The Professors Who Would Become Popes

131 popes ruled the Catholic Church from the year 1000 to 1800. Using the database we constructed on early European academia, we find that 21 of them held academic positions prior to their election. We show that these professors who would become popes were not different from non-academic popes in terms of productivity (number of elected cardinals and saints, number of bulls promulgated), but generally came from humbler backgrounds. An interesting pattern emerges: the 21 academic popes were all elected before 1625. From this pattern, we conjecture three complementary explanations. (1) With the Scientific Revolution, early modern universities became more secular or declined compared to their medieval predecessors. (2) The papacy was captured by Roman aristocratic families during the Early Modern Period, which barred outsiders from accessing it. (3) Following the Council of Trent, seminaries provided an alternative path for religious knowledge.