Boniface VII, Antipope

BONIFACE VII, Antipope. - Died in 985, antipope in June-July 974, and again from Aug. 984 to July 985.

Taking advantage of the absence of Emperor Otto II, who was engaged in the struggle against the Duke of Bavaria and other vassals, Crescentius of Theodora stirred up a revolt in Rome. The imperial pope, Benedict VI, was seized, imprisoned in Castel Sant'Angelo and replaced by a "national" pope, the deacon Franco, son of Ferruccio, who took the name B. VII (June 974). The intervention of Count Sicco, imperial missus, was at first in vain; indeed it precipitated matters, because Benedict VI was strangled in prison. But then Sicco gained the upper hand and Benedict VII was elected pope, while B. managed to flee to Constantinople with the treasure of the Church.

When Otto II died, leaving the empire to a three-year-old son, B. believed the moment had come to return. In Apr. 984 he seized John XIV, who had succeeded Benedict VII in 983, and shut him up in Castel Sant'Angelo, where he died four months later of hunger or poison. B.'s dominion, however, was brief and shrouded in obscurity; moreover, the man who truly governed was Crescentius the Nomentan; nevertheless the sources attribute ferocious acts of vengeance to B. He died suddenly in July 985, perhaps by a violent death. His corpse was dragged through the streets of Rome and thrown down before the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius. On the following morning some of his household gave him Christian burial.

Pietro Goggi