Details
Confusion in numbering Popes John results from an error in the textual transmission of the entry on John XIV (983/984) in the Liber Pontificalis. This entry originally specified not only the duration of his pontificate ("VIII mens." = eight months), but also the duration of his ensuing imprisonment by Antipope Boniface VII, "per IV menses" ("for four months"). In the 11th century, some time after the pontificate of John XIX, this entry on John XIV was misread to be referring to two different popes John, the first reigning for eight months and directly succeeded by another John reigning for four months:
- Iohannes m. VIII ("John, eight months")
- Iohannes m. IV ("John, four months")
In distinguishing these two Johns, the second one came to be numbered as "Iohannes XIV. bis" ("John XIV the second") and it was confused with a historic character, the cardinal deacon John son of Robert, who opposed Boniface VII after John XIV's death. Given the fact that the following Popes John, from John XV (985–996) until John XIX (1024–1034), seemed to have neglected the existence of John XIV "bis", Petrus Hispanus meant to correct this error by electing for himself the name John XXI.
Read more about this topic: Pope John XX
Famous quotes containing the word details:
“Anyone can see that to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin on the knee in the kitchen, with constant calls to cooking and other details of housework to punctuate the paragraphs, was a more difficult achievement than to write it at leisure in a quiet room.”
—Anna Garlin Spencer (1851–1931)
“Then he told the news media
the strange details of his death
and they hammered him up in the marketplace
and sold him and sold him and sold him.
My death the same.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“If my sons are to become the kind of men our daughters would be pleased to live among, attention to domestic details is critical. The hostilities that arise over housework...are crushing the daughters of my generation....Change takes time, but men’s continued obliviousness to home responsibilities is causing women everywhere to expire of trivialities.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)