Pope John XV

John XV. († March 996 ) was pope from 985 to 996

Before his pontificate was John Cardinal Priest of San Vitale in Rome. He was appointed cardinal by Pope Benedict VII He was raised at the instigation of the influential Roman patrician Crescentius I. Nomentanus or John I. Crescentius, both sons of Crescentius de Theodora, to the Pope. The Patrician described himself as Mr. Rome from now with the old imperial title Patricius Romanorum.

Although the Pope hearing him was a follower of the Cluniac reform, this ran a nepotism of the worst kind and made himself generally hated by his greed. Finally, he antagonized even with Crescentius I. Nomentanus whose rapacity of the pope in no way inferior, and therefore had to flee 995 in Tuscany. There, John called the German king Otto III. , The self- ruled the meantime, to help and to the imperial coronation in Rome. When Otto III. actually appeared, the Pope again reconciled with Crescentius. John XV. died shortly after his return to Rome before the arrival of the king.

After the prestige of the papacy in the 10th century was strongly decreased by the turmoil in Rome, he sought to impose his authority abroad. So he gave 991 between the English king Aethelred and Duke Richard II of Normandy and accepted the assignment of Poland to the Holy See by Duke Mieszko I. 993 he took with the canonization of Ulrich of Augsburg before the first canonization of a saint by a pope.