AGAPITUS II, POPE. — A Roman, he succeeded Marinus II on May 10, 946, and died in December 955. We have no information about his family or his life before the pontificate. He was worthy of the highest office, although he lived in the full depths of the iron age of the papacy. In Rome his authority as prince was greatly limited by the power of Alberic II (q.v.). The latter, since 932, had been the arbiter of the city as “humble prince and senator of all the Romans.” He reserved temporal administration to himself and used it even in the interests of religion, though ordinarily leaving the exercise of spiritual power free to the Pope, in whose name acts continued to be drawn up. When A. ascended the pontificate, the reform of the ancient Roman monasteries and the foundation of new ones had already been begun for fifteen years under the guidance of St. Odo, abbot of Cluny (d. 942). A. requested some monks from the abbot of Gorze to restore monastic discipline at St. Paul’s outside the Walls. His influence, however, was more keenly felt outside Rome. At the Roman Council of 949 he confirmed the decisions of the Synods of Ingelheim (June 8, 948) and Trier (948), which, under the presidency of the papal legate Marinus, bishop of Bomarzo, had pronounced in favor of Artald, who had been forcibly imposed upon the see of Reims in place of Hugh of Vermandois, although the latter was only five years old.
In 950, Berengar II, following the sudden death of Lothair of Provence, crowned himself king of Italy (December 15, 950), associating his son Adalbert with him; he wished Adalbert to marry Adelaide, the widow of Lothair, but she refused. Instead, she summoned Otto I, king of the Germans, who
seized the kingdom of Berengar II and was crowned king of Italy at Pavia (951). Otto also desired the imperial crown at Rome, but A. had to refuse it because of Alberic’s opposition. In compensation, however, he continued to bestow favors upon Otto. He had already confirmed the privileges of the archbishop of Hamburg, to whom the Scandinavian countries were subjected (January 2, 948). In 954 he sent the pallium to St. Bruno, archbishop of Cologne and brother of Otto. Moreover, he granted Otto full powers for the reorganization of the hierarchy in Saxony (955). This was the last act issued by A. He was buried behind the apse of the Lateran basilica.