Border	catholic
Font color	black
Bishopric	Rome
Coatofarms	Coat of arms of the Holy See.svg
Incumbent	Benedict XVIElected: 19 April 2005
Episcopal conference	Italy
Province	Ecclesiastical Province of Rome
Diocese	Rome
Cathedral	Basilica of St. John Lateran
First bishop	According to Catholic tradition, Saint Peter
Date	According to Catholic tradition, the 1st century
Website	The Holy Father }}

The Pope (from ''''; from (pappas), a child's word for ''father'') is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church (which is composed of the Latin Rite and the Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the see of Rome). In the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle. The current office-holder is Pope Benedict XVI, who was elected in a papal conclave on 19 April 2005.

The office of the pope is known as the ''Papacy''. His ecclesiastical jurisdiction is often called the "Holy See" (''Sancta Sedes'' in Latin), or the "Apostolic See" based upon the Church tradition that the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul were martyred in Rome. The pope is also head of state of Vatican City State, a sovereign city-state entirely enclaved within the city of Rome.

Early popes helped to spread Christianity and resolve doctrinal disputes. After the conversion of the rulers of the Roman Empire (the conversion of the populace was already advanced even before the Edict of Milan, 313), the Roman emperors became the popes' secular allies until the 8th century when Pope Stephen II was forced to appeal to the Franks for help, beginning a period of close interaction with the rulers of the west. For centuries, the Donation of Constantine, later proved to be a forgery, provided support for the papacy's claim of political supremacy over the entire former Western Roman Empire. In medieval times, popes played powerful roles in Western Europe, often struggling with monarchs for control over the wide-ranging affairs of Church and state, crowning emperors (Charlemagne was the first emperor crowned by a pope), and regulating disputes among secular rulers.

Gradually forced to give up temporal power, popes now focus almost exclusively on religious matters. Over the centuries, papal claims of spiritual authority have been ever more clearly expressed, culminating in 1870 with the proclamation of the dogma of papal infallibility for rare occasions when the pope speaks ''ex cathedra'' (literally "from the chair (of St. Peter)") to issue a formal definition of faith or morals. The first (after the proclamation) and so far the last such occasion was in 1950, with the definition of the dogma of the Assumption of Mary.

History

The word ''Pope'' derives from Greek πάππας meaning "Father". This title was first assumed by the Patriarchs of Alexandria, long before it was assumed by the Bishops of Rome. In fact, the first to carry the title of Pope was the Patriarch of Alexandria, Pope Heracleus (232–49 AD), the 13th Alexandrine Patriarch. Papa has been the specific designation for the Archbishop of Alexandria, Patriarch of Egypt, and the See of Saint Mark, whose ecclessiastic title is "Papa Abba", the Abba stands for the devotion of all monastics, from Pentapolis in the West to Constantinople in the East, to his guidance. Abba is the most powerful designation, that for all monks in the East to voluntarily follow his spiritual authority. The first record in history of the term "Pope" is assigned to Pope Heraclas of Alexandria in a letter written by the bishop of Rome, Dionysius, to Philemon:

Which translates into:

It is difficult to ascertain the identity of the first Bishop of Rome to carry the title Pope of Rome. Some sources suggest that it was Pope Marcellinus (d. 304 AD), while other sources suggest that this did not happen until the 6th century, with Pope John I (523–6 AD) the first to assume this title. Bestowing the title on Rome's Pontiff did not strip it from Alexandria's, and the Roman Catholic Church recognizes this ecclesiastical fact. From the 6th century, the imperial chancery of Constantinople normally reserved this designation for the Bishop of Rome. From the early 6th century, it began to be confined in the West to the Bishop of Rome, a practice that was firmly in place by the 11th century, when Pope Gregory VII declared it reserved for the Bishop of Rome.

Catholics recognize the Pope as a successor to Saint Peter, whom, according to Roman Catholic teaching, Jesus named as the "shepherd" and "rock" of the Catholic Church, which according to Catholic dogma is the one true Church founded by Christ. Peter never bore the ''title'' of "Pope", which came into use three centuries later, but Catholics traditionally recognize him as the first Pope, while official declarations of the Church only speak of the Popes as holding within the college of the Bishops a role analogous to that held by Peter within the college of the Apostles, of which the college of the Bishops, a distinct entity, is the successor.

Protestants contend that the New Testament offers no proof that Jesus established the papacy nor even that he established Peter as the first bishop of Rome. The Catholic Church teaches that Jesus personally appointed Peter as leader of the Church and in its dogmatic constitution ''Lumen Gentium'' makes a clear distinction between apostles and bishops, presenting the latter as the successors of the former, with the Pope as successor of Peter in that he is head of the bishops as Peter was head of the apostles. Some historians have argued that the notion that Peter was the first bishop of Rome and founded the episcopal see there can be traced back no earlier than the 3rd century. The writings of the Church Father Irenaeus who wrote around 180 AD reflect a belief that Peter "founded and organised" the Church at Rome. However, Irenaeus was not the first to write of Peter's presence in the early Roman Church. Clement of Rome wrote in a letter to the Corinthians, ''c.'' 96 about the persecution of Christians in Rome as the “struggles in our time” and presented to the Corinthians its heroes, “first, the greatest and most just columns, the “good apostles” Peter and Paul. St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote shortly after Clement and in his letter from the city of Smyrna to the Romans he said he would not command them as Peter and Paul did. Given this and other evidence, many scholars agree that Peter was martyred in Rome under Nero, although some scholars argue that he may have been martyred in Palestine.

Various Christian communities would have had a group of presbyter-bishops functioning as leaders of their local churches. Gradually, episcopacies were established in metropolitan areas. It has been conjectured that Antioch, where Peter was before he went to Rome, may have been one of the first Christian communities to have adopted such a structure. Some writers claim that the emergence of a single bishop in Rome probably did not occur until the middle of the 2nd century. In their view, Linus, Cletus and Clement were possibly prominent presbyter-bishops but not necessarily monarchical bishops.

Early Christianity (''c.'' 30–325)

It seems that at first the terms 'episcopos' and 'presbyter' were used interchangeably. The consensus among scholars has been that, at the turn of the 1st and 2nd centuries, local congregations were led by bishops and presbyters whose offices were overlapping or indistinguishable. There was probably no single 'monarchical' bishop in Rome before the middle of the 2nd century ... and likely later." Other scholars and historians disagree, citing the historical records of St. Ignatius of Antioch and St. Irenaeus who recorded the linear succession of Bishops of Rome (the Popes) up until their own times. They also cite the importance accorded to the Popes in the ecumenical councils, including the early ones.

In the early Christian era, Rome and a few other cities had claims on the leadership of worldwide Catholic Church. James the Just, known as "the brother of the Lord", served as head of the Jerusalem church, which is still honored as the "Mother Church" in Orthodox tradition. Alexandria had been a center of Jewish learning and became a center of Christian learning. Rome had a large congregation early in the apostolic period whom Paul the Apostle addressed in his Epistle to the Romans, and according to tradition Paul was martyred there.

During the 1st century of the Church (''ca.'' 30–130), the Roman capital became recognized as a Christian center of exceptional importance. Pope Clement I at the end of the 1st century wrote an epistle to the Church in Corinth intervening in a major dispute, and apologizing for not having taken action earlier. However, there are only a few other references of that time to recognition of the authoritative primacy of the Roman See outside of Rome. In the Ravenna Document of 13 October 2007, theologians chosen by the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Churches stated: "41. Both sides agree… that Rome, as the Church that 'presides in love' according to the phrase of St Ignatius of Antioch (''To the Romans'', Prologue), occupied the first place in the ''taxis'', and that the bishop of Rome was therefore the ''protos'' among the patriarchs. They disagree, however, on the interpretation of the historical evidence from this era regarding the prerogatives of the Bishop of Rome as ''protos'', a matter that was already understood in different ways in the first millennium." In addition, in the last years of the 1st century AD the Church in Rome intervened in the affairs of the Christian Church in Corinth to help solve their internal disputes.

Later in the 2nd century AD, there were more manifestations of Roman authority over other churches. In 189 AD, assertion of the primacy of the Church of Rome may be indicated in Irenaeus of Lyons's ''Against Heresies'' (3:3:2): "With [the Church of Rome], because of its superior origin, all the churches must agree... and it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the apostolic tradition." In 195 AD, Pope Victor I, in what is seen as an exercise of Roman authority over other churches, excommunicated the Quartodecimans for observing Easter on the 14th of Nisan, the date of the Jewish Passover, a tradition handed down by St. John the Evangelist (see Easter controversy). Celebration of Easter on a Sunday, as insisted on by the Pope, is the system that has prevailed (see computus).

Early popes helped spread Christianity and resolve doctrinal disputes.

Nicaea to East-West Schism (325–1054)

During these seven centuries, the church unified by Emperor Constantine within his empire effectively split first, after the 451 Council of Chalcedon, into Chalcedonian Christianity and Oriental Orthodoxy, and then, after the 1054 East-West Schism, into a Greek East and Latin West. In the West, the pope became independent of the Emperor in the East and became a major force in politics there.

Imperial capitals: Rome and Constantinople

With the conversion of Roman Emperor Constantine to Christianity and the Council of Nicea, the Christian religion received imperial sanction.

At the time of the Council (325), Rome was still seen as the capital of the empire, although the emperor rarely lived there. With the establishment of a new fixed capital in Constantinople (330), there arose a new center, which quickly grew in prominence, rivaling those in Rome, Alexandria and Antioch, which previously had been the most important centers of Christianity.

Of these, Rome claimed the principal place, as illustrated by Pope Leo the Great's statement, in about 446, that "the care of the universal Church should converge towards Peter's one seat, and nothing anywhere should be separated from its Head", clearly articulating the expansion of papal authority as doctrine, and promulgating his right to exercise "the full range of apostolic powers that Jesus had first bestowed on the apostle Peter".

The early ecumenical councils, especially the First Council of Constantinople (381), affirmed the importance of the Bishop of Rome's position, though all the councils in the Church's early history took place in cities in the East, and the Pope did not personally attend the council in 381. At the ecumenical Council of Chalcedon in 451, Leo I (through his emissaries) stated that he was "speaking with the voice of Peter". At this same council, the Bishop of Constantinople was given "equal privileges" to those of the Bishop of Rome, because "Constantinople is the New Rome". Pope Leo rejected this decree on the ground that it contravened the sixth canon of Nicaea and infringed the rights of Alexandria and Antioch.

Medieval development

After the fall of Rome, the pope served as a source of authority and continuity. Gregory the Great (''c'' 540–604) administered the church with strict reform. From an ancient senatorial family, Gregory worked with the stern judgment and discipline typical of ancient Roman rule. Theologically, he represents the shift from the classical to the medieval outlook, his popular writings full of dramatic miracles, potent relics, demons, angels, ghosts, and the approaching end of the world. made a collection of church legislation that contained forgeries and genuine documents. At first some attacked it as false, but it was taken as genuine throughout the rest of the Middle Ages It is now known as the False Decretals. It was part of a series of falsifications of previous legislation by a party in the Carolingian Empire whose primary aim was to free the church and the bishops from interference by the state and the metropolitan archbishops respectively, Thanks to this forgery in the collection, the decretals became one of the most persuasive forgeries in the history of the West. It supported Papal policies for centuries.

In the Middle Ages, popes struggled with monarchs over power.

From 1309 to 1377, the pope resided not in Rome but in Avignon. The Avignon Papacy was notorious for greed and corruption. During this period, the pope was effectively an ally of France, alienating France's enemies, such as England.

The pope was understood to have the power to draw on the "treasury" of merit built up by the saints and by Christ, so that he could grant indulgences, reducing one's time in purgatory. The concept that a monetary fine or donation accompanied contrition, confession, and prayer eventually gave way to the common assumption that indulgences depended on a simple monetary contribution. The Popes condemned misunderstandings and abuses, but were too pressed for income to exercise effective control over indulgences.

Various anti-popes challenged papal authority, especially during the Western Schism (1378–1417). In this schism, the papacy had returned to Rome from Avignon, but an anti-pope was installed in Avignon, as if to extend the papacy there.

The Eastern Church continued to decline with the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, undercutting Constantinople's claim to equality with Rome. Twice an Eastern Emperor tried to force the Eastern Church to reunify with the West. Papal claims of superiority were a sticking point in reunification, which failed in any event. In the 15th century, the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople.

Reformation to present (1517 to today)

Protestant Reformers criticized the Papacy as corrupt and characterized the pope as the antichrist.

Popes instituted a Catholic Reformation (1560–1648), which addressed challenges of the Protestant Reformation and instituted internal reforms. Pope Paul III (1534–49) initiated the Council of Trent (1545–63), whose definitions of doctrine and whose reforms sealed the triumph of the Papacy over elements in the church that sought conciliation with Protestants and opposed Papal claims.

Gradually forced to give up secular power, popes focused on spiritual issues.

In 1870, the First Vatican Council proclaimed the dogma of papal infallibility for those rare occasions the pope speaks ''ex cathedra'' (literally "from the chair (of Peter)") when issuing a solemn definition of faith or morals.

Later in the same year, Victor Emmanuel II seized Rome from the pope's control and substantially completed the unification of Italy. The Papal States that the pope lost had been used to support papal independence.

In 1929, the Lateran Treaty between Italy and Pope Pius XI established the Vatican City State, guaranteeing papal independence from secular rule.

In 1950, the pope defined the Assumption of Mary as dogma, the only time that a pope has spoken ''ex cathedra'' since papal infallibility was explicitly declared.

The Petrine Doctrine is still controversial as an issue of doctrine that continues to divide the eastern and western churches and separate Protestants from Rome.

Saint Peter and the origin of the office

The dogmas and traditions of the Roman Catholic Church teach that the institution of the papacy was first mandated by interpretations of several Biblical passages, mainly Matthew 16:13–19:

Catholics believe that this passage shows Jesus establishing his church on the shoulders of Simon son of John (Peter). The Catholic scholarly community agrees with the churches interpretation that the "rock" Jesus refers to in this passage is Peter. An interpretation that some scholars agree with.

Since the Protestant reformation, Protestant scholars have asserted that the "rock" Jesus referred to was Jesus himself or Peter's faith. The argument follows that, when Jesus says, "You are Peter ((Petros), small stone as a pebble), and upon this rock (petra), a large stone edifice as a cliff or ledge) I will build my Church." Jesus is pointing to something much larger than Peter, based on the clear distinction in the Greek of a small stone and a large rock cliff as well as the Greek grammatical structure, as the basis for His kingdom and not making a pope of Peter as the Papists claim. The truth that Peter affirmed in verse 16 is that Jesus is Christ and faith in Him serves as the foundation of the Church and the whole set of the apostles teaching not sloely or even mainly, little pebble, that is Peter. Other's, using Peter's own word's which shows understanding that Christ intended Himself as the foundation of the church and not Peter. Others have argued more thoroughly that the church is indeed built upon Jesus Himself and Faith but also on the disciples as the roots and foundations of the church on the basis of Paul's teaching in Romans and Ephesians, though, not primarily Peter

The reference to the "keys of the kingdom of heaven" here is the basis for the symbolic keys often found in Catholic papal symbolism, such as in the Vatican Coat of Arms (see below).

Election, death and resignation

Election

The pope was originally chosen by those senior clergymen resident in and near Rome. In 1059 the electorate was restricted to the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, and the individual votes of all Cardinal Electors were made equal in 1179. Pope Urban VI, elected 1378, was the last pope who was not already a cardinal at his election. Canon law requires that if a layman or non-bishop is elected, he receives episcopal consecration from the Dean of the College of Cardinals before assuming the Pontificate. Under present canon law, the pope is elected by the cardinal electors, comprising those cardinals who are under the age of 80.

The Second Council of Lyons was convened on 7 May 1274, to regulate the election of the pope. This Council decreed that the cardinal electors must meet within ten days of the pope's death, and that they must remain in seclusion until a pope has been elected; this was prompted by the three-year ''Sede Vacante'' following the death of Pope Clement IV in 1268. By the mid-16th century, the electoral process had evolved into its present form, allowing for variation in the time between the death of the pope and the meeting of the cardinal electors.

Traditionally, the vote was conducted by acclamation, by selection (by committee), or by plenary vote. Acclamation was the simplest procedure, consisting entirely of a voice vote, and was last used in 1621. Pope John Paul II abolished vote by acclamation and by selection by committee, and henceforth all Popes will be elected by full vote of the Sacred College of Cardinals by ballot.

The election of the pope almost always takes place in the Sistine Chapel, in a sequestered meeting called a "conclave" (so called because the cardinal electors are theoretically locked in, ''cum clave'', until they elect a new pope). Three cardinals are chosen by lot to collect the votes of absent cardinal electors (by reason of illness), three are chosen by lot to count the votes, and three are chosen by lot to review the count of the votes. The ballots are distributed and each cardinal elector writes the name of his choice on it and pledges aloud that he is voting for "one whom under God I think ought to be elected" before folding and depositing his vote on a plate atop a large chalice placed on the altar (in the 2005 conclave, a special urn was used for this purpose instead of a chalice and plate). The plate is then used to drop the ballot into the chalice, making it difficult for electors to insert multiple ballots. Before being read, the ballots are counted while still folded; if the number of ballots does not match the number of electors, the ballots are burned unopened and a new vote is held. Otherwise, each ballot is read aloud by the presiding Cardinal, who pierces the ballot with a needle and thread, stringing all the ballots together and tying the ends of the thread to ensure accuracy and honesty. Balloting continues until a Pope is elected by a two-thirds majority.

One of the most prominent aspects of the papal election process is the means by which the results of a ballot are announced to the world. Once the ballots are counted and bound together, they are burned in a special stove erected in the Sistine Chapel, with the smoke escaping through a small chimney visible from St. Peter's Square. The ballots from an unsuccessful vote are burned along with a chemical compound to create black smoke, or ''fumata nera''. (Traditionally, wet straw was used to produce the black smoke, but this was not completely reliable. The chemical compound is more reliable than the straw.) When a vote is successful, the ballots are burned alone, sending white smoke (''fumata bianca'') through the chimney and announcing to the world the election of a new pope. At the end of the conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI, church bells were also rung to signal that a new pope had been chosen.

The Dean of the College of Cardinals then asks two solemn questions of the cardinal who has been elected. First he asks, "Do you freely accept your election?" If he replies with the word ''"Accepto"'', his reign as Pope begins at that instant, ''not'' at the inauguration ceremony several days afterward. The Dean then asks, "By what name shall you be called?" The new pope then announces the regnal name he has chosen. (If the Dean is elected pope, the Vice Dean performs this task.)

The new pope is led through the "Door of Tears" to a dressing room where three sets of white papal vestments (''immantatio'') await: small, medium, and large. Donning the appropriate vestments and reemerging into the Sistine Chapel, the new pope is given the "Fisherman's Ring" by the Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, whom he first either reconfirms or reappoints. The pope then assumes a place of honor as the rest of the cardinals wait in turn to offer their first "obedience" (''adoratio'') and to receive his blessing.

The Senior Cardinal Deacon then announces from a balcony over St. Peter's Square the following proclamation: ''Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum! Habemus Papam!'' ("I announce to you a great joy! We have a pope!"). He then announces the new pope's Christian name along with his newly chosen regnal name.

Until 1978 the pope's election was followed in a few days by the Papal Coronation. A procession with great pomp and circumstance formed from the Sistine Chapel to St. Peter's Basilica, with the newly elected pope borne in the ''sedia gestatoria''. There, after a solemn Papal Mass, the new pope was crowned with the ''triregnum'' (papal tiara) and he gave for the first time as pope the famous blessing ''Urbi et Orbi'' ("to the City [Rome] and to the World"). Another renowned part of the coronation was the lighting of a bundle of flax at the top of a gilded pole, which would flare brightly for a moment and then promptly extinguish, with the admonition ''Sic transit gloria mundi'' ("Thus passes worldly glory"). A similar warning against papal hubris made on this occasion was the traditional exclamation ''"Annos Petri non videbis"'', reminding the newly crowned Pope that he would not live to see his rule lasting as long as that of St. Peter, who according to tradition headed the church for 35 years and has thus far been the longest reigning Pope in the history of the Catholic Church.

A traditionalist Catholic belief claims the existence of a Papal Oath sworn, at their coronation, by all popes from Pope Agatho to Pope Paul VI, but which since the abolition of the coronation ceremony is no longer used. There is no reliable authority for this claim.

The Latin term ''sede vacante'' ("while the see is vacant") refers to a papal interregnum, the period between the death of a pope and the election of his successor. From this term is derived the term sedevacantism, which designates a category of dissident Catholics who maintain that there is no canonically and legitimately elected Pope, and that there is therefore a ''Sede Vacante''. One of the most common reasons for holding this belief is the idea that the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and especially the replacement of the Tridentine Mass with the ''Mass of Paul VI'' are heretical, and that those responsible for initiating and maintaining these changes are heretics and not true popes. Sedevacantists are considered to be schismatics by the mainstream Roman Catholic Church.

For centuries, from 1378 on, those elected to the papacy were predominantly Italians. Prior to the election of the Polish cardinal Karol Wojtyla as Pope John Paul II in 1978, the last non-Italian was Pope Adrian VI of the Netherlands, elected in 1522. John Paul II was followed by the German-born Benedict XVI, leading some to believe that, although Rome is in Italy, Italian domination of the papacy is over.

Death

The current regulations regarding a papal interregnum—that is, a ''sede vacante'' ("vacant seat")—were promulgated by John Paul II in his 1996 document ''Universi Dominici Gregis''. During the "Sede Vacante", the Sacred College of Cardinals, composed of the pope's principal advisors and assistants, is collectively responsible for the government of the Church and of the Vatican itself, under the direction of the Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church; however, canon law specifically forbids the cardinals from introducing any innovation in the government of the Church during the vacancy of the Holy See. Any decision that requires the assent of the pope has to wait until the new pope has been elected and accepts office.

In recent centuries it was traditional, when a Pope was judged to have died, for the Cardinal Chamberlain to confirm the death ceremonially by gently tapping the Pope's head thrice with a silver hammer, calling his birth name each time. This custom was not followed at the death of Pope John Paul I and was not revived upon the death of Pope John Paul II. The Cardinal Chamberlain then retrieves the Ring of the Fisherman and cuts it in two in the presence of the Cardinals. The deceased pope's seals are defaced, to keep them from ever being used again, and his personal apartment is sealed.

The body then lies in state for several days before being interred in the crypt of a leading church or cathedral; the popes of the 20th century were all interred in St. Peter's Basilica. A nine-day period of mourning (''novendialis'') follows the interment of the late Pope.

Resignation

The Code of Canon Law 332 §2 states, "If it happens that the Roman Pontiff resigns his office, it is required for validity that the resignation is made freely and properly manifested but not that it is accepted by anyone."

Titles

Official list of titles

The official list of titles of the Pope, in the order in which they are given in the Annuario Pontificio, is: Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Sovereign of the State of Vatican City, Servant of the Servants of God.

The official list of titles does not include all the titles that are officially used.

Pope

The best-known title of the Popes, that of "Pope", does not appear in the official list, but is commonly used in the titles of documents, and appears, in abbreviated form, in their signatures. Thus Pope Paul VI signed as "Paulus PP. VI", the "PP." standing for "''Papa''" ("Pope").

The title "Pope" was from the early 3rd century an honorific designation used for ''any'' bishop in the West. In the East it was used only for the Bishop of Alexandria.

The first record of the application of this title to a Pope appears in a synod of 495 with reference to Pope Gelasius I. But at that time, and down to the 9th century, other bishops too referred to themselves as vicars of Christ, and for another four centuries this description was sometimes used of kings and even judges, as it had been used in the 5th and 6th centuries to refer to the Byzantine emperor. Earlier still, in the 3rd century, Tertullian used "vicar of Christ" to refer to the Holy Spirit sent by Jesus. Its use specifically for the Pope appears in the 13th century in connection with the reforms of Pope Innocent III, as can be observed already in his 1199 letter to Leo I, King of Armenia. Other historians suggest that this title was already used in this way in association with the pontificate of Pope Eugenius III (1145–1153).

This title "Vicar of Christ" is thus not used of the Pope alone and has been used of all bishops since the early centuries. The Second Vatican Council referred to all bishops as "vicars and ambassadors of Christ", and this description of the bishops was repeated by Pope John Paul II in his encyclical ''Ut unum sint,'' 95. The difference is that the other bishops are vicars of Christ for their own local churches, the Pope is vicar of Christ for the whole Church.

On at least one occasion the title "Vicar of God" (a reference to Christ as God) was used of the Pope.

The title "Vicar of Peter" (''Vicarius Petri'') is used only of the Pope, not of other bishops. Variations of it include: "Vicar of the Prince of the Apostles" (''Vicarius Principis Apostolorum'') and "Vicar of the Apostolic See" (''Vicarius Sedis Apostolicae''). Saint Boniface described Pope Gregory II as vicar of Peter in the oath of fealty that he took in 722. In today's Roman Missal, the description "vicar of Peter" is found also in the collect of the Mass for a saint who was a pope.

Pontiff

The term "pontiff" is derived from the Latin word ''pontifex'', which literally means "bridge builder" (''pons'' + ''facere''), and which designated a member of the principal college of priests in ancient Rome. The Latin word was translated into ancient Greek variously: as ἱεροδιδάσκαλος, ἱερονόμος, ἱεροφύλαξ, ἱεροφάντης, or ἀρχιερεύς (high priest) The head of the college was known as the Pontifex Maximus (the greatest pontiff).

In Christian use, ''pontifex'' appears in the Vulgate translation of the New Testament to indicate the Jewish high priest (in the original, ἀρχιερεύς). The term came to be applied to any Christian bishop, but since the 11th century commonly refers specifically to the Bishop of Rome, who is more strictly called the "Roman Pontiff". The use of the term to refer to bishops in general is reflected in the terms "Roman Pontifical" (a book containing rites reserved for bishops, such as confirmation and ordination) and "pontificals" (the insignia of bishops).

The ''Annuario Pontificio'' lists as one of the official titles of the Pope that of "Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church" (in Latin, ''Summus Pontifex Ecclesiae Universalis''). He is also commonly called the Supreme Pontiff or the Sovereign Pontiff (in Latin, ''Summus Pontifex'').

''Pontifex Maximus'', similar in meaning to ''Summus Pontifex'', is a title commonly found in inscriptions on buildings, paintings, statues and coins of the Popes, usually abbreviated as "Pont. Max" or "P.M." The office of pontifex maximus, or head of the college of pontiffs, was held by Julius Caesar and thereafter by the Roman emperors until Gratian (375-383) relinquished it. Tertullian, when he had become a Montanist, used the title derisively of either the Pope or the Bishop of Carthage.

Servant of the Servants of God

The title "Servant of the Servants of God", although used by Church leaders including St. Augustine and St. Benedict, was first used by Pope St. Gregory the Great in his dispute with the Patriarch of Constantinople after the latter assumed the title "Ecumenical Patriarch". It was not reserved for the pope until the 13th century. The documents of the Second Vatican Council reinforced the understanding of this title as a reference to the pope's role as a function of collegial authority, in which the Bishop of Rome serves the world's bishops.

Patriarch of the West

From 1863 until 2005, the ''Annuario Pontificio'' included also the title "Patriarch of the West". This title was first used by Pope Theodore I in 642, and was only used occasionally. Indeed, it did not begin to appear in the pontifical yearbook until 1863. On 22 March 2006, the Vatican released a statement explaining this omission on the grounds of expressing a "historical and theological reality" and of "being useful to ecumenical dialogue". The title Patriarch of the West symbolized the pope's special relationship with, and jurisdiction over, the Latin Church—and the omission of the title neither symbolizes in any way a change in this relationship, nor distorts the relationship between the Holy See and the Eastern Churches, as solemnly proclaimed by the Second Vatican Council.

Other titles

Other titles commonly used are "His Holiness", "Holy Father". In Spanish and Italian, "''Beatísimo/Beatissimo Padre''" (Most Blessed Father) is often used in preference to "''Santísimo/Santissimo Padre''" (Most Holy Father). In the medieval period, "''Dominus Apostolicus''" ("the Apostolic Lord") was also used.

Signature

As indicated above, a Pope normally signs documents using the title "Papa" in the abbreviated form "PP." and with the numeral, as in "Benedictus PP. XVI" (Pope Benedict XVI). Exceptions are bulls of canonization and decrees of ecumenical councils, which the Pope signs with the formula, "Ego N. Episcopus Ecclesiae catholicae", without the numeral, as in "Ego Paulus Episcopus Ecclesiae catholicae" (I, Paul, Bishop of the catholic/universal Church). The Pope's signature is followed, in bulls of canonization, by those of all the cardinals resident in Rome, and in decrees of ecumenical councils, by the signatures of the other bishops participating in the council, each signing as Bishop of a particular see.

Papal bulls are headed ''N. Episcopus Servus Servorum Dei'' ("Name, Bishop, Servant of the Servants of God"). In general, they are not signed by the Pope, but Pope John Paul II introduced in the mid-1980s the custom by which the Pope signs not only bulls of canonization but also, using his normal signature, such as "Benedictus PP. XVI", bulls of nomination of bishops.

Regalia and insignia

"Triregnum", also called the "tiara" or "triple crown", represents the pope's three functions as "supreme pastor", "supreme teacher" and "supreme priest". Recent popes have not, however, worn the ''triregnum'', though it remains the symbol of the papacy and has not been abolished. In liturgical ceremonies Popes wear an episcopal mitre (an erect cloth hat).

Pastoral Staff topped by a crucifix, a custom established before the 13th century (see papal cross).

Pallium, or pall, a circular band of fabric worn around the neck over the chasuble. It forms a yoke about the neck, breast and shoulders and has two pendants hanging down in front and behind, and is ornamented with six crosses. Previously, the pallium worn by the pope was identical to those he granted to the primates, but in 2005 Pope Benedict XVI began to use a distinct papal pallium that is larger than the primatial, and was adorned with red crosses instead of black.

"Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven", the image of two keys, one gold and one silver. The silver key symbolizes the power to bind and loose on Earth, and the gold key the power to bind and loose in Heaven.

Ring of the Fisherman, a gold ring decorated with a depiction of St. Peter in a boat casting his net, with the name of the reigning Pope around it.

''Umbraculum'' (better known in the Italian form ''ombrellino'') is a canopy or umbrella consisting of alternating red and gold stripes, which used to be carried above the pope in processions.

''Sedia gestatoria'', a mobile throne carried by twelve footmen (''palafrenieri'') in red uniforms, accompanied by two attendants bearing ''flabella'' (fans made of white ostrich feathers), and sometimes a large canopy, carried by eight attendants. The use of the ''flabella'' was discontinued by Pope John Paul I. The use of the ''sedia gestatoria'' was discontinued by Pope John Paul II, being replaced by the so-called Popemobile.

In heraldry, each pope has his own Papal Coat of Arms. Though unique for each pope, the arms are always surmounted by the two keys in saltire (i.e., crossed over one another so as to form an ''X'') behind the escutcheon (shield) (one silver key and one gold key, tied with a red cord), and above them a silver ''triregnum'' with three gold crowns and red ''infulae'' (lappets—two strips of fabric hanging from the back of the triregnum which fall over the neck and shoulders when worn). This is blazoned: "two keys in saltire or and argent, interlacing in the rings or, beneath a tiara argent, crowned or"). With the recent election of Benedict XVI in 2005, his personal coat of arms eliminated the papal tiara; a mitre with three horizontal lines is used in its place, with the pallium, a papal symbol of authority more ancient than the tiara, the use of which is also granted to metropolitan archbishops as a sign of communion with the See of Rome, was added underneath of the shield. The distinctive feature of the crossed keys behind the shield was maintained. The omission of the tiara in the Pope's personal coat of arms, however, did not mean the disappearance of it from papal heraldry, since the coat of arms of the Holy See was kept unaltered.

The flag most frequently associated with the pope is the yellow and white flag of Vatican City, with the arms of the Holy See (blazoned: "Gules, two keys in saltire or and argent, interlacing in the rings or, beneath a tiara argent, crowned or") on the right-hand side (the "fly") in the white half of the flag (the left-hand side—the "hoist"—is yellow). The pope's escucheon does not appear on the flag. This flag was first adopted in 1808, whereas the previous flag had been red and gold, the traditional colors of the papacy. Although Pope Benedict XVI replaced the triregnum with a mitre on his personal coat of arms, it has been retained on the flag.

Status and authority

First Vatican Council

The status and authority of the Pope in the Catholic Church was dogmatically defined by the First Vatican Council on 18 July 1870. In its Dogmatic Constitution of the Church of Christ, the Council established the following canons:

"If anyone says that the blessed Apostle Peter was not established by the Lord Christ as the chief of all the apostles, and the visible head of the whole militant Church, or, that the same received great honour but did not receive from the same our Lord Jesus Christ directly and immediately the primacy in true and proper jurisdiction: let him be anathema.

If anyone says that it is not from the institution of Christ the Lord Himself, or by divine right that the blessed Peter has perpetual successors in the primacy over the universal Church, or that the Roman Pontiff is not the successor of blessed Peter in the same primacy, let him be anathema.

If anyone thus speaks, that the Roman Pontiff has only the office of inspection or direction, but not the full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the universal Church, not only in things which pertain to faith and morals, but also in those which pertain to the discipline and government of the Church spread over the whole world; or, that he possesses only the more important parts, but not the whole plenitude of this supreme power; or that this power of his is not ordinary and immediate, or over the churches altogether and individually, and over the pastors and the faithful altogether and individually: let him be anathema.

We, adhering faithfully to the tradition received from the beginning of the Christian faith, to the glory of God, our Saviour, the elevation of the Catholic religion and the salvation of Christian peoples, with the approbation of the sacred Council, teach and explain that the dogma has been divinely revealed: that the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra, that is, when carrying out the duty of the pastor and teacher of all Christians by his supreme apostolic authority he defines a doctrine of faith or morals to be held by the universal Church, through the divine assistance promised him in blessed Peter, operates with that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer wished that His church be instructed in defining doctrine on faith and morals; and so such definitions of the Roman Pontiff from himself, but not from the consensus of the Church, are unalterable. But if anyone presumes to contradict this definition of Ours, which may God forbid: let him be anathema."

Second Vatican Council

In its Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (1964), the Second Vatican Council declared:

"Among the principal duties of bishops the preaching of the Gospel occupies an eminent place. For bishops are preachers of the faith, who lead new disciples to Christ, and they are authentic teachers, that is, teachers endowed with the authority of Christ, who preach to the people committed to them the faith they must believe and put into practice, and by the light of the Holy Spirit illustrate that faith. They bring forth from the treasury of Revelation new things and old, making it bear fruit and vigilantly warding off any errors that threaten their flock. Bishops, teaching in communion with the Roman Pontiff, are to be respected by all as witnesses to divine and Catholic truth. In matters of faith and morals, the bishops speak in the name of Christ and the faithful are to accept their teaching and adhere to it with a religious assent. This religious submission of mind and will must be shown in a special way to the authentic magisterium of the Roman Pontiff, even when he is not speaking ex cathedra; that is, it must be shown so that his supreme magisterium is acknowledged with reverence, the judgments made by him are sincerely adhered to, according to his manifest mind and will. His mind and will in the matter may be known either from the character of the documents, from his frequent repetition of the same doctrine, or from his manner of speaking.

... this infallibility with which the Divine Redeemer willed His Church to be endowed in defining doctrine of faith and morals, extends as far as the deposit of Revelation extends, which must be religiously guarded and faithfully expounded. And this is the infallibility which the Roman Pontiff, the head of the college of bishops, enjoys in virtue of his office, when, as the supreme shepherd and teacher of all the faithful, who confirms his brethren in their faith, by a definitive act he proclaims a doctrine of faith or morals. And therefore his definitions, of themselves, and not from the consent of the Church, are justly styled irreformable, since they are pronounced with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, promised to him in blessed Peter, and therefore they need no approval of others, nor do they allow an appeal to any other judgment. For then the Roman Pontiff is not pronouncing judgment as a private person, but as the supreme teacher of the universal Church, in whom the charism of infallibility of the Church itself is individually present, he is expounding or defending a doctrine of Catholic faith. The infallibility promised to the Church resides also in the body of Bishops, when that body exercises the supreme magisterium with the successor of Peter. To these definitions the assent of the Church can never be wanting, on account of the activity of that same Holy Spirit, by which the whole flock of Christ is preserved and progresses in unity of faith."

Politics of the Holy See

Residence and jurisdiction

The pope's official seat or cathedral is the Basilica of St. John Lateran, and his official residence is the Palace of the Vatican. He also possesses a summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, situated on the site of the ancient city of Alba Longa. Until the time of the Avignon Papacy, the residence of the Pope was the Lateran Palace, donated by the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great.

The Pope's ecclesiastical jurisdiction (the Holy See) is distinct from his secular jurisdiction (Vatican City). It is the Holy See that conducts international relations; for hundreds of years, the papal court (the Roman Curia) has functioned as the government of the Catholic Church.

The names "Holy See" and "Apostolic See" are ecclesiastical terminology for the ordinary jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome (including the Roman Curia); the pope's various honors, powers, and privileges within the Catholic Church and the international community derive from his Episcopate of Rome in lineal succession from the Apostle Saint Peter (see Apostolic Succession). Consequently, Rome has traditionally occupied a central position in the Catholic Church, although this is not necessarily so. The pope derives his pontificate from being Bishop of Rome but is not required to live there; according to the Latin formula ''ubi Papa, ibi Curia'', wherever the Pope resides is the central government of the Church, provided that the pope is Bishop of Rome. As such, between 1309 and 1378, the popes lived in Avignon, France (see Avignon Papacy), a period often called the Babylonian Captivity in allusion to the Biblical exile of Israel.

Though the Pope is the diocesan Bishop of the Diocese of Rome, he delegates most of the day-to-day work of leading the diocese to the Cardinal Vicar, who assures direct episcopal oversight of the diocese's pastoral needs, not in his own name but in that of the Pope. The current Cardinal Vicar is Agostino Vallini, who was appointed to the office in June 2008.

Political role

Body	Sovereign of the State of the Vatican City
Insignia	Coat of arms of the Vatican City.svg
Insigniasize	120px
Insigniacaption	Coat of Arms of the Vatican
Incumbent	Benedict XVI
Style	His Holiness
Residence	Papal Palace
Firstsovereign	Pope Pius XI
Formation	11 February 1929
Website	http://www.va }}

Though the progressive Christianisation of the Roman Empire in the 4th century did not confer upon bishops civil authority within the state, the gradual withdrawal of imperial authority during the 5th century left the pope the senior imperial civilian official in Rome, as bishops were increasingly directing civil affairs in other cities of the Western Empire. This status as a secular and civil ruler was vividly displayed by Pope Leo I's confrontation with Attila in 452. The first expansion of papal rule outside of Rome came in 728 with the Donation of Sutri, which in turn was substantially increased in 754, when the Frankish ruler Pippin the Younger gave to the pope the land from his conquest of the Lombards. The pope may have utilized the forged Donation of Constantine to gain this land, which formed the core of the Papal States. This document, accepted as genuine until the 15th century, states that Constantine I placed the entire Western Empire of Rome under papal rule. In 800 Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish ruler Charlemagne as Roman Emperor, a major step toward establishing what later became known as the Holy Roman Empire; from that date onward the popes claimed the prerogative to crown the Emperor, though the right fell into disuse after the coronation of Charles V in 1530. Pope Pius VII was present at the coronation of Napoleon I in 1804, but did not actually perform the crowning. As mentioned above, the pope's sovereignty over the Papal States ended in 1870 with their annexation by Italy.

Popes like Alexander VI, an ambitious if spectacularly corrupt politician, and Pope Julius II, a formidable general and statesman, were not afraid to use power to achieve their own ends, which included increasing the power of the papacy. This political and temporal authority was demonstrated through the papal role in the Holy Roman Empire (especially prominent during periods of contention with the Emperors, such as during the Pontificates of Pope Gregory VII and Pope Alexander III). Papal bulls, interdict, and excommunication (or the threat thereof) have been used many times to increase papal power. The Bull ''Laudabiliter'' in 1155 authorized Henry II of England to invade Ireland. In 1207, Innocent III placed England under interdict until King John made his kingdom a fiefdom to the Pope, complete with yearly tribute, saying, "we offer and freely yield...to our lord Pope Innocent III and his catholic successors, the whole kingdom of England and the whole kingdom of Ireland with all their rights and appurtenences for the remission of our sins". The Bull ''Inter caetera'' in 1493 led to the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, which divided the world into areas of Spanish and Portuguese rule. The Bull ''Regnans in Excelsis'' in 1570 excommunicated Elizabeth I of England and declared that all her subjects were released from all allegiance to her. The Bull ''Inter Gravissimas'' in 1582 established the Gregorian Calendar.

International position

Under international law, a serving head of state has sovereign immunity from the jurisdiction of the courts of other countries, though not from that of international tribunals. This immunity is sometimes loosely referred to as "diplomatic immunity," which is, strictly speaking, the immunity enjoyed by the ''diplomatic representatives'' of a head of state.

International law treats the Holy See, essentially the central government of the Roman Catholic Church, as the juridical equal of a state. It is distinct from the state of Vatican City, existing for many centuries before the foundation of the latter. (It is common, however, for publications to use "Holy See," "Vatican/Vatican City," and even "Rome" interchangeably, and incorrectly.) Most countries of the world maintain the same form of diplomatic relations with the Holy See that they entertain with other states. Even countries without those diplomatic relations participate in international organizations of which the Holy See is a full member.

It is as head of the Holy See, not of Vatican City, that the U.S. Justice Department ruled that the Pope enjoys head-of-state immunity. This head-of-state immunity, recognized by the United States, must be distinguished from that envisaged under the United States' Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976, which, while recognizing the basic immunity of foreign governments from being sued in American courts, lays down nine exceptions, including commercial activity and actions in the United States by agents or employees of the foreign governments. It was in relation to the latter that, in November 2008, the United States Court of Appeals in Cincinnati decided that a case over sexual abuse by Catholic priests could proceed, provided the plaintiffs could prove that the bishops accused of negligent supervision were acting as employees or agents of the Holy See and were following official Holy See policy.

In April 2010 there was press coverage in Britain concerning a proposed plan by atheist campaigners and a prominent barrister to have Pope Benedict XVI arrested and prosecuted in the UK for alleged offences, dating from several decades before, in failing to take appropriate action regarding Catholic sex abuse cases and concerning their disputing his immunity from prosecution in that country. This was generally dismissed as "unrealistic and spurious". Another barrister said that it was a "matter of embarrassment that a senior British lawyer would want to allow himself to be associated with such a silly idea".

Objections to the papacy

The Pope's claim to authority is either disputed or not recognised at all by other churches. The reasons for these objections differ from denomination to denomination.

Orthodox, Anglican and Old Catholic churches

Some Christian churches (Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Old Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Independent Catholic Churches, etc.) accept the doctrine of Apostolic Succession and, to varying extents, papal claims to a primacy of honour while generally rejecting that the pope is the successor to Peter in any unique sense not true of any other bishop. Primacy is regarded as a consequence of the pope's position as bishop of the original capital city of the Roman Empire, a definition explicitly spelled out in the 28th canon of the Council of Chalcedon. These churches see no foundation to papal claims of ''universal immediate jurisdiction'', or to claims of papal infallibility. Several of these churches refer to such claims as ''ultramontanism''.

Protestant denominations

Many Christian denominations reject the claims of Petrine primacy of honor, Petrine primacy of jurisdiction, and papal infallibility. These denominations vary from simply not accepting the Pope's claim to authority as legitimate and valid, to believing that the Pope is the Antichrist from 1 John 2:18, the Man of Sin from 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12, and the Beast out of the Earth from Revelation 13:11-18. The sweeping rejection includes some denominations of Lutherans: Confessional Lutherans hold that the pope is the Antichrist, stating that this article of faith is part of a ''quia'' rather than ''quatenus'' subscription to the Book of Concord. In 1932, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS) adopted ''A Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod'', which a small number of Lutheran church bodies now hold. Statement 43, ''Of the Antichrist'':

43. As to the Antichrist we teach that the prophecies of the Holy Scriptures concerning the Antichrist, 2 Thess. 2:3-12;1 John 2:18, have been fulfilled in the Pope of Rome and his dominion. All the features of the Antichrist as drawn in these prophecies, including the most abominable and horrible ones, for example, that the Antichrist "as God sitteth in the temple of God," 2 Thess. 2:4; that he anathematizes the very heart of the Gospel of Christ, that is, the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins by grace alone, for Christ's sake alone, through faith alone, without any merit or worthiness in man (Rom. 3:20-28; Gal. 2:16); that he recognizes only those as members of the Christian Church who bow to his authority; and that, like a deluge, he had inundated the whole Church with his antichristian doctrines till God revealed him through the Reformation—these very features are the outstanding characteristics of the Papacy. (Cf. Smalcald Articles, Triglot, p. 515, Paragraphs 39-41; p. 401, Paragraph 45; M. pp. 336, 258.) Hence we subscribe to the statement of our Confessions that the Pope is "the very Antichrist." (Smalcald Articles, Triglot, p. 475, Paragraph 10; M., p. 308.)

The claim of temporal power over all secular governments, including territorial claims in Italy, raises objection. The papacy's complex relationship with secular states such as the Roman and Byzantine Empires are also objections. Some disapprove of the autocratic character of the papal office. In Western Christianity these objections both contributed to and are products of the Protestant Reformation.

Antipopes

Groups sometimes form around antipopes, who claim the Pontificate without being canonically and properly elected to it.

Traditionally, this term was reserved for claimants with a significant following of cardinals or other clergy. The existence of an antipope is usually due either to doctrinal controversy within the Church (heresy) or to confusion as to who is the legitimate pope at the time (see schism). Briefly in the 15th century, three separate lines of Popes claimed authenticity (see Papal Schism). Even Catholics don't all agree whether certain historical figures were Popes or antipopes. Though antipope movements were significant at one time, they are now overwhelmingly minor fringe causes.

Other popes

In the earlier centuries of Christianity, the title "Pope," meaning "father," had been used by all bishops. Some popes used the term and others didn't. Eventually, the title became associated especially with the Bishop of Rome. In a few cases, the term is used for other Christian clerical authorities.

In the Roman Catholic Church

The "Black Pope" is a name that was popularly, but unofficially, given to the Superior General of the Society of Jesus due to the Jesuits' importance within the Church. This name, based on the black colour of his cassock, was used to suggest a parallel between him and the "White Pope" (since the time of Pope Pius V the Popes dress in white) and the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (formerly called the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith), whose red cardinal's cassock gave him the name of the "Red Pope" in view of the authority over all territories that were not considered in some way Catholic. In the present time this cardinal has power over mission territories for Catholicism, essentially the Churches of Africa and Asia, but in the past his competence extended also to all lands where Protestants or Eastern Christianity was dominant. Some remnants of this situation remain, with the result that, for instance, New Zealand is still in the care of this Congregation.

In the Eastern Churches

Since the papacy of Heraclas in the 3rd century, the Bishop of the Alexandria in both the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria continue to be called "Pope", the former being called "Coptic Pope" or, more properly, "Pope and Patriarch of All Africa on the Holy Orthodox and Apostolic Throne of Saint Mark the Evangelist and Holy Apostle" and the last called "Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa".

In the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Russian Orthodox Church and Serbian Orthodox Church, it is not unusual for a village priest to be called a "pope" ("поп" ''pop''). However, this should be differentiated from the words used for the head of the Catholic Church (Bulgarian "папа" ''papa'', Russian "папа римский" ''papa rimskiy'').

In New Religious Movements

Some New Religious Movements, especially those that have disassociated themselves from the Catholic Church yet retain a Catholic hierarchical framework, will use the designation "Pope" for a movement's founder or current leader. One example in Africa is the Legio Maria Church of Africa. Another example is Cao Dai, a Vietnamese faith that duplicates the Catholic hierarchy, which is declared legitimate by religious authorities in Cao Dai due to the fact that, according to them, God created both Catholicism and Cao Dai.

Lengths of papal reign

Longest-reigning popes

Although the average reign of the pope from the Middle Ages was a decade, a number of those whose reign lengths can be determined from contemporary historical data are the following: # Pius IX (1846–1878): 31 years, 7 months and 23 days (11,560 days). # John Paul II (1978–2005): 26 years, 5 months and 18 days (9,665 days). # Leo XIII (1878–1903): 25 years, 5 months and 1 day (9,281 days). # Pius VI (1775–1799): 24 years, 6 months and 15 days (8,962 days). # Adrian I (772–795): 23 years, 10 months and 25 days (8,729 days). # Pius VII (1800–1823): 23 years, 5 months and 7 days (8,560 days). # Alexander III (1159–1181): 21 years, 11 months and 24 days (8,029 days). # St. Sylvester I (314–335): 21 years, 11 months and 1 day (8,005 days). # St. Leo I (440–461): 21 years, 1 month, and 13 days. (7,713 days). # Urban VIII (1623–1644): 20 years, 11 months and 24 days (7,664 days).

Saint Peter is thought to have reigned for over 30 years (AD 29 – 64?/67?), but the exact length is not reliably known.

Shortest-reigning popes

Conversely, there have been a number of popes whose reign lasted less than a month. In the following list the number of calendar days includes partial days. Thus, for example, if a pope's reign commenced on 1 August and he died on 2 August, this would count as having reigned for two calendar days. #Urban VII (15–27 September 1590): reigned for 13 calendar days, died before coronation. #Boniface VI (April 896): reigned for 16 calendar days #Celestine IV (25 October – 10 November 1241): reigned for 17 calendar days, died before consecration. #Theodore II (December 897): reigned for 20 calendar days #Sisinnius (15 January – 4 February 708): reigned for 21 calendar days #Marcellus II (9 April – 1 May 1555): reigned for 22 calendar days #Damasus II (17 July – 9 August 1048): reigned for 24 calendar days #Pius III (22 September – 18 October 1503): reigned for 27 calendar days #Leo XI (1–27 April 1605): reigned for 27 calendar days #Benedict V (22 May – 23 June 964): reigned for 33 calendar days #

John Paul I (26 August – 28 September 1978): reigned for 33 calendar days.

Stephen (23–26 March 752), died of apoplexy three days after his election, and before his consecration as a bishop. He is not recognized as a valid Pope, but was added to the lists of popes in the 15th century as ''Stephen II'', causing difficulties in enumerating later Popes named Stephen. He was removed in 1961 from the Vatican's list.

See also

Caesaropapism

History of the Papacy

Investiture Controversy

Leaders of Christianity

Legends surrounding the papacy

List of canonised popes

List of popes

Papal Coronation

Papal Inauguration

Papal name

Papal regalia and insignia

Papal Slippers

Pontiff

Prophecy of the Popes

Sedevacantism

References

;Notes

;Footnotes

;Bibliography

Hartmann Grisar (1845–1932), ''History of Rome and the Popes in the Middle Ages'', AMS Press; Reprint edition (1912). ISBN 0-404-09370-1

. Reprint of an English translation originally published in 1916.

Ludwig von Pastor, ''History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages; Drawn from the Secret Archives of the Vatican and other original sources'', 40 vols. St. Louis, B. Herder 1898 – (World Cat entry)

James Joseph Walsh, ''The Popes and Science; the History of the Papal Relations to Science During the Middle Ages and Down to Our Own Time'', Fordam University Press, 1908, reprinted 2003, Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 0-7661-3646-9

Further reading

Brusher, Joseph H. ''Popes Through The Ages''. Princeton: D. Van Nostland Company, Inc., 1959.

Chamberlin, E.R. ''The Bad Popes''. 1969. Reprint: Barnes and Noble, 1993. ISBN 978-0-88029-116-3.

Dollison, John ''Pope-pourri''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. ISBN 978-0-671-88615-8.

Kelly, J.N.D. ''The Oxford Dictionary of Popes''. Oxford: University Press, 1986. ISBN 0-19-213964-9.

Maxwell-Stuart, P.G. ''Chronicle of the Popes: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Papacy from St. Peter to the Present; with 308 Illustrations, 105 in Color''. London: Thames and Hudson, 1997. ISBN 0-500-01798-0.

Norwich, John Julius. ''The Popes: a History''. Chatto, 2011.

External links

Catholic Encyclopedia entry

Pope Endurance League - Sortable list of Popes

Data Base of more than 23,000 documents of the Popes in latin and modern languages

The Holy See - The Holy Father—website for the past and present Holy Fathers (since Pope Leo XIII)

"papacy." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online

Origins of Peter as Pope

The Authority of the Pope: Part I

The Authority of the Pope: Part II

Category:Ecclesiastical titles Category:Episcopacy in Roman Catholicism Category:Religious leadership roles hidden=yes

af:Pous als:Papst ang:Pāpa ar:بابوية كاثوليكية an:Papa arc:ܦܐܦܐ roa-rup:Papa ast:Papa az:Papa bn:পোপ zh-min-nan:Kàu-chong be:Папства be-x-old:Папа bar:Papst bs:Papa br:Pab bg:Папа ca:Papa cv:Рим паппи ceb:Papa cs:Papež co:Papa cy:Pab da:Pave pdc:Baapscht de:Papst et:Paavst el:Πάπας eml:Papa es:Papa eo:Papo eu:Aita Santua fa:پاپ fr:Pape fy:Paus ga:Pápa gd:Pàp gl:Papa ko:교황 hy:Հռոմի Պապ hi:पोप hr:Papa io:Papo id:Paus (Katolik Roma) ia:Papa ie:Pápa is:Páfi it:Papa he:אפיפיור jv:Paus kn:ಪೋಪ್ ka:რომის პაპი kw:Pab sw:Papa ku:Papa la:Papa lv:Romas pāvests lb:Poopst lt:Popiežius li:Paus ln:Pápa lmo:Papa hu:Pápa (egyházfő) mk:Папа ml:മാർപ്പാപ്പ mr:पोप arz:بابا الفاتيكان ms:Paus (Katolik) mwl:Papa nah:Huēyiteōpixcātlahtoāni na:Dopope nl:Paus nds-nl:Paus ja:教皇 nap:Papa no:Pave nn:Pave nrm:Pape oc:Papa tpi:Pop nds:Paapst pl:Papież pt:Papa ro:Papă qu:Tayta Papa ru:Папство sah:Паапа sc:Paba sco:Pape sq:Papa scn:Papa simple:Pope sk:Pápež sl:Papež szl:Papjyż sr:Папа sh:Papa fi:Paavi sv:Påve tl:Papa ta:திருத்தந்தை te:పోప్ th:พระสันตะปาปา tr:Papa uk:Папа Римський ur:پوپ vec:Papa vi:Giáo hoàng fiu-vro:Paast (Rooma) wa:Påpe vls:Paus war:Papa yi:פויבסט yo:Pópù zh-yue:教宗 bat-smg:Puopėžios zh:教宗

Name	Hildegard of Bingen
Birth date	1098
Death date	September 17, 1179
Feast day	17 September
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Communion, Lutheranism
Birth place	Bermersheim vor der Höhe, County Palatine of the Rhine, Holy Roman Empire
Death place	Bingen am Rhein, County Palatine of the Rhine, Holy Roman Empire
Titles	Sibyl of the Rhine
Canonized date	No formal canonization, but her name is in the Roman Martyrology
Major shrine	Eibingen Abbey
Prayer attrib	}}

Blessed Hildegard of Bingen (; ) (1098 – 17 September 1179), also known as Saint Hildegard, and Sibyl of the Rhine, was a writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, German Benedictine abbess, visionary, and polymath. Elected a ''magistra'' by her fellow nuns in 1136, she founded the monasteries of Rupertsberg in 1150 and Eibingen in 1165. One of her works as a composer, the ''Ordo Virtutum'', is an early example of liturgical drama.

She wrote theological, botanical and medicinal texts, as well as letters, liturgical songs, poems, and arguably the oldest surviving morality play, while supervising brilliant miniature Illuminations.

Biography

Hildegard of Bingen's date of birth is uncertain. It has been concluded that she may have been born in the year 1098. Hildegard was raised in a family of free nobles. She was her parents' tenth child, sickly from birth. In her ''Vita'', Hildegard explains that from a very young age she had experienced visions.

Perhaps due to Hildegard's visions, or as a method of political positioning, Hildegard's parents, Hildebert and Mechthilde, offered her as a tithe to the church. The date of Hildegard's enclosure in the church is contentious. Her ''Vita'' tells us she was enclosed with an older nun, Jutta, at the age of eight. However, Jutta's enclosure date is known to be in 1112, at which time Hildegard would have been fourteen. Some scholars speculate that Hildegard was placed in the care of Jutta, the daughter of Count Stephan II of Sponheim, at the age of eight, before the two women were enclosed together six years later. There is no written record of the twenty-four years of Hildegard's life that she was in the convent together with Jutta. It is possible that Hildegard could have been a chantress and a worker in the herbarium and infirmarium. In any case, Hildegard and Jutta were enclosed at Disibodenberg in the Palatinate Forest in what is now Germany. Jutta was also a visionary and thus attracted many followers who came to visit her at the enclosure. Hildegard also tells us that Jutta taught her to read and write, but that she was unlearned and therefore incapable of teaching Hildegard Biblical interpretation. Hildegard and Jutta most likely prayed, meditated, read scriptures such as the psalter, and did some sort of handwork during the hours of the Divine Office. This also might have been a time when Hildegard learned how to play the ten-stringed psaltery. Volmar, a frequent visitor, may have taught Hildegard simple psalm notation. The time she studied music could also have been the beginning of the compositions she would later create.

Upon Jutta's death in 1136, Hildegard was unanimously elected as "magistra" of her sister community by her fellow nuns. Abbot Kuno, the Abbot of Disibodenberg, also asked Hildegard to be Prioress. Hildegard, however, wanted more independence for herself and her nuns and asked Abbot Kuno to allow them to move to Rupertsberg. When the abbot declined Hildegard's proposition, Hildegard went over his head and received the approval of Archbishop Henry I of Mainz. Abbot Kuno did not relent, however, until Hildegard was stricken by an illness that kept her paralyzed and unable to move from her bed, an event that she attributed to God's unhappiness at her not following his orders to move her nuns to Rupertsberg. It was only when the Abbot himself could not move Hildegard that he decided to grant the nuns their own monastery. Hildegard and about twenty nuns thus moved to the St. Rupertsberg monastery in 1150, where Volmar served as provost, as well as Hildegard's confessor and scribe. In 1165 Hildegard founded a second convent for her nuns at Eibingen.

Hildegard says that she first saw “The Shade of the Living Light” at the age of three, and by the age of five she began to understand that she was experiencing visions. In Hildegard’s youth, she referred to her visionary gift as her viso. She explained that she saw all things in the light of God through the five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. Hildegard was hesitant to share her visions, confiding only to Jutta, who in turn told Volmar, Hildegard's tutor and, later, secretary. Throughout her life, she continued to have many visions, and in 1141, at the age of 42, Hildegard received a vision she believed to be an instruction from God, to "write down that which you see and hear." Still hesitant to record her visions, Hildegard became physically ill. The illustrations recorded in the book of Scivias were visions that Hildegard experienced, causing her great suffering and tribulations. In her first theological text, ''Scivias'' ("Know the Ways"), Hildegard describes her struggle within:

But I, though I saw and heard these things, refused to write for a long time through doubt and bad opinion and the diversity of human words, not with stubbornness but in the exercise of humility, until, laid low by the scourge of God, I fell upon a bed of sickness; then, compelled at last by many illnesses, and by the witness of a certain noble maiden of good conduct [the nun Richardis von Stade] and of that man whom I had secretly sought and found, as mentioned above, I set my hand to the writing. While I was doing it, I sensed, as I mentioned before, the deep profundity of scriptural exposition; and, raising myself from illness by the strength I received, I brought this work to a close – though just barely – in ten years. [...] And I spoke and wrote these things not by the invention of my heart or that of any other person, but as by the secret mysteries of God I heard and received them in the heavenly places. And again I heard a voice from Heaven saying to me, 'Cry out therefore, and write thus!'

Hildegard's ''Vita'' was begun by Godfrey of Disibodenberg under Hildegard's supervision.

Works

Attention in recent decades to women of the medieval Church has led to a great deal of popular interest in Hildegard, particularly her music. Between 70 and 80 compositions have survived, which is one of the largest repertoires among medieval composers. Hildegard left behind over 100 letters, 72 songs, 70 poems, and 9 books.

One of her better known works, ''Ordo Virtutum'' (''Play of the Virtues''), is a morality play. It is unsure when some of Hildegard’s compositions were composed, though the Ordo Virtutum is thought to have been composed as early as 1151. The morality play consists of monophonic melodies for the Anima (human soul) and 16 Virtues. There is also one speaking part for the Devil. Scholars assert that the role of the Devil would have been played by Volmar, while Hildegard's nuns would have played the parts of Anima and the Virtues.

In addition to the ''Ordo Virtutum'' Hildegard composed many liturgical songs that were collected into a cycle called the ''Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum.'' The songs from the Symphonia are set to Hildegard’s own text and range from antiphons, hymns, and sequences, to responsories. Her music is described as monophonic; that is, consisting of exactly one melodic line. Hildegard's compositional style is characterized by soaring melodies, often well outside of the normal range of chant at the time. Additionally, scholars such as Margot Fassler and Marianna Richert Pfau describe Hildegard's music as highly melismatic, often with recurrent melodic units, and also note her close attention to the relationship between music and text, which was a rare occurrence in monastic chant of the twelfth century. Hildegard of Bingen’s songs are left open for rhythmic interpretation because of the use of neumes without a staff. The reverence for the Virgin Mary reflected in music shows how deeply influenced and inspired Hildegard of Bingen and her community were by the Virgin Mary and the saints.

The definition of ‘greenness’ is an earthly expression of the heavenly in an integrity that overcomes dualisms. This ‘greenness’ or power of life appears frequently in Hildegard’s works.

In addition to her music, Hildegard also wrote three books of visions, the first of which, her ''Scivias'' ("Know the Way"), was completed in 1151. ''Liber vitae meritorum'' ("Book of Life's Merits") and ''De operatione Dei'' ("Of God's Activities", also known as ''Liber divinorum operum'', "Book of Divine Works") followed. In these volumes, the last of which was completed when she was about 75, Hildegard first describes each vision, then interprets them through Biblical exegesis. The narrative of her visions was richly decorated under her direction, with transcription assistance provided by the monk Volmar and nun Richardis. The book was celebrated in the Middle Ages, in part because of the approval given to it by Pope Eugenius III, and was later printed in Paris in 1513.

Aside from her books of visions, Hildegard also wrote her ''Physica,'' a text on the natural sciences, as well as ''Causae et Curae''. Hildegard of Bingen was well known for her healing powers involving practical application of tinctures, herbs, and precious stones. In both texts Hildegard describes the natural world around her, including the cosmos, animals, plants, stones, and minerals. She combined these elements with a theological notion ultimately derived from Genesis: all things put on earth are for the use of humans. She is particularly interested in the healing properties of plants, animals, and stones, though she also questions God's effect on man's health. One example of her healing powers was curing the blind with the use of Rhine water.

Hildegard also invented an alternative alphabet. The text of her writing and compositions reveals Hildegard's use of this form of modified medieval Latin, encompassing many invented, conflated and abridged words.

Hildegard's musical, literary, and scientific writings are housed primarily in two manuscripts: the Dendermonde manuscript and the Riesenkodex. The Dendermonde manuscript was copied under Hildegard's supervision at Rupertsberg, while the Riesencodex was copied in the century after Hildegard's death.

Hildegard's visionary writings maintain that virginity is the highest level of the spiritual life; however, she also wrote about secular life, including motherhood. In several of her texts, Hildegard describes the pleasure of the marital act.

In addition, there are many instances, both in her letters and visions, that decry the misuse of carnal pleasures. She condemns the sins of same-sex couplings and masturbation. After confession, severe repentance expressed in fasting and bodily penance is needed to obtain forgiveness from God for such sins. For instance, in ''Scivias'' Book II Vision Six.78:

God united man and woman, thus joining the strong to the weak, that each might sustain the other. But these perverted adulterers change their virile strength into perverse weakness, rejecting the proper male and female roles, and in their wickedness they shamefully follow Satan, who in his pride sought to split and divide Him Who is indivisible. They create in themselves by their wicked deeds a strange and perverse adultery, and so appear polluted and shameful in my sight...

...a woman who takes up devilish ways and plays a male role in coupling with another woman is most vile in My (God's) sight, and so is she who subjects herself to such a one in this evil deed...

...And men who touch their own genital organ and emit their semen seriously imperil their souls, for they excite themselves to distraction; they appear to Me as impure animals devouring their own whelps...

...When a person feels himself disturbed by bodily stimulation let him run to the refuge of continence, and seize the shield of chastity, and thus defend himself from uncleanness. (translation by Mother Columba Hart and Jane Bishop)

Human beings show forth God's creative power, and man and woman have complementary roles in the world.

...When God looked upon the human countenance, God was exceedingly pleased. For had not God created humanity according to the divine image and likeness? Human beings were to announce all God's wondrous works by means of their tongues that were endowed with reason. For humanity is God's complete work....

Man and woman are in this way so involved with each other that one of them is the work of the other. Without woman, man could not be called man; without man, woman could not be named woman. Thus woman is the work of man, while man is a sight full of consolation for woman. Neither of them could henceforth live without the other. Man is in this connection an indication of the Godhead while woman is an indication of the humanity of God's Son.

Significance

Hildegard communicated with popes such as Eugene III and Anastasius IV, statesmen such as Abbot Suger, German emperors such as Frederick I Barbarossa, and other notable figures such as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who advanced her work, at the behest of her abbot, Kuno, at the Synod of Trier in 1147 and 1148. Hildegard of Bingen’s correspondence with many people is an important element of her literary work because this is where we can see her speaking most directly to us.

Many abbots and abbesses asked her for prayers and opinions on various matters. She traveled widely during her four preaching tours. She had several rather fanatic followers, including Guibert of Gembloux, who wrote frequently to Hildegard and eventually became her secretary after Volmar died in 1173. In addition, Hildegard influenced several monastic women of her time and the centuries that followed; in particular, she engaged in correspondence with another nearby visionary, Elisabeth of Schönau.

Contributing to Christian European rhetorical traditions, she “authorized herself as a theologian” through alternative rhetorical arts. Hildegard was creative in her interpretation of theology. She believed that her monastery should not allow novices who were from a different class than nobility because it put them in an inferior position. She also stated that ‘woman may be made from man, but no man can be made without a woman’. Due to church limitation on public, discursive rhetoric, the medieval rhetorical arts included: preaching, letter writing, poetry, and the encyclopedic tradition. Hildegard’s participation in these arts speaks to her significance as a female rhetorician, transcending bans on women’s social participation and interpretation of scriptures. The acceptance of public preaching by a woman, even a well-connected abbess and acknowledged prophet does not fit the usual stereotype of this time. She conducted four preaching tours throughout Germany, speaking to both clergy and laity in chapter houses and in public, mainly denouncing clerical corruption and calling for reform. Maddocks claims that it is likely she learned simple Latin, and the tenets of the Christian faith, but was not instructed in the Seven Liberal Arts, which formed the basis of all education for the learned classes in the Middle Ages: the ''Trivium'' of grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric plus the ''Quadrivium'' of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. The correspondence she kept with the outside world both spiritual and social transgressed the cloister as a space of female confinement, and served to document Hildegard’s grand style and strict formatting of medieval letter writing. The poetry and music of Hildegard’s Symphonia is concerned with the anatomy of female desire thus described as Sapphonic, or pertaining to Sappho, connecting her to a history of female rhetoricians.

In recent years, Hildegard has become of particular interest to feminist scholars. Her reference to herself as a member of the "weaker sex" and her rather constant belittling of women, though at first seemingly problematic, must be considered within the context of the patriarchal church hierarchy. Hildegard frequently referred to herself as an unlearned woman, completely incapable of Biblical exegesis. Such a statement on her part, however, worked to her advantage because it made her statements that all of her writings and music came from visions of the Divine more believable, therefore giving Hildegard the authority to speak in a time and place where few women were permitted a voice. Hildegard used her voice to condemn church practices she disagreed with, in particular simony.

Hildegard has also become a figure of reverence within the contemporary New Age movement, mostly due to her holistic and natural view of healing, as well as her status as a mystic. She was the inspiration for Dr. Gottfried Hertzka's "Hildegard-Medicine", and is the namesake for June Boyce-Tillman's Hildegard Network, a healing center that focuses on a holistic approach to wellness and brings together people interested in exploring the links between spirituality, the arts, and healing,. Hildegard's reincarnation has been debated since 1924 when Austrian mystic Rudolf Steiner lectured that a nun of her description was the past life of Russian poet Vladimir Soloviev, whose Sophianic visions are often compared to Hildegard. Sophiologist Robert Powell writes that hermetic astrology proves the match, and artist mystic Carl Schroeder claims to be in the lineage of Hildegard with the support and validation of reincarnation author Walter Semkiw.

Before Hildegard’s death, a problem arose with the clergy of Mainz. A man buried in Rupertsburg had died after excommunication from the Church. Therefore, the clergy wanted to remove his body from the sacred ground. Hildegard did not accept this idea, replying that it was a sin and that the man had been reconciled to the church at the time of his death. On 17 September 1179, when Hildegard died, her sisters claimed they saw two streams of light appear in the skies and cross over the room where she was dying. and Pope Benedict XVI. Hildegard’s Parish and Pilgrimage Church house the relics of Hildegard, including an altar encasing her remains, in Eibingen near Rüdesheim.

Hildegard of Bingen also appears in the calendar of saints in various Anglican churches. In the Church of England she is commemorated on 17 September.

In space, she is commemorated by the asteroid 898 Hildegard.

Bibliography

Primary sources ;Editions and manuscripts of Hildegard's works

Hildegardis Bingensis, ''Opera minora''. edited by H. Feiss, C. Evans, B. M. Kienzle, C. Muessig, B. Newman, P. Dronke, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis CCCM 226 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2007), ISBN 978-2-503-05261-8

Wiesbaden, Hessische Landesbibliothek, Hs. 2 (Riesen Codex) or Wiesbaden Codex (ca. 1180–85)

Dendermonde, Belgium, St.-Pieters-&-Paulusabdij Cod. 9 (Villarenser codex) (ca. 1174/75)

Otto Müller Verlag Salzburg 1969: Hildegard von Bingen: Lieder (modern edition in adapted square notation)

München, University Library, MS2∞156

Leipzig, University Library, St. Thomas 371

Paris, Bibl. Nat. MS 1139

Beate Hildegardis Cause et cure, edidit L. Moulinier, Berlin, Akademie Verlag, 2003, CXVII + 384 p.

Hildegardis Bingensis, ''Epistolarium pars prima I-XC'' edited by L. Van Acker, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis CCCM 91A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1991)

Hildegardis Bingensis, ''Epistolarium pars secunda XCI-CCLr'' edited by L. Van Acker, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis CCCM 91A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1993)

Hildegardis Bingensis, ''Epistolarium pars tertia CCLI-CCCXC'' edited by L. Van Acker and M. Klaes-Hachmoller, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis XCIB (Turnhout: Brepols, 2001)

Hildegardis Bingensis, ''Scivias''. A. Führkötter, A. Carlevaris eds., Corpus Christianorum Scholars Version vols. 43, 43A. (Turnhout: Brepols, 2003)

Hildegardis Bingensis, ''Liber vitae meritorum''. A. Carlevaris ed. Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis CCCM 90 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1995)

Hildegardis Bingensis, ''Liber divinorum operum''. A. Derolez and P. Dronke eds., Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis CCCM 92 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1996)

Hildegard of Bingen, ''Two Hagiographies: Vita sancti Rupperti confessoris, Vita sancti Dysibodi episcopi,'' ed. and trans. Hugh Feiss & Christopher P. Evans, Dallas Medieval Texts and Translations 11 (Louvain and Paris: Peeters, 2010)

;Other sources

Friedrich Wilhelm Emil Roth, "Glossae Hildigardis", in: Elias Steinmeyer and Eduard Sievers eds., ''Die Althochdeutschen Glossen'', vol. III. Zürich: Wiedmann, 1895, 1965, pp. 390–404.

''Analecta Sanctae Hildegardis, in Analecta Sacra'' vol. 8 edited by Jean-Baptiste Pitra (Monte Cassino, 1882).

Patrologia Latina vol. 197 (1855).

Explanatio Regulae S. Benedicti

Explanatio Symboli S. Athanasii

Homeliae LVIII in Evangelia.

Hymnodia coelestis.

Ignota lingua, cum versione Latina

Liber divinorum operum simplicis hominis (1163-73/74)

Liber vitae meritorum (1158–63)

Libri simplicis et compositae medicinae.

Physica, sive Subtilitatum diversarum naturarum creaturarum libri novem

Scivias seu Visiones (1141–51)

Solutiones triginta octo quaestionum

Tractatus de sacramento altaris.

See also

Bibliography of Hildegard of Bingen

Discography of Hildegard of Bingen

Hildegard has been portrayed on film by Patricia Routledge (Keeping Up Appearances) in a dramatized BBC biographical documentary called "Hildegard Von Bingen In Portrait: Ordo Virtutum."

The film ''Vision - From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen'', directed by Margarethe von Trotta, premiered in Europe in 2009. Its US distributor is Zeitgeist Films, where it is due to be released in October 2010. Hildegard is played by Barbara Sukowa.

Notes

References

Baird, Joseph L and Ehrman, Radd K. The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Bent, Ian D. and Marianne Pfau. “Hildegard of Bingen.” ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', 2nd edition, Volume 11. Edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrell. New York: Grove, 2001.

Bennett, Judith M. and C. Warren Hollister. Medieval Europe: A Short History. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006. 289, 317.

Boyce-Tillman, June. “Hildegard of Bingen at 900: The Eye of a Woman.” ''The Musical Times'' 139, no. 1865 (Winter, 1998): 31–36.

Butcher, Carmen Acevedo. Hildegard of Bingen: A Spiritual Reader. Massachusetts: Paraclete Press, 2007.

Davidson, Audrey Ekdahl. “Music and Performance: Hildegard of Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum.” ''The Ordo Virtutum of Hildegard of Bingen: Critical Studies''. Kalamazoo, MI: Western Michigan University, 1992.

Dietrich, Julia. “The Visionary Rhetoric of Hildegard of Bingen.” Listening to Their Voices: The Rhetorical Activities of Historic Women. Ed. Molly Meijer Wertheimer. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1997. 202–214.

Fassler, Margot. “Composer and Dramatist: ‘Melodious Singing and the Freshness of Remorse.’” ''Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World''. Edited by Barbara Newman. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1998.

Flanagan, Sabina. Hildegard of Bingen, 1098–1179: a visionary life. London: Routledge, 1989.

Fox, Matthew. Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen. New Mexico: Bear and Company, 1985.

Furlong, Monica. Visions and Longings: Medieval Women Mystics. Massachusetts: Shambhala Publications, 1996.

Glaze, Florence Eliza. “Medical Writer: ‘Behold the Human Creature.’” ''Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World''. Edited by Barbara Newman. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1998.

Hildegard of Bingen. ''Book of Divine Works of Hildegard of Bingen''. Trans. by Priscilla Throop. Charlotte, VT: MedievalMS, 2009.

________. ''Causae et Curae (Holistic Healing)''. Trans. by Manfred Pawlik and Patrick Madigan. Edited by Mary Palmquist and John Kulas. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, Inc., 1994.

________. ''Causes and Cures of Hildegard of Bingen''. Trans. by Priscilla Throop. Charlotte, VT: MedievalMS, 2006, 2008.

________. ''The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen''. Trans. by Joseph L. Baird and Radd K. Ehrman. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994/1998.

________. ''Physica''. Trans. Priscilla Throop. Rochester Vermont: Healing Arts Press, 1998.

________. ''Scivias''. Trans. by Columba Hart and Jane Bishop. Introduction by Barbara J. Newman. Preface by Caroline Walker Bynum. New York: Paulist Press, 1990.

________. ''Three Lives and a Rule: the Lives of Hildegard, Disibod, Rupert, with Hildegard’s Explanation of the Rule of St. Benedict''. Trans. by Priscilla Throop. Charlotte, VT: MedievalMS, 2010.

Holsinger, Bruce W. Music, Body, and Desire In Medieval Culture. California: Standford University Press, 2001.

Holsinger, Bruce. “The Flesh of the Voice: Embodiment and the Homoerotics of Devotion in the Music of Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179).” Signs:Journal of Women in Culture and Society 19 (Autumn, 1993): 92–125.

King-Lenzmeier, Anne. Hildegard of Bingen: an integrated version. Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 2001.

Maddocks, Fiona. Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age. New York: Doubleday, 2001.

Madigan, Shawn. Mystics, Visionaries and Prophets: A Historical Anthology of Women’s Spiritual Writings. Minnesota: Augsburg Fortress, 1998.

McGrade, Michael. “Hildegard von Bingen.” ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: allgemeine Enzyklopaldie der Musik'', 2nd edition, T. 2, Volume 8. Edited by Ludwig Fischer. Kassel, New York: Bahrenreiter, 1994.

Moulinier, Laurence, ''Le manuscrit perdu à Strasbourg''. Enquête sur l'œuvre scientifique de Hildegarde, Paris/Saint-Denis, Publications de la Sorbonne-Presses Universitaires de Vincennes, 1995, 286 p.

Moulinier, Laurence, "La botanique de Hildegarde de Bingen", ''Médiévales'', 16–17, 1989, p. 113–129.

Moulinier, Laurence, "Elisabeth, Ursule et les Onze mille vierges : un cas d'invention de reliques à Cologne au XIIe siècle", ''Médiévales'', 22–23, printemps 1992, p. 173–186.

Moulinier, Laurence, "Deux jalons de la construction d'un savoir botanique en Allemagne aux XIIe-XIIIe siècles : Hildegarde de Bingen et Albert le Grand", dans ''Le monde des plantes''. Savoirs et usages sociaux du XIIe au XVIIe siècle, dir. A. J. Grieco, O. Redon, L. Tongiorgi Tomasi, Saint-Denis, P.U.V., 1993, p. 89–105.

Moulinier, Laurence, "Fragments inédits de la Physica : contribution à l'étude de la transmission des manuscrits scientifiques de Hildegarde de Bingen", ''Mélanges de l'Ecole Française de Rome'', 105, fasc. 2, 1993, p. 629–650.

Moulinier, Laurence, "L'abbesse et les poissons : un aspect de la zoologie de Hildegarde", dans ''Exploitation des animaux sauvages à travers le temps, Actes des rencontres'', 15–17 octobre 1992, dir. J. Desse et F. Audoin-Rouzeau, Juan-les-Pins, Editions APDCA, 1993, p. 461–472.

Moulinier, Laurence, "L'ordre du monde animal selon Hildegarde de Bingen" dans L'homme, ''l'animal domestique et l'environnement du Moyen Age au XVIIIe siècle, Actes du colloque de Nantes'', 22–24 octobre 1992, textes réunis par R. Durand, Nantes, Ouest Editions, 1993, p. 51–62.

Moulinier, Laurence, "Hildegarde de Bingen, les plantes médicinales et le jugement de la postérité : pour une mise en perspective", ''Scientiarum historia'', 20, 1994, 1–2, p. 61–75.

Moulinier, Laurence, "Une encyclopédiste sans précédent ? Le cas de Hildegarde de Bingen", dans ''L'enciclopedismo medievale'', éd. M. Picone, ''Actes du colloque international "L'enciclopedismo medievale"'', San Gimignano, 8–10 octobre 1992, Ravenne, A. Longo Editore, 1994, p. 119–134.

Moulinier, Laurence, "H comme Histoire : Hrotsvita, Hildegarde et Herrade, trois récits de fondation au féminin", ''Clio, Histoire, femmes et sociétés, 2, Femmes et religion,'' 1995, p. 85–107.

Moulinier, Laurence, "Les merveilles de la Nature vues par Hildegarde de Bingen", dans ''Miracles, prodiges et merveilles au Moyen Age, Actes du XXVe congrès de la SHMESP'', Paris, Publications de la Sorbonne, 1995, p. 115–132. Internet available :

Moulinier, Laurence, "Ein Präzedenzfall der Kompendien Literatur: die Quellen der naturlichen Schriften Hildegards von Bingen", in ''Hildegard von Bingen. Prophetin durch die Zeiten.'' Zum 900. Geburtstag, éd. E. Forster, Freiburg/Basel/Wien, Herder, 1997, p. 431–447.

Moulinier, Laurence, "La faune germanique médiévale aux XIe-XIIe siècles : une brève histoire de noms", dans ''Milieux naturels, espaces sociaux. Etudes offertes à Robert Delort,'' éd. F. Morenzoni et E. Mornet, Paris, Publications de la Sorbonne, 1997, p. 193–208.

Moulinier, Laurence, "Quand le malin fait de l'esprit : le rire au Moyen Age vu depuis l'hagiographie", ''Annales, Histoire, sciences sociales'', 3, Mai-Juin 1997, p. 457–475. Internet available :

Moulinier, Laurence, "Vitae latines et volgarizzamento : l'exemple de la Vie de Hildegarde en français", dans ''Santità, Culti, Agiografia. Temi e prospettive'', éd. S. Boesch Gajano, Rome, Viella, 1997, p. 139–163.

Moulinier, Laurence, "Abbesse et agronome : Hildegarde et la botanique de son temps", dans ''Hildegard of Bingen. The Context of her Thought and Art'', éd. Ch. Burnett, P. Dronke, Londres, The Warburg Institute, 1998, p. 135–156.

Moulinier, Laurence, "Hildegarde exorciste : la 'Vie de Hildegarde' en français et sa principale source inédite", ''Hagiographica'', V, 1998, p. 91–118.

Moulinier, Laurence, "Deux fragments inédits de Hildegarde de Bingen copiés par Gerhard von Hohenkirchen (†1448)", ''Sudhoffs Archiv'', 83, 1999, p. 224–238.

Moulinier, Laurence, "Et papa libros eius canonizavit : réflexions sur l'orthodoxie des écrits de Hildegarde de Bingen", dans S. Elm., E. Rebillard, A. Romano (ed.), ''Orthodoxie, Christianisme, Histoire. Orthodoxy, Christianity'', Collection de l'Ecole française de Rome 270, Rome, EFR, 2000, p. 177–198.

Moulinier, Laurence, "Unterhaltungen mit dem Teufel : Eine französische Hildegard-Vita des 15. Jahrhunderts und ihre Quellen", dans ''Hildegard von Bingen in ihrem historischen Umfeld. Internationaler wissenschaftlicher Kongreß zum 900jährigen Jubiläum'', 13–19 September 1998, Bingen am Rhein, éd. A. Haverkamp, Mayence, Philipp von Zabern, 2000, p. 519–560.

Moulinier, Laurence, "Le corps des jeunes filles dans les traités médicaux du Moyen Age ”, dans ''Le corps des jeunes filles de l’Antiquité à nos jours'', dir. L. Bruit Zaidman, G. Houbre, Chr. Klapisch-Zuber, P. Schmitt Pantel, Paris, Perrin, 2001, p. 80–109.

Moulinier, Laurence, "Hildegarde ou Pseudo-Hildegarde ? Réflexions sur l’authenticité du traité "Cause et cure"", dans R. Berndt éd., ''"Im Angesicht Gottes suche der Mensch sich selbst". Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179)'', Berlin, Akademie Verlag, 2001, p. 115–146 (Erudiri Sapientia, II).

Moulinier, Laurence, "Magie, médecine et maux de l’âme dans l’œuvre scientifique de Hildegarde", dans R. Berndt éd., ''"Im Angesicht Gottes suche der Mensch sich selbst". Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179)'', Berlin, Akademie Verlag, 2001, p. 545–559 (Erudiri Sapientia, II).

Moulinier, Laurence, "Un lexique trilingue du XIIe siècle : la lingua ignota de Hildegarde de Bingen", dans ''Lexiques bilingues dans les domaines philosophique et scientifique (Moyen Âge-Renaissance), Actes du colloque international organisé par l’Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes-IVe Section et l’Institut Supérieur de Philosophie de l’Université Catholique de Louvain'', Paris, 12–14 juin 1997, éd. J. Hamesse, D. Jacquart, Turnhout, Brepols, 2001, p. 89–111.

Moulinier, Laurence, "Plantes toxiques et humeurs peccantes : la pensée du poison dans l’œuvre de Hildegarde", dans ''Le corps à l’épreuve. Poisons, remèdes et chirurgie : aspects des pratiques médicales dans l’Antiquité et au Moyen Âge'', études réunies par F. Collard et E. Samama, Langres, Dominique Guéniot, 2002, p. 71–101.

Moulinier, Laurence, "Un témoin supplémentaire du rayonnement de sainte Radegonde au Moyen Age ? La Vita domnae Juttae (XIIe siècle)", ''Bulletin de la société des Antiquaires de l’Ouest'', 5e série, t. XV, 3e et 4e trimestres 2001, p. 181–197.

Moulinier, Laurence, "Le chat des cathares de Mayence et autres « primeurs » d’un exorcisme du XIIe siècle", dans ''Retour aux sources. Textes, études et documents d’histoire médiévale offerts à Michel Parisse'', Paris, Picard, 2004, p. 699–709.

Moulinier, Laurence, "Conception et corps féminin selon Hildegarde de Bingen", ''Storia delle donne'', 1, 2005, p. 139–157. Available from

Moulinier, Laurence, "Quête de Dieu et recherche de modèles. Naissance d’une tradition féminine dans la mystique allemande (XIIe-XIVe s.)", dans ''Ecritures'', n° 1, décembre 2005, Les femmes et l’Ecriture. L’amour profane et l’amour sacré, p. 15–55.

Moulinier, Laurence, "Naturkunde und Mystik bei Hildegard von Bingen : der Blick und die Vision", ''Actes du Symposium der Theophrast-Stiftung, "Mystik und Natur", Salzbourg, Universitätsbibliothek'', 16–18 novembre 2007.

Moulinier, Laurence, "Aspects de la maternité chez Hildegarde de Bingen", dans ''La madre. The Mother, Actes du colloque international "La mère", Université de Lausanne'', 23–25 novembre 2005, Florence, SISMEL, 2009, p. 215–234.

20.

Moulinier, Laurence, "La vie d’une âme, la voix d’une sœur", Introduction à Elisabeth de Schönau, ''Visions'', traduit du Latin par Jean-Pierre Troadec, Paris, Le Cerf, 2009, p. 9–31.

Moulinier, Laurence, "Maternità spirituale e direzione di coscienza secondo Ildegarda di Bingen", dans G. Filoramo (éd.), ''Storia della direzione spirituale, II. L'età medievale'', a cura di Sofia Boesch Gajano, Brescia, Morcelliana, 2010, pp. 185–204.

Moulinier, Laurence, "La Terre vue par Hildegarde de Bingen (1098–1179)", dans ''Aux origines de la géologie, de l’Antiquité au Moyen Age, Actes du colloque inernational'' 10–12 mars 2005, Paris Sorbonne (Paris IV), textes réunis sous la direction de Claude Thomasset, Joëlle Ducos et Jean-Pierre Chambon, Paris, Honoré Champion, 2010, p. 205–230.

Newman, Barbara. “Hildegard of Bingen: Visions and Validation.” ''Church History'' 54 (1985): 163–175.

________. “‘Sibyl of the Rhine’: Hildegard’s Life and Times.” ''Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World''. Edited by Barbara Newman. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1998.

________. ''Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard’s Theology of the Feminine''. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987.

Newman, Barbara. Voice of the Living Light. California: University of California Press, 1998.

Reed-Jones, Carol. Hildegard of Bingen: Women of Vision. Washington: Paper Crane Press, 2004.

Richert-Pfau, Marianna. “Mode and Melody Types in Hildegard von Bingen’s Symphonia.” ''Sonus'' 11 (1990): 53–71.

Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Visionary Women. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2002. 6–13.

Schipperges, Heinrich. Hildegard of Bingen: healing and the nature of the cosmos. New Jersey: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1997.

The Life and Works of Hildegard von Bingen. Internet. Available from http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/hildegarde.html; accessed 14 November 2009.

Tillman, June-Boyce. “Hildegard of Bingen at 900: The Eye of a Woman”. The Musical Times 139, no. 1865 (Winter, 1998): 31–36.

Underhill, Evelyn. Mystics of the Church. Pennsylvania: Morehouse Publishing, 1925.

Further reading

;General commentary

Burnett, Charles and Peter Dronke, eds. ''Hildegard of Bingen: The Context of Her Thought and Art''. The Warburg Colloquia. London: The University of London, 1998.

Cherewatuk, Karen and Ulrike Wiethaus, eds. ''Dear Sister: Medieval Women and the Epistolary Genre''. Middle Ages Series. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.

Davidson, Audrey Ekdahl. ''The Ordo Virtutum of Hildegard of Bingen: Critical Studies''. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 1992. ISBN 1-879288-17-6

Dronke, Peter. ''Women Writers of the Middle Ages: A Critical Study of Texts from Perpetua to Marguerite Porete''. 1984. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Flanagan, Sabina. ''Hildegard of Bingen: A Visionary Life''. London: Routledge, 1998. ISBN 0-7607-1361-8

King-Lenzmeier, Anne H. ''Hildegard of Bingen: An Integrated Vision''. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2001.

Newman, Barbara. ''Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard’s Theology of the Feminine''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.

Newman, Barbara, ed. ''Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World''. Berkeley: University of California, 1998.

Pernoud, Régine. ''Hildegard of Bingen: Inspired Conscience of the Twelfth Century''. Translated by Paul Duggan. NY: Marlowe & Co., 1998.

Schipperges, Heinrich. ''The World of Hildegard of Bingen: Her Life, Times, and Visions''. Trans. John Cumming. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1999.

Wilson, Katharina. ''Medieval Women Writers''. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1984.

;On Hildegard's illuminations

Fox, Matthew. ''Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen''. Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Company, 1985. ISBN 1-879181-97-5

Harris, Anne Sutherland and Linda Nochlin, ''Women Artists: 1550–1950'', Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Knopf, New York, 1976. ISBN 0-394-73326-6

;Background reading

Barber, Richard. ''Bestiary: MS Bodley 764''. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1999.

Boyce-Tillman, June. ''The Creative Spirit: Harmonious Living with Hildegard of Bingen'', Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Publishing, 2000. ISBN 0-8192-1882-0

Butcher, Carmen Acevedo. ''Man of Blessing: A Life of St. Benedict''. Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2006.

Bynum, Caroline Walker. ''Holy Feast and Holy Fast: the Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.

Bynum, Caroline Walker. ''Resurrection of the Body in Western Christianity, 200-1336''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.

Chadwick, Whitney. ''Women, Art, and Society,'' Thames and Hudson, London, 1990. ISBN 0-500-20354-7

Constable, Giles Constable. ''The Reformation of the Twelfth Century''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Dronke, Peter, ed. ''A History of Twelfth-Century Western Philosophy''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Holweck, the Rt. Reverend Frederick G., ''A Biographical Dictionary of the Saints, with a General Introduction on Hagiology''. 1924. Detroit: Omnigraphics, 1990.

Lachman, Barbara. ''The Journal of Hildegard of Bingen: A Novel''. New York: Crown, 1993.

Lachman, Barbara. ''Hildegard: The Last Year''. Boston: Shambhala, 1997.

McBrien, Richard. ''Lives of the Saints: From Mary and St. Francis of Assisi to John XXIII and Mother Teresa''. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2003.

McKnight, Scot. ''The Real Mary: Why Evangelical Christians Can Embrace the Mother of Jesus''. Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2006.

Newman, Barbara trans. ''Symphonia: A Critical Edition of the "Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum''. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1988.

Newman, Barbara. ''God and the Goddesses''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-1911-2

O’Donohue, John. ''Anam Ċara''. New York: HarperCollins, 1998.

Ohanneson, Joan. ''Scarlet Music. Hildegard of Bingen: A Novel''. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1997.

Pelikan, Jaroslav. ''Mary Through the Centuries: Her Place in the History of Culture''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.

Sacks, Oliver. ''Migraine: Understanding a Common Disorder''. 1985. Reprint. London: Vintage Books, 1999.

Santos Paz, José Carlos, ed. ''La Obra de Gebenón de Eberbach''. Firenze: SISMEL-Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2004.

Sherman, Bernard D. “‘Mistaking the Tail for the Comet’: An Interview with Christopher

Silvas, Anna. ''Jutta and Hildegard: The Biographical Sources''. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-271-01954-9

Sweet, Victoria. "Hildegard of Bingen and the Greening of Medieval Medicine." Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 1999, 73:381–403.

Sweet, Victoria. "Rooted in the Earth, Rooted in the Sky: Hildegard of Bingen and Premodern Medicine." New York: Routledge Press, 2006. ISBN 0-415-97634-0

Ulrich, Ingeborg. ''Hildegard of Bingen: Mystic, Healer, Companion of the Angels''. Trans. Linda M. Maloney. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1993.

Ward, Benedicta. ''Miracles and the Medieval Mind''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1987.

Weeks, Andrew. ''German mysticism from Hildegard of Bingen to Ludwig Wittgenstein : a literary and intellectual history''. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993. ISBN 0-7914-1419-1

External links

Hildegard Center for the Arts, A Faith Based Fine Arts Center in Lincoln Nebraska

International Society of Hildegard von Bingen Studies

A Hildegard FAQ Sheet

Hildegard Von Bingen

Hildegard of Bingen Documents, History, Sites to see today, etc.

Source

Discography

Biography and Prayers of Hildegard

Another discography

Church of St. Hildegard in Eibingen, Germany with information about Hildegard von Bingen and the Eibinger Hildegardisshrine

The Reconstruction of the monastery on the Rupertsberg

Young, Abigail Ann. ''Translations from Rupert, Hildegard, and Guibert of Gembloux''. 1999. 27 March 2006.

McGuire, K. Christian. ''Symphonia Caritatis: The Cistercian Chants of Hildegard von Bingen''. 2007. 14 July 2007.

* From Katya Sanna's blog

Category:1098 births Category:1179 deaths Category:People from Alzey-Worms Category:Beatified people Category:People celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendar Category:Christian mystics Category:Rhineland mystics Category:German Roman Catholic theologians Category:Women philosophers Category:German spiritual writers Category:German women writers Category:Inventors of writing systems Category:Women of medieval Germany Category:Medieval composers Category:Medieval drama Category:German Roman Catholic abbesses Category:Walhalla enshrinees Category:Women classical composers Category:Herbalists Category:Women physicians Category:Manuscript illuminators Category:12th-century women writers Category:Romanesque artists Category:Sophiology Category:Hymnographers Category:German women artists Category:Anglican saints Category:Women composers

als:Hildegard von Bingen be:Хільдэгарда Бінгенская be-x-old:Хільдэгарда Бінгенская bs:Hildegard von Bingen bg:Хилдегард от Бинген ca:Hildegarda de Bingen cs:Hildegarda z Bingenu cy:Hildegard von Bingen da:Hildegard af Bingen de:Hildegard von Bingen et:Hildegard Bingenist el:Χίλντεγκαρντ του Μπίνγκεν es:Hildegarda de Bingen eo:Hildegard de Bingen eu:Hildegard von Bingen fr:Hildegarde de Bingen gl:Hildegard von Bingen ko:힐데가르트 폰 빙겐 hr:Hildegard iz Bingena id:Hildegard von Bingen ia:Hildegard von Bingen is:Hildegard von Bingen it:Ildegarda di Bingen he:הילדגרד מבינגן kk:Хильдегард Бингенская la:Hildegardis Bingensis lb:Hildegard vu Bingen li:Hildegard von Bingen hu:Bingeni Boldog Hildegárd nl:Hildegard van Bingen ja:ヒルデガルト・フォン・ビンゲン no:Hildegard von Bingen nn:Hildegard von Bingen oc:Hildegard de Bingen nds:Hildegard von Bingen pl:Hildegarda z Bingen pt:Hildegarda de Bingen ro:Hildegard von Bingen qu:Hildegard von Bingen ru:Хильдегарда Бингенская sco:Hildegard von Bingen simple:Hildegard of Bingen sk:Hildegarda z Bingenu sl:Sveta Hildegarda iz Bingna sr:Хилдегарда Бингенска sh:Hildegard od Bingena fi:Hildegard Bingeniläinen sv:Hildegard av Bingen tl:Hildegard ng Bingen ta:பிங்கெனின் ஹில்டெகார்ட் uk:Хільдегарда Бінгенська war:Hildegard han Bingen zh:宾根的希尔德加德 ml:ഹിൽഡെഗാർഡ് വോൺ ബിൻജെൻ

honorific-prefix	The Most Reverend
name	Timothy Michael Dolan
archbishop of	Archbishop of New York
province	New York
diocese	New York
see	New York
enthroned	April 15, 2009()
predecessor	Edward Egan
successor	''incumbent''
ordination	June 19, 1976
consecration	August 15, 2001
other post	Archbishop of Milwaukee (2002-2009)Auxiliary Bishop of St. Louis (2001-2002)
birth date	February 06, 1950
birth place	St. Louis, Missouri
signature	}}

Timothy Michael Dolan (born February 6, 1950) is an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He is the tenth and current Archbishop of New York, having previously served as Archbishop of Milwaukee (2002–2009) and Auxiliary Bishop of St. Louis (2001–2002).

Early life and education

The eldest of five children, Timothy Dolan was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Robert (d. 1977) and Shirley (''née'' Radcliffe) Dolan. His father was an aircraft engineer, working as a floor supervisor at McDonnell Douglas. He has two brothers, one of whom is a former radio talk-show host, and two sisters. The family later moved to Ballwin, where they attended Holy Infant Roman Catholic Church. He exhibited a strong interest in the Roman Catholic priesthood from an early age, once saying, "I can never remember a time I didn’t want to be a priest." He would also pretend to celebrate Mass as a child.

Dolan entered St. Louis Preparatory Seminary South in Shrewsbury in 1964, and later obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy from Cardinal Glennon College. He was sent by Cardinal John Carberry to further his studies in Rome, where he attended the Pontifical North American College and the Angelicum, earning a Licentiate of Sacred Theology.

Priesthood

Dolan was ordained a priest by Archbishop Edward O'Meara on June 19, 1976. He then served as an associate pastor at Immacolata Catholic Parish in Richmond Heights until 1979, whence he began his doctoral studies at the Catholic University of America under John Tracy Ellis with a concentration on the history of the Church in America; his thesis centered on Archbishop Edwin O'Hara. Dolan did pastoral work following his return to Missouri from 1983 to 1987, during which time he collaborated with Archbishop John May in reforming the archdiocesan seminary.

He was then named secretary of the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, D.C., serving as a liaison between American dioceses and the nunciature. In 1992, Dolan was appointed Vice-Rector of his ''alma mater'' Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, where he also served as spiritual director and taught Church history. He was also an adjunct professor of theology at St. Louis University.

In 1994, Dolan became Rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome. He remained in this office until June 2001, and during his tenure he published a book, ''Priests for the Third Millennium'', and taught at the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Angelicum. He was raised to the rank of Monsignor in 1994 as well.

Episcopal career

Auxiliary Bishop of St. Louis

On June 19, 2001, Dolan was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of St. Louis and Titular Bishop of ''Natchesium'' by Pope John Paul II. He received his episcopal consecration on the following August 15 from Archbishop Justin Rigali, with Bishops Joseph Naumann and Michael Sheridan serving as co-consecrators. He chose as his episcopal motto: ''Ad Quem Ibimus'', meaning, "Lord, To Whom Shall We Go?" ()

Archbishop of Milwaukee

Dolan was later named the tenth Archbishop of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on June 25, 2002. He was formally installed at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist on August 28, 2002. He had to deal with the effects of the Sexual abuse scandal in Catholic archdiocese of Milwaukee.

He took a special interest in priests and vocations, and the number of seminary enrollments also rose during his tenure. In an outdoor Mass in September 2002, Dolan wore a "cheesehead" hat in tribute to the Green Bay Packers during his homily. He also wrote ''Called to Be Holy'' (2005) and ''To Whom Shall We Go? Lessons from the Apostle Peter'' (2008), and co-hosted a television program with his brother called ''Living Our Faith''.

Archbishop of New York

Dolan was appointed the tenth Archbishop of New York by Pope Benedict XVI on February 23, 2009. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, the nation’s second-largest after the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, serves over 2.5 million Roman Catholics. He succeeded Cardinal Edward Egan, who reached the mandatory retirement age of 75 in 2007. According to Dolan, he was informed of his appointment "nine, ten days" prior to the official announcement. Recalling the phone call he received from Apostolic Nuncio Pietro Sambi, as opposed to his appointments as Auxiliary Roman Catholic Bishop of St. Louis and Archbishop of Milwaukee when Dolan was told that the Pope "would like [him] to" take the posts, he said that Sambi "was quite factual" in that he told him that "the Pope had appointed [him]" to New York, giving Dolan little choice other than to accept.

The last time an Archbishop of New York was named without previously holding an office in the archdiocese's ranks came in 1939, when Pope Pius XII tapped close friend and then-Auxiliary Bishop Francis Spellman of the Archdiocese of Boston; before his own appointment, Cardinal John Joseph O'Connor had served as an auxiliary to Cardinal Terence Cooke in the latter's capacity as head of the military ordinariate, not as Archbishop of New York. Furthermore, given the fact that his six immediate predecessors in New York were given the red hat, it is highly likely that Dolan will be made a cardinal in a future consistory.

Before Dolan's appointment, his name had been repeatedly mentioned as a possible successor to Cardinal Egan., but he downplayed such speculation, saying, "Anytime there's kind of a major see that opens, what have we seen with Washington, Baltimore, Detroit, now New York, my name for some reason comes up. I'm flattered." John Allen, Jr., Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, has noted that Pope Benedict's appointment of Dolan, like those of Donald Wuerl, Edwin O'Brien, and Dennis Schnurr, follows a pattern of choosing prelates "who are basically conservative in both their politics and their theology, but also upbeat, pastoral figures given to dialogue."

Dolan was formally installed as Archbishop of New York at St. Patrick's Cathedral on Easter Wednesday, April 15, 2009. He wore the pectoral cross used by his earlier predecessor John Hughes. In attendance were: Cardinals Egan, William Baum, Daniel DiNardo, Francis George, William Keeler, William Levada, Theodore McCarrick, Roger Mahony, Seán O'Malley, Marc Ouellet, and Justin Rigali; as well as New York State Governor David Paterson, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.

Dolan received the pallium, a vestment worn by metropolitan bishops, from Pope Benedict XVI on June 29, 2009, in a ceremony at St. Peter's Basilica.

He served as chairman of the board of directors of Catholic Relief Services (in which capacity he visited Ethiopia and India) until his election as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and he remains a member of the Board of Trustees of The Catholic University of America. Within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, he chairs the Priestly Life and Ministry Committee and sits on the Subcommittee on the Church in Africa. In November 2007, he lost the election for Vice President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, being defeated by Bishop Gerald Kicanas by a margin of twenty-two votes.

Archbishop Dolan is also the apostolic visitor to Irish seminaries as part of the Apostolic visitation to Ireland following the publication of the Ryan and Murphy Reports in 2009. Archbishop Dolan will form part of a team that will include Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the cardinal-archbishop emeritus of Westminster, who will inspect Cardinal Brady's archdiocese of Armagh, and Cardinal O'Malley of Boston who is to inspect Dublin. Toronto's Archbishop Thomas Christopher Collins will investigate Cashel, while Ottawa's Archbishop Terrence Prendergast will look at the west of Ireland archdiocese of Tuam. Following the conclusion, he will report their findings directly to Pope Benedict XVI.

On 5 January 2011 he was appointed among the first members of the newly created Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation.

President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Archbishop Dolan was elected on November 16, 2010, to the presidency of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, becoming the first New York bishop to attain the post. Dolan replaced Cardinal Francis George, who did not run for re-election. In a vote of 128-111, Dolan beat out nine others, including Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Arizona, to win the three-year term. Archbishop Dolan took office two days later.

Views

Abuse scandal

As an auxiliary Roman Catholic bishop, Dolan was criticized for his handling of Roman Catholic priests accused of sexual misconduct, accused of being on a "witch hunt" to dismiss abusive priests. He spoke with parishes, victims, and the media about the scandals, and invited victims of clerical abuse to come forward. Commenting on his meetings with them, Dolan said, "...[i]t is impossible to exaggerate the gravity of the situation, and the suffering that victims feel, because I've spent the last four months being with them, crying with them, having them express their anger to me."

Abortion

He has expressed his full intentions of using his prominent new post as a pulpit to advocate doctrinal views on such national social issues as abortion. During his installation homily, he received a standing ovation after speaking of the Church's mission "to embrace and protect the dignity of every human person, the sanctity of human life, from the tiny baby in the womb to the last moment of natural passing into eternal life."

During the 2008 presidential election, Dolan rebuked Democratic vice-presidential candidate then-U.S. Senator Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for "misrepresenting timeless Church doctrine" on abortion, which Dolan called the "premier civil rights issue of our day." However, he opposes denying Communion to pro-choice elected officials.

In March 2009, Dolan noted that U.S. President Barack Obama has "taken a position very much at odds with the Church" regarding abortion, said the University of Notre Dame made a "big mistake" in selecting Obama to deliver its graduation ceremony's commencement speech.

Conscience rights

In November 2009, Dolan signed an ecumenical statement known as the ''Manhattan Declaration'' calling on evangelicals, Roman Catholics and Orthodox not to comply with rules and laws permitting abortion, same-sex marriage and other matters that go against their religious consciences.

Gay marriage

In an interview with the ''New York Post'' on April 22, 2009, Dolan reasserted his opposition to gay marriage, saying, "There is an in-built code of right and wrong that is imbedded in the human DNA...Hard-wired into us is a dictionary, and the dictionary defines marriage as between one man, one woman for life, please God, leading to the procreation of human life. And if we begin to tamper with the very definition of marriage, then we're going to be in big trouble." Describing the Church's position as not "anti-gay," he said, "We're pro-the most basic definition of marriage."

In a blog post in June 2011 Dolan compared a proposal for gay marriage in the State of New York to life in China or North Korea, where "government presumes daily to 'redefine' rights, relationships, values and natural law." "Please, not here!" Dolan continued. "We cherish true freedom, not as the license to do whatever we want, but the liberty to do what we ought."

Iraq war

While noting that the "Church has weighed in" against the war in Iraq and capital punishment, Dolan defended not publicly opposing President George W. Bush's earlier appearance at Notre Dame by saying, "Where President Bush would have taken positions on those two hot-button issues that I'd be uncomfortable with, namely the war and capital punishment, I would have to give him the benefit of the doubt to say that those two issues are open to some discussion and are not intrinsically evil...In the Catholic mindset, that would not apply to abortion." He later said he will challenge any suggestion that Roman Catholics are unenlightened because they oppose gay marriage and abortion.

Clerical celibacy

In 2003, after a group of Milwaukee priests petitioned to make clerical celibacy optional, Dolan expressed his belief in celibacy "not just because I'm 'supposed to,' or reluctantly 'have to,' but because I want to." He further defended celibacy against its critics, saying, "The recent sad scandal of clerical sexual abuse of minors, as the professionals have documented, has nothing to do with our celibate commitment."

Gays and the priesthood

In 2005, the Vatican issued an Instruction that deals with admitting same-sex attracted men to seminaries or Holy Orders. The document uses the phrase "practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called 'gay culture'" to identify men whom the Church cannot admit to the seminary or to Holy Orders. Commenting on that document, Dolan has been quoted as saying that a homosexual who exhibits none of those criteria and feels he may have a vocation “shouldn’t be discouraged” from becoming a seminarian.

In a 2001 interview on the subject, while rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome, he is quoted as saying that Seminary formators owe it to the Church to be vigilant, never allowing a man to be ordained who gives any evidence of tendencies to sexual immorality and being very blunt in holding up to their men the clear expectations of Jesus and his Church. He said formators must present the beauty of celibacy but at the same time be candid about the dangers to celibate commitment, including a homosexual inclination. He further said that formators must be sure that candidates accept that they are both embracing a life of generous love in selfless service to the Church and that they are leaving behind all genital expression, alone or with others, male or female, in thought, word and deed.

Aftermath of September 11

Dolan visited Ground Zero, the site of the September 11 attacks, on the following April 24. After reciting the same prayer used by Benedict XVI during his visit to the United States, Dolan remarked, "We will never stop crying. But it's also about September 12 and all the renewal, the rebuilding, hope, solidarity and compassion that symbolized this great community and still does." He also joked, "Don't tell the people at St. Patrick's Cathedral, but this [site] is a lot more historic."

Archbishop Dolan condemned as a miscarriage of proper justice the release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber al-Megrahi and his reception in Libya.

Theology

Dolan is considered to be theologically conservative, but once stated, "Titles of liberal and conservative don't cut much mustard with me." He is also seen as energetic and media-savvy, with a "gregarious pastoral style." As one Marquette University professor said, he "is with Rome on the big issues and on the little ones, but he does not do it in a dictatorial fashion."

Episcopal succession

References

Published works

Dolan, Monsignor Timothy M., ''Priests For The Third Millennium'', 2001. A collection of talks given to the seminarians and priests at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, a school for Roman Catholic seminarians and priests.

Dolan, Archbishop Timothy M., ''Called to be Holy'', 2005.

Dolan, Archbishop Timothy M., ''To Whom Shall We Go, 2009.

External links

[ http://www.archny.org/about-us/archbishop-timothy-m-dolan/ Biography at Archdiocese of New York site]

Timothy Dolan, Catholic Hierarchy

Article on Dolan's installation as archbishop from the ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel''

Living Our Faith: Outreach initiative and weekly television show featuring Archbishop Dolan

Priestly Life and Ministry Committee, at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops website

Subcommittee on the Church in Africa, at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops website

Category:1950 births Category:American Roman Catholic archbishops Category:Kenrick-Glennon Seminary alumni Category:Religious leaders from Wisconsin Category:American religious figures of Irish descent Category:Living people Category:People from Milwaukee, Wisconsin Category:People from St. Louis County, Missouri Category:People from St. Louis, Missouri Category:Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee Category:The Catholic University of America alumni Category:Members of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation Category:21st-century Roman Catholic archbishops Category:Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas alumni Category:Pontifical North American College alumni

de:Timothy Dolan fr:Timothy Dolan it:Timothy Michael Dolan la:Timotheus Dolan nl:Timothy Michael Dolan pl:Timothy Michael Dolan pt:Timothy Michael Dolan ru:Долан, Тимоти Майкл

name	Richard Dawkins
birth name	Clinton Richard Dawkins
birth date	March 26, 1941
birth place	Nairobi, Kenya Colony
nationality	British
education	MA, DPhil (Oxon)
alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford
doctoral advisor	Nikolaas Tinbergen
doctoral students	Alan Grafen, Mark Ridley
occupation	Ethologist
years active	1967–present
employer	University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of Oxford
organization	Fellow of the Royal SocietyFellow of the Royal Society of Literature
known for	Gene-centered view of evolution, concept of the meme, as well as advocacy of atheism and science.
notable works	''The Selfish Gene'' (1976)''The Extended Phenotype'' (1982)''The Blind Watchmaker'' (1986)''The God Delusion'' (2006)
influences	Charles Darwin, Ronald Fisher, George C. Williams, W. D. Hamilton, Daniel Dennett, Bertrand Russell
spouse	Marian Stamp Dawkins (m. 1967–1984)Eve Barham (m. 1984–?)Lalla Ward (m. 1992–present)
children	Juliet Emma Dawkins (born 1984)
parents	Clinton John DawkinsJean Mary Vyvyan (née Ladner)
awards	Faraday Award (1990)Kistler Prize (2001)
website	The Richard Dawkins Foundation
footnotes	}}

Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL (born 26 March 1941), known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was the University of Oxford's Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008.

Dawkins came to prominence with his 1976 book ''The Selfish Gene'', which popularised the gene-centered view of evolution and introduced the term ''meme''. In 1982 he introduced an influential concept into evolutionary biology, presented in his book ''The Extended Phenotype'', that the phenotypic effects of a gene are not necessarily limited to an organism's body, but can stretch far into the environment, including the bodies of other organisms.

Dawkins is an atheist and humanist, a Vice President of the British Humanist Association and supporter of the Brights movement. He is well known for his criticism of creationism and intelligent design. In his 1986 book ''The Blind Watchmaker'', he argued against the watchmaker analogy, an argument for the existence of a supernatural creator based upon the complexity of living organisms. Instead, he described evolutionary processes as analogous to a ''blind'' watchmaker. He has since written several popular science books, and makes regular television and radio appearances, predominantly discussing these topics. In his 2006 book ''The God Delusion'', Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that religious faith is a delusion—a fixed false belief. As of January 2010 the English-language version has sold more than two million copies and had been translated into 31 languages, making it his most popular book to date.

Biography

Dawkins was born in Nairobi, Kenya. His father, Clinton John Dawkins (1915–2010), returning to England in 1949, when Dawkins was eight. His father had inherited Over Norton Park, which he turned from a country estate into a commercial farm. Both his parents were interested in natural sciences; they answered Dawkins' questions in scientific terms.

Dawkins describes his childhood as "a normal Anglican upbringing". Though he began having doubts about the existence of a god when he was about nine years old, he was persuaded by the argument from design, an argument for the existence of a god or a creator based on perceived evidence of order, purpose, or design in nature, and embraced Christianity.

He attended Oundle, a Church of England school, Dawkins' research in this period concerned models of animal decision-making.

From 1967 to 1969, he was an assistant professor of zoology at the University of California, Berkeley. During this period, the students and faculty at UC Berkeley were largely opposed to the ongoing Vietnam War, and Dawkins became heavily involved in the anti-war demonstrations and activities. He returned to the University of Oxford in 1970 taking a position as a lecturer, and in 1990, as a reader in zoology. In 1995 he was appointed Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford, a position that had been endowed by Charles Simonyi with the express intention that the holder "be expected to make important contributions to the public understanding of some scientific field", and that its first holder should be Richard Dawkins.

Since 1970 he has been a fellow of New College. He has delivered a number of inaugural and other lectures, including the Henry Sidgwick Memorial Lecture (1989), first Erasmus Darwin Memorial Lecture (1990), Michael Faraday Lecture (1991), T.H. Huxley Memorial Lecture (1992), Irvine Memorial Lecture (1997), Sheldon Doyle Lecture (1999), Tinbergen Lecture (2004) and Tanner Lectures (2003). In 1991 he gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for Children. He has also served as editor of a number of journals, and has acted as editorial advisor to the ''Encarta Encyclopedia'' and the ''Encyclopedia of Evolution''. He is a senior editor of the Council for Secular Humanism's ''Free Inquiry'' magazine, for which he also writes a column. He has been a member of the editorial board of ''Skeptic'' magazine since its foundation.

He has sat on judging panels for awards as diverse as the Royal Society's Faraday Award and the British Academy Television Awards, and has been president of the Biological Sciences section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2004 Balliol College, Oxford instituted the Dawkins Prize, awarded for "outstanding research into the ecology and behaviour of animals whose welfare and survival may be endangered by human activities". In September 2008, he retired from his professorship, announcing plans to "write a book aimed at youngsters in which he will warn them against believing in 'anti-scientific' fairytales."

Personal life

On 19 August 1967, Dawkins married fellow ethologist Marian Stamp in Annestown, County Waterford, Ireland; they divorced in 1984. Later that same year, on 1 June, he married Eve Barham (19 August 1951–28 February 1999) in Oxford. They had a daughter, Juliet Emma Dawkins (born 1984, Oxford). Dawkins and Barham divorced; she died of cancer. In 1992 he married actress Lalla Ward in Kensington and Chelsea, London. Dawkins met her through their mutual friend Douglas Adams, who had worked with her on the BBC's ''Doctor Who''.

Work

Evolutionary biology

In his scientific works, Dawkins is best known for his popularisation of the gene-centred view of evolution. This view is most clearly set out in his books ''The Selfish Gene'' (1976), where he notes that "all life evolves by the differential survival of replicating entities", and ''The Extended Phenotype'' (1982), in which he describes natural selection as "the process whereby replicators out-propagate each other". In his role as an ethologist, interested in animal behaviour and its relation to natural selection, he advocates the idea that the gene is the principal unit of selection in evolution.

Dawkins has consistently been sceptical about non-adaptive processes in evolution (such as spandrels, described by Gould and Lewontin) and about selection at levels "above" that of the gene. He is particularly sceptical about the practical possibility or importance of group selection as a basis for understanding altruism. This behaviour appears at first to be an evolutionary paradox, since helping others costs precious resources and decreases one's own fitness. Previously, many had interpreted this as an aspect of group selection: individuals were doing what was best for the survival of the population or species as a whole, and not specifically for themselves. British evolutionary biologist W. D. Hamilton had used the gene-centred view to explain altruism in terms of inclusive fitness and kin selection − that individuals behave altruistically toward their close relatives, who share many of their own genes. Similarly, Robert Trivers, thinking in terms of the gene-centred model, developed the theory of reciprocal altruism, whereby one organism provides a benefit to another in the expectation of future reciprocation. Dawkins popularised these ideas in ''The Selfish Gene'', and developed them in his own work.

He has also been strongly critical of the Gaia philosophy theory of the independent scientist James Lovelock.

Critics of Dawkins' approach suggest that taking the gene as the unit of ''selection'' − of a single event in which an individual either succeeds or fails to reproduce − is misleading, but that the gene could be better described as a unit of ''evolution'' − of the long-term changes in allele frequencies in a population. In ''The Selfish Gene'', Dawkins explains that he is using George C. Williams' definition of the gene as "that which segregates and recombines with appreciable frequency." Another common objection is that genes cannot survive alone, but must cooperate to build an individual, and therefore cannot be an independent "unit". In ''The Extended Phenotype'', Dawkins suggests that because of genetic recombination and sexual reproduction, from an individual gene's viewpoint all other genes are part of the environment to which it is adapted.

Advocates for higher levels of selection such as Richard Lewontin, David Sloan Wilson, and Elliot Sober suggest that there are many phenomena (including altruism) that gene-based selection cannot satisfactorily explain. The philosopher Mary Midgley, with whom Dawkins clashed in print concerning ''The Selfish Gene'', has criticised gene selection, memetics and sociobiology as being excessively reductionist and suggests that the popularity of Dawkins' work is due to factors in the Zeitgeist such as the increased individualism of the Thatcher/Reagan decades.

In a set of controversies over the mechanisms and interpretation of evolution (the so-called 'Darwin Wars'), one faction was often named after Dawkins and its rival after the American paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould, reflecting the pre-eminence of each as a populariser of pertinent ideas. In particular, Dawkins and Gould have been prominent commentators in the controversy over sociobiology and evolutionary psychology, with Dawkins generally approving and Gould generally being critical. A typical example of Dawkins' position was his scathing review of ''Not in Our Genes'' by Steven Rose, Leon J. Kamin and Richard C. Lewontin. Two other thinkers on the subject often considered to be allied to Dawkins are Steven Pinker and Daniel Dennett; Dennett has promoted a gene-centred view of evolution and defended reductionism in biology. Despite their academic disagreements, Dawkins and Gould did not have a hostile personal relationship, and Dawkins dedicated a large portion of his 2003 book ''A Devil's Chaplain'' posthumously to Gould, who had died the previous year.

Dawkins' book ''The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution'' expounds the evidence for biological evolution. All of his previous works dealing with evolution had assumed its truth, and not explicitly provided the evidence to this effect. Dawkins felt that this represented a gap in his oeuvre, and decided to write the book to coincide with Darwin's bicentennial year.

Meme

Dawkins coined the word ''meme'' (the behavioral equivalent of a gene) to describe how Darwinian principles might be extended to explain the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. This has spawned the field of memetics. Dawkins' ''memes'' refer to any cultural entity that an observer might consider a replicator of a certain idea or a complex of ideas. He hypothesised that people could view many cultural entities as capable of such replication, generally through exposure to humans, who have evolved as efficient (although not perfect) copiers of information and behaviour. Memes are not always copied perfectly, and might indeed become refined, combined or otherwise modified with other ideas, resulting in new memes, which may themselves prove more, or less, efficient replicators than their predecessors, thus providing a framework for a hypothesis of cultural evolution, analogous to the theory of biological evolution based on genes. Since originally outlining the idea in his book ''The Selfish Gene'', Dawkins has largely left the task of expanding upon it to other authors such as Susan Blackmore.

Although Dawkins invented the specific term ''meme'' independently, he has not claimed that the idea itself was entirely novel, and there have been other expressions for similar ideas in the past. For instance, John Laurent has suggested that the term may have derived from the work of the little-known German biologist Richard Semon. In 1904 Semon published ''Die Mneme'' (which appeared in English in 1924 as ''The Mneme''). This book discussed the cultural transmission of experiences, with insights parallel to those of Dawkins. Laurent also found the term ''mneme'' used in Maurice Maeterlinck's ''The Life of the White Ant'' (1926), and has highlighted the similarities to Dawkins' concept.

Criticism of creationism

Dawkins is a prominent critic of creationism (the religious belief that humanity, life and the universe were created by a deity, without recourse to evolution). He has described the Young Earth creationist view that the Earth is only a few thousand years old as "a preposterous, mind-shrinking falsehood," and his 1986 book, ''The Blind Watchmaker'', contains a sustained critique of the argument from design, an important creationist argument. In the book, Dawkins argued against the watchmaker analogy made famous by the 18th-century English theologian William Paley in his book ''Natural Theology''. Paley argued that, just as a watch is too complicated and too functional to have sprung into existence merely by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully designed. Dawkins shares the view generally held by scientists that natural selection is sufficient to explain the apparent functionality and non-random complexity of the biological world, and can be said to play the role of watchmaker in nature, albeit as an automatic, nonintelligent, ''blind'' watchmaker.

thumb|left|Dawkins at the 34th annual conference of American Atheists, 2008In 1986 Dawkins participated in a Oxford Union debate, in which he and English biologist John Maynard Smith debated Young Earth creationist A. E. Wilder-Smith and Edgar Andrews, president of the Biblical Creation Society. In general, however, Dawkins has followed the advice of his late colleague Stephen Jay Gould and refused to participate in formal debates with creationists because "what they seek is the oxygen of respectability", and doing so would "give them this oxygen by the mere act of ''engaging'' with them at all." He suggests that creationists "don't mind being beaten in an argument. What matters is that we give them recognition by bothering to argue with them in public."

In a December 2004 interview with American journalist Bill Moyers, Dawkins said that "among the things that science does know, evolution is about as certain as anything we know". When Moyers questioned him on the use of the word ''theory'', Dawkins stated that "evolution has been observed. It's just that it hasn't been observed while it's happening." He added that "it is rather like a detective coming on a murder after the scene... the detective hasn't actually seen the murder take place, of course. But what you do see is a massive clue... Huge quantities of circumstantial evidence. It might as well be spelled out in words of English."

Dawkins has ardently opposed the inclusion of intelligent design in science education, describing it as "not a scientific argument at all, but a religious one". He has been referred to in the media as "Darwin's Rottweiler", a reference to English biologist T. H. Huxley, who was known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's evolutionary ideas. He has been a strong critic of the British organisation Truth in Science, which promotes the teaching of creationism in state schools, and he plans—through the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science—to subsidise the delivery of books, DVDs and pamphlets to schools, in order to counteract what he has described as an "educational scandal".

Advocacy of atheism

Dawkins is an outspoken atheist and a prominent critic of religion. In an interview with Thomas Bass for a book published in 1994 he described himself as a 'fairly militant atheist'. In 1996, when asked if he'd prefer to be known as a scientist or a militant atheist, he replied "Bertrand Russell called himself the Passionate Sceptic. It's aiming high, but I'll shoot for that." Dawkins is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society, a vice-president of the British Humanist Association (since 1996), a Distinguished Supporter of the Humanist Society of Scotland, a member of the Secular Coalition for America advisory board, a Humanist Laureate of the International Academy of Humanism, and a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. In 2003 he became a signatory of the humanist manifesto ''Humanism and Its Aspirations'', published by the American Humanist Association. As a result of his advocacy of atheism, Dawkins has sometimes been described as a vocal, militant rationalist, and as "the UK's Chief Atheist".

Dawkins believes that his own atheism is the logical extension of his understanding of evolution and that religion is incompatible with science. In his 1986 book ''The Blind Watchmaker'', Dawkins wrote:

{{blockquote| An atheist before Darwin could have said, following Hume: "I have no explanation for complex biological design. All I know is that God isn't a good explanation, so we must wait and hope that somebody comes up with a better one." I can't help feeling that such a position, though logically sound, would have left one feeling pretty unsatisfied, and that although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist. }}

In his 1991 essay "Viruses of the Mind" (from which the term ''faith-sufferer'' originated), he suggested that memetic theory might analyse and explain the phenomenon of religious belief and some of the common characteristics of religions, such as the belief that punishment awaits non-believers. According to Dawkins, faith − belief that is not based on evidence − is one of the world's great evils. He claims it to be analogous to the smallpox virus, though more difficult to eradicate. Dawkins is well-known for his contempt for religious extremism, from Islamist terrorism to Christian fundamentalism; but he has also argued with liberal believers and religious scientists, from biologists Kenneth Miller and Francis Collins to theologians Alister McGrath and Richard Harries. Dawkins has stated that his opposition to religion is twofold, claiming it to be both a source of conflict and a justification for belief without evidence. However, he describes himself as a "cultural Christian", and proposed the slogan "Atheists for Jesus".

Following the 11 September 2001 attacks, when asked how the world might have changed, Dawkins responded:

{{blockquote| Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's the harm? September 11th changed all that. Revealed faith is not harmless nonsense, it can be lethally dangerous nonsense. Dangerous because it gives people unshakeable confidence in their own righteousness. Dangerous because it gives them false courage to kill themselves, which automatically removes normal barriers to killing others. Dangerous because it teaches enmity to others labelled only by a difference of inherited tradition. And dangerous because we have all bought into a weird respect, which uniquely protects religion from normal criticism. Let's now stop being so damned respectful! }}

Dawkins has especially risen to prominence in contemporary public debates relating science and religion since the publication of his 2006 book ''The God Delusion'', which has achieved greater sales figures worldwide than any of his other works to date. Its success has been seen by many as indicative of a change in the contemporary cultural zeitgeist, central to a recent rise in the popularity of atheistic literature. ''The God Delusion'' was praised by among others the Nobel laureates Sir Harold Kroto and James D. Watson and by psychologist Steven Pinker. In the book, Dawkins suggested that atheists should be proud, not apologetic, because atheism is evidence of a healthy, independent mind. He sees education and consciousness-raising as the primary tools in opposing what he considers to be religious dogma and indoctrination. These tools include the fight against certain stereotypes, and he has adopted the term ''Bright'' as a way of associating positive public connotations with those who possess a naturalistic worldview. Dawkins notes that feminists have succeeded in arousing widespread embarrassment at the routine use of "he" instead of "she". Similarly, he suggests, a phrase such as "Catholic child" or "Muslim child" should be considered just as socially absurd as, for instance, "Marxist child": children should not be classified based on their parents' ideological beliefs. According to Dawkins, there is no such thing as a Christian child or a Muslim child, as children have about as much capacity to make the decision to become Christians or Muslims as they do to become Marxists. Critics have said that the programme gave too much time to marginal figures and extremists, and that Dawkins' confrontational style did not help his cause and exhibited similarities with the approaches of religious fundamentalists more than with the approaches of the dispassionate, analytic approach of 'hard' science; Dawkins rejected these claims, citing the number of moderate religious broadcasts in everyday media as providing a suitable balance to the extremists in the programmes. He further remarked that someone who is deemed an "extremist" in a religiously moderate country may well be considered "mainstream" in a religiously conservative one. The unedited recordings of Dawkins' conversations with Alister McGrath and Richard Harries, including material unused in the broadcast version, have been made available online by the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.

Dawkins' work has been controversial, and a number of Christian thinkers have responded to it. For example, Oxford theologian Alister McGrath (author of ''The Dawkins Delusion'' and ''Dawkins' God'') maintains that Dawkins is ignorant of Christian theology, and therefore unable to engage religion and faith intelligently. In reply, Dawkins asks "do you have to read up on leprechology before disbelieving in leprechauns?", and − in the paperback edition of ''The God Delusion'' − he refers to the American biologist PZ Myers, who has satirised this line of argument as "The Courtier's Reply". Dawkins had an extended debate with McGrath at the 2007 ''Sunday Times'' Literary Festival.

Dawkins argues that "the existence of God is a scientific hypothesis like any other". He disagrees with Stephen Jay Gould's principle of nonoverlapping magisteria. In an interview with ''Time'' magazine, Dawkins said:

I think that Gould's separate compartments was a purely political ploy to win middle-of-the-road religious people to the science camp. But it's a very empty idea. There are plenty of places where religion does not keep off the scientific turf. Any belief in miracles is flat contradictory not just to the facts of science but to the spirit of science.

Astrophysicist Martin Rees, who has described himself as an unbeliever who identifies with Christianity from a cultural perspective, has suggested that Dawkins' attack on mainstream religion is unhelpful. Regarding Rees' claim in his book ''Our Cosmic Habitat'' that "such questions lie beyond science", Dawkins asks "what expertise can theologians bring to deep cosmological questions that scientists cannot?" Elsewhere, Dawkins has written that "there's all the difference in the world between a belief that one is prepared to defend by quoting evidence and logic, and a belief that is supported by nothing more than tradition, authority or revelation." He has said that the publication of ''The God Delusion'' is "probably the culmination" of his campaign against religion.

In 2007 Dawkins founded the Out Campaign to encourage atheists worldwide to declare their stance publicly and proudly. Inspired by the gay rights movement, Dawkins hopes that atheists' identifying of themselves as such, and thereby increasing public awareness of how many people hold these views, will reduce the negative opinion of atheism among the religious majority.

In September 2008, following a complaint by Islamic creationist Adnan Oktar, a court in Turkey blocked access to Dawkins' website ''richarddawkins.net''. The court decision was made due to "insult to personality". As of 8 July 2011, ''richarddawkins.net'' is no longer blocked in Turkey.

In October 2008, Dawkins officially supported the UK's first atheist advertising initiative, the Atheist Bus Campaign. Created by Guardian journalist Ariane Sherine and administered by the British Humanist Association the campaign aimed to raise funds to place atheist adverts on buses in the London area, and Dawkins pledged to match the amount raised by atheists, up to a maximum of £5,500. However, the campaign was an unprecedented success, raising over £100,000 in its first four days, and generating global press coverage. The campaign, started in January 2009, features adverts across the UK with the slogan: "''There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.''" Dawkins said that "this campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think — and thinking is anathema to religion."

In 2010 Dawkins supported legal efforts to charge Pope Benedict XVI with crimes against humanity. Dawkins and fellow anti-religion campaigner Christopher Hitchens were believed to have explored the option of attempting to have the Pope arrested under the same legal principle that saw Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet arrested during a visit to Britain in 1998. Dawkins has given support to the idea of an atheists' "free thinking" school, that would teach children to "ask for evidence, to be sceptical, critical, open-minded".

On 15 September 2010, Dawkins, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published in ''The Guardian'', stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI making a ''State'' visit to the United Kingdom.

Richard Dawkins Foundation

In 2006 Dawkins founded the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (RDFRS), a non-profit organisation. The foundation is in developmental phase. It has been granted charitable status in the United Kingdom and the United States. RDFRS plans to finance research on the psychology of belief and religion, finance scientific education programs and materials, and publicise and support secular charitable organisations. The foundation also offers humanist, rationalist and scientific materials and information through its website.

Other fields

In his role as professor for public understanding of science, Dawkins has been a critic of pseudoscience and alternative medicine. His 1998 book ''Unweaving the Rainbow'' takes John Keats' accusation that, by explaining the rainbow, Isaac Newton had diminished its beauty, and argues for the opposite conclusion. He suggests that deep space, the billions of years of life's evolution, and the microscopic workings of biology and heredity contain more beauty and wonder than do "myths" and "pseudoscience". Dawkins wrote a foreword to John Diamond's posthumously published ''Snake Oil'', a book devoted to debunking alternative medicine, in which he asserted that alternative medicine was harmful, if only because it distracted patients from more successful conventional treatments, and gave people false hopes. Dawkins states that "there is no alternative medicine. There is only medicine that works and medicine that doesn't work."

Dawkins has expressed concern about the growth of the planet's human population, and about the matter of overpopulation. In ''The Selfish Gene'', he briefly mentions population growth, giving the example of Latin America, whose population, at the time the book was written, was doubling every 40 years. He is critical of Roman Catholic attitudes to family planning and population control, stating that leaders who forbid contraception and "express a preference for 'natural' methods of population limitation" will get just such a method in the form of starvation.

As a supporter of the ''Great Ape Project'' – a movement to extend certain moral and legal rights to all great apes – Dawkins contributed the article "Gaps in the Mind" to the ''Great Ape Project'' book edited by Paola Cavalieri and Peter Singer. In this essay, he criticises contemporary society's moral attitudes as being based on a "discontinuous, speciesist imperative".

Dawkins also regularly comments in newspapers and weblogs on contemporary political questions; his opinions include opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the British nuclear deterrent and the actions of U.S. President George W. Bush. Several such articles were included in ''A Devil's Chaplain'', an anthology of writings about science, religion and politics. He is also a supporter of the Republic campaign to replace the British monarchy with a democratically elected president. Dawkins has described himself as a Labour voter in the 1970s and voter for the Liberal Democrats since the party's creation. In 2009 he spoke at the party's conference in opposition to blasphemy laws, alternative medicine and faith schools. In the UK general election of 2010, Dawkins officially endorsed the Liberal Democrats, in support of their campaign for electoral reform and for their "refusal to pander to 'faith'."

In the 2007 TV documentary ''The Enemies of Reason'', Dawkins discusses what he sees as the dangers of abandoning critical thought and rationale based upon scientific evidence. He specifically cites astrology, spiritualism, dowsing, alternative faiths, alternative medicine and homeopathy. He also discusses how the Internet can be used to spread religious hatred and conspiracy theories with scant attention to evidence-based reasoning.

Continuing a long-standing partnership with Channel 4, Dawkins participated in a five-part television series ''The Genius of Britain'', along with fellow scientists Stephen Hawking, James Dyson, Paul Nurse, and Jim Al-Khalili. The five-episode series was broadcast in June 2010. The series focussed on major British scientific achievements throughout history.

Dawkins presented a More4 documentary entitled 'Faith School Menace' in which he argued for "us to reconsider the consequences of faith education, which... bamboozles parents and indoctrinates and divides children."

In 1998 Dawkins expressed his appreciation for two books, famous for their criticism of postmodernism in US universities, in departments like literary studies, anthropology and other cultural studies; the two books are ''Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science'' (by Gross and Levitt) and ''Intellectual Impostures'' (by Sokal and Bricmont), both related to the Sokal affair hoax. In the same occasion Dawkins also criticised Cambridge University for awarding philosopher Jacques Derrida an honorary doctorate.

In 2011 Dawkins joined the professoriate of the New College of the Humanities, a new private university in London established by A. C. Grayling, which is scheduled to open in September 2012.

Awards and recognition

Dawkins was awarded a Doctor of Science by the University of Oxford in 1989. He holds honorary doctorates in science from the University of Huddersfield, University of Westminster, Durham University, the University of Hull, and the University of Antwerp, and honorary doctorates from the University of Aberdeen, Open University, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and the University of Valencia. He also holds honorary doctorates of letters from the University of St Andrews and the Australian National University (HonLittD, 1996), and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1997 and the Royal Society in 2001. He is one of the patrons of the Oxford University Scientific Society.

In 1987 Dawkins received a Royal Society of Literature award and a ''Los Angeles Times'' Literary Prize for his book, ''The Blind Watchmaker''. In the same year, he received a ''Sci. Tech'' Prize for Best Television Documentary Science Programme of the Year, for the BBC ''Horizon'' episode ''The Blind Watchmaker''.

His other awards have included the Zoological Society of London Silver Medal (1989), Finlay innovation award (1990), the Michael Faraday Award (1990), the Nakayama Prize (1994), the American Humanist Association's Humanist of the Year Award (1996), the fifth International Cosmos Prize (1997), the Kistler Prize (2001), the Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic (2001), the Bicentennial Kelvin Medal of The Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow (2002) and the Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest (2009).

Dawkins topped ''Prospect'' magazine's 2004 list of the top 100 public British intellectuals, as decided by the readers, receiving twice as many votes as the runner-up. He has been short-listed as a candidate in their 2008 follow-up poll. In 2005 the Hamburg-based Alfred Toepfer Foundation awarded him its Shakespeare Prize in recognition of his "concise and accessible presentation of scientific knowledge". He won the Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science for 2006 and the Galaxy British Book Awards Author of the Year Award for 2007. In the same year, he was listed by ''Time'' magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2007, and he was ranked 20th in ''The Daily Telegraph'''s 2007 list of 100 greatest living geniuses. He was awarded the Deschner Award, named after German anti-clerical author Karlheinz Deschner.

Since 2003, the Atheist Alliance International has awarded a prize during its annual conference, honouring an outstanding atheist whose work has done most to raise public awareness of atheism during that year. It is known as the Richard Dawkins Award, in honour of Dawkins' own work.

In February 2010 he was named to the Freedom From Religion Foundation's Honorary Board of distinguished achievers.

Media

Selected publications

(Scheduled to publish on 4 October 2011)

Documentary films

''Nice Guys Finish First'' (1986)

''The Blind Watchmaker'' (1987)

''Growing Up in the Universe'' (1991)

''Break the Science Barrier'' (1996)

''The Root of All Evil?'' (2006)

''The Enemies of Reason'' (2007)

''The Genius of Charles Darwin'' (2008)

''Faith School Menace'' (2010)

Other appearances

''Doctor Who: The Stolen Earth'' (2008) – as himself

''Doctor Who: The Big Bang'' (2010) – as himself

Notes

b. The debate ended with the motion "That the doctrine of creation is more valid than the theory of evolution" being defeated by 198 votes to 115.

References

External links

General

Official website

Richard Dawkins' page on Academia.edu

The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science

Video

National Geographic Interviews – A series of video interviews with National Geographic Channel with Richard Dawkins on Darwin, Evolution and God.

TED Talks: Richard Dawkins on militant atheism at TED in 2002

TED Talks: Richard Dawkins on our "queer" universe at TED Global in 2005

Video interview with Riz Khan for Al Jazeera English

Video interview at Big Think

Selected writings

Viruses of the Mind (1993) – Religion as a mental virus.

The Real Romance in the Stars (1995) – A critical view of astrology.

The Emptiness of Theology (1998) – A critical view of theology. (Alternative link at RDFRS.)

Snake Oil and Holy Water (1999) – Suggests that there is no convergence occurring between science and theism.

What Use is Religion? (2004) – Suggests that religion may have no survival value other than to itself.

Race and Creation (2004) – On race, its usage and a theory of how it evolved.

The giant tortoise's tale, The turtle's tale and The lava lizard's tale (2005) – A series of three articles written after a visit to the Galápagos Islands.

Dawkins' ''Huffington Post'' articles

Audio

Richard Dawkins on RadioLIVE's Weekend Variety Wireless – Richard Dawkins appears live on New Zealand's RadioLIVE, taking calls from the audience.

Category:1941 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century biologists Category:21st-century biologists Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Category:Atheism activists Category:British republicans Category:Criticism of religion Category:English atheists Category:English biologists Category:English humanists Category:English sceptics Category:English science writers Category:Ethologists Category:Evolutionary biologists Category:Fellows of New College, Oxford Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Category:Fellows of the Royal Society Category:Gifford Lecturers Category:New College of the Humanities Category:Old Oundelians Category:People from Nairobi Category:Presenters of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures Category:Recipients of the Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic Category:Statutory Professors of the University of Oxford Category:University of California, Berkeley faculty

ar:ريتشارد دوكنز bn:রিচার্ড ডকিন্স zh-min-nan:Richard Dawkins bg:Ричард Докинс ca:Richard Dawkins cs:Richard Dawkins cy:Richard Dawkins da:Richard Dawkins de:Richard Dawkins et:Richard Dawkins el:Ρίτσαρντ Ντόκινς es:Richard Dawkins eo:Richard Dawkins eu:Richard Dawkins fa:ریچارد داوکینز fr:Richard Dawkins ga:Richard Dawkins gl:Richard Dawkins ko:리처드 도킨스 hr:Richard Dawkins id:Richard Dawkins is:Richard Dawkins it:Richard Dawkins he:ריצ'רד דוקינס la:Ricardus Dawkins lb:Richard Dawkins lt:Richard Dawkins jbo:ritcard.dokinz hu:Richard Dawkins mk:Ричард Докинс arz:ريتشارد دوكينز nl:Richard Dawkins ja:リチャード・ドーキンス no:Richard Dawkins nn:Richard Dawkins uz:Richard Dawkins pl:Richard Dawkins pt:Richard Dawkins ro:Richard Dawkins ru:Докинз, Клинтон Ричард sco:Richard Dawkins simple:Richard Dawkins sk:Richard Dawkins sl:Richard Dawkins sr:Ричард Докинс fi:Richard Dawkins sv:Richard Dawkins ta:ரிச்சர்ட் டாக்கின்சு tr:Richard Dawkins uk:Річард Докінз vi:Richard Dawkins vls:Richard Dawkins yi:ריטשארד דאקינס zh:理查德·道金斯