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Each opposing papal hierarchy was supported by formidable are considered as corruptions or dishonest applications, as military factions, and the subject of popes warring against each dictated by the necessities of the Church, or of instances of other is a topic too vast even to summarise here. Their struggles worldly ambition." for power were conducted with amazing bitterness, and the word (The Authentic and Acknowledged Standards of the "schism" is not strong enough to describe the depth of the fury Church of Rome, J. Hannah, DD, 1844, p. 414) that raged for centuries within the Christian religion. Catholic historians admit that "even now it is not perhaps absolutely certain However, humanitarian and biblical scholar Desiderius from the two lines of popes who was pope and who was anti- Erasmus (c. 1466-1536) got it right when he frankly stated that pope, or which anti-pope was a legal anti-pope" ( Catholic "succession is imaginary" (Erasmus, in Nov. Test. Annotations, Encyclopedia, Pecci ed., iii, 107; also, Catholic Dictionary, ibid.). fol. Basle, 1542), simply because its modern-day portrayal is This is luminous clerical reasoning, but there is more to this contrary to recorded historical fact. peculiar side of Holy See history and it is found in a book called Around 50 years after the time of Pope Alexander II (d. 1073), Secrets of the Christian Fathers, written in 1685 by Roman an influential and opposing faction elected Lamberto of Bologna Bishop Joseph W. Sergerus (d. c. 1701). He as Pope Honorius II (1124-30) and the provides evidence from Church archives at Church maintained its two rival popes, each his disposal that at some periods in papal bitter and warring opponents both living history there were four popes occupying the murderous, debauched and luxurious papal chair(s), each in a different building, lifestyles. There is no doubt that Honorius city or country, operating independently with was determined to buy or force his way into their own cardinals and staff and holding the papal chair and he succeeded, preserving their own canonical councils. He names his position for the term of his life. Upon his them, and one example from 12 quadruple i i death, two new popes, Anacletus II sets of popes is that of the self-declared Pope Investigation of (1130-38) and Innocent II (1130-43) were Benedict XIV (1425) who, for years, rivalled the Church's own elected and consecrated on the same day by popes Benedict XIII (1427), Clement VIII opposing clerical factions. Before his (1429) and Martin V (1431). In more recent records, however, election, Pietro Pierleoni (anti-pope times, Church historians have ingeniously reveals that the Anacletus IT) was military leader of a rival referred to the fourth member of the A army whose family had fought for 50 quadruple set as "a counter anti-pope" claim of an unbroken years (in total) for control of the Holy (The Popes: A Concise Biographical papal continuity See—a confrontation subtly called the is false. History), and stated that "this is not the "Fifty Year War" by the Church today. place [in Church reference books] to If we can believe his enemies, he discuss the merits or motives of the disgraced the papal office by his gross multiple claimants" (Catholic immorality and his greed in the Encyclopedia, Pecci ed., iii, pp. 107-8; accumulation of lucre. When Pierleoni Catholic Dictionary). died in 1138, his faction elected Victor The introduction of the word "anti- IV to the papal chair (Catholic pope" was a retrospective move by the Encyclopedia, i, p. 447). The Church Church to eliminate the reality of remained in bitter conflict, still under simultaneously serving popes and thus the divided control of two popes, provide itself with a singular neither possessing a Bible and each continuous ministerial succession of operating independently (Confessions popes from St Peter to Benedict XVI today. Investigation of the of a French Catholic Priest, Mathers, New York, 1837). Church's own records, however, reveals that the claim of an The extent of papal transgression is expanded by the words of unbroken papal continuity is false. Bishop Bartolomeo Platina the Church through the Pecci edition (1897) of its Catholic (1421-81), a Christian historian and the first prefect (1475-81) of Encyclopedia: the embryonic Vatican Library, admitted that direct lineage "was "At the time of Gregory VII's elevation to the papacy interrupted by repeated periods after Nicholas I (pope 858-867); (1073-85), the Christian world was in a deplorable condition. an interregnum of eight years, seven months and nine days, etc., During the desolating period of transition, the terrible period of etc.". Those breaks are piously called "vacations" and are warfare and rapine, violence, and corruption in high places, which recorded by Bishop Platina as totalling "127 years, five months followed immediately upon the dissolution of the Carolingian and nine days" (Vitae Pontificum ["Lives of the Popes"], Bishop Empire, a period when society in Europe seemed doomed to Platina, first pub. c. 1479; also Catholic Encyclopedia, xii, pp. destruction and ruin, the Church had not been able to escape from 767-68). However, Platina failed to record the "vacations" that the general debasement to which it had so signally contributed, if occurred in the nine centuries or so preceding Nicholas I, for not caused. The tenth century, the saddest perhaps in Christian "unfortunately, few of the records (of the Church) prior to the year annals, is characterised by the remark of Cardinal Baronius 1198 have been released" (Encyclopaedia Biblica, Adam & (Vatican historian, 1538-1607) that 'Christ was asleep in the Charles Black, London, 1899). Clerical insiders know writings vessel of the Church'." purporting to record the lineage of popes are false, saying: (Catholic Encyclopedia, Pecci ed., ii, pp. 289, 294, passim; "As for the pretend catalogues of succeeding bishops of the also vi, pp. 791-95) different assemblies from the days of the apostles, exhibited by some ecclesiastical writers, they are filled up by forgeries and Another peculiar event from the annals of Christianity takes us later inventions. Thus diocesan bishops came in, whose offices into the 12th century and this piece of evidence makes us wonder are considered as corruptions or dishonest applications, as dictated by the necessities of the Church, or of instances of worldly ambition." (The Authentic and Acknowledged Standards of the Church of Rome, J. Hannah, DD, 1844, p. 414) Investigation of the Church's own records, however, reveals that the papal continuity is false. Another peculiar event from the annals of Christianity takes us into the 12th century and this piece of evidence makes us wonder 38 + NEXUS claim of an unbroken www.nexusmagazine.com DECEMBER 2006 — JANUARY 2007