Pope John XV
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John XV (born in Rome), pope from 984 to 996, generally recognized as the successor of Boniface VII, the pope John who was said to have ruled for four months after John XIV, being now omitted by the best authorities.
John XV was the son of Leo, a Roman presbyter. At the time he mounted the papal chair Crescentius was patrician of Rome, but, although his influence was on this account very much hampered, the presence of the empress Theophano in Rome from 989 to 991 restrained also the ambition of Crescentius.
On her departure, the pope, whose venality and nepotism had made him very unpopular with the citizens, died of fever before the arrival of Otto III, who elevated his own kinsman Bruno to the papal dignity under the name of Gregory V. To his credit, John was a patron and protector of the reforming monks of Cluny.
During this papacy, however, a serious dispute arose over the King of France's investing and then deposing an archbishop of Reims, the pope's interference leading at first to no definite result. This affair is sometimes read as an early groundswell of the conflicts between popes and the new kings of France that came to a head later in the Investiture Controversy, so it is worth relating in some detail. Hugh Capet, now King of France, made Arnulf archbishop of Reims in 988, even though Arnulf was the nephew of the king's bitter rival, Charles of Lorraine. Charles thereupon succeeded in capturing Reims and took the archbishop prisoner. Hugh, however, considered Arnulf a turncoat and demanded his deposition by the pope. The turn of events outran the messages, when Hugh Capet captured both Charles and Archbishop Arnulf and convoked a synod at Reims in June 991, which obediently deposed Arnulf and chose as his successor Abbot Gerbert (afterwards Pope Sylvester II). These proceedings were repudiated by Rome, although a second synod had ratified the decrees issued at Reims. The pope summoned the French bishops to hold an independent synod outside the king's realm, at Aachen, to reconsider the case. When they refused, he called them to Rome, but they protested that the unsettled conditions en route and in Rome made that impossible. The pope then sent a legate with instructions to call a council of French and German bishops at Mousson, where only the German bishops appeared, the French being stopped on the way by Hugh and Robert. Through the exertions of the legate, the deposition of Arnulf was finally pronounced illegal. After Hugh Capet's death (October 23 996), Arnulf was released from his imprisonment, and soon restored to all his dignities. As for Gerbert, he set out for the imperial court at Magdeburg, and became the preceptor to emperor Otto III.
At a Roman synod held in the Lateran on January 31 993, Pope John XV solemnly canonized Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg, an event which the pope announced to the French and German bishops in a papal bull dated February 3. This was the first time in history that a solemn canonization had been made by a pope.
In 996 Emperor Otto undertook a journey to Italy to obtain imperial coronation from the pope, but John died early in April, while Otto lingered until 12 April in Pavia, where he celebrated Easter.
| Preceded by: John XIV | Pope 984–996 | Succeeded by: Gregory V |