Antipope John XVI

John XVI and Pope John XVI redirect here. They can also refer to Pope John XVI of Alexandria.

See also: Pope John (numbering)

John XVI
File:Antipope John XVI (XVII).JPG Antipope John XVI (997–998)
Papacy began	997
Papacy ended	998
Predecessor	Antipope Boniface VII
Successor	Antipope Gregory VI
Personal details
Birth name	Ioannis Philagathos
Born	c. 945 Rossano, Calabria, Italy
Died	c. 1001 Fulda, Germany
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Other popes and antipopes named John

John XVI (c. 945 – c. 1001; born Greek: Ιωάννης Φιλάγαθος, Ioannis Philagathos; Italian: Giovanni Filagatocode: it is deprecated ; Latin: Johannes Philagathus) was an antipope from 997 to 998.

John was of Greek descent and was a native of Rossano in Calabria, southern Italy. The region was at the time a territory of the Byzantine Empire, while John was the chaplain of the Greek-born Empress Theophanu, wife of Holy Roman Emperor Otto II. Twice he acted as Imperial chancellor in Italy for Otto, in 980–982, whereupon he was appointed Abbot of Nonantola. He was the godfather of the imperial couple's son, the future Emperor Otto III. He was his tutor when he was seven (987). By the Empress's persuasion, John was appointed Bishop of Piacenza, and he was sent to Constantinople to accompany home a Byzantine princess for the younger Otto. After Otto II's death, the youthful Otto III came to the aid of Pope John XV in 996, to put down the rebellion of a faction led by the rich and powerful Roman nobleman Crescentius the Younger. Otto III stopped to be acclaimed King of Lombardy at Pavia, and failed to reach Rome before the Pope died. Once in Rome, Otto III engineered the election of his cousin Bruno of Carinthia as Pope Gregory V, and the new pontiff then crowned Otto III emperor on 21 May 996.

Once Otto III had returned to Germany, the faction headed by Crescentius II violently unseated Gregory V and, with the active support of the Byzantine Emperor Basil II, acclaimed John as Pope John XVI . A synod of the Western bishops held in 997 at the Imperial capital in Italy, Pavia, decided in Gregory V's favour and excommunicated John.

The revolt of Crescentius II was decisively suppressed by Otto III, who marched once again upon Rome, in February 998. John XVI fled, but the Emperor's troops pursued and captured him, cut off his nose and ears, cut out his tongue, broke his fingers and blinded him, that he might not write, and publicly degraded him before Otto III and Gregory V. At the intercession of Saint Nilus the Younger, one of his countrymen, his life was spared: he was sent to the monastery of Fulda, in Germany, where he died about 1001.

John's consent to be enthroned as pope against the claims of Gregory can be seen as a manipulation of the constant political struggles by the Roman nobles against Frankish power, accruing to the advantage of Byzantine influence against the widening of Frankish power in Rome, where Gregory was the first German pontiff.

Because John was chosen by Romans and not by a foreign Frankish emperor, he was considered for many years the legitimate Pope and therefore the next three popes named John were John XVII, John XVIII and John XIX. Only later, after the Frankish domination of the Roman Church was complete, was there controversy over the numbering of popes named John. There was no inconsistency for the Latin Romans of Rome who duly elected and chose their own bishops, as was the custom of the Church from ancient times.