Oops, got it wrong the first time. That’s what happens when you take a blogcation:
That’s how long it’s been since a pope abidcated and it’s been 968 years since a pope named Benedict quit. My stat-head friends are apt to appreciate the numerical symmetry.
Here’s *why* Benny the 9th resigned:
Pope Benedict IX, in 1045: At age 33 and about 10 years
into his tumultuous term, the Rome-born pope resigned so that he could
get married – and to collect some cash from his godfather, also Roman,
who paid Benedict IX to step down so that he might replace him, according to British historian Reginald L. Poole’s definitive and much-cited history of the 11th century.
Okay, back to Lundi Gras related stuff and answering the age old question, to costume or not to costume. I lean towards the latter since it may be wet tomorrow.
That is all.
If you did costume, “Ladies & Gentlemen, the next bishop of Rome!” is certainly an option.
If this IS a matter of Ratzi’s declining health, then so be it — the Church has quite a bit on its plate and do date they’ve done a pretty piss poor job on the management side — but something tells me this could also be the ultimate vainglorious act: the first modern pope who gets to see his successor. Sort of like watching your own funeral…
“At age 33 and about 10 years into his tumultuous term, the Rome-born pope resigned so that he could get married”
That’s what they get for appointing a boy (23!) to do an octogenarian’s job.
I’m surprised that he lasted that long.
Rumor has it that the resignation note in the vatican library reads:
“Screw this noise! I quit! It’s been fun, and it’s been real, but it hasn’t been real fun. Laters”
2013 – 1415 = 598
That is all.