Useless knowledge we dug up this week.
Antipope
You’ve heard of the pope; get ready for the antipope. “Antipope?” you might be asking, “Like an antihero pope?” Yeah, kinda! An antipope is someone who claims to be the pope in defiance of the one officially elected by the Catholic Church. These guys usually have followings within the Church, however. At several points throughout history, there have even been several antipopes at once! Confusing, right?
If this sounds pretty Game of Thronesian, you’re not far off: monarchs would back antipopes with varying regularity in the hopes of furthering their own ambitions. This was an especially common move by the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. To make it even twistier, popes who disliked the current emperor might sponsor their own king, called—you guessed it!—an antiking. No wonder power struggles got so messy.
To the relief of any would-be Wikipedia historian, these faux-popes (fauxpes?) are named appropriately on their respective pages; you won’t be mixing up Antipope John XXIII (c. 1370 – 1419) and Pope John XXIII (1881 – 1963) any time soon!