught emphatically
that Christ alone was conceived without Original Sin. This indeed
was the official line for 1,000 years. Then, after centuries
of lobbying on behalf of the Virgin Mary, it was decided that
she too had been born without Original Sin (this is the doctrine
of the Immaculate Conception). In 1854 Pope Pius IX announced
in his bull Ineffabilis Deus that "the doctrine
was revealed by God and therefore is to be firmly and steadfastly
believed by all the faithful". Now it was heretical to
deny the Immaculate Conception, so the world discovered that
Gregory I had been a heretic all along.
In 1963 Pope John XXIII accepted total liberty of conscience,
a concept that earlier popes had considered heretical. Gregory
XVI had considered it monstrous and absurd, and Pius IX described
it as a cardinal error. Popes had made other massive mistakes
over many centuries. One after another they affirmed that documents
fabricated in the papal chancery were genuine. Whether they
knew it or not they were in error. Even with the benefit of
direct communication with God, they were consistently, repeatedly,
and unquestionably wrong. They spoke with supreme authority
on matters that were pivotal to the faith yet were wrong time
and time again. They held that the Bible was the literal word
of God, and thus espoused an erroneous cosmology — stating
as a fact that Galileo was in error, when they themselves were
in error. In an unbroken line from the thirteenth century, more
than eighty popes failed to identify any moral difficulties
with the operations of the Inquisition. Many rose to power through
it, thoroughly approved of it, and extended its power. Many
popes, on numerous occasions, confirmed the existence of witches,
and the fact that they possessed supernatural powers. After
Innocent VIII, it was heretical to deny it.
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A knight (Jesus Christ?) feeds the pope
into the mouth of hell - suggesting that popes are not
infallible.
Antithesis Christi et Antichristi, Jenský kodex
(Jena Codex), Bohemia ca. 1490-1510.
Prague, National Museum Library IV.B.24, fol. 80r
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More than 1,800 years after the time of St Peter it took weeks
of debate to decide by a majority vote, and in the face of numerous
counter-proofs, that the Pope was infallible. This claim was
denied by three of the four ancient patriarchies, by all Protestants,
and by many Roman Catholic scholars. Numerous Roman Catholics
were unable to accept it and so went into schism. Suddenly,
after being a matter of contention, in 1870, acceptance of the
principle became necessary for salvation.
For most mainstream Christian sects there is no doubt that
an ecumenical council is supreme. But for the Roman Church there
is a question as to whether a council is superior to a pope,
or a pope to a council. The claim that a pope is superior to
a council is badly undermined by the fact that in the past councils
have condemned popes and the popes have accepted their condemnation
and felt obliged to admit their error (as in the case of Vigilius
mentioned above). More embarrassing still is the fact that even
in Western Europe councils could be convened validly without
the consent of a pope — a spectacular example being the
Council of Constance of 1414-1418. Convened on an emperor's authority, as the First Ecumenical Council had been, the council
deposed a number of rival popes and elected its own pope (Martin
V, who is still recognised by the Roman Church as a valid successor
to Peter).
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