Antipope John XVI

See also: Pope John (numbering)
John XVI

Antipope John XVI (997–998)
Papacy began 997
Papacy ended 998
Predecessor Boniface VII (Avignon claimant) Gregory XII (Roman claimant)
Successor Antipope Gregory VI
Personal details
Birth name Ioannis Philagathos
Born 945
Rossano, Calabria, italy
Died 1001
Rome, Papal States
Denomination Roman Catholic
Other Popes and Antipopes named John

John XVI (born ca. 945 – died ca. 1001), born (Greek: Ιωάννης Φιλάγαθος, Ioannis Philagathos),[1] (Italian: Giovanni Filagato), (Latin: Johannes Philagathus) was an antipope from 997 to 998.[2]

Life

He was born of Greek descent[3][4][5] and was a native of Rossano in Calabria, southern Italy.[6] At the time the region was a territory of the Byzantine Empire and John was the chaplain of Theophanu,[7] the Empress consort of Emperor Otto II (973–983), who had come from Constantinople. Twice he acted as Imperial chancellor in Italy for Otto II, in 980–982, whereupon he was appointed Abbot of Nonantola, and in 991–992. Between his sojourns in Italy he was appointed tutor to the seven-year-old Emperor's son, Otto III, in 987. By the Empress's persuasion he was appointed bishop of Piacenza, and he was sent to Constantinople to accompany home a Byzantine princess for the younger Otto. After the Emperor's death, the youthful Emperor Otto III (983–1002) came to the aid of Pope John XV (985–996) in 996, to put down the rebellion of a faction led by the rich and powerful Roman nobleman Crescentius the Younger. Otto III stopped to be acclaimed King of Lombardy at Pavia, and failed to reach Rome before the Pope died. Once in Rome, Otto III engineered the election of his cousin Bruno of Carinthia as Pope Gregory V (996–999), and the new pontiff then crowned Otto III Emperor, 21 May 996.

Once Otto III had returned to Germany, the faction headed by Crescentius II violently unseated Gregory V and, with the active support of the Eastern Emperor, Basil II, acclaimed John as Pope John XVI (997–998). A synod of the Western bishops held in 997 at the Imperial capital in Italy, Pavia, decided in Gregory V's favour and excommunicated John.

The revolt of Crescentius II was decisively suppressed by Otto III, who marched once again upon Rome, in February 998. John XVI fled, but the Emperor's troops pursued and captured him, cut off his nose and ears, cut out his tongue, broke his fingers and blinded him, that he might not write, and publicly degraded him before Otto III and Gregory V. At the intercession of Saint Nilus the Younger, one of his countrymen, his life was spared: he was sent to the monastery of Fulda, in Germany, where he died about 1001.

Johann's consent to be enthroned as Pope against the claims of Gregory can be seen as a manipulation of the constant political struggles by the Roman nobles against Imperial power, accruing to the advantage of Byzantine influence against the widening of Imperial power in Rome, where Gregory was the first German pontiff.[8]

Because he was not a legitimate Pope, the next three Pope Johns, John XVII, John XVIII and John XIX, took the regnal numbers XVI, XVII and XVIII, but some historians of the Middle Ages corrected their names including Antipope Philagathos among the Popes, and the wrongly corrected sequencing was never subsequently corrected.

References

Notes

  1. ^ Rocca, Silvana (2004). Latina didaxis 19. Compagnia dei librai. p. 234. ISBN 8888784276, 9788888784274. "Othon learnt the Greek letters and culture by his mother and by the Greek monk from Kalavria, Ioannis Philagathos. The influence of the greek culture to his personality contributed in being his personality analogus to that of the kings of Byzantium." 
  2. ^ "John (XVI) (antipope [997–998."]. www.britannica.com. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/304886/John-XVI. Retrieved -December-9-2010. "John (XVI), original name Giovanni Filagato, Latin Johannes Philagathus (b. , Rossano, Calabria—d. Aug. 26, 1001), antipope from 997 to 998." 
  3. ^ "John (XVI) (antipope [997–998."]. www.britannica.com. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/304886/John-XVI. Retrieved -December-9-2010. "John (XVI), original name Giovanni Filagato, Latin Johannes Philagathus (b. , Rossano, Calabria—d. Aug. 26, 1001), antipope from 997 to 998. A monk of Greek descent whom the Holy Roman emperor Otto II named abbot of the monastery of Nonantola, Italy, he attained an influential position at the court of Otto’s widow, the empress Theophano." 
  4. ^ Bunson, Matthew (1995). The pope encyclopedia: an A to Z of the Holy See. Crown Trade Paperbacks. p. 196. ISBN 0517882566, 9780517882566. "JOHN XVI Antipope from 997 to 998, a Greek from Calabria, Giovanni Filagato had a long career that was much assisted by the imperial court." 
  5. ^ Duckett, Eleanor Shipley (1988). Death and Life in the Tenth Century. University of Michigan Press. p. 124. ISBN 0472061720, 9780472061723. "This John, known as John Philagathos, Greek by birth, was a native of Rossano in Calabria, southern Italy" 
  6. ^ Duckett, Eleanor Shipley (1988). Death and Life in the Tenth Century. University of Michigan Press. p. 124. ISBN 0472061720, 9780472061723. "This John, known as John Philagathos, Greek by birth, was a native of Rossano in Calabria, southern Italy" 
  7. ^ Arnulf of Milan, Liber gestorum recentium, I.11–12.
  8. ^ Schaff-Herzog 1999).