Alphabetical list of Popes

The Popes, in chronological order

AD 300-400

30. St Marcellus I. b. Rome; elected 27 May, 308; d. 16 Jan, 309. Became pope after a three-year lapse, and two years after Constantine died at York and Maxentius became emperor. Marcellus, a hardliner, was imprisoned and exiled by Maxentius "that he might deny his bishopric and degrade himself by sacrifices to demons. Then for as much as he continually despised and scorned the words and commands of Maxentius he was condemned to the stable". (LP) This "legendary story", however, appears to have no credence according to BS. Meanwhile. Constantine's son, elected emperor by his troops, marched on Rome under Christian banners and beat the emperor Maxentius. Identifying the church as the empire's "best hope...(that) would provide imperial Rome with the common set of values and and the single cult which it so badly lacked (S&S)" , Constantine allocated funds to the church which it announced was the most favored religion.

31. St Eusebius. b. Greece; elected 18 April, 309; d. 17 Aug, 309. He baptized Constantine in Nicodemia. Widespread clamor in the church between those who thought the renegades who had appeased Diocletian  should be forgiven, and the Donatists--hardline followers of Donatus,  fanatical  bishop of Carthage, who was unforgiving of the Christians who abjured the church during the persecutions and demanded they not be readmitted. Emperor Maxentius exiled the pope and various trouble-makers to Sicily where Eusebius died.

32. St Miltiades. b. Africa; elected 2 July 311; d. 2 Jan, 314  (Spelt Melchiades in early RM). He had served Pope Marcellinus and been praised by St Augustine as a peaceful man  of moderation.  Miltiades ordained Sylvester as deacon and priest, and (says LP) decreed that Christians should not fast on Fridays or Sundays, those being pagan fasting days. During his pontificate, Emperor Maxentius restored church property and ended the persecution of Christians. His successor, Constantine reportedly saw a cross in  the sky with Greek words: "Conquer by  this" and proceeded to donate money to the "Catholic clergy of North Africa" (Eu) as well as providing the papacy with the Lateran Palace which thenceforth became the papal residence. His establishment of Constantinople as the world's first Christian capital, was intended to be central enough to defend the empire of both East and West.

33. St. Sylvester. b. Rome; elected 31 Jan, 314, d. 31 Dec, 335. Stipulated the  correct ecclesiastical garb for church and passed decrees attempting to prevent clergy from being tried in lay courts and preventing laymen bringing charges against the clergy (LP). He has become (says tP) "the subject of a luxurious growth of legend";  for example, his bones in San Giovanni in Laterano were said to rattle when a pope was about to die. He was not in attendance at the Council of Nicea in 325 which condemned the teaching of Arius who maintained that the Son was a creation  of the Father.Only six delegates from the west were among the hundreds present--described by the official historian, the monk Socrates as mostly "simpletons".
   In the 5th century, a fictional biography of Sylvester credited him with converting Constantine to Christianity and curing the emperor's leprosy,  but BS says this baptism occurred after Sylvester's death and  according to S&S was by his Arian chaplain Eusebius on his deathbed in 337. ODP adds that a later laudatory biography of Sylvester and a document called the Donation of Constantine were "exposed as false in the 16th century". The Donation, supposedly investing the pope with virtually unchallengeable authority, was to be invoked many times before being repudiated 12 centuries later.
Painting by Maso di Banco in S. Croce, Florence; 13th c. fresco in SS. Quattro Coronati.

34. St Marcus b. Rome; elected 18 Jan, 336; d. 7 Oct, 336. Introduced the first calendar of religious holidays (ISPR). Decreed that the bishops of neighboring Ostia should consecrate new popes and bestowed on them the pallium , a band of lambswool  decorated with crosses.
Painting by Melozzo da Forti, S. Marco.

35. St Julius I. b. Rome; elected 6 Feb, 337; d. 12 April, 352.  Elected only a few months before Constantine died attended by Christian clergy, Julius was an astute politician  who attempted to mediate many internal church disputes,  successfully maintaining that Rome was the final arbiter of such. Julius ordered all official acts be preserved in the Archives of the Holy See, and  fixed the number of Roman cardinals at 28, divided between the four patriarchal churches. Seeking to co-opt pagan celebrations, he decreed December 25 to be Jesus' birthday.
   A council held at  Sardica (today's Sofia) to heal the rift between Eastern and Western bishops, succeeded only in widening it. Julius  defended St Athanasius ("a man of epic stamina and courage but undiplomatic to the point of truculence"-S&S) against heretical mainly Eastern followers of the Alexandrian priest Arius (d. 336) who had claimed that Jesus was not divine, eternal or equal to the Father. Arianism was among the earliest of what proved to be many different interpetations of the central truth of Christianity, the Incarnation. 
Depicted in 12th c. mosaic in S. Maria in Trastevere which he founded.

36. St Liberius. b. Rome; elected 17 May, 352; d. 24 Sept, 366. Arianism,  the doctrine  denying the equality of the three persons in the Trinity, which had been condemned at the Council of Nicaea in 325, was for long a persistent factor, supported by successive emperors. "My will is the canon law in this matter", the pope was told by Constantius. "Because (Liberius) would not consent to the heresy of the Arians he was sent into exile...and there abode three years" (GL) where "tormented by the grievousness of his exile submitted him unto the evil heresy".
   When Constantius died, Liberius took over from Felix, an archdeacon who had been imposed as pope  over the Roman deacons by the emperor, and again denounced Arianism  as well as other hereetical beliefs which he likened to "that old serpent... ....ceaselessly endeavouring to overthrow the faithless with his deadly poisons". LPrecords that once Liberius returned to the Lateran palace, Felix operated from a church he built on the Via Aurelia with the clergy and people divided between them.  D&F, however, says Romans rose up and killed Felix.
13th c. mosaic in S. Maria Maggiore; fresco in Naples' Capodimonte Museum.

anti-pope  Felix  II (355-365)

37. St Damasus. b. Rome; elected 1 Oct, 366; d. 11 Dec, 384, aged about 80. Son of a Spanish priest  who had supported Felix. Although contested, he was elected--according to LP--"because he was the stronger and had the greater number of supporters". He earned the nickname matronarum auriscalpus ("the ladies' ear-tickler") according to S&S and was accused of adultery ("unlikely" comments Duschene in LP), but was acquitted after the intervention of the emperor Gratian who adopted Christianity as the state religion in 380.  The  381 General Council called by the eastern emperor Theodosius  to ratify his contention that the bishop of Constantinople ranked second to Rome, was rejected by Damasus. Those who had previously opposed Felix, now appointed as their pope Ursinus who was exiled after Damasus supporters killed a group of Ursinians, the remainder being banned from the Rome area. After anathematizing Appolinarius for misinterpreting church doctrine, the pope appealed to Christians not "to listen to vain reasonings and idle speculation. For we have once for all furnished a pattern and he knows himself a Christian may keep it".
   The 381 General Council confirmed and extended the Nicene Creed which had condemned Arianism. The contention by the eastern emperor Theodorius that the authority of the bishop of Constantinople should be enhanced, was rejected by the pope. Damasus documented Christian folklore, restored cemeteries and catacombs and commissioned his secretary St Jerome (who called him "an incomparable man") to correct and revise what came to be known as the Vulgate Bible. Choosing to be buried in a small church he had built on the Via Ardentine, he placed an inscription in the crypt of St Callistus saying he wished to be buried there (B) "but I feared to offend the ashes of these holy ones".
Portrait by Botticini  in National Gallery, London

anti-pope  Ursinus  (366-367)

38. St Siricius. b. Rome; elected 15 Dec, 384; d. 26 Nov, 399. He had been a deacon under his two predecessors, and was the first after St Peter to assume the title Pope. Siricius'  insistence that priests be celibate was countered by the monk Jovian who argued that celibacy was unnatural as well as unspiritual,  declaring that Mary was "not ever" virgin.  Siricius .sent Ninian to Scotland to evangelise tribes north of the Roman wall. He began the body of church law with precedents established by means of decretals (decretum=it has been decided) in his replies to problems submitted to Rome. In one dated 11 Feb  385,  he declared that "no priest of the Lord is free to be ignorant of the statutes of the apostolic See". He recommended leniency for repentant adherents of the executed heretic Priscillian. During his pontificate, the emperor Theodosius, an avowed Christian, issued edicts outlawing Arianism and forbidding pagan ceremonies.

39. St Anastasius I. b. Rome; elected 27 Nov, 399; d. 19 Dec, 401. Ruled that foreign clerics who wished to be ordained in Rome should be vouched for by five bishops and that priests should remain standing with bowed heads during the Gospel (LP). St Jerome held him in "high esteem" at least partly because of his support for Jerome's friends in Rome who "alerted him to the dangers of Origen's teachings" (NCE). The Greek theologian Origen (184-253)`had been demoted from the priesthood in 230 for his interpretation of the Scriptures, and was still regarded as heretical but there was now conflict`over a new translation and commentary (by Rufinus of Aquileia) of his writings.