JOHN XVIII, POPE. — A Roman, elected in January 1004, died in July 1009. His birth name was Fasano; he was a cardinal of “Sancti Petri.” After his elevation to the papacy, he devoted himself solely to ecclesiastical matters, leaving temporal government to the patrician Crescentius. He established the diocese of Bamberg in Germany, immediately subjecting it to the Holy See, in order to further, at the request of Emperor Henry II, the evangelization of the Slavs. He ordered the archbishop of Sens and the bishop of Orléans to appear in Rome to clear themselves of the charge of having cast certain papal bulls into the fire, and he summoned King Robert of France, under pain of excommunication, to compel them to do so (1008?). He died in the abbey of St. Paul, where he is said to have retired.
G. Battista Picotti