Editing Antipope (section)

==History==
[[Hippolytus of Rome]] (d.&nbsp;235) is commonly considered to be the earliest antipope, as he headed a separate group within the Church in Rome against [[Pope Callixtus I]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia| title=Saint Hippolytus of Rome| url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Hippolytus-of-Rome |date=3 January 2020 |access-date=2021-12-06| encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]| language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231021181732/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Hippolytus-of-Rome | archive-date=21 October 2023}}</ref> Hippolytus was reconciled to Callixtus's second successor, [[Pope Pontian]], and both he and Pontian are honoured as [[saint]]s by the Catholic Church with a shared [[feast day]] on 13 August. Whether two or more persons have been confused in this account of Hippolytus<ref>{{cite journal| url=https://www.vatican.va/jubilee_2000/magazine/documents/ju_mag_01091997_p-70_en.html| title=The catacombs the destination of the great jubilee| first=Enrico| last=Dal Covolo| date=September 1997| journal=Tertium Millennium| access-date=26 June 2023| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070910175629/https://www.vatican.va/jubilee_2000/magazine/documents/ju_mag_01091997_p-70_en.html| archive-date=10 September 2007| url-status=live}}</ref> and whether Hippolytus actually declared himself to be the Bishop of Rome remains unclear, since no such claim by Hippolytus has been cited in the writings attributed to him.

[[Eusebius]] quotes<ref>''[[Church History (Eusebius)|Historia Ecclesiastica]]'', V, 28</ref> from an unnamed earlier writer the story of [[Antipope Natalius|Natalius]], a [[Christianity in the 3rd century|3rd-century]] [[priest]] who accepted the bishopric of the [[Adoptionism|Adoptionists]],<ref name=Dix>{{cite book| last1=Dix| first1=Gregory| last2=Chadwick|first2=Henry| title=The Treatise on the Apostolic Tradition of St Hippolytus of Rome, Bishop and Martyr| year=2013| publisher=Routledge| isbn=978-1-1361-0146-5| page=xvii| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l8syjXASpNwC&pg=PR27| access-date=7 June 2017}}</ref> a heretical group in Rome. Natalius soon repented and tearfully begged [[Pope Zephyrinus]] to receive him into communion.<ref>[[s:Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Dictionary/Z/Zephyrinus|Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature: Zephyrinus]]</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia| url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10448a.htm |last1=Chapman |first1=John |author1-link=John Chapman (priest) |title=Monarchians |encyclopedia=[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]| location=New York| publisher=Robert Appleton| year=1911| access-date=3 September 2007| via=[[New Advent]]| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930012741/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10448a.htm| archive-date= 30 September 2007| url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Novatian]] (d. 258), another third-century figure, certainly claimed the [[Holy See|See of Rome]] in opposition to [[Pope Cornelius]], and if Natalius and Hippolytus were excluded because of the uncertainties concerning them, Novatian could then be said to be the first antipope.

The period in which antipopes were most numerous was during the struggles between the popes and the [[Holy Roman Emperor]]s of the 11th and 12th centuries. The emperors frequently imposed their own nominees to further their own causes. The popes, likewise, sometimes sponsored rival imperial claimants ([[anti-king]]s) in Germany to overcome a particular emperor.

The [[Western Schism]]&nbsp;– which began in [[1378]], when the French cardinals, claiming that the election of [[Pope Urban VI]] was invalid, elected antipope [[Antipope Clement VII|Clement VII]] as a rival to the Roman Pope&nbsp;– led eventually to two competing lines of antipopes: the [[Avignon Papacy|Avignon line]] as Clement VII moved back to [[Avignon]], and the [[Council of Pisa|Pisan]] line. The Pisan line, which began in [[1409]], was named after the town of Pisa, Italy, where the (Pisan) council had elected antipope [[Antipope Alexander V|Alexander V]] as a third claimant. To end the schism, in May [[1415]], the [[Council of Constance]] deposed antipope [[Antipope John XXIII|John XXIII]] of the Pisan line. [[Pope Gregory XII]] of the Roman line resigned in July 1415. In [[1417]], the council also formally deposed antipope [[Antipope Benedict XIII|Benedict XIII]] of Avignon, but he adamantly refused to resign. Afterwards, [[Pope Martin V]] was elected and was accepted everywhere except in the small and rapidly diminishing area of influence of Benedict XIII.