Boniface VII and John XVI

Usage examples of antipopes.

There had been centuries of conflict, with Rome a battleground between popes and antipopes, and between the popes and the Holy Roman Emperors.

Seeing that the rest of the world did not take very seriously the imperial antipopes, the emperor would agree to pay Alexander homage and acknowledge him as the sole and genuine Roman pontiffand this was a big stepbut in return the pope had to make up his mind to withdraw all support of the Lombard communesand this was even bigger.