Pope John VII
| Pope John VII | |
|---|---|
| Bishop of Rome | |
| Byzantine Mosaic of John VII, c. 705
Byzantine Mosaic of John VII, c. 705
| |
| Church | Catholic Church |
| Papacy began | 1 March 705 |
| Papacy ended | 18 October 707 |
| Predecessor | John VI |
| Successor | Sisinnius |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 650 Rossano in Calabria, Byzantine Empire |
| Died | 18 October 707 (aged 56–57) |
| Other popes named John | |
Pope John VII (Latin: Ioannes VII; c. 650 – 18 October 707) was the bishop of Rome from 1 March 705 to his death on 18 October 707. He was an ethnic Greek, one of the Byzantine popes, but had better relations with the Lombards, who ruled much of Italy, than with Emperor Justinian II, who ruled the rest.
Family
John was an ethnic Greek, a native of Rossano in Calabria.[1][2] His father, Plato (c. 620 – 686), was the curator of the Palatine Hill for the Byzantine emperor. This makes John the first pope to be the son of a Byzantine official.[3] His mother was called Blatta (c. 627 – 687).[3]
Pontificate
John VII was selected to succeed John VI, another Greek, on 1 March 705.[4] He had good relations with the Lombards, who then ruled much of Italy. However, his relations with Emperor Justinian II were far from smooth. Papal relations with Byzantium had soured over the Quinisext Council of 692. Scholarly debate contests John VII's stance on the canons.[5] He did not ratify them, and they were deeply unpopular in Italy. Nonetheless, he was criticized, most unusually, by the Liber pontificalis for not signing them:
He [Emperor Justinian II] despatched two metropolitan bishops, also sending with them a mandate in which he requested and urged the pontiff [John VII] to gather a council of the apostolic church, and to confirm such of them as he approved, and quash and reject those which were adverse. But he, terrified in his human weakness, sent them back to the prince by the same metropolitans without any emendations at all.[6]
John VII died 18 October, 707 and was buried in the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary which had been added on to St. Peter's.[7] He was succeeded by Sisinnius.
Legacy
Several monuments in Rome are connected with John. The most notable is the Santa Maria Antiqua church at the foot of the Palatine Hill. Traces of an episcopal palace Episcopium associated with John have been discovered upon the Palatine.[8] John VII also constructed the Oratory of John VII in Old St Peter's Basilica, dedicated to the Theotokos. Fragments of the mosaic decoration can be found in the Vatican Grottoes.
Furthermore, a sizeable icon, known as the Madonna della Clemenza and housed in Santa Maria in Trastevere, is believed to have been commissioned under the patronage of John.[9] He also restored the monastery of Subiaco, destroyed by the Lombards in 601.
From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
Pope John VII — (705-707).
The year of his birth is unknown; d. 18 October, 707. Few particulars of his life remain. Like many other popes during the period of Byzantine influence in Rome, John was a Greek. Sprung from a distinguished family, he was the son of Blatta and Plato. The latter carried out various restorations in the imperial palace on the Palatine hill in Rome, and, for the sake, perhaps, of living where once his parents had lived, John after he had become pope (March 1, 705) constructed a palace (episcopium) near the church of Sancta Maria Antiqua. Before his elevation, John was the rector of the papal patrimony on the Appian way. It was in that capacity that he erected a memorial "with a broken heart to a most loving and incomparable mother, and to the kindest of fathers" (687). One of the churches which John beautified or restored during his pontificate was the afore-mentioned church of Sancta Maria Antiqua. "He adorned with frescoes the basilica of the Holy Mother of God which is known as the Old", and gave it a new ambo. When the remains of this church were brought to light in 1900, among the many figures found upon its walls, one with a square nimbus is supposed to represent John himself. There was also then discovered the base of his ambo. It bore upon it inscriptions which proclaimed him to be "the servant of Mary". John also erected a chapel to Our Lady in St. Peter's. When this oratory was destroyed, some of his mosaics were preserved, and may be seen in the Roman Church of Sancta Maria in Cosmedin and in other places. Though John was a man of learning and eloquence, and though he was remarkable for his filial affection and piety, he was of a timorous disposition. Hence, when the fierce Emperor Justinian II sent him the decrees of the Quinisext Council, "in which were many articles against the See of Rome", with a request that he would set forth what he approved in them, John simply returned them, as though there were nothing to condemn in them. He received back from the Lombard King Aripert II the papal patrimonies in the Cottian Alps, which the Lombards had confiscated. John is credited with having prevailed upon the Anglo-Saxon clergy resident in Rome to renounce their secular style of dress, and with having written to those in England bidding them follow this example. John died in the palace he had built near the Palatine, and was buried in the oratory he had erected in St. Peter's.
Liber Pontificalis, I, 385 sqq.; Nicephorus And Theophanes, Chron., 696-8; Bede, De sex Êtat., ad an. 708; Paul The Deacon, Hist. Lang., VI, 23 (28); Rushworth in Papers of the British School at Rome, I (London, 1902); Federici in Archivio Rom. di stor. pat., XXIII (Borne, 1900), 517 sqq.; Marucchi, Le Forum Romain (Paris, 1902), 230 sqq.; Mann, Lives of the Popes in the early Middle Ages, vol. I, pt. 1 (London and St. Louis, 1902), 109 sqq.
References
- Back to citation Murzaku, Ines Angeli (2009). Returning home to Rome: the Basilian monks of Grottaferrata in Albania. Analekta Kryptoferris. p. 47. ISBN 9788889345047. “Rossano, a town in southern Italy, which is probably the birthplace of another well-known Greek figure, Pope John VII who reigned in the See of St. Peter for two years (705–707)”
- Back to citation Hare, Augustus J. C. (1883). Cities of Southern Italy and Sicily. Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 344–345. ISBN 9781406782127. “Pope John VII. (705–707) was a native of Rossano.”
- Back to citation occurrence 3.0 Back to citation occurrence 3.1 Kelly, J. N. D. The Oxford Dictionary of Popes. Oxford University Press, 1986, p. 84.
- Back to citation Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pope John VII". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- Back to citation Breckenridge, J. D. "Evidence for the Nature of Relations between Pope John VII and the Byzantine Emperor Justinian II". Byzantinische Zeitschrift, Vol. 65, 1972; Nordhagen, P. J. "Constantinople on the Tiber"; Smith, J. M. H. (ed.). Early Medieval Rome and the Christian West. Leiden, 2000.
- Back to citation Davis, R. The Book of Pontiffs: the ancient biographies of the first ninety Roman bishops to AD 715. Liverpool University Press, 2000, p. 91.
- Back to citation Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes, (HarperCollins, 1997), 117.
- Back to citation Augenti, A. Il Palatino nel Medioevo. Roma, 1996.
- Back to citation Nordhagen, J. P. "Icons designed for the display of sumptuous votive gifts". Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 41, 1988.
Bibliography
- Claudio Rendina, I Papi. Storia e segreti, Newton Compton, Rome, 1984.