JOHN VI, POPE

Pontificate: Oct. 30, 701, to Jan. 11, 705; d. Rome. Of Greek descent, John succeeded in quelling the revolt of the Italian militia against the imperial exarch, Theophylactus, who had moved from Sicily to Rome. John's negotiations with the Lombard Gisulf, Duke of Benevento, resulted in the liberation of captives taken during Gisulf's invasion of the Campania and the withdrawal of the Beneventan troops. The only extant letter of John's pontificate (Eddius, Vita s. Wilfredi, ch. 54) originated from a four-month Roman synod of 704 that referred the dispute between the exiled wilfrid of york, Bosa, Bishop of York, and john of beverley, Bishop of Hexham, to the jurisdiction of Archbishop brithwald of canter bury, with the provision that should an appeal be lodged from the decision of Canterbury all concerned would be obliged to appear in Rome.

Bibliography: Liber pontificalis, ed. l. duchesne (Paris 1886–92) 1:383–384; 3:98. p. jaffÉ, Regesta pontificum romanorum ab condita ecclesia ad annum post Christum natum 1198, ed. p. ewald (2d ed. Leipzig 1881–88; repr. Graz 1956) 1:245–246. eddius stephanus, The Life of Bishop Wilfrid, ed. and tr. b. colgrave (New York 1927). bede, A History of the English Church and People, tr. l. sherley-price (Harmondsworth 1955) bk. 5, ch.19. h. k. mann, The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages from 590 to 1304 (London 1902–32) 1.2:105–108. o. bertolini, Roma di fronte a Bisanzio e ai Longobardi (Bologna 1941) ; "I Papi e le relazioni politiche di Roma con i ducati Longobardi di Spoleto e di Benevento, " Rivista di storia della Chiesa iri Italia 9 (1955) 1–57. j. haller, Das Papsttum (Stuttgart 1950–53) 1:342–344. f.x. seppelt, Geschichte der Päpste von den Anfängen bis zur Mitte des 20. Jh. (Munich 1955) 2:85. j. godfrey, The Church in Anglo-Saxon England (Cambridge, Eng. 1962). r. aubert, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques 26 (Paris 1997). j. n. d. kelly, Oxford Dictionary of Popes (New York 1986) 83.

[h. g. j. beck]