J O 
and to-punilh his enemies, recalled him to Rome; but 
their reluctant fubmilhon had not the effeft of appealing 
the emperor’s juft refentment. Having entered the city 
without op.pofition, he directed that the principal authors 
of the late proceedings fhould be feized, fent the confuls 
into exile, and ordered the thirteen tribunes to be hanged. 
The prefect was fo fortunate as to make his efcape ; but 
all the reft were either banifhed, or condemned to impri- 
fonment for life. Rotfred had be'fore been murdered by 
fome of the pope’s partifans; and, on this occcafion, his 
body was dug up, cut in pieces, and thrown into the 
common fewer, as unworthy of Chriftian burial. Having 
thus punilhed the rebellious Romans, the emperor went, 
accompanied by the pope, to Ravenna, where a council 
was held in the year 967, at which the emperor reftored 
to the pope the city of Ravenna with it* territory, and fe- 
veral other places which Pepin and Charlemagne had given 
to the’Roman fee, but which had been feized by Berenger 
and Albert. Upon the breaking-up of the council, the 
pope returned to Rome, where he fpent the remainder of 
liis life in the unmolefted polfelfion of his high dignity. 
John died at Rome in 972, after having preiided in the 
Roman fee nearly feven years. In his pontificate the 
Poles were firft converted to the Chriftian religion ; and, 
by fome writers, he is faid to have introduced the practice 
of blefting church bells, though others maintain that the 
ceremony was of much earlier invention. Four of this 
pope’s Letters may be feen in the ninth volume of Col- 
left. Concil. Among the other legendary tales of the 
times it is related, that, while Otho was at Rome, one of 
the lords in his fuite became pofleffed by the devil. In 
order to expel the enemy, recourfe was had to the chain 
of St. Peter, which was hung round the demoniac’s neck, 
who by that means was inltantaneoully cured. Thieri, 
bilhop of Metz, was fo affected by beholding this mira¬ 
cle, that, feizing the chain, he protefted that he would 
fooner fuffer his hand to be cut off than part with his 
prize. His holinefs, however, at length calmed the pre¬ 
late’s holy frenzy, by making him the prefent of a Angle 
link. Cave's HiJ}. Lit. 
JOHN XIV. pope, whofe name before his eleflion to 
the pontifical dignity was Peter, and who held the fee 
of Pavia at the fame time that he was arch-chancellor un¬ 
der the emperor Otho II. This prelate obtained the ho¬ 
nour of being called to the papal chair on the death of 
Benedict VII. in the year 985 ; but he held it only eight 
months. For B-oniface VII. called Franco by thofe who 
clafs him among the antipopes, hearing at Conftantinople, 
whither he had fled for refuge when driven from Rome, 
of the death of Otho, returned privately to that city. 
Here he was received with great joy by thofe of his party, 
who encouraged him to attempt the expulfion of John 
from his fee. This he readily undertook; and, his fac¬ 
tion having prevailed, he feized his rival, confined him in 
the caftle of St. Angelo, and there either ftarved him to 
death or difpatched him with poifon. Boniface himfelf 
did not long furvive the viftim of his cruelty, being car¬ 
ried off by a fudden death in the year 985. 
Upon this event, John, a native of Rome, and the fon 
of one Robert, was defied pope, and governed the church 
during the fpace of four months. Some writers have 
hence been led to give him the title of John XV. But 
whether his eleiftion was not canonical, or whether he 
died before his confecration, he is not reckoned by the 
greater part of the catholic ecclefiaitical hiftorians among 
the popes. 
JOHN XV. pope, was a Roman by birth, and the fon 
of a prelbyter named Leo. He was elected to the papal 
dignity in-the year 985, on the death of John the fon of 
Robert, mentioned above. Soon after the commencement 
of his pontificate, Crefcentius, a man of great power at 
Rome, who afpircd at the lovereignty of the city, feized 
the caftle of St. Angelo, and aflumed the title of conful. 
The pope, conceiving that he was in danger of meeting 
with the fate of John XIV. at his hands, withdrew into 
Vox.XL No. 747. 
H N. - *\S 
Tufcany, whence he wrote to the emperor Otho III. en¬ 
treating him to come to the relief of the holy fee, and to 
deliver Rome from the new tyranny which threatened its 
deftruclion. Otho having fent an anfwer to the pope, 
that if neceffary he would come with his whole army, and 
fupport the apoftolic fee with the fame zeal which his fa¬ 
ther and grandfather had dilphyed; John took care to 
inform Crefcentius of the imperial promife. Upon this 
the latter, recollefting the late executions, and knowing 
his incapacity to oppofe the emperor, fent fome of the 
principal of his party to invite his holinefs back to Rome, 
with the ltrongeft afiurances not only of fafety, but of all 
the refpedt which was due to the fucceffor of St. Peter. 
With this invitation the pope complied, and was fullered 
to live unmolefted till towards the latter end of his pon¬ 
tificate. 
In the year 989, he obliged Albert bifhop of Prague, 
who had deferred his fee for the purpofe of embracing the 
monallic life, to relume the exereile of. his pnftoral func¬ 
tions ; and, in the following year, he fuccefsfully medi¬ 
ated a peace, by his legates, between Ethelred king of 
England and Richard duke of Normandy. In the year 
993, af a council held in the Lateran palace, the pope, af¬ 
ter hearing read an account of the life and fuppofed mi¬ 
racles of Ulderic bilhop of Augufta, and confulting with 
the bilhops, declared that Ulderic might from that time 
be worfhipped and invoked as a faint reigning in heaven 
with Chrilt. This is the firft inftance on record of the 
folemn canonization of a pretenderily-meritorious charac¬ 
ter; a praflice which foon contributed to crowd the Ro¬ 
man calendar with faints, and loaded the church with 
wealth, by the rich offerings with which the fuperftitious 
multitude was encouraged to propitiate the favour of thefe 
new mediators between God and man. In the fame year 
the pope became engaged in a quarrel with the Galiican 
clergy. The latter had convitted Arnold archbilhop of 
Rheims of high treafon, at a council held at Rheims in 
991, and had proceeded folemnly to depofe him front his 
dignity, and to appoint Gerbert, formerly preeeptor to 
prince Robert, the fon of Hugh Capet, archbilhop in his 
room. When the pope was informed of thefe proceed¬ 
ings, he declared them null, and fufpended all the bilhops 
who had aflilted at that council. To this l'ufpenlion the 
bilhops paid no attention, and during two years main¬ 
tained with fpirit, that they had adled in conformity with 
the canons of the church, and that the pope could not re- 
verfe the judgment which they had given, nor fufpend 
them for giving it. The deciiion of the affair was refer¬ 
red to a council fummoned to alfemble at Rheims in the 
year 995. In that council the pope triumphed over the 
bilhops, through the addrefs of the legate, who gained 
over many of them to his party ; and Gerbert was order¬ 
ed to be depofed, and Arnold to be reinllated in his fee. 
About this time Crefcentius began to refume his am¬ 
bitious projefts at Rome, and gave John lo much difturb- 
ance, that he was again obliged to entreat the emperor to 
come to his afiiftance. Upon this, Otho immediately 
marched with an army into Italy; but John died when 
he had advanced as far as Ravenna, in the year 996, and 
the eleventh of his pontificate. 
JOHN XVI. pope, or antipope, originally called Phila- 
gatkus. He was a native of Roffano in Calabria, and of 
mean extr2<ftion, but a perfon of confiderable abilities and 
addrefs. As Calabria was then lubjeft to the Greek em¬ 
pire, arid he fpoke the Greek language, he inlinuated him¬ 
felf into the favour of the Greek emprefs Theophania, 
confort of the emperor Otho II. who recommended him 
to her hulband, by whom he was employed in feveral af¬ 
fairs of moment; as he was afterwards by Otho III. He 
obtained polfelfion of the fee of Placentia, and held it till 
he heard that Gregory V. was driven from Rome by Cref- 
centius, in the year 997 ; when he purchafed the pope¬ 
dom of that ufurper, with the plunder of the church of 
Placentia, and affumed the name of John XVI. But, 
upon the approach of the emperor Otho with au army to- 
3 I _ wards 
