dynasty the popes were more and more involved in the political quarrels and distractions of the
Italian princes. The dukes Berengar of Friuli (888–924), and Guido of Spoleto (889–894), two
remote descendants of Charlemagne through a female branch, contended for the kingdom of Italy
and the imperial crown, and filled alternately the papal chair according to their success in the
conflict. The Italians liked to have two masters, that they might play off one against the other.
Guido was crowned emperor by Stephen VI. (V.) in February, 891, and was followed by his son,
Lambert, in 894, who was also crowned. Formosus, bishop of Portus, whom John VIII. had pursued
with bitter animosity, was after varying fortunes raised to the papal chair, and gave the imperial
crown first to Lambert, but afterwards to the victorious Arnulf of Carinthia, in 896. He roused the
revenge of Lambert, and died of violence. His second successor and bitter enemy, Stephen VII.
(VI.), a creature of the party of Lambert, caused his corpse to be exhumed, clad in pontifical robes,
arraigned in a mock trial, condemned and deposed, stripped of the ornaments, fearfully mutilated,
decapitated, and thrown into the Tiber. But the party of Berengar again obtained the ascendency;
Stephen VII. was thrown into prison and strangled (897). This was regarded as a just punishment
for his conduct towards Formosus. John IX. restored the character of Formosus. He died in 900,
and was followed by Benedict IV., of the Lambertine or Spoletan party, and reigned for the now
unusual term of three years and a half.^273
§ 63. The Degradation of the Papacy in the Tenth Century.
Sources.
Migne’s Patrol. Lat. Tom. 131–142. These vols. contain the documents and works from Pope John
IX.–Gregory VI.
Liudprandus (Episcopus Cremonensis, d. 972): Antapodoseos, seu Rerum per Europam gestarum
libri VI. From a.d. 887–950. Reprinted in Pertz: Monum. Germ. III. 269–272; and in Migne:
Patrol. Tom. CXXXVI. 769 sqq. By the same: Historia Ottonis, sive de rebus gestis Ottonis
Magni. From a.d. 960–964. In Pertz: Monum. III. 340–346; in Migne CXXXVI. 897 sqq. Comp.
Koepke: De Liudprandi vita et scriptis, Berol., 1842; Wattenbach: Deutschlands
Geschichtsquellen, and Giesebrecht, l.c. I. p. 779. Liudprand or Liutprand (Liuzo or Liuso),
one of the chief authorities on the history of the 10th century, was a Lombard by birth, well
educated, travelled in the East and in Germany, accompanied Otho I. to Rome, 962, was
appointed by him bishop of Cremona, served as his interpreter at the Roman Council of 964,
and was again in Rome 965. He was also sent on an embassy to Constantinople. He describes
the wretched condition of the papacy as an eye-witness. His Antapodosis or Retribution (written
between 958 and 962) is specially directed against king Berengar and queen Willa, whom he
hated. His work on Otho treats of the contemporary events in which he was one of the actors.
He was fond of scandal, but is considered reliable in most of his facts.
Flodoardus (Canonicus Remensis, d. 966): Historia Remensis; Annales; Opuscula metrica, in Migne,
Tom. CXXXV.
(^273) According to Auxentius and Vulgarius, pope Stephen VII. was the author of the outrage on the corpse of Formosus;
Liutprand traces it to Sergius III. in 898, when he was anti-pope of John IX. Baronius conjectures that Liutprand wrote Sergius
for Stephanus. Hefele assents, Conciliengesch. IV. 561 sqq.