Who he was
A Roman, the son of a priest named Leo, he was elected in 985 after the death of the usurper Boniface VII. For most of his reign real power in Rome lay with the noble John Crescentius, though the pope kept good relations with the German court and with the empresses Adelaide and Theophano. Because some chroniclers wrongly listed an extra pope called John, he is sometimes numbered John XVI.
What he is remembered for
In 993 he declared Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg a saint at a Roman synod, the first solemn canonisation by a pope. His legate made peace between King Æthelred of England and Richard of Normandy in 991, and he defended the deposed Archbishop Arnulf of Reims in a long dispute with the French kings that involved the future Sylvester II. He died in April 996, just before Otto III reached Rome to be crowned.
Sources
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