sixteen indeed...
soon after
cardinal ratzinger was elected to the papacy last month, round the time of his first general audience in st peter's square, on 27 april, when he explained to the world why he chose the name
benedict, i asked a friend if there had really been fifteen previous pope benedict and he replied he was actually wondering about the "papal numbering system" since the last one had reigned in the early twentieth century (1914~1922) and «there's no way there'd been six additional bens [sic] betrween WWI and today». another friend stated with some reservation that he understood there had been fifteen before ratzinger. i guess my one friend might have read a misprint, IX instead of XV, as there have
indeed been fifteen other popes who chose this name and in case anyone's interested here's a link to each one's bio from the brilliant
wikipedia!
:: Pope Benedict I Pope Benedict II Pope Benedict III Pope Benedict IV Pope Benedict V Pope Benedict VI Pope Benedict VII Pope Benedict VIII Pope Benedict IX Pope Benedict XI Pope Benedict XII Pope Benedict XIII Pope Benedict XIV Pope Benedict XV Pope Benedict XVI ::
# posted by j @ 10:52 et / | 
