Quotes About Popes

But history, real solemn history, I cannot be interested in. Can you? Yes, I am fond of history. I wish I were too. I read it a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all -- it is very tiresome.

The Papal throne at this time was occupied by Innocent III, one of the greatest of the medieval Popes, renowned for his statecraft and diplomacy, and intent on raising to its height the temporal power of the Church. The dispute between John and the monastery of Canterbury over the election to the Archbishopric offered Innocent the very chance he sought for asserting Papal authority in England.

After reporting on such moments, the historian Paul Johnson concludes, "Attempts to perfect Christian societies in this world, whether conducted by popes or revolutionaries, have tended to degenerate into red terrors.

I desire to go to Hell and not to Heaven. In the former I shall enjoy the company of popes, kings and princes, while in the latter are only beggars, monks and apostles

About the middle of the ninth century were composed the False Decretals, purporting to have been collected from the documents of early popes.

To put it more plainly, suppose a small group of earnest Christian laymen were taken prisoner and settled in the middle of the desert without any episcopally ordained priest among them; and they then agreed to choose one of themselves, whether married or not, and endow him with the office of baptizing, administering the sacrament, pronouncing absolution, and preaching; that man would be as truly a priest as if he had been ordained by all the bishops and the popes.

The High Middle Ages resounded with conflicts between the popes and the emperors and other temporal rulers.

The ineptitude and folly of the bishops' and popes' chatter would disturb us, if we old Catholics had not fortunately learned as little children to sleep during the sermon.