Disputed claimants
Antipopes belong beside the line, not inside it
The main timeline follows the Holy See's official sequence of popes. Antipopes and disputed claimants are historically important, but mixing them into the same line would make the central reference harder to trust.
Rule one
Official sequence first
The primary timeline should remain a stable lookup tool.
Rule two
Dispute labels visible
Future claimant records need clear labels, dates, and source notes.
Rule three
No false drama
Only contested places should branch; most succession is simply ordered.
Claimants a future layer should track
HippolytusThird centuryEarly Roman division, later remembered with reconciliation in view.
Felix IIFourth centuryA useful test case for how later lists and local memory can diverge.
Laurentius498-506A contested Roman election where faction, imperial politics, and recognition matter.
Anacletus II1130-1138A medieval disputed election that cannot be explained by the official line alone.
Clement VII1378-1394The Avignon claimant who begins the Western Schism line.
Benedict XIII1394-1423The long Avignon persistence after much of Europe had moved toward settlement.
Alexander V1409-1410A Pisan claimant created by an attempted solution that became a third obedience.
John XXIII1410-1415The Pisan claimant whose numbering history is part of why John XXI looks strange.
Best next revision
Add these claimants as a toggleable layer on the timeline, with each disputed obedience visibly separate from the official papal sequence. That keeps the site honest and useful.