Pope John VII was consecrated on 1 March AD705, as the successor of Pope John VI and the eighty-sixth head of the Church. Pope John VII was the first person from a family of Byzantine officials to be elected head of the Church. His father, Plato, was a prominent figure in Rome at the time. He was the steward of the emperor's palaces on the Palatine Hill in Rome.

John VII was consecrated pope on the same day he was elected bishop of Rome and head of the Church. During his reign, Pope John maintained warm relations with the Lombard tribe. The pope was able to use this relationship for the good of the Church. As a result, the papal estates in the Alps, which had been seized in previous military campaigns against Rome, were returned to the pope by the Lombard king.

However, Emperor Justinian II, who had been deposed from the imperial throne in 695 AD, again seized power in a coup in Constantinople in AD706. As soon as Emperor Justinian, who was cruel and merciless, came to power, he sent two bishops to Rome with two copies of the canons of the Council of Trullon.

Justinian's goal was to have Pope John VII ratify the canons that Pope Sergius I had refused to accept or sign. Unlike Pope Sergius I, Pope John was not prepared to engage in open conflict with the emperor by not accepting the canons. Instead, he sent back the emperor's delegation without affixing his seal to the copies of the canons. However, on other issues, the pope was prepared to clearly oppose the Byzantine position.

Pope John VII was a man who actively encouraged the arts and culture. He built a new papal residence at the foot of the Palatine Hill. He also renovated many churches and decorated them with marble, glass, etc., and frescoes, some of which were his own drawings and paintings.

Pope John VII's reign lasted only two years, seven months, and eighteen days. Pope John died on October 18, 707. His body was buried in the chapel of the Virgin Mary, which the pope had built next to St. Peter's Basilica.