page_title: Pope John XIII
section_title: Troubles with the Byzantine Empire
hierarchical_section_title: Pope John XIII / Troubles with the Byzantine Empire
caption_attribution_description: English&#x3a;&#32; image from "Rivista italiana di numismatica 1890.djvu p. 88 (../92) Italiano&#x202f;&#x3a;&#32; immagine da "Rivista italiana di numismatica 1890.djvu p. 88 (../92)
context_page_description: Pope John XIII was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 1 October 965 to his death. His pontificate was caught up in the continuing conflict between the Holy Roman emperor, Otto I, and the Roman nobility. After long and arduous negotiations, he succeeded in arranging a Byzantine marriage for Otto II, in an effort to legitimize the Ottonian claim to imperial dignity. He also established church hierarchy in Poland and Bohemia.
context_section_description: After John XIII's restoration, he worked with the Emperor on ecclesiastical improvements. It was decided in a council held at Rome in the beginning of 967 in the emperor's presence that Grado was to be the patriarchal and metropolitan church of the whole of the Veneto. At another council at Ravenna in April 967, Otto again “restored to the apostolic Pope John the city and territory of Ravenna and many other possessions which had for some time been lost to the Popes.” At around this time he also created, at Otto's request, the Archbishopric of Magdeburg.
  Then, on Christmas Day in 967, John XIII crowned Otto I's son Otto II as co-emperor. Various synods were held before the emperors left Rome for the south of Italy, in which, sometimes at their request, John XIII took several German monasteries under his special protection, or decided that in some cases they were to remain forever “under the patronage (mundiburdium) of the kings or emperors.” With Otto I seeking a marriage alliance with the Byzantine Empire through his son and a Byzantine princess, John XIII lent his support to Otto's cause. He wrote a letter to the Eastern emperor, Nikephoros II Phokas, but ended up insulting him by referring to him, not as “emperor of the Romans”, but as “emperor of the Greeks”. As his price for the marriage, Otto demanded a dowry from the Eastern Empire, that of the themes of Longobardia and Calabria. Nikephoros retorted by instead demanding the restitution of the Exarchate of Ravenna, which included Rome and the Papal States, as the price for the imperial marriage. When negotiations broke down, Nikephoros refused to write to John XIII in his own hand, instead sending him a threatening letter written by his brother, Leo Phokas the Younger.
  After the failure of negotiations, Nikephoros attempted to extend the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the patriarch of Constantinople into the pope's jurisdiction in southern Italy. The eastern emperor ordered the patriarch to transform the bishopric of Otranto into a metropolitan see, and to ensure that services were no longer said in Latin, but in Greek only. Patriarch Polyeuctus of Constantinople quickly addressed an order to the head of the Church of Otranto giving him authority to consecrate bishops in the churches of Acerenza, Tursi, Gravina, Matera, and Tricarico, all previously dependent on the Church of Rome. In response, and at the request of the Western emperor, John convened a synod in 969, which elevated the bishopric of Benevento into a metropolitan see, thus reducing the influence of the Byzantine Empire and Eastern Orthodox Church there.
  The death of Nikephoros Phokas in 969 saw the elevation of John I Tzimiskes. He entered into negotiations with Otto I, and soon Otto II was betrothed to Theophanu, the niece of Tzimiskes. The marriage was performed by John XIII at Rome on 14 April 972 in Rome.
caption: Coins of John XIII
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