BENEDETTO VI, POPE. - Son of Ildebrando, he was elected by the imperial faction shortly after the death of Giovanni XIII (6 Oct. 972), but was consecrated only on 19 Jan. 973, because confirmation from Ottone I, then in Germany, had to be awaited. After the latter’s death (7 May 973), while Ottone II was in difficulties, the Roman popular faction, led by Crescenzi I (d. 984), set against B. the Roman deacon Bonifacio Francone, who took the name Bonifacio VII (June 974). The latter confined B. in Castel S. Angelo and, when the imperial envoy Sicco intervened for his release, had the prisoner strangled (July 974). Few documents of B. remain, some of them suspect and others false. He confirmed the privileges of the church
of Treviri (24 Jan. 973) and possessions to the monasteries of Subiaco (26 Nov. 973), Vézelay (28 Nov. 973), and S. Pietro di Rosas in Spain (Apr. 974). Suspect is the letter sent to him by Piligrin, bishop of Passavia, requesting the restoration of the hierarchy in Hungary to the detriment of the metropolitan see of Salisburgo. Certainly false is B.’s favourable reply, as is the reply opposing the restoration: the former was invented by Piligrin, the latter within the circle of Federico, archbishop of Salisburgo.