Antipope

An antipope is a pretender to the Chair of Peter. Although there have been rival claimants to the papacy throughout history, the most famous antipopes are those of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. During most of the twelfth century the papacy had been relocated to Avignon, a city in what is now southern France. When Gregory XI sought to return the papacy to Rome, the French cardinals elected their own candidate to the papacy. For the next several decades there were an entire series of rival claimants to the papacy, until a church council finally achieved a settlement by having all claimants abdicate and electing a new pope.

In the late twentieth century, a number of radical Traditionalist Catholics who reject the Second Vatican Council have attempted to elect their own popes, as they vew John XXIII and his successors as antipopes. However, these claimants to the Chair of Peter generally have few followers, and represent no serious threat to the Vatican.