Pope Benedict VII

Benedict VII became bishop of Rome in October 974, inheriting a papacy trapped in the machinery of local power struggles. He ruled the Papal States for nine years, a tenure that ended with his death on 10 July 983. His decade at the helm fell in the middle of the saeculum obscurum — the dark century when popes were made and unmade by aristocratic clans, and survival often mattered more than sanctity.