Longevity of popes and artists between the 13th and the 19th century

Abstract

Longevity has increased steadily through history. Life expectancy at birth was a brief 25 years during the Roman Empire, it reached 33 years by the Middle Ages and raised up to 55 years in the early 1900s.1 In the Middle Ages, the average life span of males born in landholding families in England was 31.3 years and the biggest danger was surviving childhood.2 Once children reached the age of 10, their life expectancy was 32.2 years, and for those who survived to 25, the remaining life expectancy was 23.3 years. Such estimates reflected the life expectancy of adult males from the higher ranks of English society in the Middle Ages,3 and were similar to that computed for monks of the Christ Church in Canterbury during the 15th century.4 Similar to landholders and monks, members of the Vatican were also likely, in the past centuries, to be better fed, clothed and sheltered, and to had better medical care and to survive longer than most of their contemporary people. Several steps were required before a cardinal could enter the Conclave, making longevity a necessary condition for being elected Pope. Bearing in mind this consideration, we aimed at investigating whether longevity of Popes was longer than that of other population groups of contemporary people, after having taken into account that Popes had to have reached a certain age before being elected to papacy.

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