Birthplace
Rome
Pope from
December 972
Pope until
July 974
Died
July 974
Who he was
Benedict was a Roman, the son of Hildebrand, and Cardinal-Deacon of St Theodore. He was elected to succeed John XIII, but had to wait for the Emperor Otto's approval and was not consecrated until 19 January 973.
What he is remembered for
Nothing of his reign is recorded except that he confirmed the privileges of some churches and monasteries. In 974 a faction of nobles led by Crescentius and the deacon Boniface (the antipope Boniface VII) threw him into Castel Sant'Angelo, and after less than two months he was strangled there on their orders, to stop an imperial envoy from freeing him.
Sources
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