Death
After a pontificate of little more than a year, John V died in bed and was succeeded by Pope Conon. John V's death in August 686 gave rise to a "heated debate over his successor", with the clergy favoring an archpriest Petros, and the army supporting another priest named Theodoros. The faction of the clergy gathered outside the Constantinian basilica and the faction of the military met in the Church of St. Stephen. Shuttle diplomacy proved futile and eventually the clergy elected Conon, a Greco-Sicilian, instead of their original candidate.
John V was buried among the papal tombs in Old St. Peter's Basilica. His inscription praised him for combating Monothelitism at the Third Council of Constantinople "with the titles of the faith, keeping such vigilance, you united the minds so that the inimical wolf mixing in might not seize the sheep, or the more powerful crush those below". John V's tomb was destroyed by the Saracen Sack of Rome in 846, centuries before those around it were destroyed by the demolition of Old St. Peter's Basilica in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Read more about this topic: Pope John V
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