Pope Innocent I

Innocent took the chair in 401 and immediately positioned himself as the referee for every doctrinal brawl and disciplinary mess the church could produce. He backed the Archbishop of Thessalonica's authority, issued rulings for a bishop in Rouen sorting out discipline, and threw his weight behind the exiled John Chrysostom when the eastern church turned on him. When African bishops wrote asking what to do about Pelagius and his ideas on grace, Innocent confirmed their synod decisions and made Rome's voice the last one that mattered. He died on 12 March 417, having spent sixteen years making the papacy less ceremonial and more like a court of final appeal. Fifteen centuries later, a Catholic scholar called him very energetic and highly gifted, someone who fulfilled his duties admirably - which, in church Latin, is about as close to a standing ovation as you get.