PONTIFACTS: Ranking the Popes

Pope Boniface shone where his predecessor failed. He was a successful apocrisiary, an influential pope, and was able to achieve something that several previous popes could not. In his episode, we'll r...

13 Jan 202038min

Pope Sabinian is the anti-Gregory, in every possible way. He had a bad time in Constantinople, and then a worse time in Rome. He replaced monks with clerics in ecclesiastical roles, and made a massive...

6 Jan 202028min

Is it any surprise that Pope Gregory the Great ended up with a place in Dante's Paradiso? And yet, he is never named! Join us as we introduce the spheres of paradise, and explore the sixth sphere, res...

3 Jan 202023min

Pope Abstemius was dealt a pretty bad hand, as far as Amber Popes go. Following Durranet's ill-fated crusades, Abstemius was stuck with an Order of Truth that no one really cared for and a rival that ...

24 Des 201959min

In this episode, we discuss the 900 epistles of the Registrum Epistolarum, the Liber Pastoralis (Rules for the Pastor), the Commentaries on Job, the Dialogues, and Gregory’s controversial legacy on th...

23 Des 201925min

Pope Gregory I, the second pope to earn “the Great” epithet, and like our first Great Pope Leo, he had a prolific career before becoming pope, including holding the highest civic office in Rome and se...

16 Des 20192h 18min

Pope Abstemius was dealt a pretty bad hand, as far as Amber Popes go. Following Durranet's ill-fated crusades, Abstemius was stuck with an Order of Truth that no one really cared for and a rival that ...

10 Des 201952min

The papacy of Pope Pelagius II is fortunately blessed with more sources than poor Pope Benedict I, although the sources exist almost exclusively to pay attention to his future successor. But it is a b...

9 Des 201944min