JOHN XV, POPE. - A Roman, elected in August 985, died in March 996. He is listed in some papal lists as John XVI, since another John XV was mistakenly inserted before him, which led in those lists to an increase by one unit for all the popes up to John XIX and the absence of a John XX.
Elected perhaps through an agreement between the imperial and anti-imperial factions, he had to leave the direction of political affairs to John Crescentius. Later, having fled to Tuscany, he implored the aid of Otto III. As the latter approached Rome, John was readmitted to the city, but died before Otto entered II.
John XV, who is remembered as skilled in arms and the author of many books, displayed a remarkable religious activity. He imposed (991) peace between Æthelred of England and Richard, Duke of Normandy, at a synod held in Rome (31 Oct. 993); he canonized Ulrich, Bishop of Augsburg, the first known instance of a canonization carried out by a pope. He vigorously asserted the authority of the papacy in a serious controversy that had broken out in France, the first clamorous episode of Gallicanism. At the request of Hugh and Robert, kings of France, a synod of Gallic bishops had been convened at St-Basle de Verzy (Reims) on 17 June 991 to judge Arnulf, Archbishop of Reims, accused of treason. Since Arnulf’s defenders, relying on the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, argued that the council was incompetent to judge a matter already referred to the Pope, the assembly resounded with the bitterest accusations against the Holy See and the Roman clergy; and the council, by its very action denying the Pope’s authority over national churches, had forced Arnulf to resign, replacing him with the celebrated Gerbert. The Pope summoned the bishops and the two kings to Rome (992), but a new council at Chelles, presided over by Robert, resolved to resist the orders from Rome and to defy the canons of the Fathers, while the king invited the Pope to come to France. Instead, John sent Abbot Leo of Rome, who convened a synod at Mouzon, on the borders between France and Germany, on 2 June 995, attended by bishops all of whom, except Gerbert, were subjects of the German kingdom; Gerbert was ordered to abstain from all ecclesiastical functions until a new council, and he submitted. The bishops who had taken part in Arnulf’s deposition were also deposed. The subsequent course of the controversy is a matter of debate: it is certain only that Arnulf, after the deaths of Hugh and John XV, was reinstated in the see of Reims by Gerbert, who had become Pope Sylvester II.
G. Battista Picotti