STEPHEN VII (VIII), POPE

Pontificate: January 929 to February 931; b. Rome. In the last years of his pontificate, Pope john x (904–928) had incurred the wrath of marozia, the Donna Senatrix of Rome, and had been imprisoned and assassinated. Marozia then conferred the papacy on Pope leo vi, who died after six and a half months in office. Stephen VII succeeded him, probably through the influence of Marozia. As cardinal priest at St. Anastasia in Rome, he had been faithful to his duty and kind to the poor. During his two years as pope, he was powerless under the domination of Marozia. He extended privileges to monasteries in Italy and France; odo, Abbot of Cluny, was promoting the cluniac reform throughout Europe. Stephen was buried in St. Peter's Basilica.

Bibliography: p. jaffÉ, Regesta pontificum romanorum ab condita ecclesia ad annum post Christian natum 1198, ed. s. lÖwenfeld 1:453–454. Liber pontificalis, ed. l. duchesne, v. 1-2 (Paris 1886–92), v. 3 (Paris 1958) 2:242. Patrolgia Latina, ed. j. p. migne, 217 v., indexes 4 v. (Paris 1878–90) 132:1049–56. a. clerval, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant et al., 15 v. (Paris 1903–50; Tables générales 1951–) 5.1:980. h. k. mann, The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages from 590 to 1304, 18 v. (London 1902–32) 4:189–190. r. benericetti, La cronologia dei Papi dei secoli IX–XI secondo le carte di Ravenna, (1999) 38. m. heim, Lexikon des Mittelalters, 8 (Munich-Zurich 1996). j. n. d. kelly, Oxford Dictionary of Popes (New York 1986) 122–123.

[m. a. mulholland]