John XX, Pope

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JOHN XX, POPE

There was no pope of this name. Because of confusion in the writings of marianus scotus, copied by sub-sequent authors, a mythical Pope John reigned four months between boniface vii (d. 985). and john xv, who thereby was designated, erroneously, as John XVI and so on. The several popes named John in the 10th and 11th centuries have since been correctly numbered, but john xxi (peter of spain) and john xxii bear numbered names that they themselves assumed.

Bibliography: Annuario Pontificio (Rome 1912), footnote under John XXI and esp. see under John XIV. É. amann, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant et al. (Paris 190350; Tables générales 1951) 8.1:632633. g. schwaiger, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 195765) 5:992.

[a. o'malley]