This was a time of great papal wealth and, in Wycliffe's view, corruption – he devised a doctrine which declared that the only source of God's authority was the Bible, not the papacy, and argued for the vast power held by the church to be secularised.
Myriam Bregman, an Argentine lawyer in the continuing trials of crimes at the ESMA death camp, says Bergoglio's appointment to the papacy left her confused.
"The court is the leprosy of the papacy".
Its leading contender for the papacy, the Ghanaian cardinal Peter Turkson, is widely regarded as a conservative in the mold of Benedict.But one of Father da Silva's older colleagues stakes out a more radical position.
Sixtus's violent, if productive, five-year papacy exemplified a recurrent theme in Rome's history: the entwining of brutality with lavish creativity.
At that point, the "Holy Roman" emperor, Henry IV, gives ground in a bitter power struggle with the papacy, begs the pope's forgiveness and is readmitted to the good graces of the church.
Pope Francis is said to have a soft spot for Ukraine's Uniate or Greek-Catholic church, which uses eastern Christian rites but accepts the authority of the papacy; the current head of the Greek-Catholics has served in the pontiff's native Argentina.
Among his many difficult tasks will be to clean up the Institute for the Works of Religion, often known as the Vatican Bank.Such reforms are essential to the success of Francis's papacy: the Vatican Bank has been at the centre of several financial scandals that have embarrassed recent popes.
Rome sold the faith, drawing in contributions to the papacy, and pilgrims in sometimes embarrassing but always enriching numbers.
He also with a long, informal press conference underlined the new style that his papacy has brought, heralding a softer tone on sexual issues, and a tougher line on Vatican cliques.Humble and plain-speaking, Francis drew huge crowds despite the wet and cold of the southern winter.
So close was he to the papacy that John XXIII informed him of the most momentous decision in modern Catholicism, the calling of the Second Vatican Council, three days before the official announcement.His Christianity was deeply felt.
