Has a POPE ever resigned? Been forced out?

[KansasVoter]

Because this POS is looking like his days are numbered.

And I thought GOD hand picked these guys!

[ZeitgeistObserver]

1. Not in the past 500 years.

And Benedict won't be an exception.

[elocs]

2. That would be a good question to ask Google.

http://www.google.com/search?q=Has+a+POPE+ever+resigned%3F+Been+forced+out%3F&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

[pinboy3niner]

3. Truthfully, I couldn't care less nt

[knitter4democracy]

4. Yes. More than one.

Not that unusual in Church history, actually.

[47of74]

5. Yes

There were several Popes who had resigned, but none have done so since the 1400s.

The most well known resignation was of Pope Celestine V. He established in church law that Popes could indeed resign of their own free will. After leaving the papacy Celestine lived two more years as a hermit. Pope Boniface VIII then imprisoned him and Celestine died while in prison. Some historians believe that Celestine was murdered by Boniface.

The last resignation of a Pope was in 1415, when Gregory XII resigned in order to help bring an end to the Western Schism.

[provis99]

6. being Catholic does mean believing they were handpicked by God.

But I've always been curious about the rival Popes serving at the same time in history, and the history of the Popes and the Anti-Popes. Seems that God has a hard time making up his mind, sometimes.

[Dorian Gray]

7. Poison

was the tool of choice to force many-a-prior-Pope to step down.

I don't know what's going to happen here. I doubt he'd willingly step down.

[edhopper]

8. It worked on

John Paul I.

(or so the conspiracy nuts say) }(