Podcasts about pontifacts

NOTE: SHOW LINKS FOR ALL THE MENTIONED PODCASTERS WILL BE ADDED SOON (AND WILL ALSO BE IN THE NOTES FOR NEXT EPISODE TO ENSURE THEY GET SEEN), FOR NOW GETTING THIS OUT WHILE I CAN! TRANSCRIPT: Good Evening Everyone, Welcome to Popeular History. My name is Gregg, and this is another admin update I'll try to keep from being too boring, in part by offering some observations and speculations about the new Papacy interspersed throughout. First, some personal updates. I was very tired by the end of last week, thank you for asking. I got some rest and then made sure Vice-Pope Mrs. Popeular History's primary Mother's Day present was rest. I am immeasurably grateful for her support, but the reality is even if she weren't so supportive of this passion project of mine and the fairly unhinged extremes I took it to in the last few weeks, I would still be immeasurably grateful to her for a million other things. She's the best partner I could have ever hoped to have for so many reasons, and all of you are welcome to be jealous.   I'd also like to thank my children for being malleable enough that I can pass on my love of the faith in general and also my nerdiness to them. Patrick, Catherine, Joseph, William, Gabriel, I love you all and thank you for sharing me with the internet a bit more lately. I try to shield my children from my more concentrated geekery so they can have somewhat normal childhoods, much like I try to spare my Vice Pope so she can have a somewhat normal marriage, but I will admit I felt a special sense of pride when I heard footsteps after I had invited any of my children interested in appearing on one of my livestreams to come on down to the studio. Those footsteps were from Catherine, who was by that point a good hour and a half into a livestream of the Pope's funeral that had began at 4am our time. To be clear, the kids aren't usually up at that time–I mean, neither am I–but wanting to be on the livestream she had asked to be awakened when it began, so I woke her and set her up with a watching station before kicking things off. Days later, she still excitedly references things from it. Just one of many special times from the last couple weeks. My thanks go not only to my immediate household, but to my family beyond as well, in particular my father, who came over at another particularly uncivil hour and summoned black smoke basically as soon as he arrived so I could go rest, as well as my in-laws, who bore with me through a packed weekend of a wedding and a papal funeral. And again, Vice Pope-Mrs Popeular history through it all.   Thanks are due as well to the lovely and supportive folks at work. I wouldn't want to name anyone who would rather I not name them, so I will be general when I say the atmosphere there has been lovely, and in particular I appreciate those who knew I was their best local source for answers to questions about Popes and Cardinals and conclaves and such. I lead a charmed life these days, and work, from my team to my coworkers to those above me and those supporting me, is full of amazing people I could not appreciate more.   Before I thank even more people, including you the listeners, let's talk about the New Pope, Leo XIV, specifically, his status as an American. And please, I beg you, don't be one of the contrarians who have been trying to make “United Statesian” a thing, it's fine to call Leo XIV the First American Pope. Of course you're welcome to use the opportunity to draw attention to the fact that Pope Francis is also from “the Americas”, but “American” is the demonym for a person from the United States and there is nothing wrong with using that word in that sense, so stop trying to make fetch happen.   Anyways, Pope Leo was born on September 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois. The date is memorable for Catholics as the Triumph of the Cross, one of the more venerable feasts of the Church, commemorating Emperor Constantine's mother Saint Helena's apparently successful expedition to the Holy Land in search of the Cross Christ was crucified on, AKA the True Cross. Of course, many of my listeners are more captivated by the Chicago aspect, so let's hone in on that. First, to get this out of the way, yes, he was raised in Dolton, a community just *outside* Chicago, but contrarians should brace for more disappointment as it remains technically correct to describe Robert Francis Prevost as being “from Chicago”, having been born at Mercy Hospital in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the south side.   In a way, it would be somewhat surprising if Pope Leo *weren't* from the midwest, considering 80% of the 10 American Cardinals who participated in the conclave are midwesterners by birth. But also that number should actually closer to 90%, considering that's including the Irish-born Kevin Cardinal Farrell under the American tally, and by that logic the future Leo XIV should probably count as Peruvian. But I'm not gonna begrudge anyone who wants to claim the Pope as one of their own. Even without that wrinkle, I think we can agree Ireland can count as the midwest, especially given the whole Notre Dame thing.   If it were tallied as its own nationality, the Midwestern United States would be the second most represented county in the conclave, still actually in the same place that the United States currently occupies: comfortably behind Italy, and a bit ahead of Brazil.   Nor of course is Chicago unfamiliar to Cardinals in general, having had their senior cleric sporting a red hat–or getting one at the first opportunity–for  over a hundred years running, putting them in extremely rarified air, actually I think they're the only US see that can claim the red hat century club when it's set on hard mode like that, as New York's Cardinal Dolan wasn't elevated at the first opportunity, presumably because Cardinal Egan was still kicking around and Conclave-eligible for a while, and Archbishop Henning of Boston just got passed over last December despite Cardinal O'Malley having freshly aged out.   And my midwest Catholic trivia dump can't be complete without noting that spookily, Mar Awa III, the current Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, which shares the spotlight on my upcoming 0.22 supplemental, was also born in Chicago, which may further help the ecumenical relations I discuss in that supplemental episode. Here's hoping!   One more topic relating to Pope Leo's roots I want to touch on today: His Louisiana creole and black caribbean heritage. Both of His Holiness' grandparents on his mother's side were described as black or mulatto in census documents of their day, with his mother's father, Joseph Martinez, being listed as born in Santo Domingo, now the capital of the Dominican Republic, though it was then part of Haiti, the only country to have been born as the result of a successful slave rebellion, making black heritage from that region particularly poignant.   I'll note that His Holiness' melanin levels are such that he can fairly be described as white passing, and I'd consider it unlikely that the matter was discussed during the recent conclave, though I expect then-Cardinal Prevost was aware of this bit of family history. That said, it's certainly *possible* that it was a surprise even to him. One way or another, the basic fact is that these genealogical records exist. What to make of them, I leave to those more competent than I. I will commit to circling back to the topic in time, though. For now, it's time to thank, like, a lot of podcasters.   First and foremost, you probably wouldn't be listening to this if it weren't for Bry and Fry of Pontifacts. Their support has been critical in a number of ways and I could not be more appreciative of the way they've shared their platform with me, and so much more, right down to Bry making sure I checked my email when she saw that NPR had reached out for an interview. I tragically did not have Bry's attentive support on the inbox situation when PBS invited me on solo, so that one will always be a bit of a what-if, a hint of how much harder things are without the active support of so many. So again, thank you all, especially people I'm sure I'm forgetting since I'm extremely forgetful.   I think the safest thing to do is to thank the rest of the podcasters who have collaborated with me in order of appearance this year, starting back in February with the Intelligent Speech crew, in particular my fellows on the religion panel discussion, namely Trevor Cully of the History of Persia Podcast as well as the cheekier America's Secret Wars podcast, Aurora of the Swords, Sorcery, and Socialism podcast, and Bailey of Totalus Jeffianus. What a panel we had. And oh, by the way, apparently I've got the green light to share both that and my talk on the Original Grey Eminence, François Leclerc du Tremblay on this feed, so watch out for that in due course. Oh, and uh, shoutout to David Montgomery of The Siecle for his help with French pronunciation this year, not to mention various other assists through the years. All errors are my own, and David is a good guy to know.   Thank you to Jerry of The Presidencies podcast for having me on for one of his intro quotes, his process is impeccably professional just as one would expect after having listened to his show, and it was a great honor to take part.   Thank you as well to Thomas Rillstone of the History of Aotearoa New Zealand podcast for picking a surprisingly fascinating year to solicit info about, even if your release timing was ultimately made awkward by the death of the Holy Father. Oh, I suppose I can release that for you guys as well, though really, go check out his lovely show. Aotearoa is spelled: A-O-T-E-A-R-O-A   Moving on to my guests from the recent sede vacante, the first you all heard was Umberto from the So You Think You Can Rule Persia podcast, who, in addition to offering a fascinating overview of the history of transitions among the Islamic Caliphate also it turns out had the extremely clutch ability to offer live translations of Italian, which put our humble livestream ahead of EWTN, no offense to that major network.   The following day this feed was graced by the previously mentioned Aurora, now on as half of Tsar Power, along with Roberto, who is also from The History of Saqartvelo Georgia and Quest For Power. I'll let you sort all that out from the links in the show notes, but it's worth noting that you can expect more collaboration with Roberto on this feed, starting in the not too distant future with a conversation we unwittingly recorded just hours before Pope Francis' passing, talking optimistically about the future prospects of his papacy. Fortunately there's still cause for such optimism: Habemus Papam, after all.   Right before the conclave began, I put out a Cardinal Numbers First Judgment segment with John from Prim e Time, though admittedly that episode was originally recorded over a year ago. We did have a fresher appearance from John on the Youtube side of things, as he joined us to meet the new Pope after the white smoke, having cunningly signed up for the correct smokewatch to do so, much like Umberto our live translator. Ethan from Play History on Youtube was also kind enough to join us, helping hold down the fort along with Fry while I juggled toddlers and the white smoke first billowed out. Memorable times, all.   A special thank you to all those who shared the episode I had already prepared on Cardinal Prevost with the wider world, leading to thousands of exposures and hundreds of new listeners. Which, welcome if you're one of the new listeners. Thank you for tuning in, and I promise I'll update my Episode 0 soon to help you find your way.   Ok, it's time for another bout of new Pope stuff before I fill you all in on what to expect from me moving forward. I think it's appropriate that we take a look at what Pope Leo himself has outlined as important topics and themes here at the start of his papacy.   First, peace, which was literally the first word of Leo's papacy. An emphasis on peace is no surprise, for one thing, as the newly-elected Pope Leo himself pointed out, his greeting of peace was in the tradition of the resurrected Christ Himself, and thereby an appropriate greeting for the Easter season, which Pope Francis had opened right before his death and through which Pope Leo will continue to guide the Church until Pentecost on June 8th.   The topic of peace is even less surprising in light of the rare public message from the College of Cardinals that was released just before the Conclave, pleading for peace amid escalating war. In light of that, it would have been surprising if he *hadn't* come out advocating for peace. As is, it's definitely a core message, and needless to say a timely one too, with Pope Leo already echoing the late Pope Francis' observation that World War III is already being fought piecemeal.    The appeal for peace does seem to be getting a bit of traction, with India and Pakistan agreeing to a ceasefire, and the Trump administration proposing the Vatican as a mediator in the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine. If you don't look in the box marked Gaza or consider the actual likelihood of a breakthrough in Ukraine, you might be tempted to feel hopeful: admittedly as you can probably tell I'm more on the skeptical end myself, though I'd be happy to be wrong.   Another topic Pope Leo emphasized in his first speech–and repeatedly since–is togetherness, which could also be filed under dialog or even unity: the interplay between commonality and difference is critical here, and the most consistent analogy is one very suitable to his role as Pope, that of a bridge-builder, a pontifex in Latin, a traditional title of Popes for centuries, though probably not one that really traces back to the ancient Roman priestly title of Pontifex Maximus directly, as it seems to have been primarily added to the Pope's titles during the renaissance, when the classical world was very fashionable. Now, to really tie the old and the new together, I can tell you that a title once held by Julius Caesar is Pope Leo's handle on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter: @Pontifex.   When it comes to the Papacy, concepts like building bridges and promoting togetherness play out on multiple levels. First, as pastor of the giant flock known as Catholicism, we can talk about healing divisions within the church. Then, we can talk about healing divisions among all of Christianity, since the Pope is the head of the largest Christian group–and frankly it's always worth noting that most Christians are Catholics. But really, getting arrogant about it isn't the way to bring people on board, and from what I can tell so far Leo seems to have taken that lesson from Francis to heart–not that humility is a novel lesson in the history of the Papacy that Francis just invented, but still, give the guy his due..   Lastly, though certainly not leastly, what about healing divisions all over the world, not just among all Christians or even among all religions, but among all people? We're talking about the Vicar of Christ here, the idea of “not my circus, not my monkies” does not apply, and the more divisions across humanity are healed, the more likely we are to see enduring peace. So, Pope Leo has his work cut out for him, indeed I daresay we all do, as I am going to charitably assume you all want to make the world a better place.   Another priority of the new Pontiff is one that came to light even before his first speech: Vatican-watchers know that modern Popes don't just pick names at random, for example Pope Francis was strongly broadcasting that he was going to do something different by being the first  in the modern era to choose a truly new Papal name. As for Pope Leo, my first impression was quickly confirmed, as Pope Leo XIII looms large in modern Catholic history and his encyclical Rerum Novarum was a watershed moment in the development of modern Catholic Social Teaching, which is a foundational enough topic that I capitalized all those words and you will absolutely catch folks calling Catholic Social Teaching “CST” for short. Before Pope Francis, when you were talking about social justice in a Catholic context–which, by the way, is the context where the idea first gained traction, being popularized among the Jesuits in the early 19th century–anyways before Pope Francis, when you were talking about social justice in a Catholic context, you were talking about Pope Leo and Rerum Novarum, published in 1891 as a critique of modern economic systems from Capitalism to Communism and all over, emphasizing the fundamental importance of worker's rights given, well, the fundamental importance of workers themselves, as human beings with divine dignity. The Church has been revisiting Rerum Novarum on a regular basis ever since, and Pope Leo has explicitly centered it for those wondering what to expect from his papacy. To borrow the language of a generation slightly ahead of me, it's based, so get hype.   Of course lots of people are wondering what Pope Leo will get up to beyond these key starts of peace, unity, and social justice in the mold of so many of his predecessors. We can be here all day and I still won't be able to comment on every individual topic, nor will h e. We'll see more of Pope Leo in the years to come. Of course we can look to his past comments on anything you like, but the basic reality is Robert Francis Prevost is dead, and  Pope Leo XIV is a different man. At least, he may be, anyhow. History has shown election to the Papacy can change folks, but it's also shown that that's not always the case. Sorry to disappoint those looking for surefire answers, we'll find out together in the coming years and quite possibly decades, as, at 69, Pope Leo will likely be with us for a generation.   BUT, and this is a big but, I do think from what he's indicated so far and from the apparent expectations of the Cardinals who elected him, not to mention historical patterns, I do think it's very likely that Pope Leo will, on the whole, prove to be something of a centrist. That's not to say that he'll be middle-of-the-road on all issues–I really do expect him to lean into the Leonine legacy of Rerum Novarum-style social and economic justice with a major encyclical on the topic within the next few years–but on average I do not expect him to be as progressive as Pope Francis or as conservative as Pope Benedict. Again, how exactly that all will shake out remains to be seen, and I am very bad at making predictions anyways. After all, when I got asked directly about the possibility of an American Pope, I gave a simple “no” and moved on. In my defense, apparently the future Pope Leo did the same, allegedly telling his brother “they're not going to pick an American Pope” on the eve of the conclave that did just that.   Now I want to take a moment to thank some non-podcasters who have been very supportive of my work the last few years, specifically the priests at my home parish of Saint Francis de Sales. Shoutout Fr. Mike, Fr. PC, and Fr. Sizemore, who have all supported me in various ways both in relation to the podcast and off-mic. In particular I want to thank Fr. PC for helping review my upcoming worldbuilding episodes on mass and the Eucharist to make sure I didn't go too far off the rails, and Fr. Sizemore for his consistent support and encouragement of my work, as well as his willingness to promote it. Longtime listeners know that I am willing to set aside the Pope-colored glasses to offer necessary critiques of the Church at times–indeed, necessary critiques are actually themselves part of Pope-colored glasses anyways. It's been very cool to have that support even when offering that criticism at times, and I am, of course, grateful.   To give a little more personal insight, I think it's worth noting that I'm bringing Fr Sizemore and Fr PC up in part because they're on my mind and in my prayers a little extra these days since they are going to another parish as part of the normal juggling that occurs with basically any diocese. Back in the day such moves were less common, and could indeed be signs of darker things, but more recent practice has keeping priests from staying at a particular parish for too extended a period as a guard against exactly such dark things as may occur when a pastor is seen as the absolute bedrock of a faith community and is effectively given all sorts of extra deference and leeway and such to an inappropriate degree. In the end, Christ is the foundation, it's not about any particular pastor. Nevertheless, I will miss Fr Sizemore deeply, as excited as I am to see what he does at his new parish, and as excited as I am to meet our new pastor, Father Tom Gardner, and the other priest and a half that are coming to Saint Francis as part of the general shuffle. Interestingly, this will have our household lined up with a relatively young priest, a relatively young bishop, and a relatively young Pope, so these positions are likely going to be set in my life for a while yet.   And now that we've talked a bit about the future of my home parish, let's talk about the future of Popeular History.   First, as you've already seen if you're caught up on the feed, I have some content from Conclave Time still being edited and prepared for release on this feed. In the last week or so you've seen my chat with Benjamin Jacobs of Wittenberg to Westphalia and Why Tho?, who had me on as his guest of his 100th episode for the former. He's more like me than most, so if you enjoy this, go check him out. And if you don't enjoy this, well, I'm confused as to the sequence of events that has you somehow still listening, but even then, you should *also* still go  check him out. Just in case. You never know.   Also already released is a chat with Meredith of The Alexander Standard, another Rexypod in the mold of Cardinal Numbers and of course Pontifacts, reviewing, rating, and ranking all the successors of Alexander the Great from Perdiccas to Cleopatra VII. Meredith bravely volunteered to take the first spot on what was a near nightly guest list during the recent sede vacante, and we had a great chat that you should go check out if you haven't already.   Still to come most likely this month is a very extended conversation I had with Steve Guerra of the History of the Papacy Podcast, a collaboration that was pretty long overdue. I first reached out to Steve over five years ago when Popeular History was just starting out, but I was too timid to propose a collaboration at the time. I was actually still too timid to suggest such a thing when Pope Francis' fading health got us talking again earlier this year, but fortunately for all of us Steve had no such scruples and when he suggested we get together over a couple of mics, well, so far we've got hours of good stuff that will be ready for your ears very shortly, I just wanted to get all this admin stuff and early Leo discussion out first so I did. But you can expect hours of Steve and I on this feed soon, and if you just can't wait–don't! Bec ause it's already out on his feed at the History of the Papacy Podcast. Part III talking Leo specifically is already in the works, with hopefully more to come from Steve and I collaborating in the years to come.   After that, you'll hear a chat I had with Quinn from Nobelesse Oblige, one half of another rexypod that ranks all the nobel laureates from 1901 until he and cohost Maggie run out of people. Their show was on hiatus, but is back now, so rejoice! All the best shows go on hiatus, like, a lot, amirite? Look, subscribe and you'll know when any shows with that particular habit get back. Anyways, that's gonna be another conclave second helping episode.   The third on the conclave second helping trilogy, likely appearing early next month at this rate with apologies to my patient guest, will be a great chat I had right before the doors were sealed with none other than Garry Stevens of the History in the Bible podcast, in which I fielded his conclave questions and talked about the recent movie as well. Thank you as always, Garry, especially for your patience as I edited my way through our chat!   After that puts a cap on my conclave coverage, it'll be high time to release the previously mentioned chat I had with Roberto of Tsar Power and more, right before Pope Francis passed.   And there you go, that's the plan for the next month or so. After all that, it'll be 5th anniversary time, and I think it'll be fun to do a bit of Q&A for that. The anniversary will officially on June 29th, so let's go ahead and say send in almost any question you like to popeularhistory@gmail.com by June 20th and I'll answer it for you on the show. The only limit I'm placing is that the question should be relatively family-friendly so I don't get flagged as explicit content by the powers that be.    After that, well, we'll see. Popeular History and Cardinal Numbers will be carrying on, I'm looking forward to finishing my longrunning Catholic worldbuilding series, as well as covering all the living Cardinals I haven't gotten to yet. And those items just represent finishing up the current stages. Plus, tere's gonna be more Pontifacts collaboration, including the much hyped Habemus Pointsam project, ranking all the Papal transitions with Bry! But do  keep in mind I had *just* put out a note indicating that I was going to stay on hiatus for a while longer right before all this happened, and the factors that lead me to that are still present. I've got a strong head of steam for when I'm officially back up to full production, but until then, you won't hear from me quite as regularly as I'd like. Actually, let's be honest, you're never going to hear from me as regularly as I'd like unless there's a wealthy patron who wants to hand over a living wage for myself and my family as compensation for me doing this full-time. And nah, I'm not counting on that. I do have a patreon though, so if you want to help offset my costs and fuel Taco Bell expeditions or moving to Rome, you know, little things like that, you can. Mary specifically said I can get Taco Bell every time I get a new patron, so thank you very much in advance. Also, a big thank you to Joe, my current patron, who hosts Prime Factors with his son Abram, and yes that's another Rexypod, in fact, yes, that's another Rexypod ranking the British Prime Ministers! Prime Time is the other one in case you've already forgotten, and now you can easily find both of them on one another's feeds as they recently did a collaborative special you should absolutely check out! I especially owe Joe as I forgot to keep mentioning him when speeding through my recent sede vacante coverage, a situation which will be remedied hopefully in small part by this note, and then eventually with judicious editing. Thanks again for your support, Joe!   If you'd like to support my work and are financially able to do so, go to Patreon.com/popeular. I'm going to do as much as I can even without many patrons, but more patron support  would go a long way to making things easier, I have to admit. So if you want to join Joe on the wall of ongoing thanks, there are still spots left! And if you can't support financially, no sweat, do what you gotta do, but please consider spreading the word about Popeular History and keeping me and my family in prayer while you're at it. Words of encouragement or any other words you'd like to send can be sent to popeularhistory@gmail.com or you can also find me on social media in a few spots, primarily on Bluesky these days at Popeular as I'm focusing more on direct content creation rather than trying to keep up with socials and the website and such. Oh, speaking of the website, Google Domains went caput so the website's kind of frozen, not that I was updating it much anyways apart from the automatic RSS feeds, which for what it's worth are still chugging along. But the rest you can ignore, in particular the big daily show announcement that's still up there, because that was fun while it lasted but that is definitely on the list of things that are not happening unless I get thousands of patreon dollars a month to make this a full-time job, which, again, I am realistic enough to not expect. It just turns out I can't take that notification down without tanking the whole site at the moment, or without, you know, a fair amount of extra work, and since the RSS feeds are still handy and my time is still fairly crunched, I'm reluctant to do that. So, uh, here we are. Awkward. Ignore the big daily show announcement. Thank you.   Now, I'm going to make a couple specific predictions about the future of Leo's papacy that I'd be happy to be wrong about. But before I do *that*, I want to note that after today, apart from the contemporary cardinals episodes, I plan to get back to history, leaving current events to other commentators generally, with the exception of a plan to have some commentary on contemporary news, Catholic and otherwise, available as bonus content for my Patreon subscribers. That would allow my regular listeners to have access to all the historical goodies I find without barrier, while still offering something interesting and informative, you know, hopefully, for my backers. If you hate the idea, let me know, and of course if you love the idea, sure, let me know that too. I'm thinking maybe some kind of monthly roundup, something like that.   Anyways, on to those predictions. First, while I genuinely believe we would have seen Sister Rafaella Petrini elevated to the College of Cardinals had Pope Francis lived to create another batch of Cardinals, I do not see that happening under Pope Leo, though he did reconfirm her in her role as President of the Governorate of Vatican City State as part of his general “as you were” instructions right after his election, reconfirming all of Pope Francis' appointments in one of the more unambiguous signs of continuity you can have. It's of course likely that there will be shuffling in time, but I think Petrini is safe in her role, I just don't expect her to be the first Cardinelle at the next opportunity, as Leo appears interested in a degree of centrist rapprochement.   Similarly, while I had fairly big hopes for the observances of the 1700th anniversary of Nicea that were due this month, namely a reunified dating of Easter, obviously those observances aren't happening right now. And, while it look like there are now plans for later this year, around the Feast of Saint Andrew–November 30th–I think that moment has passed, and I expect it's not something we'll see in year one of a Papacy. Again, I'd be happy to be wrong, but I don't think that's a “coming super  soon” type situation at this point. And that's it for today, thanks for sitting through a record-breaking amount of admin. Thanks, Joe!

Before I give the extra omnes to everyone that isn't my pillow, I wanted to put something out about the new Pope that wasn't just his life prior to being a Cardinal (which has quickly become our most popular episode, thank you to all who shared it and keep in mind I will almost certainly have an episode on the NEXT Pope ready when the time comes, hopefully decades from now). Given my current energy levels, I am simply posting (with permission) the same version that went up on the Pontifacts feed a few minutes ago, right down to the plug for this show at the end. Very meta. If you somehow *haven't* checked out Pontifacts, perhaps if you're new from the exposure yesterday, they're well worth a listen, and I'm not just saying that because I edit their show, though I do.

Scott Clement, polling director for The Washington Post Andrew Sofin, psychotherapist focusing on couples and family Jean Charest, former Quebec premier and partner at Therrien, Couture and Jolicoeur Bry Jensen, host of Pontifacts, a papal history podcast

Not a spelling mistake, a pun. I do those. Search up "dubia letter" if you're scrathing your head over the title. LINKS Catholic Herald coverage of Cardinal Müller's church split comments: https://thecatholicherald.com/cardinal-muller-warns-church-risks-split-if-orthodox-pope-not-chosen/  Apostolic Constitution Romano Pontifici Eligendo (1975): https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/it/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_p-vi_apc_19751001_romano-pontifici-eligendo.html  CNN coverage of Cardinal Becciu situation: https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/23/europe/cardinal-becciu-conclave-controversy-intl/index.html  Cruxnow coverage of Sister Brambilla situation: https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2025/04/francis-legacy-lives-as-top-vatican-woman-gets-accidental-invite-to-conclave  Pontifacts + Popeular History Livestream of Pope Francis' funeral (join Adopt-A-Cardinal in the comments!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Cl8ISMTqMA  Novena to Mary, Undoer of Knots: https://www.theholyrosary.org/maryundoerknots/  TRANSCRIPT Welcome to Popeular History. My name is Gregg and this is another Conclave special: “Raising the Alarm: Schism by Dubias Means?” Last Thursday, The Catholic Herald ran an article titled “Cardinal Müller warns Church risks split if ‘orthodox' pope not chosen.” Specifically, the Catholic Herald quotes the former head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as saying “a heretic pope who changes every day depending on what the mass media is saying would be catastrophic.” Which, I hope he's answering a question like “would a heretic pope who changes every day depending on what the mass media is saying be catastrophic”? Because unless that idea is being planted in his mind by the interviewer, it would seem that such a dire scenario is something Cardinal Müller is actively worried about. And if it's something he's actively worried about, well that's got its own gravity. Bottom line, the article raises the potential specter of a schism, a split, in the Church, presumably some sort of major antipope situation where some of the Cardinals decide to reject the conclusion and go off and set up a rival Pope. We've seen antipopes before many times in Church history, though it's been a while since there's been a major one, recognized by a significant number of Catholics, say 5 percent. Or heck, even 1 percent. Longtime Pontifacts listeners will recall Bry and Fry actually interviewed Pope Michael, a modern antipope, back in 2022 shortly before his death. Oh, and thanks recent livestream viewer "Nogah f" for asking their antipope question with a handy definition of “serious” antipope accompanying, that was useful. Attentive listeners will probably know that I'm concerned about the possibility of schism myself, and if the Herald headline about Cardinal Müller is correct, I'm not alone. The reality is that even if the headline is wrong, I am comfortable saying it would be naïve to conclude that the possibility of schism isn't present in the minds of most Cardinals. After all, fundamentally, preventing schism is what the conclave process and ultimately the College of Cardinals is all about. Really, you could take it further: preventing schism is what the Papacy is about, uniting Christians under one clear umbrella. Wait, no, preventing schism is what Christianity is about, uniting humanity in Christ. Wait, no, ending the schism between God and humanity caused by the Fall is what Christ is about. You get the idea: Schism bad. Given that there seems to be more concern about the possibility of schism than usual, as we ramp up towards the conclave, it's worth asking what should be done to reduce the possibility and severity of such a break. Obviously it's pretty presumptuous of me to be talking about this, but I haven't seen it elsewhere, and it needs to be discussed. There are steps that should be taken publicly before the conclave to resolve ambiguities and close loopholes, and I haven't seen them taken yet, which has me a bit nervous, but given the nature of the situation, well, it may simply be that fundamental differences will remain. I'll update the show notes if and when I see updates relating to any of these things, this is obviously pretty cutting edge in terms of events coverage and there's a lot going on. Ok, let me lay this out. First, there are a surprising number of issues relating to who is actually a Cardinal-Elector in this conclave: an unusually high number of points of discussion, but not an unprecedented number, to be clear, since you need to work hard to find truly unprecedented things in Church history. Second, there is a notably strong traditionalist camp who, if I may read between the lines in Müller's statement, is prepared to reject any Pope they do not consider sufficiently orthodox. Let's tackle the first topic first. Probably the single most significant source of uncertainty in this election is the canonical limit of 120 Cardinal Electors, given that this will be the first Conclave to exceed the limit. In fact, there will be more Cardinal-Electors in this conclave than there have ever been, though that may be misleading, after all, how many people tended to take part in the Papal elections of the first millennium where not only the clergy but the people of Rome participated? Rome was smaller then, but it would be difficult to believe it wasn't a healthy crowd. The word “thousands” comes to mind. And yes, I too wonder how many women were in the crowds on those occasions when Popes were elected by acclamation. But then I think of how if it were up to individual voting in any form, even the most popular elections in the Hellenistic world appeared to be sausage fests. The Greco-Roman milieu gave us the Patriarchy after all, and as they say, the past is a foreign country, they do things differently there. In any event, the 120 cap being broken isn't too crazy a precedent, as it was only established in 1975 and was ignored at times by two of Pope Francis' traditionally-minded predecessors, Pope Saint John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. But it's also worth noting that Pope Francis ignored the rule so aggressively you might be tempted to think he misunderstood it. Did he think it was a minimum rather than a maximum? By my count, when Francis announced what would turn out to be his final batch of new Cardinals on October 6th of last year, there were already 121 new Cardinals kicking around, and it was only the untimely death of Spanish Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot that made sure there were fewer than 120 electors when the time came for the official elevation of the new batch. During the waiting period, one of the announced new Cardinals–Bishop Syukur of Bogor, Indonesia–declined the honor, and, as if to underscore how determined he was to have a very full College of Cardinals, Pope Francis elevated the Archbishop of Naples in his place, bringing the total number of Cardinal-Electors to a record high 140, which went mostly down to 135 by the time of Pope Francis' death last Monday due to Cardinals reaching the age of 80 and automatically losing their elector status. And yes, you heard that right, the Catholic Church of all places is one of the few organizations in the world with a hard cap on the age of electors. Oh, and yes, I did say the number went *mostly* down, more on that later. In reality, the Pope is an absolute monarch. Sure, the Apostolic Constitution Romano Pontifici Eligendo exists and caps the number of Cardinal-Electors at 120 in Paragraph 33, but it's not like that was news to Pope Francis when he was blatantly disregarding It throughout his pontificate, and it's not like absolute monarchs are bound by constitutions–that's pretty specifically what makes them absolute monarchs. In short, it was a bit of a non-issue for him. And I also think it was an occasion where he decided to make things uncomfortable for the cardinals who he critiqued for being too comfortable early on in his pontificate. He famously told people to make a bit of a mess in the Church, and here he made a bit of a mess with the constitution of the college compared to the, uh, well, the Constitution of the College. I think he wanted the Cardinals to *have to * figure it out,  have to be a little uncomfortable with rigid rules. Anyways, in the words of an analysis kindly provided by Gabe over at the Papability Index over on X, quote “The 120 rule is a matter of Ecclesiastical Law, not Divine Law, so the Pope can dispense of it as he sees fit. Those ‘extra' Cardinals have just as many rights as the 120 since the Pope's powers, privileges, and appointments are unassailable as long as he's operating within the confines of Divine Law.”  end quote That makes sense to me, but constitutions are more of an issue for constitutional bodies, which, at the end of the day, is what the College of Cardinals is. I hate to say it, but I am definitely of the opinion that the College needs to address this discrepancy somehow, as this is a loophole that could be used to undermine the legitimacy of the next Pope. Perhaps the safest course would be to ensure the final vote is lopsided enough that a ⅔ majority would be cleared even discounting the “extra” electors, however many there end up being. Really what I think may happen is that this issue will go unaddressed during the sede vacante but may be used by a dissatisfied faction as an excuse to refuse to recognize the result. If this happens, it will be readily identifiable as an excuse because if the faction were really only interested in the legitimacy of the election, they would be objecting sooner, like right now, before any votes take place. To allow the conclave to proceed without flagging legitimate concerns about its, well, legitimacy, would be startlingly irresponsible for any Cardinal, and to follow that up with only rejecting the result and declaring an antipope only after the fact would expose the cynical motives and manipulative nature of such an act. I genuinely hope that doesn't happen, but now is not the time for me to sit back and say nothing about the apparent possibility. There are other smaller-scale eligibility questions with similar solutions and potentially similar outcomes, such as the updated official birthdays of a couple of the African cardinals that have had the result of keeping them eligible. I want to be clear that I, personally, am not questioning their eligibility, nor is this breaking news, this is as publicly available information as the 120 elector limit and everything else I've been talking about. But all legitimately concerned about avoiding schism should raise their objections now. Any Cardinals planning to toss the game board only after they lose need to know that their motives are clear and that this is not a game. And yeah, in case you can't tell, I have a particular concern about this. But it's a general problem, so there's no need to put my case into territory where I could be accused of ad hominem accusations by naming names. Let's just say late challenges here would be doubias at best. There's also the case of Cardinal Becciu, who as I understand it, resigned the rights and privileges of the Cardinalate back in 2020 but who now appears to be arguing that participating in a Conclave wasn't among those rights and privileges that he resigned. I do not expect the other Cardinals to find his arguments convincing. Finally, we have the case of Sister Simona Bambrilla, a female head of one of the Vatican's Dicasteries and more importantly *not a Cardinal* who was accidentally invited to participate in the Cardinals-only general congregations that began last week. I don't expect that to be an actual issue, but I thought it worth mentioning both for a bit of levity and as a reminder of the way women are kept out of places where they really honestly should be if you ask me. Whoops, uh, there went that levity. Ok, so that's my TED talk on the surprisingly fuzzy boundaries marking of the participants in the upcoming conclave. Eventually the “Extra Omnes” will be said and the doors will be locked “Con clave”--with a key, and, well, the “speak now or forever hold your peace” window will have passed at that point. Unless there are significant developments before then, I anticipate only Cardinal Becciu will have raised concerns, and then only for his case if my reading is right. Pro tip: I'm giving plenty of qualifiers when talking about Becciu due to what I perceive as a high risk of litigation. Just in case that wasn't obvious. Anyways, let's shift gears to the second of topic of concern I brought up at the start of this: Cardinals prepared to reject any Pope they do not consider sufficiently orthodox. And really, I can broaden that out to any Catholic prepared to reject the Pope, because the underlying scenario is the same, whether you're a Cardinal or a catechumen. If you reject the Pope, you're not Catholic. Union with the Pope is what defines Catholicism. I know there are those who disagree, I would hope they are not Cardinals of the Catholic Church. They can go play for Saint Louis if they want to be Cardinals while rejecting the Pope. The idea that a Pope can be deposed for heresy has been brought up and refuted time and again throughout Church history. If I need to work up an episode on that specifically I can, but the reality is putting this together has been a lot of work for one night, following up on the two and a half hours I spent livestreaming Francis' funeral at 4 am yesterday. Oh, yes, so if you're looking for yesterday's episode, by the way, look on the Pontifacts feed youtube and get ready to Adopt-A-Cardinal in the comments of the video! In any case, getting away from the self-plug and back to as serious as I have ever been and then some, I'll say this: I will accept whoever the next Pope is as Pope until they die or resign. You'd think Cardinals would be prepared to do this as well, but I've developed a degree of doubt. I want to conclude this episode by encouraging you to join the Vice-Pope and I in a novena to Mary, Undoer of Knots. As you may know, a novena is a sort of nine-day prayer-a-thon for a specific intention: in this case for a successful conclave, defined as one that finds the Cardinals and the whole Church united under the new Pope.  As you may also know, Our Lady, Undoer of Knots was a favorite devotion of the late Pope Francis, himself a noted fan of Our Lady. Since the novena includes a complete Rosary, and it's quite late, I'm not going to accompany you through the actual prayers as we go, just encourage you to consider joining Vice-Pope Mrs Popeular History and I on it in the coming days (and yeah, you can start it whenever, it's not like we have to be on the same timetable or you can't have a similar intention after the conclave wraps up). Fair warning, when I asked Mrs. Popeular History if she was up for this she said, and I quote, “sure, But it's known to end up with things worse before they get better lol” So on that note, thank you all for listening, God bless you all!

Apologies for getting ahead of things, but this is something I have ready, which really helps it jump ahead in line. Plus I want you to know how to join in Adopt-A-Cardinal fun, starting on Saturday!   Thanks to Bry and Fry from Pontifacts for joining me to talk about about 135+ cardinals all at once!

The pope is dead, time to elect a new pope!You can listen to Pontifacts here!You can listen to Popeular History and Cardinal Numbers here!Become a Patron! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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In anticipation of Intelligent Speech 2025 happening THIS WEEKEND, we're releasing our 2024 presentation! The 2024 theme was Contingencies, and we discussed the history of the Popemobile, and how it has changed to meet the various needs of different pontiffs.  There is still time to join us for Intelligent Speech 2025: Deception, where we will be talking about the Knights Templar, and the origins of the Friday the 13th myths. Tickets are available at https://intelligentspeechonline.com/ and you will get a discount on your ticket if you use code PONTIFACTS at checkout. 

It's time for a long due #Popewatch!! If you've seen some alarming headlines about Pope Francis "opening portals in an unprecedented ritual" or "livestreaming the opening of the Tomb of Lucifer", we've got you covered.  Thank you for another amazing year of Pontifacts, see you in 2025!  Support Pontifacts: Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/pontifactspod Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/pontifactspodcast  Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/pontifactspod Amazon Wishlist: https://tinyurl.com/pontifactswishlist  

Hello everyone, As you know if you catch my personal updates, and apparently you do because you're listening to one now, I got a new job recently. And it's been amazing I'm finally putting my library degree to use in the service of my hometown. I run mobile operations, so I schedule the bookmobile- or rather, I schedule the Mobile Library, since Marketing wants to make sure people know it's more than just books. I drive it too, along with an amazing team. Last week I pulled up to my kid's school as the hero in a slight modification of the kindergarten dream I had of being a bus driver. I--we--had very high hopes for this change, and it's exceeded them. One area that's been especially positive is work-life balance. I've gone from over an hour commute to five minutes tops. I come home for lunch most days, and hang out with Mrs. Popeular History and my preschooler while the other kids are either at school or napping. At the end of the day, I come home and spend time with my family. I used to never quite know when I was coming home, because there was always a chance I'd wind up with a customer, and it would be my job to try and sell them a bed to keep the lights on. Now, I help preschoolers get books, and have weekends off. Weekends off! What, like a normal person? I can't tell you how much of an improvement the schedule has been. I even have more time for podcasting, now that I'm no longer commuting. Or at least, I thought I'd have more time for podcasting. In reality, the more time has gone straight into the family bucket, which is where it needs to be. It turns out that now that I no longer work most evenings and weekends, I can be home and active when my kids are.  Life is good, except for one thing. The podcast. Look, it's not you, it's me. I've said from the beginning that family takes priority over this. It has to, and what's more, it should. And that's not a sad note, I can't tell you how much everything has benefitted from there being more proper daddy days on the calendar. But this one piece isn't how I thought things would go. I'm still coming to terms with it. The plan was for the podcast to continue uninterrupted. Yet, here we are, with, it would be generous to call it a shaky release schedule, and it's only going to get shakier, at least for a good while. You're going to get *something* from me next weekend in connection with the new Consistory, perhaps just the next Cardinal, and on February 8th I'll be speaking at Intelligent Speech online, so, you know, get your tickets today (intelligentspeechonline.com). But I'm not in a position to give a more specific forecast than that, except to say stay tuned to Pontifacts for cool stuff on that front. Popeular History isn't done, I've got more things prepped for the podcast than I ever did in years past, including some collaborations, which, my podcasting friends, thank you for bearing with me. It's time for me to embrace my role as dad, first and foremost. [Clip from Cat's in the Cradle by Harry Chapin] Thank you for listening, God bless you all!  

IMAGE James Bradley, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons LINKS Angelo ACERBI on Catholic-Hierarchy.org https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bacerbi.html  Angelo ACERBI on Gcatholic.org https://gcatholic.org/p/6760  2024 Aleteia profile of Cardinal-Elect ACERBI https://aleteia.org/2024/10/09/oldest-cardinal-ever-named-will-support-pope-with-prayer  2024 Vatican News profile of Cardinal-Elect ACERBI https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2024-10/cardinal-elect-acerbi-appointment-diplomats.html?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1FkcEQXPlQQ0GisXPW3tDuVtGdsweDpgAMqxjBpHFijrWKH1SVwoJAxJI_aem_aNoXJ7ogQxgNqyZKZWwfGA  CathNews New Zealand's profile of Cardinal-Elect ACERBI: https://cathnews.co.nz/2024/10/07/former-nz-nuncio-angelo-acerbi-appointed-a-cardinal/  TRANSCRIPT Hello everyone, welcome to Cardinal Numbers, a rexypod reviewing and ranking all the Cardinals of the Catholic Church from the Catacombs to Kingdom Come. As part of our march to the Kingdom Come part, the years keep rolling on and the Holy Father keeps adding new Cardinals to… well I'd normally say to fill vacancies, but the reality this is the first time possibly in history where technically the College is already over capacity but here comes Pope Francis adding more new Cardinals anyways. Don't get too worked up about that, it's not a sudden departure as JPII and Benedict both went over the same theoretical limit. The Papacy is an absolute monarchy so constitutions are more like guidelines, though I'm still very curious what it will look like if there's ever a need for a conclave when the College is over capacity, something that seems all the more likely as Pope Francis continues to treat the maximum as a minimum and keeps hid apparent preference for having a consistory every year– the only full year he's skipped in his pontificate was 2021 due to COVID.   But enough about the generalities, we've got 21 new Cardinals to cover and only a couple months to do so! To be clear, for the sake of my sanity as I continue to juggle my various responsibilities, I've decided I'm *not* planning to cover all the new Cardinals in time for the consistory on December 8th, at least not on the main feed. I *do* have it down as a stretch goal for my Patreon supporters, getting them all the new cardinals in a more timely fashion but everyone will get the same content eventually. It's just going to take 21 weeks to cover the 21 new Cardinals on the main feed, and it'll be faster for my Patreon folks as a thank-you for the support without actually putting content behind a paywall- just a mild time delay. Fair enough? Look, if you're in a pinch and can't afford a Patreon subscription just write in and ask, I'm a softie and I've been there before, no sweat, I'll get you a link to whichever episode you like when it's ready, free. Again, you'd be getting it eventually anyway, so really you don't even need to do that, just have some patience.   Alright, enough admin, let's get talking about the first Cardinal-Elect on Pope Francis' list, and let's start at the beginning, nearly a hundred years ago.   Angelo Acerbi was born on September 23rd 1925 in Sesta Godano, part of the province of La Spezia in the Liguria region of Italy, basically due north–ok and a smidge east–of Corsica. Historically, the area was for many years part of the Republic of Genoa, but, look, Cardinal-Elect Acerbi is old but he's not *that* old. He is old enough though that he grew up under Benito Mussolini's Fascist dictatorship and may just remember some adult's reaction to the Lateran Treaty, but probably not, he was three at the time and that's a lot of geopolitical awareness to ask of a toddler. Then again, this is a future diplomat we're talking about here.   In any event, the most likely answer for what Angelo was doing as he came of age in Mussolini's Italy is “going to school”, in particular going to seminary, as he was ordained by the age of 22, becoming a priest for the Diocese of… well, somewhere. He seems to have been near the border of two dioceses, La Spezia and Pontremoli. Vatican News lists Pontremoli, so we'll go with that, you'd think they'd know. Part of what makes it not as clear as you'd think is he wasn't serving in the diocese for long. In 1956, about 8 years after his ordination, Fr Acerbi entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See, which was expanding outward now that it was no longer dominated by Italian politics, at least not quite so much. Of course, to be clear, part of that domination had been voluntary, part of what made Mussolini successful was his partners in the Church.   Probably the biggest question of the 20th century Papacy is the extent to which Pius XII was one of those partners, and we'll certainly be looking at that eventually, but for today's purposes Acerbi's overlap with the Pope of the Second World War is a brief couple years before Pius was succeeded by John XXIII of Second Vatican Council fame. I don't have any stories of Father Acerbi and the Council, certainly he was aware of it, but he doesn't seem to have been there, which makes sense as he wasn't a bishop yet and his diplomatic work would have been ongoing throughout. His early diplomatic portfolio included relations with Colombia, Brazil, France, Japan, and Portugal. It's possible his work in Colombia and Portugal overlapped with Papal trips there- Paul VI had kicked off the modern era of Papal travel in 1964 when he visited the Holy Land, the first Papal trip outside Italy since the time of Napoleon. Certainly Father Acerbi and Paul VI at least got together in 1974, when His Holiness appointed Father Acerbi as Pro-Nuncio to New Zealand and personally consecrated him Titular Archbishop of Zella, which as near as I can tell is an oasis in the middle of Libya. As a reminder, titular dioceses  have no function, it's just a way of giving an official jurisdiction to a bishop whose responsibilities won't actually include running a diocese. Oh, and if you're wondering, a Pro-Nuncio is actually one step *below* a regular Nuncio. It's a step above an Apostolic Delegate, which, well, he also became one of those at the same time. Not to New Zealand, but to the Pacific Ocean. Realistically of course, “the Pacific Ocean” is referring to a number of Pacific Island nations, many of which have their own nunciatures these days, though I still like to think of it as managing the Holy See's relations with Poseidon, God of the Sea.   The fifth Pope now-Archbishop Acerbi served was Pope Saint John Paul II, careful counters might wonder who the fourth Pope was but of course since they're careful counters they're probably already aware of the implied existence of John Paul the Second's immediate predecessor, John Paul I. But JPI didn't get up to much in his 33 days as Supreme Pontiff,  Which is why we've already blown past him so I can tell you that JPII made Archbishop Acerbi his Nuncio to Colombia in 1979, full-on Nuncio this time, and with him revisiting an area he had worked previously, keeping in mind Columbia was a possible overlap between Acerbi and Paul VI given Paul VI's trip and Acerbi's early work there.   Acerbi's decade-plus as Nuncio to Colombia overlaps with some serious drug and cartel times we'll look at more if he makes it to the next round. A particularly memorable stretch would have been the six weeks he spent as a hostage to Socialist guerrillas from that country's 19th of April movement.   In 1990, Aberbi was made Nuncio to Hungary, making him first on the restored diplomatic scene there after the fall of the Iron Curtain–Hungary hadn't had a nuncio since 1945. He continued on i n that role for seven years, simultaneously serving as Nuncio to Moldova starting in 1994, the same year Moldova adopted their current constitution.   From 97 to 2001, Archbishop Acerbi served in his presumably final diplomatic post, as the Nuncio to the Netherlands. I say presumably because, of course, Pope Francis is giving him a new role in a couple months, so who knows? Maybe he will be asked to step back into another nunciature. Then again, Cardinal-Elect Acerbi himself has already thrown cold water on that idea, noting that he expects to support Pope Francis, quote, “with prayer, as I do not see how else I can contribute given my old age”. Which, I mean, fair enough, he's 99.   But we're not quite done with our overview, because from 2001 to 2015, Archbishop Acerbi served as the Prelate of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta, a name which of course needs some unpacking– the Knights of Malta for short, they're a military religious order that originally was meant to protect pilgrims  to the Holy Land and wound up running Rhodes and Malta after the crusades, Rhodes until the Turks kicked them out and Malta until Napoleon kicked them out, at which point they moved to Rome. They're more about ceremony and charitable stuff than military stuff these days, and we actually came across them during our Patreon special on Cardinal Burke with Fry from Pontifacts if you need another reason to join Patreon. Don't worry, Cardinal Burke and the Knights of Malta will be popping up on the main feed again in due course. Anyways, as Prelate for the Order, the octogenarian Archbishop Acerbi's job was to oversee the priests of the Order, making sure they were doing their priest things right. The end of his tenure overlapped with the beginning of the aforementioned Cardinal Burke's time as their Cardinal-Patron by the way, if you were wondering about that.   Archbishop Acerbi retired from that role a few months before his 90th birthday, and hadn't been making many headlines since, most recently residing at the Casa Santa Marta on the Vatican grounds, which if that name rings a bell, yes, Pope Francis lives in Room 201 there. And it was Pope Francis who put Archbishop Acerbi back into the headlines last week, when he  dropped his name at his weekly Angelus last Sunday, which apparently the Acerbi was listening to, since he said that's how he found out about it. His reaction to the news has been as diplomatic as you might expect, refusing to make it about himself personally, quote:   "I believe the Pope wanted to give a sign of appreciation and recognition for the service that many old and new nuncios, as well as the staff of the nunciatures, are providing around the world"   As he is already over the maximum voting age of 80, Cardinal-Elect Angelo Acerbi will not be able to vote in future conclaves, though traditionally older Cardinals do participate in the preliminary gatherings and discussions that take place during the sede vacante period before the opening of the conclave itself.   Today's episode is part of Cardinal Numbers, and there will be more Cardinal Numbers next week. Thank you for listening, God bless you all! Thanks, Joe!

IMAGE DESCRIPTION AND CREDIT: Claude Truong-Ngoc / Wikimedia Commons - cc-by-sa-4.0, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons LINKS St Peter's Colonnade Statues: https://stpetersbasilica.info/Exterior/Colonnades/Saints-List-Colonnades.htm   Vatican bio of Cardinal Parolin: https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/documentation/cardinali_biografie/cardinali_bio_parolin_p.html          Pietro Parolin on FIU's Cardinals Database (by Salvadore Miranda): https://cardinals.fiu.edu/bios2014.htm#Parolin       Cardinal Parolin on Gcatholic.org: http://www.gcatholic.org/p/666        Cardinal Parolin on Catholic-Hierarchy.org: https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bparolin.html               Secretariat of State on Gcatholic.org: http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/romancuria/d01.htm     Secretariat of State on Catholic-Hierarchy.org: https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dxsta.html    Monsenior Parolin's Knighthood: https://www.quirinale.it/onorificenze/insigniti/161548  Cardinal Parolin speaking on behalf of Pope Francis at COP28 (English, via Vatican News): https://youtu.be/xF4AgpYjhws?si=NHmzgYqpdLtkaQlO    Thank you for listening, and thank my family and friends for putting up with the time investment and for helping me out as needed. As always, feel free to email the show at Popeularhistory@gmail.com  If you would like to financially support Popeular history, go to www.patreon.com/Popeular. If you don't have any money to spare but still want to give back, pray and tell others– prayers and listeners are worth more than gold!   TRANSCRIPT Hey folks! Remember last episode when I said I reached out to the ladies from Pontifacts for comment on one of the colonnade statues that help frame Saint Peter's square? Well they got back to me on *several* of them, and it looks like we're going to have an ongoing segment for them we can refer back to whenever we have a Rome-born Cardinal, because I'm absolutely not going to miss the opportunity to have Bry and Fry judge some statues! So, welcome to Faciam Saintues, starting with the statue I'm retroactively associating with Cardinal Lojudice, that of St Gallicanus: FACIAM SAINTUE W/BRY AND FRY 1    This week of course we've got a double header, because they also covered our patron statue for Cardinal Zuppi, that of Saint Leonard of Noblac: FACIAM SAINTUE W/BRY AND FRY 2   All right, with that out of the way, let's get on with the show!   Welcome to Cardinal Numbers, a rexypod ranking all  the Cardinals of the Catholic Church we can get our hands on, from the Catacombs to Kingdom Come.    Check out the show notes for sources, further reading, and a transcript.   Today we're discussing another current Cardinal of the Catholic Church, one of the 120 or so people who will choose the next Pope when the time comes.   Pietro Parolin was born on January 17, 1955, in Schiavon, a community in the diocese of Vicenza, part of Italy's Veneto region. This is actually our third Cardinal from the Veneto region, if you remember Cardinals Marchetto and Gugerotti we laid Gugerotti's scene in fair Verona and Cardinal Marchetto was from Vicenza, the city that gives Pietro's home diocese its name. It's worth noting that Cardinal Marchetto was one of our three cardinals elevated this past year who were already over the age of 80, meaning Pietro will be our first actual Papal elector born in the diocese, which is fair enough because there's a lot more dioceses in the world than there are Papal Electors.   Anyways, Pietro was the son of Luigi Parolin, a hardware store manager, and his wife, and an elementary school teacher named Ada Miotti. Pietro was one of three children, having a sister, Maria Rosa, and a brother, Giovanni. At the age of 10 father Luigi died in a car accident, and young Pietro found a different kind of father in his pastor, who guided Pietro from altar serving to Vicenza seminary, which he entered in 1969 around the age of 14. Eleven years later, he was ordained as  priest for the Diocese of Vicenza at the age of 25.   Father Parolin got a couple years of pastoral work in before the Bishop decided to send him to Rome for additional studies in Canon law, presumably to put him to work for the Diocese but the trouble with sending promising young priests to Rome is sometimes Rome doesn't send them back. In 1986 he received his doctorate in Canon Law with a thesis on the Synod of Bishops, and that same year Fr Parolin entered the Diplomatic Corps for the Holy See–something I have to think wasn't *entirely* out of the blue, considering he had studied diplomacy at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy while working on his doctorate. Either way, he was on board, his bishop was on board, and the Vatican was most certainly on board. He was off to sunny Nigeria to serve as an adetto, which is apparently Vatican-speak for an attaché, which is in turn diplomacy speak for a generic staff member for the main diplomat, in this case, presumably, the nuncio. He was soon promoted to secretary, and then, following the normal custom of the Holy See's Diplomatic Corps, promptly switched gears to three years of diplomatic service in Mexico. He kept rising through the ranks, becoming a Monsignor, and eventually undersecretary of the section for the Relations with the States within the Secretariat of State, which is a mouthful. This section of Monsignor Parolin's bio is the first time in all these bios I saw an Interdicasterial Commission mentioned, the multidepartmental role he served there seems to have served him well given his future posts.   Like several of our Cardinals, Parolin is knighted, which is interesting because Italy doesn't even have a monarchy but yup, on June 24th 2005 he was named knight grand cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.   On August 17, 2009, Pietro Parolin joined the upper crust of the Holy See's diplomatic corps, being named as the full on Nuncio to Venezuela. I'm sure there are exceptions, but generally you don't get to be nuncio without being a bishop, and in this case Monsignor Parolin was no exception– he was announced as Titular Archbishop of Acquapendente that same day.   A few years later, in 2013, Pope Benedict resigned the Papacy and Pope Francis was elected to replace him. By August of that year Archbishop Parolin was named as Pope Francis' Secretary of State. At 58, he was certainly on the younger end for a person holding such a high office, the last person to be Secretary of State before their 60th birthday was Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII. Dun dun dunnn… also, though it wouldn't be out of character for Pope Francis to ignore this rule, as Secretary of State Archbishop Parolin was canonically required to be made a cardinal whenever Pope Francis got around to nominating a fresh batch, which he did in February 2014. Parolin's name was at the top of the list, and I mean that literally, as we saw when we went through the 2023 consistory the new Cardinals are pretty much always listed by diplomatic precedence, or, you know, something along those lines.   Before he even took possession of his titular church, Pope Francis had nominated him to four dicasteries and the super-selective Council of Cardinals, where he's still a member- and his name is at the top of that list as well.   As Pope Francis' Secretary of State, part of Cardinal Parolin's job to run around with the giant scissors doing any ribbon cuttings and celebrations that might need done, for example in January 2017 he was named pontifical legate to the celebration of the 25th World Day of the Sick, and later that year he was named pontifical legate to the celebration of the eighth centenary of the consecration of the Basilica of the Cistertian Abbey of Casamari, Italy. The sheer quantity of such special missions nearly made me miss the fact that Pope Francis promoted him to the higher rank of Cardinal-Bishop in 2018. Most of the Cardinal-Bishops reach that venerable position at a late stage in their career indeed, with the only other Cardinal-Bishops who are still under 80 and thus eligible to serve as Papal Electors being Cardinal Tagle, who we discussed previously, and Cardinal Sako, the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Baghdad, who ranks as a Cardinal-Bishop automatically by virtue of being both a Cardinal and a Patriarch of a Sui Iuris–that is, self-governing–Catholic Church.   If I were picking the Italian I'd consider most likely to be the next Pope today, I'd pick Cardinal Parolin with little hesitation.    Cardinal Pietro Parolin is eligible to participate in future conclaves until he turns 80 in 2035.   Today's episode is part of Cardinal Numbers, and there will be more Cardinal Numbers next week. Thank you for listening; God bless you all! Thanks, Joe!

IMAGE CREDIT:  Quirinale.it, Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons LINKS St Peter's Colonnade Statues: https://stpetersbasilica.info/Exterior/Colonnades/Saints-List-Colonnades.htm   Vatican bio of Cardinal Zuppi: https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/documentation/cardinali_biografie/cardinali_bio_zuppi_mm.html         Matteo Maria Zuppi on FIU's Cardinals Database (by Salvadore Miranda): https://cardinals.fiu.edu/bios2019.htm#Zuppi      Cardinal Zuppi on Gcatholic.org: http://www.gcatholic.org/p/47959       Cardinal Zuppi on Catholic-Hierarchy.org:  https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bzuppi.html              Archdiocese of Bologna on Gcatholic.org: http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/diocese/bolo0.htm?tab=info    Archdiocese of Bologna on Catholic-Hierarchy.org: https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dbolo.html  St Leonard (Colonnade Statue): https://stpetersbasilica.info/Exterior/Colonnades/Saints/St%20Leonard-2/St%20Leonard.htm St Gallicanus (Colonnade Statue): https://stpetersbasilica.info/Exterior/Colonnades/Saints/St%20Gallicanus-1/St%20Gallicanus.htm  Community of Sant'Egidio website: https://www.santegidio.org/pageID/30704/langID/en/PROJECTS.html  Sant'Egidio reporting of conflict mediation and honorary Mozambique citizenship: https://archive.santegidio.org/pageID/3/langID/en/itemID/9207/The-honorary-citizenship-of-Mozambique-to-Andrea-Riccardi-and-Matteo-Zuppi.html Avvenire.it edition of Archbishop Zuppi's forward to the Italian edition of “Building A Bridge” (Italian): https://www.avvenire.it/chiesa/pagine/chiesa-e-persone-lgbt-sul-ponte-dellincontro  Advocate.com reporting on reactions to elevation of Cardinal Zuppi: https://www.advocate.com/religion/2019/9/06/lgbtq-friendly-cleric-named-cardinal-far-right-catholics-appalled#toggle-gdpr    Thank you for listening, and thank my family and friends for putting up with the time investment and for helping me out as needed. As always, feel free to email the show at Popeularhistory@gmail.com  If you would like to financially support Popeular history, go to www.patreon.com/Popeular. If you don't have any money to spare but still want to give back, pray and tell others– prayers and listeners are worth more than gold!   TRANSCRIPT Hello! Quick note before we get started, first off, sorry that my voice is going to sound a little bit off for these next few cardinals, when I started the recording session, I was fine, now I am DEFINITELY feeling it, and am congested as all get out. But! The show does go on. Also, for those of you wondering what happened to the September edition of our worldbuilding episodes, well, it's still September, cool your jets! In the end, what happened is my episode on the Gospel of John got to mammoth proportions and is basically going to be a double episode. I took to Patreon to see whether I should split it up in two to keep it released on time, or keep it as, you know, one Gospel, one episode, and the vote was one Gospel, one episode. So, mega, you know, two-hour long episode on the Gospel of John will be coming later this month. With that, let's go! *THEME* Welcome to Cardinal Numbers, a rexypod ranking all  the Cardinals of the Catholic Church we can get our hands on, from the Catacombs to Kingdom Come.    Check out the show notes for sources, further reading, and a transcript.   Today we're discussing another current Cardinal of the Catholic Church, one of the 120 or so people who will choose the next Pope when the time comes.   Matteo Maria Zuppi was born on October 11, 1955 in Rome, Italy. I don't yet know whether for sure whether Rome is the most popular birthplace for Cardinals as one might suspect--, but I've got a growing certainty and it at least has to be up there. Accordingly, I want to start doing something a little different when we have cardinals born in Rome: let's assign them one of the 140 statues that top the collonades that frame Saint Peter's Square. Now, it's entirely possible that there might be more than 140 Rome-born Cardinals in history, and actually I can now update that to say I *know* that there are more than 140. And given that, we'll just simply find other statues in Rome after that, they're not exactly hard to come by.   Matteo's statue is Saint Leonard of Noblac, a 6th century founding abbot and hermit whose 10 foot 4 statue is probably a bit beyond lifesize and whose expression amused me enough that I immediately reached out to Pontifacts for comment.   But wait, Gregg, you say, because you are very observant, yes, good job, Matteo actually isn't our first Rome-born Cardinal, because, well first off he's not a Cardinal yet in our narrative he was literally just born but apart from that one of the very first Cardinals we talked about, Cardinal Lojudice, was also born in Rome. Which is why I assigned Matteo the *second* statue on the big list from stpetersbasilica.info, which, like every other link you might desire, can be found in the show notes. St Gallicanus was an early 4th century Roman senator, and possibly the first Christian Consul. His relics are at Rome in the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle.   Anyways, Matteo is the fifth of six children, and is the Great-grand nephew of Cardinal Carlo Confalonieri, who was elevated to the Cardinalate by Pope John XXIII a few months after his election in 1958. Though this is the first time we've had someone who we can confirm is a relative of another cardinal, it certainly won't be the last–the Roman Curia basically invented nepotism, after all.   That's not to say, by any means, that Matteo himself is lacking in credentials, as we'll see. While he was a high school student, he came across fellow Roman male Andrea Riccardi, who, at the venerable age of eighteen, founded a lay association dedicated to community service. In 1973 when Matteo came in contact with them the community had just moved into the Church of Sant'Egidio in Rome, which would give them their name: the Community of Sant'Egidio. From homeless children to AIDS patients to the elderly, from immigrants to addicts to prisoners, the Community of Sant'Egidio serves the poor and marginalized, and it's fair to say Matteo fell in with the right crowd in his youth.   After his first batch of higher education at La Sapienza University in Rome, where he specialized in Literature and Philosophy, Matteo entered into seminary studies with the Suburbicarian Diocese of Palestrina. I don't know that I've really gone into what a Suburbicarian Diocese is yet but the “suburb” part is a big hint, it's a diocese centered on one of the communities on the outskirts of Rome, in this case, Palestrina, and yes, that's the hometown of a famous composer if that rings a bell.   His se minary studies also included work at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome, and then after his 1981 ordination he did yet further study at yet *another* institution of higher education in the Eternal City, this time obtaining a doctorate in letters and philosophy from the University of Rome with a thesis on the History of Christianity–a man after my own heart.   As a priest, Matteo–now Fr. Zuppi–served as vice-pastor of Santa Maria in Trastevere for nearly two decades until he became that parish's full-on pastor in 2000, a role he held until 2010. Of course this is the story of a future Cardinal who I've already told you is plenty qualified, so it won't surprise you to know that that's not all he was doing, not by a long shot. He simultaneously served as Rector of the church of Santa Croce alla Lungara from 1983 to 2012, and continued his association with the Community of Sant'Egidio, which had added the related fields of peacemaking end ecumenism to their portfolio–not as an afterthought either, but as a strong emphasis, as in Fr. Zuppi and the Community were instrumental in negotiations that ended a long civil war in Mozambique in 1992. As in, he was made an honorary citizen of that country by way of thanks, alongside Sant'Egidio founder Andrea Riccardi, popping up again.   While he was originally a priest of the Suburbicarian Diocese of Palestrina, astute listeners may have already noted that, much like the universities, all the parishes I've mentioned, including Sant'Egidio, are in Rome. It's fine, it's fine, he was incardinated into the Diocese of Rome back in ‘88, a sentence which gives me the opportunity to go on both a tangent about how the word inCARDinate is tied to the word CARDinal, both having a fundamental sense of a stationary position around which other things move, and also allows me to note that yeah, it's weird to call Rome a Diocese but in the end yup, officially Rome is a Diocese, rather than an archdiocese or Patriarchate or whatever you might expect. Of course it still acts as a metropolitan and as the principal see, but I expect it's tied to the whole first shall be last humility themed angle, servant of the servants of God sort of thing. And that's not to say that bishops of Rome aren't jealous of their status as the principle See of the entire world.   Anyways, Fr. Zuppi might be a good person to ask more about how all of that works, if you can get ahold of him with all else he has going on, because in 2012 his white phone rang and Pope Benedict made him an Auxiliary Bishop of Rome and titular bishop of Villanova. Rome has a bunch of auxiliaries, currently 7 by that specific title, presumably because the Church loves her numerology, and a few more bishops that help run things at something of a higher level with titles like Vicar General and Viceregent. Bishop Zuppi would not stay in the Diocese of Rome for much longer though, because in 2015 he was made the new Archbishop of Bologna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of what I think it's fair to call central north Italy.   As a pastor, Father–scratch that–Bishop–scratch that–Archbishop Zuppi has continued along the lines of emphasis he honed working with the Community of Sant'Egidio, focusing on real Pope Francis style stuff like the poor and marginalized. He authored books published in 2010, 2013, and 2019 on what I am told are “pastoral themes”, so stuff like that, but he's best known because of his personal involvement in one of the most hot-button of hot-button issues in the modern Church: LGBT issues. In 2017 American Jesuit priest Father James Martin wrote a book called Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter Into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity, which is pretty much what it sounds like. The next year, it was none other than Archbishop Zuppi who wrote a forward to the Italian edition, saying it was, quote “useful for encouraging dialogue, as well as reciprocal knowledge and understanding, in view of a new pastoral attitude that we must seek together with our L.G.B.T. brothers and sisters". He also noted that it would quote "help L.G.B.T. Catholics feel more at home in [I accidentally said “with”, my bad] what is, after all, their church", end quote, and it's worth noting that that second quotation was actually Archbishop Zuppi quoting Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, so it's not like he was a lone voice in praising Father Martin's work.   Of course, I called this a hot-button issue, so praise was not universal. Many see Fr. Martin's work as an attempt to undermine Catholic teaching on gender and sexuality, despite Fr Martin's assurances that it is no such thing, and I admit Father Martin is even more comfortable pushing boundaries than I am, which is saying something. We'll see more conservative takes on this topic as we go, don't worry, this is not the last time we'll talk LGBT+ issues in the Church, but I've accidentally made this the longest episode of Cardinal Numbers to date so we should move on.   In 2019, Pope Francis made Archbishop Zuppi a Cardinal-Priest, assigning him a very special newly minted titular church, Sant'Egidio.   Since his elevation to the cardinalate, Cardinal Zuppi has gained more hats! In 2020 he was made a member of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, and i n 2022, Pope Francis selected him as head of the Italian Bishop's Conference. In 2023 he was appointed as a justice of the Vatican City State Supreme Court, which took effect earlier this year, that's 2024 for archive listeners. And that's before we get to the Dicasteries, which we're just going to have to save for another day.   Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi is eligible to participate in future conclaves until he turns 80 in 2035.   Today's episode is part of Cardinal Numbers,  and there will be more Cardinal Numbers next week. Thank you for listening; God bless you all! Thanks, Joe!

It's time for a little sci-fi horror! This episode we are joined by Bry and Fry from the Pontifacts pod to talk about Feed by Mira Grant. A near future were zombies are a fact of everyday life, bloggers are super important, and we look with post 2020 eyes at how someone in 2010 imagined we would react to a world wide deadly pandemic. Sometimes dystopia is actually more positive that reality.@pontifactspodhttps://pontifacts.podbean.com/patreon.com/swordsandsocialismEmail: SwordsAndSocialismPod@protonmail.com The Show: @SwordsNSocPodAsha: @Herbo_AnarchistKetho: @MusicalPuma69

As we wrap up our retrospective on the first half of Pontifacts, join us as we discuss the periodization of the papacy. Witness how the pope went from insignificant cult leader to supreme temporal and spiritual authority over a thousand years of ups and downs! 

TRANSCRIPT Good evening, Happy Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, and welcome back to Popeular History! That's right, we're officially off hiatus, starting next week you can expect a short Cardinal Numbers episode every Saturday and a longer Popeular History worldbuilding episode every month. As I continue to get a feel for the rhythms of family life that seems like a doable schedule, especially since most of the work for the remainder of the year is already done. Alleluia! I also have some special stuff for you today. First off, I want to wish a very happy birthday to Cardinal Seán O'Malley of Boston. This birthday is bittersweet, because the next conclave is officially losing a real one as Cardinal O'Malley is 80 today and is therefore automatically no longer a Cardinal Elector. This brings the total number of current Cardinal Electors to 125, and for what it's worth I am fully expecting another consistory for the creation of new Cardinals to be announced later in the year once that's in danger of dropping below 120. When I call Cardinal O'Malley “a real one”, naturally that's partially a reference to the fact that he's a Buckeye, partially a reference to the fact that he's one of the few bearded churchmen in the Latin Rite, partially because of the amazing nature of being able to see him mowing the lawn in his habit, and partially because he was the fixer brought in to bring Boston out of the mess it was in scandal wise after the troubled tenure of Cardinal Law. One day I will get to covering Cardinal O'Malley and the other older Cardinals in Cardinal Numbers, but for now my focus for that show is on covering the younger cardinals who will participate in the next conclave when the time comes. By the way, Cardinal Numbers now somewhat accidentally has its own feed again. I wasn't financially prepared to have two podcast feeds active, but I forgot to cancel the subscription, so might as well roll with it! All my content will be posted right here on the Popeular History Feed of course, but Cardinal Numbers specific content will also be posted on the Cardinal Numbers feed so that can also develop as a standalone rexypod, which was the original intent. There is also officially a bit of Paton-exclusive content now! But don't worry, I'm not paywalling knowledge, that goes against my principles as a librarian. We'll see some early access situations, sure, but there is never going to be something for you to learn that's only going to be on my Patreon feed. Instead, it's going to be more pure fun extension stuff like the episode I just posted where Fry from Pontifacts kindly agreed to be subjected to my look at Cardinal Burke and give her live reactions! She also managed to get me talking a little more loosely than I normally would. It was a great time and I'm looking forward to making more content for my Patreon Patrons, if I ever get any of those to make more content for! Hint hint. Patreon.com/popular, go check it out!   Finally, I've decided that I've been sitting on the Habemus Pointsam recordings Bry and I have already made for too long, in part because I always worry files will just disappear. So the rest of today's show will be the draft pilot for that mini rexypod. Get ready for some foolishness and categories in 3…, 2…, 1… HABEMUS POINTSAM RECORDING

One of the world's great museums of Renaissance art: the Uffizi.  Meaning "the offices," the Uffizi were quite literally built as an office buidling for the growing administration of Cosimo I de' Medici, the first Grand Duke of Tuscany, the leader who brought authoritarian rule, if also stablity, to Florence. Bry Rayburn from the Pontifacts podcast, joins me once again to talk about Cosimo, her historic bae, the great museum, and the rest of his legacy. We also talk about our old friend Giorgio Vasari, author, artist and architect, a true Renaissance man. And of course, ribollita, that classic Tuscan white bean stew! 

Trevor is joined by Bry Jensen of Pontifacts (@pontifactspod) to discuss the worst American military defeat in Africa of the last 30 years, The Tongo Tongo Ambush, and the rampant mismanagement that made it possible.Patreon | Twitter | Facebook | InstagramMark - Inside The Botched Raid That Left Four US Soldiers Dead In NigerPenney - Drones in the SaharaTurse - Pentagon Misled Congress About U.S. Bases in AfricaTurse - U.S. Secret Wars In Africa Rage On…Turse - The U.S. Is Building A Drone Base In Niger…Turse - Less Than A Mile From Drone Base…Savage, Schmitt, and Gibbsons-Neff - U.S. Kept Silent About Its Role in Another Firefight…ABC - US intelligence officials examining video of Nigerien militant groupBBC - Troops put down Niger mutinyBBC - Military coup ousts Niger president Mamadou TandjaBBC - Deadly US decisions before Niger ambushCBS - Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff discloses details about Niger ambushChason and Birnbaum - US struggles for influence in West Africa as military juntas riseCole - Russia's New Military Alliance Encroaching on US Sphere of InfluenceCoon - Rifle fire strikes U.S. C-130 during airdrop over MaliDoD Press Briefing on the results of the Investigation into the October 4, 2017, Ambush in NigerEverstine - Inspector General Blasts USAF…Fuglestad - A History of Niger 1850-1960GlobalSecurity - Operation Enduring Freedom-Trans Sahara (OEF-TS) Operation Juniper ShieldIRIN - NIGER: State of alert threatens independent media - RSFReuters - Factbox: Who is Niger's Mamadou Tandja?CW: Military combat, death, IS propaganda music Sgt. Johnson Helmet Cam Footage

Acts Timeline https://www.2belikechrist.com/articles/timeline-of-the-book-of-acts  Philip's unmarried daughters Acts 21:8-9 Philip the Deacon reflection w/Same As Apostle Arguments http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/264.html  Hermione, Eutychis, Irais, and Chariline https://www.markcarlson-ghost.com/index.php/2016/09/17/philips-daughters-prophets-names/  Hermione https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2022/09/04/102492-martyr-hermione-daughter-of-saint-philip-the-deacon Welcome to Popeular History, a library of Catholic knowledge and insights. As promised, this episode is going to be a bit of a roundup of extra stories and tidbits we have on some of our recent characters from outside the Bible. Let's start with our main man of late, a guy I really didn't think I'd be talking about this much but we are deacon oriented so I'm rolling with it, Philip the Deacon. The best extrabiblical tie-in point for Philip is actually in the canonical bible, where in an aside, Paul says the following, quote: "We reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied." (Acts 21:9) End quote. And that's it. Here we have four women with holy powers and no additional info apart from they're the unmarried daughters of one of the first deacons. You aren't going to find many prompts more ripe for fan fiction than that, and the early Christian community ran with it, naming the daughters Hermione, Eutychis, Irais, and Chariline, or some other set of names, it's inconsistent, but definitely they got names outside the bible and went off on adventures. They may have went on to be a source for a source for Eusebius, who can be described as the dominant early Church historian so we'll definitely be revisiting him in time. Philip himself is cited as the Protodeacon among the seven original deacons, the proto- part meaning first, kind of like how his colleague Stephen is referred to as the Protomartyr, though I suppose that application is more in terms of chronology than dignity. The title of Protodeacon does have a specific application in the College of Cardinals today, namely it's the Cardinal who has held the title of Cardinal-Deacon the longest. The protodeacon is normally the one who gives the announcement- Habemus Papam- "we have a Pope" when a new Pontiff is elected. I didn't come across any death tradition for Philip the Deacon, but I did find a site making an unexpectedly compelling case for identifying him with Philip the Apostle. Sure, the Apostles set up the deacons to allow themselves to get on with their apostling, but what if he was, like, an embedded supervisor? It would be fairly recognizable organizational move today and would match with the extra emphasis he receives, not to mention his extrabiblical protodeacon status. The lack of any apparent tradition regarding the deacon's death is to me the most compelling argument, usually there's *something* floating around about that. The biggest wrinkle is what we talked about yesterday, with the apostles kind of being needed to sign off on the baptisms of the Samaritans, you know, that discussion of confirmation. Anyways, when a saint dies–and pretty much everyone who believes in saints accepts Philip the Deacon as a saint–well, when a saint dies it's typical for the day of their death to go down as their feast day. I'm going to be talking a LOT about all sorts of things over the course of this podcast, but I won't be going into feast days much. They're easy to look up and can be tricky to explain accurately considering they can vary across traditions, or even within traditions as practices vary over time, and they can get bumped in certain years by other more significant dates, and I'd want to call out of they're based on something other than their date of death, all of which would be interesting if you were interested in feast days but extremely dry if you weren't. Really, there's plenty of material in feast days for their own podcast, and if anyone wants to take that on or has one to recommend I'll be happy to edit this to include a plug for that show, but in the meantime, no, I will not be focusing on feast days. Too easily findable elsewhere, and too derailing for our already very fragilly railed narrative. I'll simply be doing darn near everything else. Now, we've talked a lot about two out of the seven deacons; can extrabiblical tradition tell us more about the others? Yes, of course! But I'm not going to go into every detail various traditions have about everyone. Believe it or not, I didn't even do that for Philip. The high level takeaways are that four out of five of the remaining deacons were martyred, and the fifth, Nicolas, well he was actually suspected of being a heretic by two early big names in the Church, Saints Iranaeus and Hippolytus, both of whom we'll get to in time. You see, in Revelations 2, God, or uh, well, probably god? Revelations is a trip. Anyways, in Revelations 2 God makes it clear he really doesn't like the "Nicolateans", whoever that is. It does seem that they were a heretical Christian sect early enough to make it into the actual Bible, but that and the apparent name of their founder is basically all we have on them from the Bible. Outside the Bible, like I mentioned, Nicholas the Deacon is very much a suspect, and it probably doesn't help his case that his name not only matches the perp, but he was named last among the Seven, the same place of dubious honor Judas Iscariot once held among the Twelve. That's all for today. We're going to talk more about two characters we've discussed recently multiple times in due course, and we'll save them for those times. After all, Simeon Bachos the Eunuch traditionally founded a national church whose impact on Christian history is as extensive as it is unique, and Saint Paul is, well, Saint Paul. Similarly, I'll find other appropriate occasions to discuss the later lives and deaths of the Apostles we haven't already covered, in addition to letting Pontifacts take the lead on that, they have a series coming up, it will be exiting in a few months. And Cornelius, for his part, actually has surprisingly little to review, he traditionally wound up as a bishop, and that's about it. Which I make sound like nothing,  but it would have been a sign of his new life in Christ, just as it was for everyone else who wound up in leadership in the new Christian church. It certainly isn't nothing. Anyways, I believe that basically leaves us with Simon Magus, which is perfect. In our next narrative episode, we'll follow him to Rome, and as you might have guessed Rome is going to be our home base for the next two thousand or so years of narrative. Thank you for listening, God bless you all!

Demetrius is what you would call a "Beautiful Disaster." He was supposedly quite beautiful, but he was definitely a disaster. Trust us, however hard you've ever partied, Demetrius partied harder. But don't worry, we also take a detailed look at Demetrius' love life. Also, today's episode features SEVERAL guest stars, including Pontifacts, Tsar Power, Queens Podcast, Prime Time, and Nobelesse Oblige.  Sources: https://alexanderstandardpod.weebly.com/sources.html Facebook: The Alexander Standard Podcast Instagram @alexanderstandardpod Twitter @AlexStandardPod Email: Alexanderstandardpod@gmail.com Blue Sky: https://bsky.app/profile/alexstandardpod.bsky.social

This episode is a podiversiary one off in which Bry and Fry from Pontifacts, Roberto from Tzar Power, David from The Siecle, and Josh from Grand Dukes of the West all get to explore northern Italy in the year 927. https://pontifacts.podbean.com/https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tsar-power/id1632832824https://granddukesofthewest.com/http://thesiecle.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trick or treat! It's horror meets history in a special bonus episode. Juliet and Theresa recently joined Roberto and Brendan from Tsar Power and Bry from Pontifacts to talk about two cinematic versions of Viy and the Nikolai Gogol story on which the films are based. Content warnings: brief mentions of rape and sexual assaultSupport us on Patreon!Theme music: "Book of Shadows" by Houseghost (Rad Girlfriend Records) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

No transcript this time, but a Halloween Surprise! W/Bry from Pontifacts, so listen to Pontifacts already!

Consistory announcement episode Cardinals: PREVOST GUGEROTTI  FERNÁNDEZ  TSCHERRIG  PIERRE  BRISLIN  ROSSI RUEDA APARICIO  RYŚ AMEYU COBO CANO RUGAMBWA FRANCIS CHOW BUSTILLO AGUIAR  ARTIME MARCHETTO PADRÓN  DRI Consistory commentary episode Thank you for listening, and thank my family and friends for putting up with the massive time investment and for helping me out as needed. As always, feel free to email the show at Popeularhistory@gmail.com  If you would like to financially support Popeular history, go to www.patreon.com/Popeular. If you don't have any money to spare but still want to give back, pray and tell others– prayers and listeners are worth more than gold!

In a world where all of history is happening all at once, a very bumbling conspiracy threatens the mayoral election.   Listen to Totalus Rankium: totalusrankium.wordpress.com Listen to PONTIFACTS: pontifacts.podbean.com   Follow Quest Friends! Online: Website: questfriendspodcast.com  Patreon: patreon.com/questfriends Under the Neighborhood: questfriends.itch.io/neighborhood Merch Store: teepublic.com/stores/quest-friends?ref_id=24896 Facebook: facebook.com/QuestFriendsPodcast/  Instagram: @questfriendspodcast TikTok: @quest_friends Tumblr: questfriendspodcast.tumblr.com  Twitch: twitch.tv/questfriends Twitter: @Quest_Friends  YouTube (Main): @questfriendspodcast YouTube (Stream VODs): @questfriendsstreams

To celebrate 5 wonderful and pope-filled years of Pontifacts, we hosted a live-streamed anniversary special game of Pope Jeopardy! Shenanigans and Q&A ensue.    Contestants:  David of the Siecle Podcast: http://thesiecle.com/ Roberto of Tsar Power/History of Saqartvelo Georgia: https://open.spotify.com/show/49JyFkd... Carlos Cooper Special thanks to Ranking '76: https://ranking76podcast.podbean.com/   See the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uRVrynWZOA&t=3819s&ab_channel=PontifactsPodcast 

To celebrate both the National Day of France and the second anniversary of the podcast, Ben is running a game of Dungeons and Dragons with Eliza and three special guests, inspired by the beast of Gévaudan, the legend of Saint Ulphia, and numerous other easter eggs from the podcast which astute listeners can find! Check out Roberto's podcasts History of Saqartvelo Georgia and Tsar Power, as well as Bry and Fry's podcast Pontifacts! Thanks again to all three for joining us to celebrate this special day and play our silly game. All the music in this episode is courtesy of Kevin MacLeod, and can be found royalty free on his website incompetech.com. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. With one exception!! The dulcimer is played by Jessica Comeau. Check out the full video of her playing this gorgeous instrument on her Youtube!⚜️  Visit our Wordpress for episode images, score summaries, contact details and more! Make sure you leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.You can also support the show on Patreon! Join the official Angry Mob and get access to our bonus content: movie reviews, deep dives and bonus judgements.Support the show⚜️CATEGORIESBen and Eliza each give a score out of 10 for the first 4 categories. The 5th is determined by maths! The result is a total score out of 100. Enchanté: The shallow, first-impressions round: How fabulous and iconic an image have they passed down to us? En Garde: (A.K.A. “Selfish Wins”) How well did they gain and increase their personal power, either through scheming, statesmanship or good old fashion battles? Voulez-Vous: (A.K.A. “Selfless Wins”) How much would we want to live under their regime? How well did they better the world around them through law reforms and cultural projects? Ouh-Là-Là: How pearl-clutchingly scandalous were the events of their life, both in their time and down through the ages? How mad, bad and dangerous were they to know? La Vie en Throne: How many years did they reign, and how many of their children survived them? Read how these points are awarded. View all scores.

From Georgian Myths and Folktales by Shorena Kurtsikidze, we bring you another story, one about a Wolfman and two siblings. Part 1 is read by Bry of Pontifacts, and Part 2 is read by Roberto. It is followed by a discussion at the end. Pontifacts Find us on: Patreon | Ko-fi | Amazon | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Youtube --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/historysaqartvelogeorgia/support

With us today are Pontifacts and Battle Royale as they help us celebrate the two year anniversary! We're playing a DND game revolving around Queen Tamar sending a group to capture her ex-husband. Joined by Battle Royale and Pontifacts! Art by Mandy Robertson! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/historysaqartvelogeorgia/support

The Crusaders have reached Nicopolis! But as the Crusaders settle in and prepare for a siege the Ottoman army led by Sultan Bayezid the Thunderbolt is making it's way north. Time Period Covered: 1396-1398 Notable People: John the Fearless, Sigismund of Luxembourg, Mircea the Elder, Bayezid the Thunderbolt, Engeurrand de Coucy, Philip of Artois Count of Eu, Jean Le Maingre/Boucicaut, Stefan Lazarevic, Philip the Bold, Dino Rapondi Thank you to Bry from Pontifacts and Ben from Wittenberg to Westphalia for reading the quotes for this episode. Cover Art by Brandon Wilburn Music by Zakhar Valaha

Pontifacts is coming back. Get ready for Formosus!

Today, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died. In this episode, we provide a short obituary and what we know about the upcoming funeral, and discuss the future of Pontifacts

Merry Christmas! We have a Patreon now! I would love to have your support in this endeavor, especially in bringing out many new episodes and stories that showcase Georgian history and culture. This episode covers St. Gregory the Illuminator and St. Nino of Georgia. Bry from Pontifacts is joining me! Patreon: Sign up here! Pontifacts --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/historysaqartvelogeorgia/support

Welcome to the 27th episode of We Effed Up, where we examine one of the more macabre eff-ups in history with special guest Bry from Pontifacts.SourcesCummins, Joseph. History's Great Untold Stories: Obscure Events of Lasting Importance. Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, Australia, 2011.Mann, Horace K. The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages. Kegan Paul, Trench, Truebner, & Co., London, 1910.Moore, Michael E., et al. “The Attack on Pope Formosus: Papal History in an Age of Resentment.” Ecclesia et Violentia: Violence Against the Church and Violence Within the Church. Cambridge Scholars, Cambridge, 2014. Retrieved 20 Sep 2022.Reardon, Wendy J. The Deaths of the Popes. McFarland & Co, Jefferson, NC, 2004.Squatriti, Paolo, trans. The Complete Works of Liutprand of Cremona. Catholic U. Press of America, Washington, 2007.Wilkes Jr., Donald E. “The Cadaver Synod: Strangest Trial in History.” Flagpole. Athens, Ga., 2011. Retrieved 20 Sep 2022. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ever wanted to listen to a Quest Friend Role playing game with Totalus Rankium and Pontifacts in it? Well, here you are!! Recorded a while ago but released for halloween, join us was we go on an adventure!  More info: https://www.questfriendspodcast.com/jeff

We're back into the TTRPG world! With Kyle DMing the amazing new TTRPG that he designed, Under the Neighborhood, Ari from Quest Friends! and Rob from Totalus Rankium, Bry plays through the mysterious and strange "Historia Lane", where all Pontifacts and Totalus Rankium jokes are literal and real!  Listen for zombies, birds, elections, betrayal, heartbreak, revenge, and so much more. Quest Friends: https://www.questfriendspodcast.com/pontifacts  Under the Neighborhood: https://questfriends.itch.io/neighborhood Totalus Rankium: https://totalusrankium.podbean.com/ 

In June 2022, we were a keynote speaker at the online Intelligent Speech Conference, and also took part in a Rexy Panel, discussing podcasting with the Rex Factor format alongside Rob and Jamie from Totalus Rankium and Bry from Pontifacts. For today's episode, we're bringing you the Rexy Panel discussion, where the three podcasts have an informal chat about podcasting.You can find out more about the Intelligent Speech conference at their website (https://www.intelligentspeechconference.com) and if you'd be interested in attending next year and want to help make that possible, the Intelligent Speech Conference team are running a Kickstarter until 27 November 2022 in order to fund their work to make it the best possible user-experience:https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/intelligentspeech/intelligent-speech-endowmentWe'll be back from a research break next week to start our review of the Six Wives of Henry VIII, beginning with a biography episode for Katherine of Aragon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our two mysteries come to a close with an unexpected twist that teaches Kyle an important lesson about roleplaying the hard way. Content Notes: Very Harsh Sound (14:10-14:30), Volume (54:55-55:00) Character List: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Bub1xee_prMbf7WiC11OFjEIMKQ4k3LiDAuN5unRO5E/edit?usp=sharing   Download Chuck Beavers' Birthday Song: patreon.com/posts/chuck-beavers-71039334 Noir Quique voiced by Rob from Totalus Rankium: totalusrankium.wordpress.com Noir Irene voiced by Bry Jensen from PONTIFACTS: pontifacts.podbean.com Twitter: @pontifactspod Join us for our anniversary stream at 7PM CDT on Sunday, Sep. 25th: twitch.tv/questfriends   Follow Quest Friends! Online: Website: questfriendspodcast.com  Patreon: patreon.com/questfriends Under the Neighborhood: questfriends.itch.io/neighborhood Merch Store: teepublic.com/stores/quest-friends?ref_id=24896 Facebook: facebook.com/QuestFriendsPodcast/  Instagram: @questfriendspodcast TikTok: @quest_friends Tumblr: questfriendspodcast.tumblr.com  Twitch: twitch.tv/questfriends Twitter: @Quest_Friends  YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UC62OqSFLVUvqw-a_UaAryKA   Music Credits "Quest Friends! Hereafter Theme" by Miles Morkri: twitter.com/milesmorkri "Chuck Beavers' Birthday Song" by Miles Morkri: twitter.com/milesmorkri "Spoon clattering (1): by chemicalcrux (license): freesound.org/people/chemicalcrux/sounds/530872/ "Spoon clattering (2): by chemicalcrux (license): freesound.org/people/chemicalcrux/sounds/530871/ "Spoon clattering (3): by chemicalcrux (license): freesound.org/people/chemicalcrux/sounds/530870/ "Spoon clattering (4): by chemicalcrux (license): freesound.org/people/chemicalcrux/sounds/530869/ "Spoon clattering (5): by chemicalcrux (license): freesound.org/people/chemicalcrux/sounds/530874/ "Spoon clattering (6): by chemicalcrux (license): freesound.org/people/chemicalcrux/sounds/530873/ "Spooky Halloween Night Cut D" by AdiGoldstein: pond5.com/royalty-free-music/item/75369121-spooky-halloween-night-cut-d Additional Music from Motion Array: motionarray.com/

Quique hunts for another missing Necromon, aided by a new detective/rival/assistant. Sparky desperately searches for a single rutabaga. Character List: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Bub1xee_prMbf7WiC11OFjEIMKQ4k3LiDAuN5unRO5E/edit?usp=sharing   Listen to Sidequesting: sidequestingpod.com Noir Quique voiced by Rob from Totalus Rankium: totalusrankium.wordpress.com Noir Irene voiced by Bry from PONTIFACTS: pontifacts.podbean.com   Follow Quest Friends! Online: Website: questfriendspodcast.com  Patreon: patreon.com/questfriends Under the Neighborhood: questfriends.itch.io/neighborhood Merch Store: teepublic.com/stores/quest-friends?ref_id=24896 Facebook: facebook.com/QuestFriendsPodcast/  Instagram: @questfriendspodcast TikTok: @quest_friends Tumblr: questfriendspodcast.tumblr.com  Twitch: twitch.tv/questfriends Twitter: @Quest_Friends  YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UC62OqSFLVUvqw-a_UaAryKA   Music Credits "Quest Friends! Hereafter Theme" by Miles Morkri: twitter.com/milesmorkri Additional Music from Motion Array: motionarray.com/

Given that Pontifacts remains in unexpected hiatus, Bry was invited by Gregg of the Popeular History Podcast to discuss his favourite (and Bry's LEAST favourite) theory about Pope Francis!  In this episode, Gregg and Bry discuss Francis's attitude and commentary about retirement, the Apostolic Constitution, the College of Cardinals, and the one thing they both fervently agree on - their top pick for the next pope!  Find Gregg and the Popeular History Podcast here: https://popeularhistory.podbean.com/

We'll know soon enough whether a kooky pet theory of mine holds up. Meanwhile, Bry hopes it doesn't. Special guest topics include Pope Michael! Podcast recommendations: Pontifacts https://pontifacts.podbean.com/ The History of Saqartvelo Georgia https://historyofsaqartvelo.com/ 

We have a Patreon now! I would love to have your support in this endeavor, especially in bringing out many new episodes and stories that showcase Georgian history and culture. This episode covers St. Gregory the Illuminator and St. Nino of Georgia. Bry from Pontifacts is joining me! Patreon: Sign up here! Pontifacts --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/historysaqartvelogeorgia/support

Novgorod and Sweden have been involved in on and off conflict for a couple of centuries as we reach the end of the 1340s. Things go into overdrive at the end of the decade, as King Magnus of Sweden heads east, determined to convert the Novgorodians to his version of Christianity and take control over vital trade routes. Battles centre around the Orekhov/Nöteborg castle and things get so bad for Novgorod, they need to call on their Archbishop for help! Back home in Sweden, Magnus decides it is about time that there should be just one legal system for the entire country and embarks on an ambitious project of law reform! We also ask for help in this episode, welcoming the excellent Bry from Pontifacts to read out a long quote for us. Check out Pontifacts wherever you get your podcasts, and follow them on Twitter for some Pope related fun: www.twitter.com/pontifactspod    

The largest episode on the smallest country. It's the city-state home of the Catholic Church, a neighborhood of Rome, home to some of the greatest art in the western world. In the early 16th century, the Catholic Church began to turn Rome into a capital glorious enough to serve as the capital of Christendom, and in the process, the popes drove Christendom apart. And Michelangelo was there the whole way. Bry Rayburn from the Pontifacts podcast joins us to talk about some of the most epic popes in history, from Alexander VI to Paul IV: the good, the bad, and the ugly. We talk about Michelangelo, the role of the papal patrons, Martin Luther, the Swiss Guard, and so much more! Plus a mysterious pasta recipe from the Vatican cookbook! Sources: Beck, James H. Three Worlds of Michelangelo Buonarroti, Michelangelo. Michelangelo's Notebooks: The Poetry, Letters, and Art of the Great MasterCahill, Thomas. Heretics and Heroes: How Renaissance Artists and Reformation Priests Created Our WorldGarwood, Duncan. Lonely Planet RomeGraham-Dixon, Andrew. Michelangelo and the Sistine ChapelPhillips, Charles. The Illustrated History of the Popes: An Authoritative Guide to the Lives and Works of the Popes of the Catholic Church, with 450 Images Rick Steves Rome 2020Rome, Insights Guides Scotti, R.A. Basilica: The Splendor and the Scandal: Building St. Peter'sThe Pontifical Swiss Guard. The Vatican Cookbook: Presented by the Pontifical Swiss Guard: 500 Years of Classic Recipes, Papal Tributes, & Exclusive ImagesWallace, William E. Michelangelo: The Artist, the Man and His Times

Join us this week for a very special episode! Mac and Zoe DM the Green Knight RPG, inspired by the film, inspired by the poem. Our players are guests from some of your favourite podcasts: Saga Thing, Pontifacts, and BookSquadGoals. We hope you enjoy the assorted mess as we medievalists and lit nerds play this one-shot together. 

Ho Ho Ho!   Merry Christmas!   As an apology fpr the lack of content, here is a Senate only episode that we are releasing to all.    TR v P   Who knows their fellow co-host best? 

The most wonderful time of the year was made even more wonderful by our first ever guests, Bry and Fry of the Pontifacts podcast, who rate all of the popes from Peter to Francis. Complemented as ever by the splendid humour of Fry and Eliza, Bry and Ben recount the tales of the five patron saints of France who have been woven into our story so far: Saint Petronilla, Saint Denis, Saint Martin, Saint Remy and Saint Radegund. This is definitely not your average Christmas episode! We've got a guy carrying his own severed head, an emperor's butt being set on fire and a dove descending from the sky with a Molotov cocktail, just to name a few incidents. We also find out that not only could women read in the Dark Ages (shocker!), but one of them could even speak to frogs! How very French of her.Go read about the INSANE story St Ulphia wrote!And of course, listen to Pontifacts!

For this special Christmas crossover, we joined up with Battle Royale to talk about important French Saints, in all their grisly glory!    Check out Battle Royale:  https://battleroyale.buzzsprout.com/1804279?s=09 https://twitter.com/BattleRoyalePod   Show description: The most wonderful time of the year was made even more wonderful by our first ever guests, Bry and Fry of the Pontifacts podcast, who rate all of the popes from Peter to Francis. Complemented as ever by the splendid humour of Fry and Eliza, Bry and Ben recount the tales of the five patron saints of France who have been woven into our story so far: Saint Petronilla, Saint Denis, Saint Martin, Saint Remy and Saint Radegund.  This is definitely not your average Christmas episode! We've got a guy carrying his own severed head, an emperor's butt being set on fire and a dove descending from the sky with a Molotov cocktail, just to name a few incidents. We also find out that not only could women read in the Dark Ages (shocker!), but one of them could even speak to frogs! How very French of her.

Another jam-packed reign, with possibly the most tricky and controversial ranking yet. A lot of deliberation was cut from the ranking segments! Will Charles the Bald make his father Louis the Pious proud, by reviving the glory of his namesake Charlemagne? Or will he be chopped up ... like a turnip?Once you have listened, what will you think of Charles the Bald? Was he a peak or a trough of the Carolingian period? Did he deserve the judgement we gave him? We are particularly keen to hear your thoughts on this one, so flock to our socials to let us know. Also BIG NEWS! We are doing a collaboration with the PONTIFACTS podcast over Christmas and talking about the patron saints of France. Which would you love to hear us cover? 

Have women always been forbidden from serving as priests? Or is the Church's current ruling on the issue little more than a cover-up? These questions finally came into focus for Margaret Mary O'Connor when, well into her adult life, she John Wijngaards' 2001 book The Ordination of Women in the Catholic Church. O'Connor is a life-long, devout Catholic, who always questioned the muted role women were allowed to play in her Church. She always suspected there might be more (or less) to the arguments the Church made about the ordination of wome, and Wjingaard's book sent her down a research rabbit hole which ultimately led to her publishing her own conclusions in her book Scandal in the Shadows: The Original Priest - Mother Mary. O'Connor has since dedicated her time to vocally, openly championing the ordination of Catholic women, and to exposing the sexual abuse scandal that continues to cast a shadow over the institution she loves. She holds a Master of Arts in Pastoral Ministry, from Christ the King Seminary in East Aurora, New York and is a a Eucharistic Minister at Our Lady of Charity Parish in Buffalo, New York. Learn more about Margaret and her work at her website. Special thanks to Bry from Pontifacts for recording our introduction this week.

The Papacy, which is going to be a hugely important factor in this series, is a two-thousand-year institution - where do you start? Well, talking to the host best papal podcast around seems like a good start. Today I talk to Bry Jensen, one half of the Pontifacts podcast, about what the Papacy is, and how it has affected European history.Support the show on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bonjour and bienvenue to Battle Royale, where we pass judgement on all the kings and emperors of France from Clovis to Napoleon III. If you're familiar with other history podcasts like Rex Factor (which reviews the British monarchs), Pontifacts (which rates the Popes) or Totalus Rankium (which ranks the Roman emperors), you'll already have a good idea about what we do! I, Ben, am the history buff who recounts the story of each monarch to my friend Eliza, and then we give them some scores in a variety of categories like En Garde (how good were they at fighting for prestige and power) or Oh La La (how scandalicious the events of their life were). But the stakes are higher high here – perhaps higher than any other podcast you've ever listened to! All 71 of our monarchs are locked in our imaginary dungeon, awaiting our judgement. Those who we deem to be the crème de la crème will go through to the Battle Royale Tournament, and compete to see who was the most majestic, fabulous and irresistible despot of them all. Those who do not will be sent to… the guillotine! As I record this little intro, we are about 6 months into this project. In that time, I have learned a lot about researching, writing and producing compelling history on an audio medium, and both Eliza and I have grown more comfortable recording ourselves. I do love our earlier episodes – the first few are some of the best, actually, particularly our special episode on the murderous queen Fredegund. But if you just want to dip your toe in it might be best to start with a later episode, like our 2-parter on Charlemagne (episode 16), which we purposely made accessible to new listeners. By then, we've mostly figured out a few of our audio issues, and we've been able to access more sources through friends and historians we've met through the podcast. However you choose to listen, we hope you enjoy coming along on our macabre adventure from the Dark Ages to the French Revolution, and help us decide who's ahead and who's headless at Battle Royale: French Monarchs. (No actual monarchs were harmed in the making of this podcast)

Pontifacts is going on a brief hiatus, due to surprise moves!  We'll be back as soon as we possibly can - keep an eye on our social media for announcements as to when that will be. Thank you as always for your understanding and support! 

In this episode we spend a bit of quality time with our friend Marc Boch and discuss why he thought what he thought about slavery and serfdom, why some of it was wrong, and why some of it is still valid. This is a nice, calm episode. Some gentle laughs between friends. A bit of a palette cleanser between last episode and the next.Check out Past Access here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXQKBE0TD34qtifjeemA_5gCheck out Pontifacts yonder: https://pontifacts.podbean.com/Be sure to check out our new store: https://knitnfrog.com/collections/wittenberg-to-westphalia-podcast-store/Wittenberg-to-Westphalia-Podcast-Store See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Pope is the most powerful, influential, and prominent religious figure in the Western world. And there have been a lot of popes (the current one is the 266th) who have lived through a lot of history. Three years ago, Bry Jensen, along with her best friend Fry Cukjati, decided it would be fun to look at the history of the papacy by chronicling the lives and careers of every pope in history. The result was the podcast Pontifacts. Now that they are 100 full episodes in - and approaching the close of the first millennium - Bry talked to John about how the project is coming along, what she has learned about the evolution of the papacy, which lesser-known popes should be better known, and whether any story in papal history could ever be as good as the Cadaver Synod. Follow Pontifacts on Twitter @pontifactspod Check out their official site here.

While out on his daily rounds, a poor fisherman nets an enchanted fish prince. When his wife hears how he let the fish go, she demands he return and ask the fish to give them a cottage. Things then escalate fast, as the fisherman's wife gets a taste for the property market and chases a career in politics.  Will they be content with their lot, or will greed see them fall to their ruin? Find out all this and more in the absolutely massive tale, The Fisherman and His Wife. After the story we discuss it's meaning and form, including the idea of an anti-fairy and the shadow of Napoleon Bonaparte. The Grimms then lead us back to our old friend Shakespeare, and finally we learn about the legend of Pope Joan thanks to our pod-friends Pontifacts. Twitter Facebook Instagram Patreon   grimmreadingpodcast@gmail.com Theme music: Bicycle Waltz by Goodbye Kumiko Other Music: Ravel's Miroirs - III. Une barque sur l'ocean performed by Robert Ewen Birchall // Byrd's Mass for Four Voices - I. Kyrie Eleison performed by the Ensemble Morales // Má vlast - Vltava performed by the Musopen Symphony

The Intelligent Speech Conference is back! Little old me will be speaking alongside such podcasting greats as David Crowther, Benjamin Jacobs, Liz Covart, Steve Guerra, Bry and Fry of Pontifacts, Marco Capelli and many more! head over to: https://www.intelligentspeechconference.com/product/intelligent-speech-spring-2021/ to get your early bird tickets!

The Intelligent Speech Conference is back! Little old me will be speaking alongside such podcasting greats as David Crowther, Benjamin Jacobs, Liz Covart, Steve Guerra, Bry and Fry of Pontifacts, Marco Capelli and many more! head over to: https://www.intelligentspeechconference.com/product/intelligent-speech-spring-2021/ to get your early bird tickets!

I go on the Pontifacts Podcast and have a conversation about Pope Hadrian and Charlemagne as they helped unite Christendom. https://twitter.com/pontifactspodhttps://www.facebook.com/pontifactspod/www.warandconquest.comwarandconquestpcast@gmail.comhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdUOD52RBg1BBm_zndE-DdAhttps://www.patreon.com/warandconquestWar and Conquest Podcast on Facebookwarandconquestpcast on Instagramwarandconquest1 on Twitter Venmo: @Warand Conquest

We did it! Out of the Faustian Aristocratic Age fire and into pure, straight up, uncut romanticism by way of Lyrical Ballads, the joint production of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Did Lyrical Ballads break new ground? … no. Did it shatter the poetic norms of British poetry all at once, brushing stuffy aristocratic heroic couplet satires into the dustbin of history? … no. Did it incite a literary revolution, breaking down the barriers for entry into the domain of poetry for the common British subject? … no. But it still was a major watershed production in the history of poetry in English, and though we deflate some expectations on this preliminary background episode on the historical context of the book, we do still recognize that Wordsworth and Coleridge made a major intervention on the function and purpose of poetry.The Canon Ball is a member of the Agora podcast network. We've added a couple of great new shows to the network, like Pontifacts, a light hearted, only slightly blasphemous, papal history podcast that ranks the popes from Peter to Francis. And launching this month is Revolution 1, a podcast examination of the Tunisian Uprising and the Arab Spring that followed.If you're online check us out at thecanonballpodcast.wordpress.com, find us on Facebook @TheCanonBallPodcast, and on Twitter @CanonBallPod. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After the disaster of the Second Bishops' War, the English Parliament gathers once again. Prisoners are released, and new ones take their place - Archbishop William Laud, and Thomas Wentworth, the Earl of Strafford. Listen to Pontifacts: https://pod.link/1387540364 Listen to the Explorer's Podcast: https://pod.link/1161063301 Check out the podcast website: https://www.paxbritannica.info Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PodBritannica/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BritannicaPax Patreon: https://Patreon.com/PaxBritannica Donate: https://www.paypal.com/donate?token=o8YvWF6xKTcsS1U7xAzp2EqmYBGR5vQJwvIwI4VqZk4jXzM7iczctH2l9Yo9u0RcApBuid5Ojv9Qsemh For this episode, I found the following publications particularly useful: Russell, C The Causes of the English Civil War Kishlansky, M, Monarchy Transformed Macinnes, Allan, The British Revolution, 1629-1660 Harris, T. Rebellion  Keynon, Ohlmeyer, The Civil Wars Smith, David, The Stuart Parliaments, 1603-1689 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Description: For this episode, we have a really fun collaboration with another papal history podcast, Pontifacts with Bry and Fry. The history of the popes of Rome is such a nearly infinite topic, which is great because the institution can be looked at in many different ways. I take more of a scatter shot approach. I pick and choose and follow threads in interesting directions. I like the politics, philosophy, theology and big picture of the Church and its leadership. Pontifacts takes the approach of providing biographies of each pope and evaluating them. I think that is really great and I am very glad to be able to collaborate with two people who are extremely passionate about a topic I am passionate about as well. This will definitely be the first of many collaborations with Bry and Fry. Learn more about our guest: Pontifacts - https://pontifacts.podbean.comYou can learn more about the History of Papacy and subscribe at all these great places:http://atozhistorypage.com/email: steve@atozhistorypage.comhttp://rss.acast.com/historyofthepapacyhttps://www.patreon.com/historyofthepapacyhttps://www.facebook.com/HistoryOfThePapacyPodcast/https://twitter.com/atozhistory The History of the Papacy on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6DO2leym3kizBHW0ZWl-nA Get Your History of the Papacy Podcast Products Here: https://www.atozhistorypage.com/products Help out the show by ordering these books from Amazon!https://amzn.com/w/1MUPNYEU65NTF Music Provided by:"Danse Macabre" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)"Virtutes Instrumenti" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)"Virtutes Vocis" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)"Funeral March for Brass" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)"String Impromptu Number 1" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Agnus Dei X - Bitter Suite Kevin MacLeaod (incomptech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/historyofthepapacy. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Make sure you check out Pontifacts, Agora's pod of the month!After many episodes examining Frederick's woes, here we change our focus and look at that conflict long in the background - the Spanish Dutch War, which was resuming after twelve years of truce, in 1621. What had the truce done for both parties, and why did the Spanish feel particularly eager to resume war after going all in in Germany already? Could Madrid afford the extra expense? Probably not, but now that they held to the Rhine, the war against the Dutch could be brought to bear as a way to save the regions where Spain was truly hurting, as the professional piracy of the Dutch simply had to be stopped. Whether it as the last gasp or a desperate strike, either way, Spain had no choice but go on, even if that meant going down fighting...**DON'T FORGET TO FOLLOW THESE LINKS!**1) To support the podcast financially in return for some extra audio content, check out Patreon!2) To find a community of history friends, look at our Facebook page and group!3) To keep up to date with us, follow us on Twitter!4) For everything else, visit our website!5) For merchandise including tees and mugs, all you have to do is click here!6) Get our new Thirty Years War book, For God or the Devil! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A long time in the making, we are delighted to present our super special biography of the Brothers Grimm!
 From humble beginnings to super professor stardom, we follow the brothers as they traipse across Germany in a tumultuous time of war and instability. Please don your history hats and settle by the fire as we embark on our biggest adventure yet, somehow starting in ancient Rome and landing squarely in 21st century.  Chapter index: Once Upon a Time (04:08) University and the Magic Horn (14:24) Occupation and Fairy Tales (19:16) German Liberation (28:43) Peace and Publishing (36:15) Gottingen and Exile (47:21) Berlin and a Dictionary (55:24) For more information on some of the topics covered, we couldn’t recommend these podcasts more highly: Rex Factor, Totalus Rankium, Pontifacts, and The History of English Podcast. Our competition is still in full swing! Let us know which story you think deserves a different score and you could win some awesome prizes!Story leaderboard: https://bit.ly/3j7S3W7 
Pook Press bookshop: http://ow.ly/7VRY50Bau0z Twitter Facebook Instagram Patreon grimmreadingpodcast@gmail.com Theme music: Bicycle Waltz by Goodbye Kumiko Other Music: Beethoven's Douze Danses Allemandes - 1 Do majeur.

Geiseric decides that Europe does not agree with him or the Vandals and Alans so they are going sailing! Join in as we look at the long life of one of the biggest threats to Rome that does something that no barbarian has ever been able to do before, force the West to accept their terms. Find out how he brings the Western Empire to the peace table time and time again. If you would like to learn more about Pope Leo I's check out Pontifacts episode 47: Leo I (the Great).https://pontifacts.podbean.com/e/47-leo-i-the-great/

We're extremely pleased to announce that Pontifacts is now a part of the Agora Podcast Network! Visit the Agora website: https://www.agorapodcastnetwork.com/

00:00 Introduction; 00:15 Horse & Musket plans; 01:00 Final, final, final rewrite of the core rulebook; 01:35 Yes, we are actually going to call it "Because Mary Demanded It"; 02:30 Releases for 2019; 03:10 Tom's radar; 03:25 Dinosaur-themed 18xx; 04:50 Systems versus standalones; 07:25 Long deferred projects; 08:35 It is not shtick; 09:05 Playtesting; 09:30 Hobbies and distractions; 09:50 Character assassination; 10:25 Pontifacts; 11:30 Travis, get with it; 11:55 Tabletop Simulator and Vassal; 12:30 Double oven adventures; 13:25 Movies; 14:30 Hardest games to dino-ify; 15:05 "What all people would have done"; 15:45 Europe; 16:40 Games for three-plus; 17:00 Nicaea; 19:20 "That's not what it says".

In the center of the High Enlightenment, as Western culture moved toward rational worldview, a series of miracles deepens a religious schism and contributes to a lack of faith in the royal government, laying the groundwork for a future revolution. But what really happened at the tomb of François de Pâris in the cemetery of Saint-Médard? Part one of two. Featuring a promo for Pontifacts, the podcast that ranks all the popes, from Peter to Francis! Background tracks "July," "Brand New World," "Scenery," "Interception," "Meekness," "periculum," "modum," and "Delirium" by Kai Engel, licensed under a Creative Commons International Attribution License (CC BY 4.0). Other music copyright film composer Alex Kish. License his music by contacting him at https://www.alexkishmusic.com/. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pontifacts is 2 years old! To celebrate, we invited a group of our favourite podcasters to participate in an actual-play pope themed D&D adventure. Join us as this rag tag band of Byzantine ‘pilgrims’ attempt to kidnap Pope Martin I, and bring him back to the Emperor. Shenanigans ensue Cast:DM: FryConstantine Constantius: Jamie of Totalus RankiumConstans: Rob of Totalus RankiumMilo: Ari of Quest Friends!Adesius: Josh of Drunk Church HistoryEanswythe: Bry Hear our cast:Totalus Rankium:https://totalusrankium.podbean.com/https://totalusrankiumap.podbean.com/Quest Friends:https://www.questfriendspodcast.com/Drunk Church History:https://drunkchurchhistory.podbean.com/… all hail Bird Constans.

Pontifacts is 2 years old! To celebrate, we invited a group of our favourite podcasters to participate in an actual-play pope themed D&D adventure. Join us as this rag tag band of Byzantine ‘pilgrims’ attempt to kidnap Pope Martin I, and bring him back to the Emperor. Shenanigans ensue. Cast:DM: FryConstantine Constantius: Jamie of Totalus RankiumConstans: Rob of Totalus RankiumMilo: Ari of Quest Friends!Adesius: Josh of Drunk Church HistoryEanswythe: Bry Hear our cast:Totalus Rankium:https://totalusrankium.podbean.com/https://totalusrankiumap.podbean.com/Quest Friends: https://www.questfriendspodcast.com/Drunk Church History:https://drunkchurchhistory.podbean.com/

Pontifacts is 2 years old! To celebrate, we invited a group of our favourite podcasters to participate in an actual-play pope themed D&D adventure. Join us as this rag tag band of Byzantine ‘pilgrims’ attempt to kidnap Pope Martin I, and bring him back to the Emperor. Shenanigans ensue. Cast:DM: FryConstantine Constantius: Jamie of Totalus RankiumConstans: Rob of Totalus RankiumMilo: Ari of Quest Friends!Adesius: Josh of Drunk Church HistoryEanswythe: BryExarch: David of the SiecleLady of the Night: Courtney of Cult of Domesticity Hear our cast:Totalus Rankium:https://totalusrankium.podbean.com/ https://totalusrankiumap.podbean.com/ Quest Friends: https://www.questfriendspodcast.com/ Drunk Church History:https://drunkchurchhistory.podbean.com/ The Siecle:http://thesiecle.com/ Cult of Domesticity:https://domesticpodcast.podbean.com/ Songs used: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVBgKCYrI-c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW4CySchxjI&list=PLhODZ6AEpil7QeRmoKNSvE5F6pJX8iRC6&index=8

Pre-order the YBOF book or get bonus content. Sometimes you wanna go where nobody knows your name...because there's nobody there.  But why? 01:00 Motivations 05:26 Christian hermits Guest: Pontifacts 14:25 Ornamental hermits 19:35 Unboxing Day! 20:20 Science hermit 25:28 The North Pond Hermit Promo: The Contrarians Music by Kevin MacLeod and Tabletop Audio  Read the full script. Reach out and touch Moxie on FB, Twit, the 'Gram or email.

More Italian civil wars! Self-imposed starvation! THE RETURN OF THE FORESKIN OF CHRIST!Catherine of Siena (1347 - 1380) was a laywoman of Dominican tertiary Order, mystic, activist, diplomat, author, and theologian. One of only four women to be designated as "Doctors of the Church," she was as interesting as the time in which she lived.Featuring our Italian Renaissance Correspondent, Bry from Pontifacts Podcast.

Pontifacts will be appearing at Intelligent Speech 2020's virtual conference, with a talk on the children of the popes! Bry will also be sitting on a panel on Medieval history! Intelligent Speech will be held on Saturday June 27th 10am-6pm EST Find out more here: https://www.intelligentspeechconference.com/ Get your tickets here: https://www.intelligentspeechconference.com/product/online-ticket/

Real Dead Poets Society! Unrequited Love! Popes in Hell!Dante Alighieri (1265 - 1321) was a nobleman, politician, and poet in Medieval Florence, Italy. Inspired by his childhood love, Beatrice, he went on to write the greatest work of Italian poetry in the Divine Comedy—all while serving a lifelong exile from his beloved city.Guest Hosts: Fry and Bry of Pontifacts PodcastTwitterFacebook

Two squabbling popes face off against one scheming Santa. Who will win? Listen as our heroes: FLIRT with popes! BREAK the ice! FIGHT their feelings! Content Warnings: Volume/Harsh Sounds (14:20-14:25, 15:45-15:50, 33:30-33:35, 41:40-41:45, 43:50-43:55), Food (30:10-30:20, 44:15-44:20) Transcript: [Coming Soon!]   Listen to PONTIFACTShttps://pontifacts.podbean.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/pontifactspod   The cockatoo video Kyle references: https://youtu.be/CEQuDyuQFKE   Follow Quest Friends! Online: Website: https://www.questfriendspodcast.com  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/questfriends Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/QuestFriendsPodcast/  Tumblr: https://questfriendspodcast.tumblr.com  Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/questfriends  Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quest_Friends  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC62OqSFLVUvqw-a_UaAryKA    Intro music by Miracle of Sound Friends (YouTube: https://youtu.be/uH-8TDe5s-E, Bandcamp: https://miracleofsound.bandcamp.com/track/friends-2)   Music Credits "Derp Away" by Liam Priestnall: https://youtu.be/SLpef-yVKL4  "Rainy day Short Ver." by Souichi Sakagami: https://www.tandess.com/en/music/free-material/data/rainy-day-short.html Additional Music from Motion Array: https://motionarray.com/

Our heroes infiltrate Santa's workshop in pursuit of a gift that keeps on giving. Listen as they: ROCK the horse! STRUGGLE with stuffing! POKE a pope! Content Warnings: Volume (23:35-23:50), Food (39:00-40:15) Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11wFl6SsmZEsedwERk-qSt5vsBiu6zmRBHAd3PYY1n_A/edit?usp=sharing   Listen to PONTIFACTShttps://pontifacts.podbean.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/pontifactspod     Follow Quest Friends! Online: Website: https://www.questfriendspodcast.com  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/questfriends Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/QuestFriendsPodcast/  Tumblr: https://questfriendspodcast.tumblr.com  Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/questfriends  Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quest_Friends  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC62OqSFLVUvqw-a_UaAryKA    Intro/Outro music by Miracle of Sound Intro: Friends (YouTube: https://youtu.be/uH-8TDe5s-E, Bandcamp: https://miracleofsound.bandcamp.com/track/friends-2) Outro: Hitoshio (YouTube: https://youtu.be/m5Ahfl6gcH4, Bandcamp: https://miracleofsound.bandcamp.com/track/hitoshio)   Music Credits "A Funny Quirky Waltz" by AlisterBunclark: https://audiojungle.net/item/a-funny-quirky-waltz/20487898?ref=AlisterBunclark "Lobby Time" by Kevin MacLeod: incompetech.com Additional Music from Motion Array: https://motionarray.com/

Check out Pontifacts!http://pontifacts.podbean.com/ Twitter: @pontifactspod

We've been promising it for a while and here it is, the first episode in our series on alignment. We last talked about alignments as a topic waaaaaayyyy back in episode 2 of the podcast (if you listen, we're so sorry about the audio quality), and we figured it was high time we updated things and also let Jenny weigh in! We start of with a shoutout to a couple of podcasts we've been enjoying; Grant has been listening to Pontifacts and Peter has been listening to Stats Will Roll. Our friends over at MegaDumbCast have also recently released an episode on autism representation in games (and how not to do it) that is worth a listen. In gaming news, Grant is porting his Vampire game over to a PbtA variant called Powered by Dark and his Sharn game has started up again. Peter's new D&D game continues to go strong, and he mentions a great thing one of his players is doing that he loves. We also briefly mention some behind-the-scenes change we're making. Our Patreon question this episode comes from Joseph Linardon who asks us " If you could make a 1 page RPG, what would it be? What would be the main dice you use (if not a D20)?"From there, we get into our main topic and argue about alignment like proper nerds for the rest of the episode, complete with fictional examples (some of which may actually be Neutral Good) and a lengthy amount of discussions about what Lawful Good is not. It gets a little heated in points, but we had fun and it was a good (and somewhat cathartic) discussion.Also mentioned in this episode: https://www.amykathleenryan.com/books.phpScripture: Psalm 119:12-16, Proverbs 24:30-32, Matthew 22:34-40

Pontifacts is appearing at Sound Education Conference this year, giving a talk on the wildest papal elections in history! Sound Education is October 9-12 in Boston, Massachusetts. Find out more here: https://www.soundeducation.fm/Register here:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sound-education-2019-an-educational-audio-conference-tickets-58605170643

Pontifacts is 1 year old! Join us for an amusing recap of our popey journey thus far, and an AMA session - and THANK YOU for being a part of our podcast! 

It's a Pontifacts holiday surprise! Join Fry and Bry as we explore some ridiculous pope-themed gifts you COULD have bought for your loved ones this year, and strange gifts that recent popes have received! We will post links to all of the things we are looking at in this episode on Facebook, check it out there!https://www.facebook.com/pontifactspod/

The wenches decide to take a vacation, on a cruise, just because. Well, I mean, my Pontifacts co-host was visiting from Canada and we were launching our papal history podcast, so we had her join in the game. Smoots and Maria were both kind of late due to ... I don't even remember now, friend stuff, so they pop in later in the episode. Bry plays Bimpnotten, a gnome pact of the chain warlock/phoenix born sorcerer, with a corgi shaped psuedodragon and a patron that makes her a bit unhinged. The wenches don't quite know how to deal with her. Shenanigans are had by all. Bellanora gets a new pet.

A very short update on upcoming episodes, reviews, thank you’s and a shout out to the excellent Pontifacts podcast. The post MINI008 Announcements & thank you’s. appeared first on AGE OF VICTORIA PODCAST.

The Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins, did not exist in a vacuum. How could this man, who had no formal authority, tour South-East England and not only execute hundreds of 'witches', but find cheering crowds and grateful magistrates waiting for him? Today's episode will examine the possible reasons why the Hopkins witch craze was so exceptional in its scale and brutality. This episode primarily made use of the following texts: -  Gaskill, Malcolm, ‘Witchcraft Trials in England', in Levack, B. P. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America (Oxford, 2013) - Levack, Brian, ‘State-Building and Witch-Hunting', in Oldridge, Darren (ed.), The Witchcraft Reader, 2002 - Elmer, Peter,Witchcraft, Witch-Hunting, and Politics in Early Modern England, (Oxford, 2016) - Jackson, Louise, ‘Witches, Wives and Mothers: Witchcraft Persecution and Women's Confessions in Seventeenth-Century England', in Oldridge, Darren (ed.), The Witchcraft Reader, 2002 For a full bibliography, please see the website: www.thehistoryofwitchcraft.co.uk The Recorded History Podcast Network: www.recordedhistory.net Friends of the show, Pontifacts: https://pontifacts.podbean.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Pontifacts; ranking all the Popes from Peter to Francis! In this light-hearted, only slightly blasphemous podcast, Bry and Fry go through the lives of the Pontiffs, and rate them based on our very valid and not subjective at all categories, to determine which Pope was the popiest Pope that ever Poped. In this episode, we introduce our concept, our ranking rounds, and discuss how to become a Pope!