A Roman, elected in 896 by the Roman faction in a popular tumult, to succeed Formosus. He had twice incurred a sentence of deprivation of orders, as a subdeacon and as a priest. At the Council of Rome, held by John IX in 898, his election was pronounced null. After a pontificate of fifteen days, he is said by some to have died of the gout, by others to have been forcibly ejected to make way for Stephen VI, the candidate of the Spoletan party.
Liber Pontificalis (ed. DUCHESNE), II, 228; IDEM, Les premiers temps de l'état pontifical (2nd ed., Paris, 1904), 299; JAFFÉ, Regesta RR. PP., I, 439; JUNGMANN, Dissertationes, IV, 22.