Metropolitan bishop
In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or metropolitan, pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis. The term referred to the bishop of the chief city of a historical Roman province, whose authority in relation to the other bishops of the province was recognized by the First Council of Nicaea; the bishop of the provincial capital, the metropolitan, enjoyed certain rights over other bishops in the province called suffragan bishops. The term is applied in a similar sense to the bishop of the chief episcopal see of an ecclesiastical province; the head of such a metropolitan see has the rank of archbishop and is therefore called the metropolitan archbishop of the ecclesiastical province. Metropolitan bishops preside over synods of the bishops of their ecclesiastical province, are granted special privileges by canon law and tradition. In some churches, such as the Church of Greece, a metropolis is a rank granted to all episcopal sees, their bishops are all called the title of archbishop being reserved for the primate.
See also: Catholic Church hierarchy and Diocesan bishop In the Latin Church, an ecclesiastical province, composed of several neighbouring dioceses, is headed by a metropolitan, the archbishop of the diocese designated by the Pope. The other bishops are known as suffragan bishops; the metropolitan's powers over dioceses other than his own are limited to supervising observance of faith and ecclesiastical discipline and notifying the Supreme Pontiff of any abuses. The metropolitan has the liturgical privilege of celebrating sacred functions throughout the province, as if he were a bishop in his own diocese, provided only that, if he celebrates in a cathedral church, the diocesan bishop has been informed beforehand; the metropolitan is obliged to request the pallium, a symbol of the power that, in communion with the Church of Rome, he possesses over his ecclesiastical province. This holds if he had the pallium in another metropolitan see, it is the responsibility of the metropolitan, with the consent of the majority of the suffragan bishops, to call a provincial council, decide where to convene it, determine the agenda.
It is his prerogative to preside over the provincial council. No provincial council can be called. All Latin Rite metropolitans are archbishops. Titular archbishops are never metropolitans; as of April 2006, 508 archdioceses were headed by metropolitan archbishops, 27 archbishops lead an extant archdiocese, but were not metropolitans, there were 89 titular archbishops. See Catholic Church hierarchy for the distinctions. In those Eastern Catholic Churches that are headed by a patriarch, metropolitans in charge of ecclesiastical provinces hold a position similar to that of metropolitans in the Latin Church. Among the differences is that Eastern Catholic metropolitans within the territory of the patriarchate are to be ordained and enthroned by the patriarch, who may ordain and enthrone metropolitans of sees outside that territory that are part of his Church. A metropolitan has the right to ordain and enthrone the bishops of his province; the metropolitan is to be commemorated in the liturgies celebrated within his province.
A major archbishop is defined as the metropolitan of a certain see who heads an autonomous Eastern Church not of patriarchal rank. The canon law of such a Church differs only from that regarding a patriarchal Church. Within major archiepiscopal churches, there may be ecclesiastical provinces headed by metropolitan bishops. There are autonomous Eastern Catholic Churches consisting of a single province and headed by a metropolitan. Metropolitans of this kind are to obtain the pallium from the Pope as a sign of his metropolitan authority and of his Church's full communion with the Pope, only after his investment with it can he convoke the Council of Hierarchs and ordain the bishops of his autonomous Church. In his autonomous Church it is for him to ordain and enthrone bishops and his name is to be mentioned after that of the Pope in the liturgy. In the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the title of metropolitan is used variously, in terms of rank and jurisdiction. In terms of rank, in some Eastern Orthodox Churches metropolitans are ranked above archbishops in precedence, while in others that order is reversed.
Primates of autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Churches below patriarchal rank are designated as archbishops. In the Greek Orthodox Churches, archbishops are ranked above metropolitans in precedence; the reverse is true for some Slavic Orthodox Churches and for Romanian Orthodox Church, where metropolitans rank above archbishops and the title can be used for important regional or historical sees. In terms of jurisdiction, there are two basic types of metropolitans in Eastern Orthodox Church: real metropolitans, with actual jurisdiction over their ecclesiastical provinces, honorary metropolitans who
Mercury (mythology)
Mercury is a major god in Roman religion and mythology, being one of the 12 Dii Consentes within the ancient Roman pantheon. He is the god of financial gain, eloquence, communication, boundaries, luck and thieves, he was considered the son of Maia, a daughter of the Titan Atlas, Jupiter in Roman mythology. His name is related to the Latin word merx and merces. In his earliest forms, he appears to have been related to the Etruscan deity Turms, he is depicted holding the caduceus in his left hand. Similar to his Greek equivalent Hermes, he was awarded the caduceus by Apollo who handed him a magic wand, which turned into the caduceus. Mercury did not appear among the numinous di indigetes of early Roman religion. Rather, he subsumed the earlier Dei Lucrii as Roman religion was syncretized with Greek religion during the time of the Roman Republic, starting around the 4th century BC. From the beginning, Mercury had the same aspects as Hermes, wearing winged shoes and a winged hat, carrying the caduceus, a herald's staff with two entwined snakes, Apollo's gift to Hermes.
He was accompanied by a cockerel, herald of the new day, a ram or goat, symbolizing fertility, a tortoise, referring to Mercury's legendary invention of the lyre from a tortoise shell. Like Hermes, he was a god of messages, eloquence and of trade of the grain trade. Mercury was considered a god of abundance and commercial success in Gaul, where he was said to have been revered, he was like Hermes, the Romans' psychopomp, leading newly deceased souls to the afterlife. Additionally, Ovid wrote that Mercury carried Morpheus' dreams from the valley of Somnus to sleeping humans. Archeological evidence from Pompeii suggests; the god of commerce was depicted on two early bronze coins of the Roman Republic, the Sextans and the Semuncia. When they described the gods of Celtic and Germanic tribes, rather than considering them separate deities, the Romans interpreted them as local manifestations or aspects of their own gods, a cultural trait called the interpretatio Romana. Mercury, in particular, was reported as becoming popular among the nations the Roman Empire conquered.
This is because, in the Roman syncretism, Mercury was equated with the Celtic god Lugus, in this aspect was accompanied by the Celtic goddess Rosmerta. Although Lugus may have been a deity of light or the sun, similar to the Roman Apollo, his importance as a god of trade made him more comparable to Mercury, Apollo was instead equated with the Celtic deity Belenus. Romans associated Mercury with the Germanic god Wotan, by interpretatio Romana. Mercury is known to the Romans as Mercurius and in earlier writings as Merqurius, Mirqurios or Mircurios, had a number of epithets representing different aspects or roles, or representing syncretisms with non-Roman deities; the most common and significant of these epithets included the following: Mercurius Artaios, a syncretism of Mercury with the Celtic god Artaios, a deity of bears and hunting, worshiped at Beaucroissant, France. Mercurius Arvernus, a syncretism of the Celtic Arvernus with Mercury. Arvernus was worshiped in the Rhineland as a particular deity of the Arverni tribe, though no dedications to Mercurius Arvernus occur in their territory in the Auvergne region of central France.
Mercurius Cimbrianus, a syncretism of Mercury with a god of the Cimbri sometimes thought to represent Odin. Mercurius Cissonius, a combination of Mercury with the Celtic god Cissonius, written of in the area spanning from Cologne, Germany to Saintes, France. Mercurius Esibraeus, a syncretism of the Iberian deity Esibraeus with the Roman deity Mercury. Esibraeus is mentioned only in an inscription found at Medelim, is the same deity as Banda Isibraiegus, invoked in an inscription from the nearby village of Bemposta. Mercurius Gebrinius, a syncretism of Mercury with the Celtic or Germanic Gebrinius, known from an inscription on an altar in Bonn, Germany. Mercurius Moccus, from a Celtic god, equated with Mercury, known from evidence at Langres, France; the name Moccus implies. Mercurius Sobrius, a syncretism of Mercury with a Carthaginian god of commerce. Mercurius Visucius, a syncretism of the Celtic god Visucius with the Roman god Mercury, attested in an inscription from Stuttgart, Germany. Visucius was worshiped in the frontier area of the empire in Gaul and Germany.
Although he was associated with Mercury, Visucius was sometimes linked to the Roman god Mars, as a dedicatory inscription to "Mars Visucius" and Visucia, Visicius' female counterpart, was found in Gaul. In Virgil's Aeneid, Mercury reminds Aeneas of his mission to found the city of Rome. In Ovid's Fasti, Mercury is assigned to escort the
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI is a senior prelate of the Catholic Church who served as its head and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2005 until his resignation in 2013. Benedict's election as pope occurred in the 2005 papal conclave that followed the death of Pope John Paul II. Benedict chose to be known by the title "Pope Emeritus" upon his resignation. Ordained as a priest in 1951 in his native Bavaria, Ratzinger had established himself as a regarded university theologian by the late 1950s and was appointed a full professor in 1958. After a long career as an academic and professor of theology at several German universities, he was appointed Archbishop of Munich and Freising and Cardinal by Pope Paul VI in 1977, an unusual promotion for someone with little pastoral experience. In 1981, he was appointed Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, one of the most important dicasteries of the Roman Curia. From 2002 until his election as pope, he was Dean of the College of Cardinals.
Prior to becoming Pope, he was "a major figure on the Vatican stage for a quarter of a century". He has lived in Rome since 1981, his prolific writings defend traditional Catholic doctrine and values. He was a liberal theologian, but adopted conservative views after 1968. During his papacy, Benedict XVI advocated a return to fundamental Christian values to counter the increased secularisation of many Western countries, he views relativism's denial of objective truth, the denial of moral truths in particular, as the central problem of the 21st century. He taught the importance of both an understanding of God's redemptive love. Pope Benedict revived a number of traditions, including elevating the Tridentine Mass to a more prominent position, he strengthened the relationship between the Catholic Church and art, promoted the use of Latin, reintroduced traditional papal garments, for which reason he was called "the pope of aesthetics". He has been described as "the main intellectual force in the Church" since the mid-1980s.
On 11 February 2013, Benedict unexpectedly announced his resignation in a speech in Latin before the cardinals, citing a "lack of strength of mind and body" due to his advanced age. His resignation became effective on 28 February 2013, he is the first pope to resign since Gregory XII in 1415, the first to do so on his own initiative since Celestine V in 1294. As pope emeritus, Benedict retains the style of His Holiness, the title of pope, continues to dress in the papal colour of white, he was succeeded by Pope Francis on 13 March 2013, he moved into the newly renovated monastery Mater Ecclesiae for his retirement on 2 May 2013. In his retirement, Benedict XVI has made occasional public appearances alongside Pope Francis. Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger was born on 16 April, Holy Saturday, 1927, at Schulstraße 11, at 8:30 in the morning in his parents' home in Marktl, Germany, he was baptised the same day. He is the third and youngest child of Joseph Ratzinger, Sr. a police officer, Maria Ratzinger.
His mother's family was from South Tyrol. Pope Benedict's elder brother, Georg Ratzinger, is a Catholic priest and is the former director of the Regensburger Domspatzen choir, his sister, Maria Ratzinger, who never married, managed Cardinal Ratzinger's household until her death in 1991. At the age of five, Ratzinger was in a group of children who welcomed the visiting Cardinal Archbishop of Munich, Michael von Faulhaber, with flowers. Struck by the cardinal's distinctive garb, he announced that day that he wanted to be a cardinal, he attended the elementary school in Aschau am Inn, renamed in his honour in 2009. Ratzinger's family his father, bitterly resented the Nazis, his father's opposition to Nazism resulted in demotions and harassment of the family. Following his 14th birthday in 1941, Ratzinger was conscripted into the Hitler Youth—as membership was required by law for all 14-year-old German boys after March 1939—but was an unenthusiastic member who refused to attend meetings, according to his brother.
In 1941, one of Ratzinger's cousins, a 14-year-old boy with Down syndrome, was taken away by the Nazi regime and murdered during the Action T4 campaign of Nazi eugenics. In 1943, while still in seminary, he was drafted into the German anti-aircraft corps as Luftwaffenhelfer. Ratzinger trained in the German infantry; as the Allied front drew closer to his post in 1945, he deserted back to his family's home in Traunstein after his unit had ceased to exist, just as American troops established a headquarters in the Ratzinger household. As a German soldier, he was interned in a prisoner of war camp, but released a few months at the end of the war in May 1945. Ratzinger and his brother Georg entered Saint Michael Seminary in Traunstein in November 1945 studying at the Ducal Georgianum of the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, they were both ordained in Freising on 29 June 1951 by Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber of Munich. Ratzinger recalled: "at the moment the elderly Archbishop laid his hands on me, a little bird – a lark – flew up from the altar in the high cathedral and trilled a little joyful song."Ratzinger's 1953 dissertation was on St. Augustine and was titled The People and the House of God in Augustine's Doctrine of the Church.
His habilitation was on Bonaven
Pope John XXIII
Pope John XXIII was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 to his death in 1963. Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was one of thirteen children born to a family of sharecroppers who lived in a village in Lombardy, he was ordained to the priesthood on 10 August 1904 and served in a number of posts, as nuncio in France and a delegate to Bulgaria and Turkey. In a consistory on 12 January 1953 Pope Pius XII made Roncalli a cardinal as the Cardinal-Priest of Santa Prisca in addition to naming him as the Patriarch of Venice. Roncalli was unexpectedly elected pope on 28 October 1958 at age 76 after 11 ballots. Pope John XXIII surprised those who expected him to be a caretaker pope by calling the historic Second Vatican Council, the first session opening on 11 October 1962, his passionate views on equality were summed up in his statement, "We were all made in God's image, thus, we are all Godly alike."John XXIII made many passionate speeches during his pontificate.
He made a major impact on the Catholic Church, opening it up to dramatic unexpected changes promulgated at the Vatican Council and by his own dealings with other churches and nations. In Italian politics, he prohibited bishops from interfering with local elections, he helped the Christian Democratic Party to cooperate with the socialists. In international affairs, his "Ostpolitik" engaged in dialogue with the Communist countries of Eastern Europe, he reached out to the Eastern Orthodox churches. His overall goal was to modernize the Church by emphasizing its pastoral role, its necessary involvement with affairs of state, he dropped the traditional rule of 70 cardinals, increasing the size to 85. He used the opportunity to name the first cardinals from Africa and the Philippines, he promoted ecumenical movements in cooperation with other Christian faiths. In doctrinal matters, he was a traditionalist, but he ended the practice of automatically formulating social and political policies on the basis of old theological propositions.
He did not live to see the Vatican Council to completion. His cause for canonization was opened on 18 November 1965 by his successor, Pope Paul VI, who declared him a Servant of God. On 5 July 2013, Pope Francis – bypassing the traditionally required second miracle – declared John XXIII a saint, based on his virtuous, model lifestyle, because of the good which had come from his having opened the Second Vatican Council, he was canonised alongside Pope John Paul II on 27 April 2014. John XXIII today is affectionately known as the "Good Pope" and in Italian, "il Papa buono". Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was born on 25 November 1881 in Sotto il Monte, a small country village in the Bergamo province of the Lombardy region of Italy, he was the eldest son of Giovanni Battista Roncalli and his wife Marianna Giulia Mazzolla, fourth in a family of 13. His siblings were: Maria Caterina Teresa Ancilla Francesco Zaverio Maria Elisa Assunta Casilda Domenico Giuseppe Alfredo Giovanni Francesco Enrica Giuseppe Luigi Luigi His family worked as sharecroppers, as did most of the people of Sotto il Monte – a striking contrast to that of his predecessor, Eugenio Pacelli, who came from an ancient aristocratic family long connected to the papacy.
Roncalli was nonetheless a descendant of an Italian noble family, albeit from a secondary and impoverished branch. In 1889, Roncalli received both his First Communion and Confirmation at the age of 8. On 1 March 1896, Luigi Isacchi, the spiritual director of his seminary, enrolled him into the Secular Franciscan Order, he professed his vows as a member of that order on 23 May 1897. In 1904, Roncalli completed his doctorate in Canon Law and was ordained a priest in the Catholic Church of Santa Maria in Monte Santo in Piazza del Popolo in Rome on 10 August. Shortly after that, while still in Rome, Roncalli was taken to Saint Peter's Basilica to meet Pope Pius X. After this, he would return to his town to celebrate mass for the Assumption. In 1905, Giacomo Radini-Tedeschi, the new Bishop of Bergamo, appointed Roncalli as his secretary. Roncalli worked for Radini-Tedeschi until the bishop's death on 22 August 1914, two days after the death of Pope Pius X. Radini-Tedeschi's last words to Roncalli were "Angelo, pray for peace".
The death of Radini-Tedeschi had a deep effect on Roncalli. During this period Roncalli was a lecturer in the diocesan seminary in Bergamo. During World War I, Roncalli was drafted into the Royal Italian Army as a sergeant, serving in the medical corps as a stretcher-bearer and as a chaplain. After being discharged from the army in early 1919, he was named spiritual director of the seminary. On 6 November 1921, Roncalli travelled to Rome. After their meeting, Pope Benedict XV appointed him as the Italian president of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. Roncalli would recall Benedict XV as being the most sympathetic of the popes he had met. In February 1925, the Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Gasparri summoned him to the Vatican and informed him of Pope Pius XI's decision to appoint him as the Apostolic Visitor to Bulgaria. On 3 March, Pius XI named him for consecration as titular archbishop of Areopolis, Jordan. Roncalli was reluctant about a mission to Bulgaria, but he would soon relent.
His nomination as apostolic visitor was made official on 19 Marc
Angelo Sodano
Angelo Raffaele Sodano, GCC is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church, a Cardinal since 1991, who has served as Dean of the College of Cardinals since 2005. He was Cardinal Secretary of State from 1991 to 2006. In 2005, he was elected Dean of the College of Cardinals. Sodano was the first person since 1828 to serve as Dean and Secretary of State. On 22 June 2006, Pope Benedict XVI accepted Sodano's resignation as Secretary of State, effective on 15 September 2006, he had served in the diplomatic corps of the Holy See since 1959, including a decade as nuncio to Chile from 1978 to 1988. The second of six children, Sodano was born on 23 November 1927 in Isola d'Asti, Piedmont, to Giovanni and Delfina Sodano, his father was a Christian Democrat deputy in the Italian Parliament for three terms from 1948 until 1963. After studying philosophy and theology at the seminary of Asti, Sodano was ordained a priest by Bishop Umberto Rossi on 23 September 1950, did pastoral work and taught dogmatic theology at the Asti seminary.
He studied in Rome at the Pontifical Gregorian University, where he obtained a doctorate in theology, at the Pontifical Lateran University, earning a doctorate in canon law. In 1959 he entered the diplomatic corps of the Holy See, he served as secretary in nunciatures in Latin America. In 1968 he was assigned to the Council for the Public Affairs of the Church in the Vatican. On 30 November 1977, who speaks English, Spanish and Italian, was appointed titular archbishop of Nova Caesaris and apostolic nuncio to Chile, one of the countries where he had served as nunciature secretary, he was consecrated in his native Asti by Cardinal Antonio Samoré on 15 January 1978. He arrived at a difficult moment, with Chile on the brink of war with Argentina over the Beagle Channel and Augusto Pinochet in power. In 1980, together with Cardinal Raúl Silva Henríquez, he tried without success to get Pinochet to allow the return of certain political exiles, in 1984 he obtained, at the cost of a dispute between the Holy See and the military government of Chile, safe conduct for four members of the Revolutionary Left Movement, who had sought diplomatic asylum in the nunciature, to leave for Ecuador.
In 1987, when Pope John Paul II visited Chile, Sodano arranged for him to meet in the nunciature the leaders of the opposition to the Pinochet government. The following year, the Pope appointed Sodano Secretary for Relations with States, a post corresponding to that of a foreign minister, on 1 December 1990 named him Secretary of State, creating him Cardinal-Priest of S. Maria Nuova on 28 June 1991. On 29 June 1991, Sodano became Cardinal Secretary of State succeeding Cardinal Agostino Casaroli who had retired on 1 December 1990. On 10 January 1994, Pope John Paul II named Sodano Cardinal Bishop of the suburbicarian see of Albano. Sodano retained his relationship to the church of Santa Maria Nuova no longer as titular but in commendam, that is, in trust or in his custody. On 27 December 1998, he wrote, at the request of the democratic government of Chile, an official letter to the British Prime Minister Tony Blair stating that "the Chilean Government considers it an offence to its territorial sovereignty as a nation the fact of being deprived of the power to judge its own citizens" through the detention of Pinochet in Britain.
When in 2002 Sodano turned 75, John Paul invited him to stay on as Secretary of State, though this is the customary retirement age for heads of major Vatican departments. On 30 November 2002 twenty-five years after he was first appointed a bishop, he was elected vice-dean of the College of Cardinals, succeeding Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became Dean. In 2003 Sodano drew attention by quite positively commemorating the 500th anniversary of the election the Renaissance Pope Julius II; when Pope John Paul II died on 2 April 2005, who participated in the 2005 papal conclave, was not seen as one of the papabili, the cardinals to become the next pope. This was due to his advanced age, his lack of experience outside the Roman Curia. During the conclave, because Cardinal Ratzinger, the pope-elect, was the Dean, Sodano as the Sub-Dean exercised the duties allotted to the Dean in asking the pope-elect if he accepted his election and by what name he would be called; as the Sub-Dean and the most senior Cardinal-Bishop, Cardinal Sodano discharged the duties allotted to the Dean at the new pope's papal inauguration.
At the papal inauguration, Sodano presented Pope Benedict XVI with the Ring of the Fisherman, along with the protopriest Stephen Kim Sou-hwan and the protodeacon Jorge Arturo Medina Estévez, was one of the three cardinals who made the public profession of obedience to the new pope. Sodano's position as Secretary of State expired upon the death of John Paul II. Benedict XVI reappointed him to the position on 21 April 2005, despite the fact that he was past the customary retirement age. On 30 April Benedict ratified Sodano's election to the position of Dean of the College of Cardinals by the suburbicarian Cardinal Bishops, adding as was customary the suburbicarian see of Ostia to his honorary titles. On 22 June 2006, Benedict XVI accepted Sodano's resignation as Secretary of State, effective 15 September 2006. On 18 September 2012, Sodano was named by Pope Benedict XVI as one of the Synod Fathers of the 13th Ordinary General Assembly of the Catholic Synod of Bishops; when Pope Benedict XVI resigned, Sodano as Dean of the College of Cardinals summoned the cardinals for the conclave during the sede vacante and was the principal concelebrant of the Pro eligendo Pontifice mass on the morni
Dean of the College of Cardinals
The Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals is the dean of the College of Cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church. The position was established in the early 12th century; the Dean presides over the College of Cardinals. He always holds the rank of cardinal bishop; the Dean of the College of Cardinals is assisted by the Vice-Dean. Both are elected by and from the Cardinal Bishops who are not Eastern Catholic patriarchs and subject to papal confirmation. Except for presiding, the Dean and Vice-Dean have no power over the other cardinals. In the order of precedence in the Catholic Church as the senior Cardinal Bishops, the Dean and Vice-Dean are placed second and third after the pope; the Dean is but not the longest-serving member of the whole College. It had been customary for centuries for the longest-serving of the six cardinal bishops of suburbicarian sees to be Dean; this was required by canon law from 1917 until 1965, when Pope Paul VI empowered the six to elect the Dean from among their number.
This election was a formality until the time of Pope John Paul II. The Dean holds the position until resignation, it is the Dean's responsibility to summon the conclave for the purposes of electing a new pope following a death or resignation. The Dean presides over the conclave. Additionally, the dean has the responsibility of communicating the "news of the Pope's death to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See and to the Heads of the respective Nations" and is the public face of the Holy See during the sede vacante period, it is the Dean, unless he is impeded, who asks the Pope-elect if he accepts the election, asks the new Pope what name he wishes to use. According to Canon 355, if the newly elected Supreme Pontiff is not a bishop, it has always been the right of the Bishop of Ostia to ordain him; the Cardinal Dean has "the title of the diocese of Ostia, together with that of any other church to which he has a title," such as his suburbicarian diocese. This has been the case since 1914, by decree of Pope Pius X—previous deans had given up their prior suburbicarian see for the joint title of Ostia and Velletri, which were separated in that same 1914 decree.
Nine Deans have been elected pope: Anastasius IV, Lucius III, Gregory IX, Alexander IV, John XXI, Alexander VI, Paul III, Paul IV, Benedict XVI. The following is the list of Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals, separated into three groups to account for the Western Schism, which ended after the Council of Constance; the earliest attested reference to the "College of Cardinals" is at the Council of Reims in 1148. Each name in the following list includes years of birth and death comma-separated years of cardinalate and deanship
Antipope John XXIII
Baldassarre Cossa was Pisan antipope John XXIII during the Western Schism. The Catholic Church regards him as an antipope, as he opposed Pope Gregory XII whom the Catholic Church now recognizes as the rightful successor of Saint Peter, he was deposed and tried for various crimes, though accounts question the veracity of those accusations. Baldassarre Cossa was born on the island of Procida or in the Kingdom of Naples to the family of Giovanni Cossa, lord of Procida, he followed a military career, taking part in the Angevin-Neapolitan war. His two brothers were sentenced to death for piracy by Ladislaus of Naples, he obtained doctorates in both civil and canon law. At the prompting of his family, in 1392 he entered the service of Pope Boniface IX, first working in Bologna and in Rome. In 1386 he is listed as canon of the cathedral of Bologna. In 1396, he became archdeacon in Bologna, he became Cardinal deacon of Saint Eustachius in 1402 and Papal legate in Romagna in 1403. Johann Peter Kirsch describes Cossa as "utterly worldly-minded, crafty and immoral, a good soldier but no churchman".
At this time Cossa had some links with local robber bands, which were used to intimidate his rivals and attack carriages. These connections added to his power in the region. Cardinal Cossa was one of the seven cardinals who, in May 1408, withdrew their allegiance from Pope Gregory XII, stating that he had broken his solemn oath not to create new cardinals without consulting them in advance. In company with those cardinals, following Antipope Benedict XIII of Avignon, they convened the Council of Pisa, of which Cossa became a leading figure; the aim of the council was to end the schism. Gregory and Benedict ignored this decision, however, so that there were now three simultaneous claimants to the papacy. Alexander V died soon after, on 25 May 1410 Cossa was consecrated a bishop, taking the name John XXIII, he had become an ordained priest only one day earlier. John XXIII was acknowledged as pope by France, Bohemia, parts of the Holy Roman Empire, numerous Northern Italian city states, including Florence and Venice and the Patriarchate of Aquileia.
John XXIII made the Medici Bank the bank of the papacy, contributing to the family's wealth and prestige. The main enemy of John was Ladislaus of Naples. Following his election as pope, John spent a year in Bologna and joined forces with Louis II of Anjou to march against Ladislaus. An initial victory proved short-lived and Ladislaus retook Rome in May 1413, forcing John to flee to Florence. In Florence he met King of the Romans. Sigismund urged John to call a general council. John did so at first trying to have the council held in Italy; the Council of Constance was convened on 30 October 1413. During the third session, rival Pope Gregory XII authorized the council as well; the council resolved that all three popes should abdicate and a new pope be elected. In March, John escaped from Constance disguised as a postman. According to the Klingenberger Chronicle, written by a noble client of Frederick IV, Duke of Austria, John XXIII travelled down the Rhine to Schaffhausen in a boat, while Frederick accompanied him with a small band of men on horseback.
There was a huge outcry in Constance when it was discovered that John had fled, Sigismund was furious about this setback to his plans for ending the Schism. The King of the Romans issued orders to all the powers on the Upper Rhine and in Swabia stating that he had declared Frederick to be an outlaw and that his lands and possessions were forfeit. In due course this led to a great deal of political upheaval and many Austrian losses in the region, notably in Aargau to the Swiss Confederation. In the meantime, Pope John XXIII and Frederick fled further downriver along the Rhine to the town of Freiburg im Breisgau, which recognised the duke of Austria as its lord. There Sigismund's lieutenant Ludwig III, Elector Palatine caught up with them, he convinced Frederick that he stood to lose too much by harbouring the fugitive pope, the Austrian duke agreed to give himself and John up and return to Constance. During his absence John was deposed by the council, upon his return he was tried for heresy, simony and immorality, found guilty on all counts.
Gibbon wrote, "The more scandalous charges were suppressed. John was given over to Ludwig III, Elector Palatine, who imprisoned him for several months in Heidelberg and Mannheim; the last remaining claimant in Avignon, Benedict XIII, was excommunicated. Martin V was elected as new pope in 1417. Cossa was again imprisoned in Germany, he was freed in 1418. He went to Florence. Cossa died only a few months later; the Medici oversaw the construction of his magnificent tomb by Donatello and
