Hmmm. I don't know the answer to this question: do antipopes have to be people irregularly elected by otherwise legitimate electors? Because if so that would explain why there hasn't been one since the 15th century (the Cardinals are behaving more regularly) and why there were so many early on (the whole clergy of the city of Rome had some say in the matter, if not exactly a vote, and could mobilize mobs). It would also expalin why sedevacantist groups don't have antipopes - none of them has ever gotten a cardinal in the first place, so they have to just proclaim themselves pope. I dunno. This sounds reasonable, but I can't find anything in print or online to support it, and I'm too lazy to make a special trip to the library over it. --
MichaelTinkler
I would think at the very least an antipope needs wide acceptance -- I think some of the medieveal antipopes had large political support -- and I think in some cases competiting temporal powers would each support different claimants to be Pope, as in the great schism (the one where there were three popes, not the one that split east and west). The 'popes' of modern sedevacantists, by comparison, have no large scale following, political or religious. Their following and influence is absolutely miniscule in comparison to the that of the official Pope, unlike medieveal antipopes whose following often could at least begin to rival the official ones. --
Simon J Kissane
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