Editing Pope Benedict VII (section)

==Pontificate==
Benedict VII was elected [[pope]] by the Roman clergy and people in October 974 under the influence of Sicco, envoy of [[Emperor Otto II]]. He ascended as a compromise candidate to replace [[Boniface VII]], who had caused the death of [[Pope Benedict VI]], usurped the pontificate, and in a month plundered the Vatican of its most valuable contents. He then escaped to [[Constantinople]].<ref name=Montor/> The new pope's authority was opposed by Boniface VII and his supporters, and although the antipope himself was forced to flee, his party followed fiercely in his footsteps and compelled Benedict to call upon Otto II for help. Once he was firmly established on his throne by the emperor, he showed himself both desirous of checking the tide of simony which was rising high in the Church, and of advancing the cause of monasticism.<ref name=Mann/>

Benedict VII consecrated the priest James, who had been sent to him by the people of [[Carthage]] "to help the wretched province of Africa," which since the [[Muslim conquest of the Maghreb]], had seen a steep decline in the number of bishops.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Philip Zaleski|title=The Best Spiritual Writing 2011|date=30 Nov 2010|publisher=Penguin|isbn=9781101478127|quote=At the time of the Arab conquest there were more than three hundred bishops in the area, but by the tenth century Pope Benedict VII could not find three bishops to consecrate a new bishop.}}</ref> Benedict VII visited the city of [[Orvieto]] with his nephew Filippo Alberici, who later settled there and became consul of the city in 1016. In 978, Benedict issued a bull defining the boundaries of the [[Diocese of Vic]] for Bishop [[Froia (bishop of Vic)|Froia]], thereby rescinding the bulls issued by [[Pope John XIII]] that had made Vic an archdiocese. In March 981, Benedict presided over a [[synod]] in St Peter's that prohibited [[simony]]. In September 981, he convened a [[Lateran]] synod.

Benedict VII died in 983, and was interred at [[Santa Croce in Gerusalemme]].<ref name=Montor/>