GIOVANNI V, PAPA

GIOVANNI V, pope. – Of a Syrian family originally from Antioch, he was elected after the death of the aged Pope Benedict II and consecrated in St Peter’s on 23 July 685; he had previously been in Constantinople as the first legate of the Westerners at the Sixth Ecumenical Council (known as the Trullan Council). For these two reasons his election was pleasing to the Byzantine imperial court, but since he was afflicted with a chronic illness he could do little, and after barely a year he died (2 Aug. 686). He reaffirmed the principle that the consecration of the bishops of Sardinia depended on the pope. After the death of John V, internal strife resumed in the city of Rome, having ceased for several years, and relations with the East also became troubled again.