Pope John XVIII

Infobox Pope
English name=John XVIII


birth_name=Fasanius
term_start=January, 1004
term_end=July, 1009
predecessor=John XVII
successor=Sergius IV
birth_date=???
birthplace=Rapagnano, Italy
dead=dead|death_date=July, 1009
deathplace=Rome, Italy
other=John

John XVIII (died June or July 1009) was Pope from 1004 to 1009.

He was born Fasanius at Rapagnano, near Ascoli Piceno, the son of a Roman priest named Leo.

During his whole pontificate he was allegedly subordinate to the head of the Crescentii clan who controlled Rome, the "patricius" (an aristocratic military leader) Johannes Crescentius III. The period was disturbed by the conflicts between the Ottonian Emperor Henry II (1002–24) and Arduin of Ivrea, who had styled himself King of Italy. Rome was wracked with bouts of plague, and Saracens operating freely out of Sardinia ravaged the Tyrrhenian coasts.

As Pope John XVIII occupied his time with details of ecclesiastical administration. He authorized a new see at Bamberg to serve as a base for missionary activity among the Slavs, a concern of Henry II's. He adjudicated a squabble between the abbot of Fleury and the bishops of Sens and Orléans.

Ultimately he abdicated and, according to one catalog of Popes, retired to a monastery, where he died shortly afterwards. His successor was Pope Sergius IV (1009–12).

(A note on numbering: Pope John XVIII was only the seventeenth pope called John, because John XVI was an antipope. However, this was not recognized at the time so the true sixteenth Pope John called himself XVII. Thus the true seventeenth pope called John took the regnal number XVIII.)

External links

Catholic (The article can be found here: [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08429a.htm] )