During Otto III.'s minority (983-996) the government was wielded by his mother Theophano (984-991) and his grandmother Adelaid (991-996). At the age of sixteen the last of the Ottomans, half Saxon and half Greek, the plaything of women, scholars, and monks, the pious young dreamer of a world Empire, started for Rome to be crowned Emperor (996). His father had had him elected king at Verona in 983 and coronated at Aachen. On his way now to the Eternal City, accompanied by a coterie of German nobles and churchmen, he stopped at Pavia to receive the homage of the Lombard princes. At Ravenna a messenger from the Roman clergy, senate, and people announced the death of Pope John XV. and asked Otto to name a successor--a very significant fact. The young ruler appointed his cousin and court chaplain, Bruno, who became the first German Pope. Bruno was only twenty-four, but noted for his piety, austere morals, and fiery temper. He hastened to Rome and was installed with great joy as Gregory V. "The news that a scion of the imperial house, a man of holiness, of wisdom and virtue, is placed upon the chair of Peter," wrote Abbo of Fleury to a friend, "is news more precious than gold and costly stones."[403:1] This was the first instance where a northerner, a German, was elevated to the See of St. Peter. A few weeks after the papal coronation Otto entered Rome and received the imperial crown from the youthful Pontiff. He held a council to settle Church affairs and called a diet of civil authorities to settle the government and then returned to Germany. Within a year, however, a rebellion in Rome against Gregory V. recalled Otto III. (997). The Pope had fled to Pavia, called a council, and excommunicated the leader of the insurrection, Crescentius. An anti-Pope had been elected, John XVI., formerly the Emperor's teacher and a court favourite. Otto reached Rome with a large army, caught the fleeing papal usurper, deposed him, put out his eyes, cut off his nose and ears, and sent him through the streets of Rome on an ass. Crescentius was beheaded, and with him a dozen conspirators.[404:1] Gregory V. was restored to his dignity only to die within a year (999). As his successor Otto chose Gerbert, his old teacher, who became Sylvester II., the idealist and reformer.[404:2]