Though his year of birth is unknown, Benedict was a native Roman, and a member of the noble family of the Counts of Tusculum. Benedict was likely a compromise candidate, supported by both the emperor and the Roman nobility after Franco -- known to us as Antipope Boniface VII -- usurped the previous pontiff. After Boniface was excommunicated and banished, Benedict took office in October 974 and reigned over a surprising time of political peace in Rome. Maybe the pot-stirrers took a vacation. Though he reigned as pope for almost nine years, surprisingly little is known about his papacy. Benedict died July 10, 983.

Pope Benedict VII was a strong champion of monasticism and the reform of the Church. The movement, which had started years earlier to give monasteries a good dusting, continued to grow under St. Mayeul, Abbot of Cluny. What began as an effort to purge monasticism of ambitious clerics and laypeople began to work its way through the Church at large. The movement even reached the pope and the emperor themselves, as both worked to help rid abuses of power from the lowest to the highest levels.

Fun fact: In 975, Benedict VII made history by naming Archbishop Dietrich of Trier (Germany) to the titular Church of The Four Crowned Martyrs (Santi Quattro Coronati). The tradition of cardinals being assigned to a church in Rome, which continues to this day, until then had only applied to native Romans or residents of the city. Dietrich, as a result, is known as the first non-Roman, non-resident cardinal to be assigned a Roman titular church.

In 975, King Edward the Martyr of England is crowned king. Edward, regarded as a saint from the time of his death, wasn’t his father’s acknowledged heir, but had the support of two of England’s archbishops, St. Dunstan and Oswald of Worcester, who ultimately made him king. This sparked the rage of his brother, Aethelred the Unready (that’s one bummer of a name), and may well have been the reason for his murder just three years later.