How different the world would be without a specific Pope?

The world would be a very different place without Leo the Great. His Tome was hugely influential at Chalcedon as were his opinions on Papal Authority upon later popes. Also, you have most of the Popes who were involved in the schisms with Constantinople that took place over the centuries, like Pope Hormisdas, whose absence would have done a lot to change East-West relations. There were those whose theology made sure there were less compromises with the Miaphysites, like Pope Agatho, whose absence would have seriously altered the politics of the Middle East before the coming of Islam. There was also Pope Nicholas I, who was an important player in the Photian Schism, which was one of the major reasons that there even was a break with Constantinople in 1054, let alone why it became permanent.

Unsurprisingly, being the head of what would one day become the world's largest body of organized religion means you often have a lot of influence on history.
 
Ah, Alexander VI, according to legend so evil that it began to corrupt his body. :D

Anyhow my candidate would be Hadrian! He was a huge Frank backer. If a Pope more sympathetic to the Lombards or Byzzies had been in charge the whole history of early Middle-Ages Europe would have been different. Also possibly butterfly away the use of the Constantine Donation fraud.
 

Cook

Banned
Leo X*; his granting of indulgences outraged Martin Luther and his Excommunication of him split the church.


*Not related to Malcolm X.
 
Where could we work to keep popes as simple spiritual figures, and no more? or its not possible at all?

Short answer .. no.

Longer answer .. roman catholicism for a millenium was what unified and formed the pattern inwhich western christendom wasborn. The head od that organization, therefore was a major MAJOR political figure.

One alternative to the pope being a power player is to replace the religious by the secular .. have charlemagnes hre last, for instance. In this case the pope essentially becomes the emperors civil servant, as the ecumenical patriarch was in constantinople. So the pope is still a major political figure, just subordinate to the emperor.

Even if you made the western church concilar i.e. rule by a council of bishops, the pope is still going to be the executive head of the organization, and a major, if less powerful, political figure.
 
Where could we work to keep popes as simple spiritual figures, and no more? or its not possible at all?

Really, I don't think it's possible for any one man invested with supreme spiritual authority in the eyes of his civilization to avoid being a political figure.
 
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