Antipope Boniface VII
antipope in 974, 984–985
Antipope Boniface VII (Latin: Antipapa Bonifatius VII; died 20 July 985), otherwise known as Franco Ferrucci, was a Catholic prelate who claimed the Holy See in 974 and from 984 until 985. A popular tumult compelled him to flee to Constantinople in 974; he carried off a vast treasure, and returned in 984 and removed Pope John XIV (983–984) from office. He is supposed to have put Pope Benedict VI to death. After a brief second rule, he died under suspicious circumstances. He is today considered an antipope.
Early life
Originally named Franco, he was the son of Ferrucius. He was born in Italy in the late 920s or early 930s AD, although the exact date is not known. Since his surname was Franco, it has been supposed that he belonged to a family of the name which is frequently mentioned in the documents of the tenth century, and which may have been of French origin. In 972 he became a cardinal deacon, a position which he held until he began his papacy in 974. However, little else is known about his early life simply due to the lack of documents available from this period of Rome as a whole.
“Antipope Boniface VII” enters the record as antipope in 974, 984–985. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Antipope, Boniface and antipope can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Antipope Boniface VII” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.