Little is known about John IX before he becamepope. Born inTivoli to a man named Rampoaldo, he was ordained as aBenedictine priest byPope Formosus. With the support of the powerfulduke of Spoleto he was elected pope in early 898 following the sudden death ofPope Theodore II.[2]
With a view to diminish the violence of faction in Rome, John held severalsynods in Rome and elsewhere in 898. They not only confirmed the judgment of Pope Theodore II in grantingChristian burial to Pope Formosus, but also at a council held atRavenna decreed that the records of theCadaver Synod held byPope Stephen VI which had condemned him should be burned.[3] Re-ordinations were forbidden, and those of the clergy who had been degraded by Stephen were restored to the ranks from which he had deposed them. The custom of plundering the palaces of bishops or popes on their death was ordered to be put down both by the spiritual and temporal authorities.[2]
To keep their independence, which was threatened by the Germans, theMoravians appealed to John to let them have a hierarchy of their own. Ignoring the complaints of the German hierarchy,[4] John sanctioned the consecration of ametropolitan bishop and three more bishops for the Moravians.[2]
Finding that it was advisable to cement the ties between the empire and the papacy, John IX gave unhesitating support toLambert of Spoleto in preference toArnulf of Carinthia during the Synod of Rome, and also induced the council to determine that henceforth the consecration of the Popes should take place only in the presence of the imperial legates. The sudden death of Lambert shattered the hopes which this alliance seemed to promise.[3]
John IX died in the year 900 and was succeeded byPope Benedict IV (900–903).
Claudia Gnocchi: Giovanni IX. In: Massimo Bray (ed.):Enciclopedia dei Papi. Volume 2: Niccolò I, santo, Sisto IV. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2000, pp. 52–52 (treccani.it)
