970-989 Chinese Invent Paper Money, Norsemen Discover Greenland

This twenty year period covers the reign of the King Edgar the Peacemaker of England and, at a time when the Chinese had invented paper money, the Norsemen had discovered Greenland and the Arabic civilization was flourishing, petty rivalry and murder continued to characterise ‘western’ civilization in Rome and Germany.

Edgar died in 975 and was succeeded by his son Edward the Martyr who died in 978 and was succeeded by his half-brother Ethelred.

In this twenty year period the Norsemen had discovered Greenland in 981, the Arabic civilization was flourishing and in 980 Avicenna, an Arab, had revived Aristotle and Neo-Platonism.

Otto I was the German king and Holy Roman Emperor, and John XIII was the Roman Pope.

Seen as an imperial puppet of Otto, Pope John XIII was driven into exile by the Romans but returned with Otto's assistance. His successor in 973, Benedict VI, was also Otto's puppet and when the emperor died in 973 the Romans rebelled against him.

The new emperor, Otto II, was too preoccupied with German problems to help, and Pope Benedict suffered being arrested, imprisoned and then strangled by order of the antipope Boniface.

Benedict VII became the new pope in 974 -- amid chaos -- and managed to survive until 983. His successor, John XIV, was without friends when Emperor Otto II died and became an easy victim of the antipope Boniface who arrested him, threw him in prison and allowed him to starve to death.

Bonifice the antipope ruled in Rome until he died in 985 and his body was flayed, pierced with lances and dragged naked through the streets.

The new pope, John XV, was nominated by powerful Roman families.