Regnal name: Encyclopedia II - Regnal name - Roman Catholic Church

Regnal name - Roman Catholic Church

Immediately after a new pope is elected, and accepts the election, the man is asked by the Dean of the College of Cardinals, "By what name shall you be called?" The man chooses the name that he will be known as from that point on.

During the first centuries of the church, men elected Bishop of Rome used their baptismal names even after their elections. The custom of choosing a new name began in AD 533 with the election of Mercurius. He had been named after the Roman god Mercury. Mercurius decided that it would not be appropriate for a pope to be named after a Roman god, so he decreed that he would be known as John II. Since that time the pope has customarily chosen a new name for himself during his Pontificate; however, until the 16th century some men used their baptismal names.

The last pope to use his baptismal name was Pope Marcellus II. The names chosen by popes are not based on any system other than general honorifics. They have been based on immediate predecessors, mentors, political similarity, or even after family members — as was the case with Pope John XXIII. The practice of a man using his baptismal name as pope has not been ruled out and future popes could elect to continue using their baptismal names after being elected pope.

There has never been a Pope Peter II. Even though there is no specific prohibition against doing so, men elected to the Papacy have refrained from doing so. This is because of a tradition that only Saint Peter should have that honor. In the 10th century John XIV used the regnal name John because his given name was Peter. However several antipopes have taken the name Peter II, but their claims are not recognized and their following is so small as to be nearly non-existent.

Because of Antipope John XXIII, men avoided taking the regnal name John for over 600 years until the election of John XXIII.

In 1978, Albino Luciani became the first pope to use two names for his regnal name when he took the name John Paul I. He did this to honor both John XXIII and Paul VI. With the unexpected death of John Paul I a little over a month later, Karol Wojtyla took the name John Paul II to honor his immediate predecessor.

Antipopes also have regnal names, and also use the ordinal to show their position in the line of previous pontiffs with their names. For example, Lucian Pulvermacher took the name Pius XIII when he had been named pope by the True Catholic Church sect. If a future legitimate pope takes the name that the antipope used, the antipope would have no bearing on what ordinal the new pope used. Such would be the case if a future pope took the name Pius, as he would then be known as Pius XIII.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Roman Catholic Church", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki