History of the Christian Church, Volume IV: Mediaeval Christianity. A.D. 590-1073.

(Rick Simeone) #1

have known that a large portion of this forged collection, though claiming to proceed from early
popes, did not exist in the papal archives. Hincmar protested against the validity of the new decretals
and their application to France, and the protest lingered for centuries in the Gallican liberties till
they were finally buried in the papal absolutism of the Vatican Council of 1870.


§ 62. Hadrian II. and John VIII a.d. 867 to 882.
Mansi: Conc. Tom. XV.–XVII.
Migne: Patrol. Lat. Tom. CXXII. 1245 sqq. (Hadrian II.); Tom. CXXVI. 647 sqq. (John VIII.);
also Tom. CXXIX., pp. 823 sqq., and 1054 sqq., which contain the writings of Auxilius and
Vulgarius, concerning pope Formosus.
Baronius: Annal. ad ann. 867–882.
Jaffé: Regesta, pp. 254–292.
Milman: Lat. Christianity, Book V., chs.5 and 6.
Gfrörer: Allg. Kirchengesch., Bd. III. Abth. 2, pp. 962 sqq.
Baxmann: Politik der Päpste, II. 29–57.


For nearly two hundred years, from Nicolas to Hildebrand (867–1049), the papal chair was
filled, with very few exceptions, by ordinary and even unworthy occupants.
Hadrian II. (867–872) and John VIII. (872–882) defended the papal power with the same
zeal as Nicolas, but with less ability, dignity, and success, and not so much in the interests of
morality as for self-aggrandizement. They interfered with the political quarrels of the Carolingians,
and claimed the right of disposing royal and imperial crowns.
Hadrian was already seventy-five years of age, and well known for great benevolence, when
he ascended the throne (he was born in 792). He inherited from Nicolas the controversies with
Photius, Lothair, and Hincmar of Rheims, but was repeatedly rebuffed. He suffered also a personal
humiliation on account of a curious domestic tragedy. He had been previously married, and his
wife (Stephania) was still living at the time of his elevation. Eleutherius, a son of bishop Arsenius
(the legate of Nicolas), carried away the pope’s daughter (an old maid of forty years, who was
engaged to another man), fled to the emperor Louis, and, when threatened with punishment, murdered
both the pope’s wife and daughter. He was condemned to death.
This affair might have warned the popes to have nothing to do with women; but it was
succeeded by worse scenes.
John VIII. was an energetic, shrewd, passionate, and intriguing prelate, meddled with all
the affairs of Christendom from Bulgaria to France and Spain, crowned two insignificant Carolingian
emperors (Charles the Bald, 875, and Charles the Fat, 881), dealt very freely in anathemas, was
much disturbed by the invasion of the Saracens, and is said to have been killed by a relative who
coveted the papal crown and treasure. The best thing he did was the declaration, in the Bulgarian
quarrel with the patriarch of Constantinople, that the Holy Spirit had created other languages for
worship besides Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, although he qualified it afterwards by saying that Greek
and Latin were the only proper organs for the celebration of the mass, while barbarian tongues such
as the Slavonic, may be good enough for preaching.
His violent end was the beginning of a long interregnum of violence. The close of the ninth
century gave a foretaste of the greater troubles of the tenth. After the downfall of the Carolingian

Free download pdf