Pope John XI

John XI became bishop of Rome in March 931, at twenty-one, during the Saeculum obscurum — the "dark age" when Roman noble families controlled the papacy like property. His mother Marozia, the true force in Rome, had installed him. When she fell from power, his brother Alberic II, Duke of Spoleto, took command and kept John as a ceremonial figure. He remained pope in name until his death in December 935, never the author of his own reign.