Pope John VII

Born around 650, John VII came from the Greek-speaking communities that still dotted Rome under Byzantine shadow. He became bishop of Rome on 1 March 705, one of the last ethnic Greeks to hold the seat during the era when the papacy answered, at least in theory, to Constantinople. But his pontificate played out in the gap between empires: Emperor Justinian II ruled patches of the peninsula from afar, while Lombard lords held the rest. John kept warmer ties with the Lombards than with Justinian, a choice that marked the pope as more pragmatist than partisan. He died on 18 October 707, after two and a half years in office.