John XVIII, born Fasanius (died June 1009), the son of a Roman priest named Leo, was pope from 1003 to 1009, was, during his whole pontificate, the mere creature of the current head of the Crescentii clan who controlled Rome, the patricius (an aristocratic military leader) Johannes Crescentius III. The period was disturbed by the conflicts between the Ottonian Emperor Henry II and Arduin of Ivrea, who had styled himself King of Italy. Rome was wracked with bouts of plague, and Saracens operating freely out of Sardinia ravaged the Tyrrhenian coasts.
As pope he occupied his time with details of ecclesiastical administration. He authorized a new see at Bamberg to serve as a base for missionary activity among the Slavs, a concern of Henry's. He adjudicated a squabble between the abbot of Fleury and the bishops of Sens and Orléans.
Ultimately he abdicated and, according to one catalog of popes, retired to a monastery, where he died shortly afterwards. His successor was Sergius IV.
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