great victory on the banks of the Garigliano. The defeat and death of Berengar through the combination of the Italian princes, again frustrated the hopes of a united Italy, and after witnessing several years of anarchy and confusion John perished through the intrigues of Marozia, daughter of Theodora. His successor was Leo VI.
JOHN XI., pope from 931 to 935, was the son of Marozia and
the reputed son of Sergius III. Through the influence of his
mother he was chosen to succeed Stephen VII. at the early age
of twenty-one. He was the mere exponent of the purposes of
his mother, until her son Alberic succeeded in 933 in overthrowing
their authority. The pope was kept a virtual prisoner
in the Lateran, where he is said to have died in 935, in which
year Leo VII. was consecrated his successor.
JOHN XII., pope from 955 to 964, was the son of Alberic,
whom he succeeded as patrician of Rome in 954, being then only
sixteen years of age. His original name was Octavian, but
when he assumed the papal tiara as successor to Agapetus II., he
adopted the apostolic name of John, the first example, it is said,
of the custom of altering the surname in connexion with elevation
to the papal chair. As a temporal ruler John was devoid of the
vigour and firmness of his father, and his union of the papal
office—which through his scandalous private life he made a byword
of reproach—with his civil dignities proved a source of
weakness rather than of strength. In order to protect himself
against the intrigues in Rome and the power of Berengar II. of
Italy, he called to his aid Otto the Great of Germany, to whom
he granted the imperial crown in 962. Even before Otto left
Rome the pope had, however, repented of his recognition of a
power which threatened altogether to overshadow his authority,
and had begun to conspire against the new emperor. His
intrigues were discovered by Otto, who, after he had defeated
and taken prisoner Berengar, returned to Rome and summoned
a council which deposed John, who was in hiding in the mountains
of Campania, and elected Leo VIII. in his stead. An
attempt at an insurrection was made by the inhabitants of
Rome even before Otto left the city, and on his departure John
returned at the head of a formidable company of friends and
retainers, and caused Leo to seek safety in immediate flight.
Otto determined to make an effort in support of Leo, but before
he reached the city John had died, in what manner is uncertain,
and Benedict V. had mounted the papal chair.
JOHN XIII., pope from 965 to 972, was descended from a
noble Roman family, and at the time of his election as successor
to Leo VIII. was bishop of Narni. He had been somewhat
inconsistent in his relations with his predecessor Leo, but his
election was confirmed by the emperor Otto, and his submissive
attitude towards the imperial power was so distasteful to the
Romans that they expelled him from the city. On account of
the threatening procedure of Otto, they permitted him shortly
afterwards to return, upon which, with the sanction of Otto, he
took savage vengeance on those who had formerly opposed him.
Shortly after holding a council along with the emperor at
Ravenna in 967, he gave the imperial crown to Otto II. at
Rome in assurance of his succession to his father; and in 972 he
also crowned Theophano as empress immediately before her
marriage. On his death in the same year he was followed by
Benedict VI.
JOHN XIV., pope from 983 to 984, successor to Benedict VII.,
was born at Pavia, and before his elevation to the papal chair
was imperial chancellor of Otto II. Otto died shortly after his
election, when Boniface VII., on the strength of the popular
feeling against the new pope, returned from Constantinople and
placed John in prison, where he died either by starvation or
poison.
JOHN XV., pope from 985 to 996, generally recognized as the
successor of Boniface VII., the pope John who was said to have
ruled for four months after John XIV., being now omitted by
the best authorities. John XV. was the son of Leo, a Roman
presbyter. At the time he mounted the papal chair Crescentius
was patrician of Rome, but, although his influence was on this
account very much hampered, the presence of the empress
Theophano in Rome from 989 to 991 restrained also the ambition
of Crescentius. On her departure the pope, whose venality
and nepotism had made him very unpopular with the citizens,
died of fever before the arrival of Otto III., who elevated his
own kinsman Bruno to the papal dignity under the name of
Gregory V.
JOHN XVI., pope or antipope from 997 to 998, was a Calabrian
Greek by birth, and a favourite of the empress Theophano, from
whom he had received the bishopric of Placentia. His original
name was Philagathus. In 995 he was sent by Otto III. on an
embassy to Constantinople to negotiate a marriage with a Greek
princess. On his way back he either accidentally or at the
special request of Crescentius visited Rome. A little before
this Gregory V., at the end of 996, had been compelled to flee
from the city; and the wily and ambitious Greek had now no
scruple in accepting the papal tiara from the hands of Crescentius.
The arrival of Otto at Rome in the spring of 998 put a sudden
end to the treacherous compact. John sought safety in flight,
but was discovered in his place of hiding and brought back to
Rome, where after enduring cruel and ignominious tortures he
was immured in a dungeon.
JOHN XVII., whose original name was Sicco, succeeded
Silvester II. as pope in June 1003, but died less than five months
afterwards.
JOHN XVIII., pope from 1003 to 1009, was, during his whole
pontificate, the mere creature of the patrician John Crescentius,
and ultimately he abdicated and retired to a monastery, where
he died shortly afterwards. His successor was Sergius IV.
JOHN XIX., pope from 1024 to 1033, succeeded his brother
Benedict VIII., both being members of the powerful house of
Tusculum. He merely took orders to enable him to ascend the
papal chair, having previously been a consul and senator. He
displayed his freedom from ecclesiastical prejudices, if also his
utter ignorance of ecclesiastical history, by agreeing, on the payment of a large bribe, to grant to the patriarch of Constantinople the title of an ecumenical bishop, but the general indignation which the proposal excited throughout the church compelled him almost immediately to withdraw from his agreement. On
the death of the emperor Henry II. in 1024 he gave his support
to Conrad II., who along with his consort was crowned with
great pomp at St Peter’s in Easter of 1027. John died in 1033,
in the full possession of his dignities. A successor was found for
him in his nephew Benedict IX., a boy of only twelve years of age.
(L. D.*)
JOHN XXI. (Pedro Giuliano-Rebulo), pope from the 8th of
September 1276 to the 20th of May 1277 (should be named
John XX., but there is an error in the reckoning through the
insertion of an antipope), a native of Portugal, educated for the
church, became archdeacon and then archbishop of Braga, and
so ingratiated himself with Gregory X. at the council of Lyons
(1274) that he was taken to Rome as cardinal-bishop of Frascati,
and succeeded Gregory after an interregnum of twenty days.
As pope he excommunicated Alphonso III. of Portugal for
interfering with episcopal elections and sent legates to the
Great Khan. He was devoted to secular science, and his small
affection for the monks awakened the distrust of a large portion
of the clergy. His life was brought to a premature close through
the fall of the roof in the palace he had built at Viterbo. His
successor was Nicholas III.
John XXI. has been identified since the 14th century, most probably correctly, with Petrus Hispanus, a celebrated Portuguese physician and philosopher, author of several medical works—notably the curious Liber de oculo, trans. into German and well edited by A. M. Berger (Munich, 1899), and of a popular textbook in logic, the Summulae logicales. John XXI. is constantly referred to as a magician by ignorant chroniclers.
See Les Registres de Grégoire X. et Jean XXI., published by J. Guiraud and E. Cadier in Bibliothèque des écoles françaises d’Athènes et de Rome (Paris, 1898); A. Potthast, Regesta pontif. Roman., vol. 2 (Berlin, 1875); F. Gregorovius, Rome in the Middle Ages, vol. v., trans. by Mrs G. W. Hamilton (London, 1900–1902); R. Stapper, Papst Johann XXI. (Münster, 1898); J. T. Köhler, Vollständige Nachricht von Papst Johann XXI. (Göttingen, 1760). (C. H. Ha.)
