Illiterate popes

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Several popes are regarded by historians as illiterate, including:

  • Pope Zephyrinus (199–217); St. Hippolytus of Rome wrote "Pope Zephyrinus was illiterate" (Hippol. p. 284, ed. Miller).[1]
  • Pope Adrian IV (1154–1159); George Washington Dean writes: "Adrian IV., the only English Pope, had been an illiterate servant in a monastery at Avignon."[2]
  • Pope Celestine V (1294); Sir Maxwell Herbert writes of Celestine V: "On the commemoration day of S. Paul, Celestinus the Fifth was created Pope, who, albeit illiterate, was the priest and confessor of his predecessor."[3]

Wrongly regarded as illiterate[edit]

Ludwig von Pastor has shown that Pope Julius II (1503–1513) was not illiterate, although he is poetically referred to as such by Desiderius Erasmus.[4][5]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Christopher Wordsworth. 1887. A Church History, Volume 1. p. 290.
  2. ^ George Washington Dean. 1890. Lectures on the Evidences of Revealed Religion. p. 459.
  3. ^ Maxwell Herbert. 2009. The Chronicle of Lanercost, 1272–1346: Translated, with Notes. p. 107.
  4. ^ Association Amici Thomae Mori. 1971. Moreana. p. 103.
  5. ^ Philip C. Dust. 1987. Three Renaissance Pacifists: Essays in the Theories of Erasmus. p. 129.
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