Benedict IX first pontiff to resign

POPE Benedict XVI is not the first Roman Catholic pontiff to resign.

In 1045, Pope Benedict IX agreed, for financial advantage, to resign the papacy.

Pope Gregory VI, who to rid the Church of Benedict IX had persuaded him to resign, became his successor.

Gregory himself resigned in 1046 because the arrangement he had entered into with Benedict was considered simoniacal; that is, to have been paid for.

Gregory’s successor, Pope Clement II, died in 1047 and Benedict IX became Pope again.

The best known example of the resignation of a Pope is that of Pope Celestine V in 1294.

After only five months of pontificate, he issued a solemn decree declaring it permissible for a Pope to resign, and then did so himself. He lived two more years as a hermit and was later canonized.

The Papal decree that he issued ended any doubt among canonists about the possibility of a valid papal resignation.

Pope Gregory XII (1406–1415), resigned in order to end the Western Schism, which had reached the point where there were three claimants to the Papal throne, Roman Pope Gregory XII, Avignon Antipope Benedict XIII, and Pisan Antipope John XXIII.

Before resigning he formally convened the already existing Council of Constance and authorized it to elect his successor.

Before setting out for Paris to crown Napoleon in 1804,

Pope Pius VII (1800–1823), signed a document of resignation to take effect if he were imprisoned in France.

It has been claimed that during World War II, Pius XII drew up a document with instructions that, if he were kidnapped by the Nazis, he was to be considered to have resigned his office, and the Cardinals were to flee to neutral Portugal and elect a successor.

Pope John Paul II wrote a letter of resignation in case he were to come down with an incurable disease or if anything happened that would keep him from fulfilling his duties.

In the years leading up to his death in 2005, some sources suggested that John Paul II ought to resign due to his failing health, but Vatican officials always ruled out this possibility.

If requested, a diocesan bishop must offer his resignation from the governance of his diocese on completion of his 75th year of age and cardinals are not allowed to join a conclave after reaching 80.

However, there is no requirement for a Pope to resign upon reaching any particular age. Since the enactment of these rules concerning diocesan bishops and cardinals, three Popes, Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, reached the age of 80 during their pontificates.

Apart from stating that, if the See of Rome is completely impeded, no innovation is to be made in the governance of the universal Church, and that the special laws enacted for these circumstances are to be observed, canon law makes no provision for the eventuality that a Pope is temporarily or permanently incapacitated for reasons of health, an assassination attempt or captivity, nor does it indicate what individual or body or group has the authority to certify that the Pope is totally impeded from exercising his office.

Sources: Code of Canon Law, Catholic Encylopedia