From The Lives of the Popes from the Time of our Saviour Jesus Christ to the Accession of Gregory VII. Written Originally in Latin by B. Platina, Native of Cremona, and translated into English (from an anonymous translation, first printed in 1685 by Sir Paul Rycaut), Edited by William Benham, Volume I, London: Griffith, Farran, Okeden & Welsh, [1888, undated in text]; p. 260.
The Lives of the Popes,
BY
B. Platina
Volume I.
JOHN XIV.
A.D. 983-984.
JOHN the Fourteenth, a Roman, or, as some will have it, a Pavian, had not been Pope three months but he was taken by the Romans1 and put into the public jail of Castle St Angelo, where he pined away so long with the stink of the prison, want of necessaries, and trouble of mind, that he died. Whether he was deposed for his tyranny and arrogance, or by the malice and envy of seditious people, is not certain, so confused are the accounts we have of those times. In his time lived Odo, Abbot of Clugni, and Berengarius of Tours, men famous for learning and holy lives; though it is said of Berengarius, that, through his confidence in his vast learning, he erred in the faith, holding a wrong opinion of the Eucharist, which, in a general council held at Rome, he afterwards recanted, and leaving off his study of controversial matters, though he were archdeacon of Anjou, he gave all that he had to the poor, and got his living by the labour of his hands.
FOOTNOTE
1 [He was imprisoned and murdered by the Anti-Pope Boniface VII. See note p. 257.]
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