Pope John XV
?–996 CE · Rome
A Roman priest, John XV reigned for over a decade under the domination of the Crescentii family, who controlled Rome, while real ecclesiastical authority shifted toward the young Emperor Otto III. Learned but reportedly avaricious and unpopular, John is best remembered for presiding in 993 over the first solemn, formally documented papal canonization—that of Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg—a landmark in the centralization of sainthood under Rome. He also mediated, through legates, a peace between England and Normandy. He died in 996 as Otto III was advancing on Rome to be crowned emperor.
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RomeרומאItaly
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Rome in this era
Between the 8th and 15th centuries Rome was the seat of the popes and capital of the Papal States, which grew from the Frankish king Pepin's grant of 756; Charlemagne was crowned emperor in St Peter's in 800. The city shrank far below its ancient size, and from 1309 to 1377 the popes resided at Avignon before returning to Rome.
About Rome
Rome, on the Tiber in central Italy, grew from an Iron Age settlement into the capital of the Roman Republic and then of an empire that by the 1st century CE ruled the whole Mediterranean. Its Jewish community, attested from the 2nd century BCE, is among the oldest in Europe. Christian tradition holds that the apostles Peter and Paul died there, and the city became the seat of the popes. After the Western Empire ended in 476 it passed to Gothic kings, to Byzantium and then to papal rule as capital of the Papal States, until it became the capital of unified Italy in 1871. Vatican City, independent since 1929, lies within it.
In Rome at the same time
Pope John XI, Pope John XII, Pope Gregory V, Pope Gregory VI, Pope John XIX, Pope Sergius IV
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Pope John XV’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
Pope John XI, Pope John XII, Pope Gregory V, Pope Gregory VI, Pope John XIX, Pope Sergius IV, Pope John XVIII, Pope John XVII, Pope John XIV, Pope Benedict VII, Pope Benedict VI, Pope John XIII, Pope Benedict V, Pope Leo VIII, Pope Agapetus II, Pope Marinus II, Pope Stephen VIII, Pope Leo VII
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Pope John XV’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.