The practice of sequestering cardinals to choose a new pope dates back to the Middle Ages. Starting in the late 11th century, medieval popes held powers far greater than the pope does today.

The eventful Avignon Papacy included three different popes ruling at the same time and an Irish king complaining about the ...

What Benedict stored … Pope Benedict was a scholar, a theologian, who stored the deposit of faith, added to it, interpreted ...