Record of Benedict’s reign as pope is scant.

There is a letter dated to Benedict’s reign from Piligrim, Bishop of Passau, asking for Benedict to confer on him the Pallium, and make him a Bishop so that he could continue his mission to convert the Hungarian people to Christianity.

However, the response from Benedict is considered to be a forgery.

He is also known to have confirmed privileges assumed by certain monasteries and churches.

At the request of King Lothair of France and his wife, Benedict placed the monastery of Blandin under papal protection.

There is also a papal bull from Benedict in which Frederick, Archbishop of Salzburg and his successors are named Papal vicars in the former Roman provinces of Upper and Lower Pannonia and Noricum; however, the authenticity of this bull is disputed.

Otto I had died soon after Benedict's election in 973, and with the accession of Otto II, troubles with the nobility emerged in Germany.

With the new emperor so distracted, a faction of the Roman nobility opposed to the interference of the German emperors in Roman affairs, took advantage of the opportunity to move against Benedict VI.

Led by Crescentius the Elder and the Cardinal-Deacon Franco Ferrucci (who had been the preferred candidate of the anti-German faction), Benedict is taken in June 974, and imprisoned in the Castel Sant'Angelo, at this time a stronghold of the Crescentii.

Ferrucci is then proclaimed as the new pope, taking the name Boniface VII.

Hearing of the overthrow of Benedict VI, Otto II sends an imperial representative, Count Sicco, to demand his release.

Unwilling to step down, Boniface orders a priest named Stephen to murder Benedict while he is in prison, strangling him to death.

Benedict is succeeded, after the overthrow of the Antipope Boniface VII, by Pope Benedict VII.

The death of the Emperor clearly marks the end of Pope John XIV, who is not popular among most of the Romans.

With the heir of Otto II only being of the age three, the people of Rome finally feel free of the hated emperor and desire a Roman Pope.

To this point, Boniface VII had spent nine years in Constantinople, but he still is striving for the papal throne.

After seeing his opening with the death of Emperor Otto II, Boniface joins the league of Greeks and Saracens and heads for Rome in April 984.

With the help of both his treasury he had stolen from his first attempt at the papacy as well as the gold of his Greek followers, he is able to strike relationships with several powerful people.

With the help of Crescentius’ sons, John and Crescentius II, along with his Greek followers, Boniface has Pope John XIV imprisoned in Castel Sant’Angelo.

Four months later, on August 20, 984, John XIV dies in Sant’Angelo either due to starvation, poison, or by the order of Boniface.

The death of Pope John XIV means that Boniface is the only remaining pope, and so he once again secures the papal throne.

He still believes himself to be the only rightful pope, and dates back his reign to 974.

Little is known of the reign of Boniface VII, who suddenly dies on July 20, 985.

It is possible that he was murdered, but it cannot be confirmed by any known sources.

It is clear that there was certainly a sense from the public of disgust at his reign, as his body is dragged through the streets, stripped naked, until it is left beneath Marcus Aurelius’s statue in front of the Lateran Palace.

There were undoubtedly many atrocities that Boniface committed in the eleven months he was in power in 984–985, most of which had probably been acts of revenge due to his previous exile.

It is obvious he had become a stranger to the Roman people, and had most likely even become an inconvenience to his own followers.

He was referred to as “Malefatius” instead of Bonifatius, and also “horrendum monstrum” by many, showing the turn of feelings the people of Rome had had.

The Nationalist faction, previously headed by Crescentius and now headed by his two sons, that had helped him rise to his papal status was now not so much Eastern Roman as it was national-Roman.

They have likely overthrown Boniface VII in hopes of seizing control of vulnerable Rome.

After a reign spanning eleven years, in which he had overthrown two popes, allowing both to die in Castel Sant’Angelo, Boniface VII is finally dead.