1.
Pope Pius IX
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Pope Pius IX, born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, reigned as Pope from 16 June 1846 to his death in 1878. He was the elected pope in the history of the Catholic Church. During his pontificate Pius IX convened the First Vatican Council, which decreed papal infallibility and he was also the last pope to rule as the Sovereign of the Papal States, which fell completely to the Italian Army in 1870 and were incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy. After this, he was referred to—chiefly by himself—as the Prisoner of the Vatican, after his death in 1878, his canonization process was opened on 11 February 1907 by Pope Pius X and it drew considerable controversy over the years. It was closed on several occasions during the pontificates of Pope Benedict XV, Pope Pius XII re-opened the cause on 7 December 1954, and Pope John Paul II proclaimed him Venerable on 6 July 1985. Together with Pope John XXIII, he was beatified on 3 September 2000 after the recognition of a miracle, Pius IX was assigned the liturgical feast day of February 7, the date of his death. Europe, including the Italian peninsula, was in the midst of political ferment when the bishop of Spoleto. He took the name Pius, after his generous patron and the prisoner of Napoleon Bonaparte. Through the 1850s and 1860s, Italian nationalists made military gains against the Papal States, however, concordats were concluded with numerous states such as Austria-Hungary, Portugal, Spain, Canada, Tuscany, Ecuador, Venezuela, Honduras, El Salvador and Haiti. Many contemporary Church historians and journalists question his approaches, in his Syllabus of Errors, still highly controversial, Pius IX condemned the heresies of secular society, especially modernism. He was a Marian pope, who in his encyclical Ubi primum described Mary as a Mediatrix of salvation, in 1854, he promulgated the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, articulating a long-held Catholic belief that Mary, the Mother of God, was conceived without original sin. In 1862, he convened 300 bishops to the Vatican for the canonization of Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan and his most important legacy is the First Vatican Council, which convened in 1869. The council is considered to have contributed to a centralization of the Church in the Vatican, Pius IX was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 3 September 2000. His Feast Day is 7 February, Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti was born on May 13,1792. He was educated at the Piarist College in Volterra and in Rome, as a theology student in his hometown Sinigaglia, in 1814 he met Pope Pius VII, who had returned from French captivity. In 1815, he entered the Papal Noble Guard but was dismissed after an epileptic seizure. He threw himself at the feet of Pius VII, who elevated him, the pope originally insisted that another priest should assist Mastai during Holy Mass, a stipulation that was later rescinded, after the seizure attacks became less frequent. Mastai was ordained priest on April 10,1819 and he initially worked as the rector of the Tata Giovanni Institute in Rome
2.
Pope Leo XIII
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Pope Leo XIII reigned as Pope from 20 February 1878 to his death. He was the oldest pope, and had the third longest pontificate, behind that of Pius IX and he is the most recent pontiff to date to take the pontifical name of Leo upon being elected to the pontificate. He is well known for his intellectualism and his attempts to define the position of the Catholic Church with regard to modern thinking. In his famous 1891 encyclical Rerum novarum, Pope Leo outlined the rights of workers to a wage, safe working conditions. He influenced Roman Catholic Mariology and promoted both the rosary and the scapular, Leo XIII issued a record of eleven Papal encyclicals on the rosary earning him the title as the Rosary Pope. In addition, he approved two new Marian scapulars and was the first pope to fully embrace the concept of Mary as Mediatrix and he was the first pope to never have held any control over the Papal States, after they had been dissolved by 1870. He was briefly buried in the grottos of Saint Peters Basilica before his remains were transferred to the Basilica of Saint John Lateran. Born in Carpineto Romano, near Rome, he was the sixth of the seven sons of Count Ludovico Pecci and his brothers included Giuseppe and Giovanni Battista Pecci. Until 1818 he lived at home with his family, in which counted as the highest grace on earth, as through her. Together with his brother Giuseppe, he studied in the Jesuit College in Viterbo and he enjoyed the Latin language and was known to write his own Latin poems at the age of eleven. In 1824 he and his older brother Giuseppe were called to Rome where their mother was dying, Count Pecci wanted his children near him after the loss of his wife, and so they stayed with him in Rome, attending the Jesuit Collegium Romanum. In 1828, Giuseppe entered the Jesuit order, while Vincenzo decided in favour of secular clergy and he studied at the Academia dei Nobili, mainly diplomacy and law. In 1834 he gave a student presentation, attended by several cardinals, for his presentation he received awards for academic excellence, and gained the attention of Vatican officials. Cardinal Secretary of State Luigi Lambruschini introduced him to Vatican congregations, during a cholera epidemic in Rome he ably assisted Cardinal Sala in his duties as overseer of all the city hospitals. Pope Gregory XVI appointed Pecci on 14 February 1837, as personal prelate even before he was ordained priest on 31 December 1837, by the Vicar of Rome and he celebrated his first mass together with his priest brother Giuseppe. He received his doctorate in theology in 1836 and doctorates of civil, shortly thereafter, Gregory XVI appointed Pecci as legate to Benevento. The smallest of papal provinces, Benevento included about 20,000 people, the main problems facing Pecci were a decaying local economy, insecurity because of widespread bandits, and pervasive Mafia or Camorra structures, who often were allied with aristocratic families. Pecci arrested the most powerful aristocrat in Benevento, and his troops captured others, with the public order restored, he turned to the economy and a reform of the tax system to stimulate trade with neighboring provinces
3.
Pope Pius X
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Pope Saint Pius X, born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was Pope from August 1903 to his death in 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, promoting traditional devotional practices and his most important reform was to order the codification of the first Code of Canon Law, which collected the laws of the Church into one volume for the first time. He was also considered a pastoral pope, in the sense of encouraging personal holiness, piety and he was born in the town of Riese, which would later append Pio X to the towns name. Pius X believed that there was no surer or more direct road than by the Virgin Mary to achieve this goal. His immediate predecessor, Pope Leo XIII, had promoted a synthesis between the Catholic Church and secular culture, faith and science, and divine revelation and reason. Pius X defended the Catholic faith against popular 19th-century attitudes and views such as indifferentism and relativism which his predecessors had warned against as well and he followed the example of Leo XIII by promoting Thomas Aquinas and Thomism as the principal philosophical method to be taught in Catholic institutions. Pius X vehemently opposed modernism, which claimed that Roman Catholic dogma should be modernized and blended with nineteenth-century philosophies and he viewed modernism as an import of secular errors affecting three areas of Roman Catholic belief, theology, philosophy, and dogma. Personally, Pius X combined within himself a strong sense of compassion, benevolence and poverty, but also stubbornness and he wanted to be pastoral in the sense that he was the only pope in the 20th century who gave Sunday homily sermons in the pulpit every week. After the 1908 Messina earthquake he filled the Apostolic Palace with refugees and he rejected any kind of favours for his family, his brother remained a postal clerk, his favourite nephew stayed on as village priest, and his three sisters lived together close to poverty in Rome. He often referred to his own origins, taking up the causes of poor people. I was born poor, I have lived poor, and I wish to die poor, considered a holy person by many, public veneration of Pope Pius X began soon after his death. Numerous petitions resulted in a process of beatification which started in the 1920s. The Society of Saint Pius X, a Traditionalist Catholic group, is named in his honor, a gigantic statue of him is enshrined within Saint Peters Basilica, while the town of his birthplace was also renamed after his canonization. Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto was born in Riese, Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia and he was the second born of ten children of Giovanni Battista Sarto and Margarita Sanson. He was baptised 3 June 1835, giuseppes childhood was one of poverty, being the son of the village postman. Though poor, his parents valued education, and Giuseppe walked 3.75 miles to each day. At a young age, Giuseppe studied Latin with his village priest, on 18 September 1858, Sarto was ordained a priest, and became chaplain at Tombolo. While there, Father Sarto expanded his knowledge of theology, studying both Saint Thomas Aquinas and canon law, while carrying out most of the functions of the parish pastor, in 1867, he was named archpriest of Salzano
4.
Pope Benedict XV
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Pope Benedict XV, born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, was Pope from 3 September 1914 until his death in 1922. His pontificate was overshadowed by World War I and its political, social. Between 1846 and 1903, the Catholic Church had experienced two of its longest pontificates in history up to that point, together Pius IX and Leo XIII ruled for a total of 57 years. ”The war and its consequences were the main focus of Benedict XV. He immediately declared the neutrality of the Holy See and attempted from that perspective to mediate peace in 1916 and 1917, German Protestants rejected any “Papal Peace” as insulting. The French politician Georges Clemenceau regarded the Vatican initiative as being anti-French, after the war, he repaired the difficult relations with France, which re-established relations with the Vatican in 1921. During his pontificate, relations with Italy improved as well, as Benedict XV now permitted Catholic politicians led by Don Luigi Sturzo to participate in national Italian politics, the new Code of Canon Law is considered to have stimulated religious life and activities throughout the Church. He named Pietro Gasparri to be his Cardinal Secretary of State, World War I caused great damage to Catholic missions throughout the world. Benedict XV revitalized these activities, asking in Maximum Illud for Catholics throughout the world to participate, for that, he has been referred to as the Pope of Missions. His last concern was the persecution of the Catholic Church in Soviet Russia. Benedict XV was devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary and authorized the Feast of Mary, after seven years in office, Pope Benedict XV died on 22 January 1922 after battling pneumonia since the start of that month. He was buried in the grottos of Saint Peters Basilica, with his diplomatic skills and his openness towards modern society, he gained respect for himself and the papacy. Giacomo della Chiesa was born at Pegli, a suburb of Genoa, Italy, third son of Marchese Giuseppe della Chiesa and his wife Marchesa Giovanna Migliorati. Genealogy findings report that his fathers side produced Pope Callixtus II and also claimed descent from Berengar II of Italy and he is also a descendant of Blessed Antonio della Chiesa. His wish to become a priest was rejected early on by his father who insisted on a career for his son. At age 21 he acquired a doctorate in Law on 2 August 1875 and he had attended the University of Genoa, which after the unification of Italy, was largely dominated by anti-Catholic and anti-clerical politics. With his doctorate in Law and at legal age, he asked his father for permission to study for the priesthood. He insisted however, that his son conduct his studies in Rome not in Genoa. Della Chiesa entered the Collegio Capranica and was there in Rome when, in 1878, the new pope received the students of the Capranica in private audience only a few days after his coronation
5.
Pope Pius XI
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Pope Pius XI, born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, reigned as Pope from 6 February 1922 to his death in 1939. He was the first sovereign of Vatican City from its creation as an independent state on 11 February 1929 and he took as his papal motto, Pax Christi in Regno Christi, translated The Peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ. During his pontificate, the hostility with the Italian government over the status of the papacy. He was unable to stop the persecution of the Church and the killing of clergy in Mexico, Spain and he canonized important saints, including Thomas More, Petrus Canisius, Konrad von Parzham, Andrew Bobola and Don Bosco. Pius XI created the feast of Christ the King in response to anti-clericalism and he took a strong interest in fostering the participation of lay people throughout the Catholic Church, especially in the Catholic Action movement. The end of his pontificate was dominated by speaking out against Hitler and Mussolini and defending the Catholic Church from intrusions into Catholic life and he died on 10 February 1939 in the Apostolic Palace and is buried in the Papal Grotto of Saint Peters Basilica. In the course of excavating space for his tomb, two levels of burial grounds were uncovered which revealed bones now venerated as the bones of St. Peter. Achille Ratti was born in Desio, in the province of Milan, in 1857 and he was ordained a priest in 1879 and embarked on an academic career within the Church. He obtained three doctorates at the Gregorian University in Rome, and then from 1882 to 1888 was a professor at the seminary in Padua and his scholarly specialty was as an expert paleographer, a student of ancient and medieval Church manuscripts. Eventually, he left teaching to work full-time at the Ambrosian Library in Milan. During this time, he edited and published an edition of the Ambrosian Missal and he became chief of the Library in 1907 and undertook a thorough programme of restoration and re-classification of the Ambrosians collection. He was also a mountaineer in his spare time, reaching the summits of Monte Rosa. The combination of a pope would not be seen again until the pontificate of John Paul II. In 1911, at Pope Pius Xs invitation, he moved to the Vatican to become Vice-Prefect of the Vatican Library, in October 1918, Benedict was the first head of state to congratulate the Polish people on the occasion of the restoration of their independence. In March 1919, he nominated ten new bishops and, soon after, Ratti was consecrated as a titular archbishop in October 1919. Benedict XV and Nuncio Ratti repeatedly cautioned Polish authorities against persecuting the Lithuanian and Ruthenian clergy, Ratti intended to work for Poland by building bridges to men of goodwill in the Soviet Union, even to shedding his blood for Russia. Benedict, however, needed Ratti as a diplomat, not as a martyr, the nuncios continued contacts with Russians did not generate much sympathy for him within Poland at the time. After Pope Benedict sent Ratti to Silesia to forestall potential political agitation within the Polish Catholic clergy, on 20 November, when German Cardinal Adolf Bertram announced a papal ban on all political activities of clergymen, calls for Rattis expulsion climaxed
6.
Capture of Rome
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On 27 March 1861, the Parliament declared Rome the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. However, the Italian government could not take its seat in Rome because it did not control the territory. In addition, a French garrison was maintained in the city by Napoleon III of France in support of Pope Pius IX, who was determined not to hand over temporal power in the States of the Church. In July 1870, at the very last moment of the Churchs rule over Rome, in July 1870, the Franco-Prussian War began. In early August, Napoleon III recalled his garrison from Rome, in the earlier Austro-Prussian War Italy had allied with Prussia and Italian public opinion favoured the Prussian side at the start of the war. The removal of the French garrison eased tensions between Italy and France, Italy remained neutral in the Franco-Prussian War. With the French garrison gone, widespread public demonstrations demanded that the Italian government take Rome, but Rome remained under French protection on paper, therefore an attack would still have been regarded as an act of war against the French Empire. Until events elsewhere took their course the Italians were unwilling to provoke Napoleon, the new French government was clearly in no position to retaliate against Italy, nor did it possess the political will to protect the Popes position. Along with the letter, the count carried a document that Lanza had prepared, the Pope would retain the inviolability and prerogatives attaching to him as a sovereign. The Leonine City would remain under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the Pontiff. According to Raffaele De Cesare, The Pope’s reception of San Martino was unfriendly, Pius IX allowed violent outbursts to escape him. Throwing the King’s letter upon the table he exclaimed, Fine loyalty and you are all a set of vipers, of whited sepulchres, and wanting in faith. He was perhaps alluding to other letters received from the King, after, growing calmer, he exclaimed, I am no prophet, nor son of a prophet, but I tell you, you will never enter Rome. San Martino was so mortified that he left the next day, several times during his pontificate, Pius IX considered leaving Rome. As the frequency of protests against the Papal States increased across the Italian peninsula. Palma, a prelate, who was standing at a window, was shot. On February 9,1849, democratic revolutionaries of the new Italian republic seized Rome, on 12 April 1850, Pius IX returned to Rome, no longer a political liberal supporting constitutional republics. A later occurrence was in 1862, when Giuseppe Garibaldi was in Sicily gathering volunteers for a campaign to take Rome under the slogan Roma o Morte
7.
Papal States
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The Papal States, officially the State of the Church, were territories in the Italian Peninsula under the sovereign direct rule of the pope, from the 8th century until 1870. They were among the states of Italy from roughly the 8th century until the Italian Peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. At their zenith, they covered most of the modern Italian regions of Lazio, Marche, Umbria and Romagna and these holdings were considered to be a manifestation of the temporal power of the pope, as opposed to his ecclesiastical primacy. By 1861, much of the Papal States territory had been conquered by the Kingdom of Italy, only Lazio, including Rome, remained under the Popes temporal control. In 1870, the pope lost Lazio and Rome and had no physical territory at all, Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini ended the crisis between unified Italy and the Vatican by signing the Lateran Treaty, granting the Vatican City State sovereignty. The Papal States were also known as the Papal State, the territories were also referred to variously as the State of the Church, the Pontifical States, the Ecclesiastical States, or the Roman States. For its first 300 years the Catholic Church was persecuted and unrecognized and this system began to change during the reign of the emperor Constantine I, who made Christianity legal within the Roman Empire, and restoring to it any properties that had been confiscated. The Lateran Palace was the first significant new donation to the Church, other donations followed, primarily in mainland Italy but also in the provinces of the Roman Empire. But the Church held all of these lands as a private landowner, the seeds of the Papal States as a sovereign political entity were planted in the 6th century. Beginning In 535, the Byzantine Empire, under emperor Justinian I, launched a reconquest of Italy that took decades and devastated Italys political, just as these wars wound down, the Lombards entered the peninsula from the north and conquered much of the countryside. While the popes remained Byzantine subjects, in practice the Duchy of Rome, nevertheless, the pope and the exarch still worked together to control the rising power of the Lombards in Italy. As Byzantine power weakened, though, the took a ever larger role in defending Rome from the Lombards. In practice, the papal efforts served to focus Lombard aggrandizement on the exarch, a climactic moment in the founding of the Papal States was the agreement over boundaries embodied in the Lombard king Liutprands Donation of Sutri to Pope Gregory II. When the Exarchate of Ravenna finally fell to the Lombards in 751, the popes renewed earlier attempts to secure the support of the Franks. In 751, Pope Zachary had Pepin the Younger crowned king in place of the powerless Merovingian figurehead king Childeric III, zacharys successor, Pope Stephen II, later granted Pepin the title Patrician of the Romans. Pepin led a Frankish army into Italy in 754 and 756, Pepin defeated the Lombards – taking control of northern Italy – and made a gift of the properties formerly constituting the Exarchate of Ravenna to the pope. The cooperation between the papacy and the Carolingian dynasty climaxed in 800, when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor, the precise nature of the relationship between the popes and emperors – and between the Papal States and the Empire – is disputed. Events in the 9th century postponed the conflict, the Holy Roman Empire in its Frankish form collapsed as it was subdivided among Charlemagnes grandchildren
8.
Vatican City
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Vatican City, officially Vatican City State or the State of Vatican City, is a walled enclave within the city of Rome. With an area of approximately 44 hectares, and a population of 842, however, formally it is not sovereign, with sovereignty being held by the Holy See, the only entity of public international law that has diplomatic relations with almost every country in the world. It is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state ruled by the Bishop of Rome – the Pope, the highest state functionaries are all Catholic clergy of various national origins. Vatican City is distinct from the Holy See, which dates back to early Christianity and is the episcopal see of 1.2 billion Latin. According to the terms of the treaty, the Holy See has full ownership, exclusive dominion, within Vatican City are religious and cultural sites such as St. Peters Basilica, the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museums. They feature some of the worlds most famous paintings and sculptures, the unique economy of Vatican City is supported financially by the sale of postage stamps and tourist mementos, fees for admission to museums, and the sale of publications. The name Vatican City was first used in the Lateran Treaty, signed on 11 February 1929, the name is taken from Vatican Hill, the geographic location of the state. Vatican is derived from the name of an Etruscan settlement, Vatica or Vaticum meaning garden, located in the area the Romans called vaticanus ager. The official Italian name of the city is Città del Vaticano or, more formally, Stato della Città del Vaticano, although the Holy See and the Catholic Church use Ecclesiastical Latin in official documents, the Vatican City officially uses Italian. The Latin name is Status Civitatis Vaticanæ, this is used in documents by not just the Holy See. The name Vatican was already in use in the time of the Roman Republic for an area on the west bank of the Tiber across from the city of Rome. Under the Roman Empire, many villas were constructed there, after Agrippina the Elder drained the area and laid out her gardens in the early 1st century AD. In AD40, her son, Emperor Caligula built in her gardens a circus for charioteers that was completed by Nero, the Circus Gaii et Neronis, usually called, simply. Even before the arrival of Christianity, it is supposed that this originally uninhabited part of Rome had long considered sacred. A shrine dedicated to the Phrygian goddess Cybele and her consort Attis remained active long after the Constantinian Basilica of St. Peter was built nearby, the particularly low quality of Vatican water, even after the reclamation of the area, was commented on by the poet Martial. The Vatican Obelisk was originally taken by Caligula from Heliopolis in Egypt to decorate the spina of his circus and is thus its last visible remnant and this area became the site of martyrdom of many Christians after the Great Fire of Rome in AD64. Ancient tradition holds that it was in this circus that Saint Peter was crucified upside-down, opposite the circus was a cemetery separated by the Via Cornelia. Peters in the first half of the 4th century, the Constantinian basilica was built in 326 over what was believed to be the tomb of Saint Peter, buried in that cemetery
9.
History of the papacy
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The history of the papacy, the office held by the pope as head of the Roman Catholic Church, according to Catholic doctrine, spans from the time of Peter to the present day. During the Early Church, the bishops of Rome enjoyed no temporal power until the time of Constantine, over time, the papacy consolidated its territorial claims to a portion of the peninsula known as the Papal States. Thereafter, the role of neighboring sovereigns was replaced by powerful Roman families during the saeculum obscurum, the Crescentii era, from 1048 to 1257, the papacy experienced increasing conflict with the leaders and churches of the Holy Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire. The latter culminated in the East–West Schism, dividing the Western Church, from 1257–1377, the pope, though the bishop of Rome, resided in Viterbo, Orvieto, and Perugia, and then Avignon. The return of the popes to Rome after the Avignon Papacy was followed by the Western Schism, the Renaissance Papacy is known for its artistic and architectural patronage, forays into European power politics, and theological challenges to papal authority. After the start of the Protestant Reformation, the Reformation Papacy, the popes during the Age of Revolution witnessed the largest expropriation of wealth in the churchs history, during the French Revolution and those that followed throughout Europe. The Roman Question, arising from Italian unification, resulted in the loss of the Papal States, Catholics recognize the pope as the successor to Saint Peter, whom Jesus designated as the rock upon which the Church was to be built. Although Peter never bore the title of pope, Catholics recognize him as the first pope and Bishop of Rome, because he had the office, protestants tend to deny that Peter and those claimed to be his immediate successors had universally recognized supreme authority over all the early churches. Many popes in the first three centuries of the Christian era are obscure figures, several suffered martyrdom along with members of their flock in periods of persecution. Most of them engaged in intense arguments with other bishops. None of this, however, has much to do with the pope, who did not even attend the Council, in fact. The Donation of Constantine, an 8th-century forgery used to enhance the prestige, the legend of the Donation claims that Constantine offered his crown to Sylvester I, and even that Sylvester baptized Constantine. In reality, Constantine was baptized by Eusebius of Nicomedia, an Arian bishop, although the Donation never occurred, Constantine did hand over the Lateran Palace to the bishop of Rome, and began the construction of Old St. Peters Basilica. The gift of the Lateran probably occurred during the reign of Miltiades, predecessor to Sylvester I, Old St. Peters was begun between 326 and 330 and took three decades to complete. The Ostrogothic Papacy period ran from 493 to 537, the papal election of March 483 was the first to take place without the existence of a Western Roman emperor. The papacy was strongly influenced by the Ostrogothic Kingdom, if the pope was not outright appointed by the Ostrogothic King, the selection and administration of popes during this period was strongly influenced by Theodoric the Great and his successors Athalaric and Theodahad. This period terminated with Justinian Is conquest of Rome during the Gothic War, the role of the Ostrogoths became clear in the first schism, when, on November 22,498, two men were elected pope. The subsequent triumph of Pope Symmachus over Antipope Laurentius is the first recorded example of simony in papal history, Theodoric was tolerant towards the Catholic Church and did not interfere in dogmatic matters
10.
Pontifical Swiss Guard
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See Swiss Guards for the Swiss Guards in France and other countries. The Pontifical Swiss Guard is small force maintained by the Holy See, it is responsible for the safety of the Pope, the Swiss Guard serves as the de facto military of Vatican City. Established in 1506 under Pope Julius II, the Pontifical Swiss Guard is among the oldest military units in continuous operation, the dress uniform is of blue, red, orange and yellow with a distinctly Renaissance appearance. The modern guard has the role of bodyguard of the Pope, the Swiss Guard is equipped with traditional weapons, such as the halberd, as well as with modern firearms. Recruits to the guards must be unmarried Swiss Catholic males between 19 and 30 years of age who have completed training with the Swiss Armed Forces. The Pontifical Swiss Guard has its origins in the 15th century, Pope Sixtus IV had already made an alliance with the Swiss Confederacy and built barracks in Via Pellegrino after foreseeing the possibility of recruiting Swiss mercenaries. The pact was renewed by Innocent VIII in order to use them against the Duke of Milan, Alexander VI later actually used the Swiss mercenaries during their alliance with the King of France. The mercenaries enlisted when they heard King Charles VIII of France was going to war with Naples. Among the participants in the war against Naples was Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, the future Pope Julius II, the expedition failed, in part thanks to new alliances made by Alexander VI against the French. When Cardinal della Rovere became Pope Julius II in 1503, he asked the Swiss Diet to provide him with a constant corps of 200 Swiss mercenaries. This was made possible through the financing of the German merchants from Augsburg, Bavaria, Ulrich and Jacob Fugger, Pope Julius II later granted them the title Defenders of the Churchs freedom. The force has varied greatly in size over the years and has even been disbanded, the last stand battlefield is located on the left side of St Peters Basilica, close to the Campo Santo Teutonico. Clement VII was forced to replace the Swiss Guard by a contingent of 200 German mercenaries, ten years later, under Pope Paul III, the Swiss Guard was reinstated, under commander Jost von Meggen. However, twelve members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard of Pius V served as part of the Swiss Guard of admiral Marcantonio Colonna in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. The office of commander of the Papal Guard came to be an honour in the Catholic part of the Swiss Confederacy. It became strongly associated with the family of Lucerne, Pfyffer von Altishofen. Between 1652 and 1847, nine out a total of ten commanders were members of this family, in 1798, commander Franz Alois Pfyffer von Altishofen went into exile with the deposed Pius VI. After the death of the pope on 29 August 1799, the Swiss Guard was disbanded, in 1808, Rome was again captured by the French and the guard was disbanded again
11.
Corps of Firefighters of the Vatican City State
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The Corps of Firefighters of the Vatican City State is the fire brigade of the Vatican City State. It was founded in its present form by Pope Pius XII in 1941, although officially part of the armed forces, by the early twentieth century they had become solely engaged in fire fighting and civil defence. In 1941 Pope Pius XII refounded the service as the Corps of Firefighters of the Vatican City State, politically, the Vatican fire brigade has been under the control of the Directorate for Security Services and Civil Defence, since this body was legally established on 16 July 2002. The Directorate is a division of the Governorate of Vatican City State, as with all Vatican City State forces, the Pope is the head of state and chief commander of the Corps, and takes a direct interest in its operation. In 1941 the Corps of Firefighters of the Vatican City State consisted of just 10 firefighters, the modern service has expanded three-fold, with a current deployment of 30 firefighters. They work in a shift pattern, with three eight-hour shifts in each day. Fire Brigade Headquarters is located at Belvedere Courtyard, a location within the Vatican City State. Belvedere Courtyard is also the only fire station of the Corps. The Corps of Firefighters of the Vatican City State is a modern and well-equipped national fire brigade, whose members wear protective fire-fighting uniform and they are equipped to deal with a range of fire-fighting, rescue, first aid, and civil defence scenarios. Their key equipment is a fleet of vehicles, as below. All fire appliances utilise vehicle types capable of negotiating narrow streets, the principal fire tender and rescue tender have specially narrow bodies to facilitate access
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