POPE
From the Greek πάπας, πάπας (= father),
an honorific title now reserved in the Catholic Church for the Supreme Pontiff.
**SUMMARY:**
I. Origin of the Name
II. Election of Popes
III. Names of the Popes
IV. The Papal Chronology
V. The Number of Popes
VI. Portraits of the Popes
VII. Coats of Arms of the Popes
VIII. Burial of the Popes
IX. Acts of the Popes
X. Papal Medals.---
### I. ORIGIN OF THE NAME
Until nearly the 9th century, but especially in the 3rd–5th centuries, the title of Pope was given to bishops as an expression of affectionate veneration, as is also evident from the adjectives *mio*, *tuo*, *nostro*, which often accompanied it (« *Non tu es papa noster?* » exclaim that Perpetua and Saturus to Bishop Optatus of Carthage: *Passio ss. Perpetuae et Felicitatis*, 13; « *πῶ μάχαιρὸ πάπα μῶν Ἡράκᾶς* » writes Dionysius of Alexandria [d. 254]: Eusebius, *Hist. eccl.*, VII, VII, 4; « *Cypriano papae* » address a letter the Roman deacons: *Ep.*, 30, ed. G. Hartel, CSEL, III, 2, Vienna 1871, p. 557). This title was sometimes given even to simple priests, as, for example, in Egypt in the 4th century (cf. P. Batiffol, *L’Église naissante et le catholicisme*, Paris 1927, p. 353, n. 2); indeed, it is well known that in the East the priest is still called *papas*. In Egypt, however, the *πάπας* par excellence was always the Patriarch of Alexandria.
The title of Pope for the Bishop of Rome, beyond the « *benedictus papa* » in Tertullian’s *De judiciis* (XIII, 7)—which probably refers to Callistus—is first directly attested in the inscription of the deacon Severus (296–304), found in St. Callistus, which reads: « *iussu p(a)p(ae) sui Marcellini* » (reproduced under the heading **LUMINARE**). By the end of the 4th century, the word *papa*, for the Bishop of Rome, begins to be something more than a mere expression of affectionate veneration: it tends to become his specific title. Significant in this regard is the address placed by St. Ambrose in a letter to the Synod of 390: « *Domino dilectissimo fratri Syricio papae* » (*Ep.*, 42: PL 16, 1124). The Synod of Toledo in 400 uses the word *papa* to denote simply and solely the Bishop of Rome (Mansi, III, 1006–1007), and St. Vincent of Lérins, recalling various bishops, gives this title only to the popes Celestine I and Sixtus III (cf. *Commonitorium* 32–33: PL 50, 683–84). The Roman Synod of 499 also uses the word *papa* in an absolute sense (ed. Th. Mommsen, in *MGH, Auctorum antiquissimi*, XII, p. 403). However, during the 5th century, there was still a need to accompany the word *papa* with a determinative, such as *papa Urbis aeternae* or *Urbis Romae* (letters of Honorius: *Collectio Avellana*, *Epp.*, 27, 28, 37: ed. O. Guenther, CSEL, XXXV, Vienna 1895, pp. 73, 83), *papa urbicus* (Paulinus of Nola, *Ep.*, 5, 14: CSEL, XXX, Vienna 1893, p. 33), etc. By the 6th century, the term *papa* enters the formulary of the Chancery of Constantinople and becomes, except for increasingly rare exceptions, the distinctive title of the Bishop of Rome. Even in the *Liber Pontificalis*, the word *episcopus*, used in earlier biographies, gives way with the biography of Agapetus I.