BENEDICT VI

born , Rome died July 974, Rome pope from Jan. 19, 973, to July 974. He was a cardinal deacon when elected to succeed John XIII the Good (d. Sept. 6, 972), but his consecration was delayed for the ratification of his protector, the Holy Roman emperor Otto I the Great. Otto's death in 973 put Benedict at the mercy of the powerful Roman Crescentii family, whose role in the history of the papacy was dramatized when Crescentius I led a resurgence of the Roman baronage. The Pope was imprisoned in June 974 and replaced by the deacon Franco, later known as antipope Boniface VII, who purportedly, by order of Crescentius, strangled Benedict. Few documents of his pontificate survived.