Pope John VI

John VI
Papacy began	30 October 701
Papacy ended	11 January 705
Predecessor	Sergius I
Successor	John VII
Personal details
Birth name	???
Born	655 Ephesus, Asia Minor, Byzantine Empire
Died	11 January 705  ???
Other Popes named John

Pope John VI was a Greek pope from Ephesus who reigned during the Byzantine Papacy from 30 October 701 to 11 January 705. His papacy was noted for military and political breakthroughs on the Italian peninsula. He succeeded to the papal chair two months after the death of Pope Sergius I, and his election occurred after a vacancy of less than seven weeks.^[1] He was succeeded by Pope John VII after a vacancy of less than two months.^[1] The body of the pope is buried in St. Peter's Basilica.^[2]

Papacy

During his reign, he assisted the Exarch Theophylactos, who had been sent to Italy by the emperor Justinian II, and prevented him from using violence against the Romans. John VI's interventions prevented Theophylactos from being injured, having come to Rome to "cause trouble for the pontiff".^[3]

Aside from this, he also succeeded in inducing Gisulf, the Lombard duke of Benevento, to withdraw from the territories of the empire, through tactics of persuasion and bribery. According to some sources, he "single-handedly convinced the Lombard duke Gisulf of Benevento to withdraw his forces and return home" after the duke had devastated the neighboring Campanian countryside and constructed an encampment within sight of the city walls of Rome.^[4]

Other significant events during John VI's pontificate include the Lombard king Aripert II returning the Cottian Alps to their former status as a papal patrimony.^[4] Numerous construction projects also occurred, including new ambon in the Basilica of St. Andrew the Apostle^{[disambiguation needed ]}, a new altar cloth for San Marco, and "suspended diaphonous white veils between the columns on either side of the altar in San Paolo.^[4] John VI also promoted easterners within the episcopal hierarchy, including Boniface, the papal counselor.^[5]

In 704, after the 70 year-old Saint Wilfrid of York was expelled (after several other expulsions) from his episcopal see, he went to Rome and pleaded his case "before the apostolic Pope John [VI]", three years into the Greek's pontificate.^[5] Wilfrid had visited Rome in 654 and 679 and witnessed the progressive transformation of the Church administration to a Greek-dominated hierarchy. Because of this, John VI convened a synod of Greek-speaking bishops to hear Wilfrid's cause, a linguistic hurdle that much perturbed Wilfrid.^[5] Nonetheless, the synod exonerated Wilfrid, restored him to his see, which he occupied until his death in 709, and sent him back to England with letters for King Æthelred of Mercia for papal mandates to be implemented.^[2][5]

Notes

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

• Ekonomou, Andrew J. 2007. Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes: Eastern influences on Rome and the papacy from Gregory the Great to Zacharias, A.D. 590–752. Lexington Books.

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