Popes Project

Profile manager: Greg Shipley [send private message]

Mission Statement

The goal of this project is to create well sourced profiles with biographies for all the Popes of the Roman Catholic Church. A succession box at the top of each profile links the popes in order.

All popes are Notable therefore this project fits under the Notables Project. However, it also fits under the Religious Project as all popes are leaders of the Catholic Church.

As of 12 Jan 2023, 100% of the popes profiles have been created. This is still a work in progress, with profile updates being the next part of the project.

Project Team

The Project was originally started by Greg Shipley but is now being managed by Deborah Talbot.

Categorisation

• All popes are Notables therefore adding the Notables Sticker {{Notables Sticker:Catholic Popes}} to these profiles automatically adds the Category [[Category:Notables]] to the profile so please do not add that category to the profile. Please use the Notables Sticker under the Biography heading instead.
• Add the category for the century e.g. 5th Century
• Add the category for Saints if appropriate
• For early popes add the category for Byzantine Empire, Western Roman Empire, etc as appropriate
• For popes under a specific papacy grouping add Byzantine Papacy, or Ostrogothic Papacy etc as appropriate. To find the groups see subcategories under Catholic Popes.
• For those popes who were Apocrisiarii (papal legates) prior to their papacy, add the category Apocrisiarii to their profile

Succession box code

{{Succession box
| title = 262nd Pope of the Roman Catholic Church
| years = 21 June 1963 – 6 August 1978
| preceded-text = Preceded by
| before = [[Roncalli-1|John XXIII]]
| succeeded-text = Succeeded by
| after = [[Luciani-3|John Paul I]]
}}

yields:

NOTE: Place Notables sticker template directly under Biography headings. Do NOT place any templates above the succession box. Any other projects that relate to a specific pope should be added under the succession box.

Project involvement statement

Immediately under the Biography place the text:

== Research Notes ==
[[Image:Flags-52.png |25px]]
{{Red|This profile is being updated by the [[Space:Popes|Popes Project]].}}

This yields the following under a heading Research Notes:

This profile is being updated by the Popes Project.

Naming Conventions

Naming conventions follow the standard for the various projects as per below:

• For early popes with only one name we follow the Indonesia Profile Conventions thus using the name of the father as the LNAB, and if no father is known, then use the birth place as the LNAB.

• For German popes use the Germany Project Name Field Guidelines.

• For Italian popes use the Italy Project Name Field Guidelines.

• For other European popes use the European Aristocrats Naming Convention.

Note:

• The Papal Name (e.g. Pope Francis) should go into the Preferred Name field.
• The title Pope is part of the Papal Name, and does not go in the prefix field.

Project Resources

• Loomis, Louise Ropes (1916) Liber Pontificalis The Book of the Popes, Columbia University Press, 1916.
• Mann, Horace K. (1910) The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Truebner, & Co. Ltd. OCLC 499626370
• Platina, Bartolomeo (1479) The Lives of the Popes from the Time of Our Saviour Jesus Christ to the Accession of Gregory VII, London, Griffith Farran. [Translated from the Latin by Rev W Benham, Rector of St Edmund's] - Be careful with this reference as some of the historical information is out of sequence and isn't always accurate. Mann above is more reliable.
• The Vatican Holy Father Index
• Wikipedia has a list with dates, however care needs to be taken regarding Wikipedia articles to ensure that quality information is sourced from here. Check the references within Wikipedia for primary sources.

Project Tasks

Here are some of the tasks that I think need to be done. I'll be working on them, and could use your help.

• Create Profiles for every Pope
• Put their papal name in the Preferred Name field as Pope xxx. Do not put Pope as a prefix.
• Categorize all profiles into Popes
• Create an index by date and by Papal name to included here and on the popes category
• Create a list of needed tasks including a sub-list of pre-1500 tasks.
• Write biographies and add succession boxes to all profiles.
• Include a profile image, Wiki Commons has public domain images of all the popes.

Will you join me? Please post a comment here on this page, in G2G using the project tag, or send me a private message. Thanks!

This project works closely with the Notables Project and the Religious Project. At times individual popes will also be associated with other area projects (eg Medieval Project, England; Spain Project etc).

Useful source: Google Books on the Deaths of the Popes

Project Status and Tasks Table

NOTE: When creating the table I included all the tasks for every entry. For many of the post-1500 Popes some of the tasks have already been done and are not reflected here. I have also left "Needs Sourced" on profiles that only have the Wikipedia page, Strong primary sources or respected scholarly works exist online for all these profiles, they just need tracked down.

List of Popes: