EUGENIO II, POPE. - He was a Roman priest of the title of S. Sabina when, upon the death of Pasquale I, he was elected pontiff (11 May 824) amid the conflicts provoked by party rivalries, thanks to the pacifying intervention of Wala, monk of Corbie and counsellor to the emperor Lotario. In order to close the door to possible new discord, Lotario promulgated a constitution regulating the nature of imperial protection, the personal rights of Roman citizens, and the appointment of officials under sovereign supervision; the establishment of two missi: one for the emperor, the other for the pope, a kind of arbiters in disputed affairs; and the election of the pope, to be carried out with the participation of the laity and with the obligation upon the person elected to take an oath before the imperial missio and the people.
E. accepted this constitution and in turn, in Nov. 826, convened a council of 62 bishops and promulgated about forty disciplinary regulations relating to the difficulties then present. He died in Aug. 827.
BIBLI: Lib. Post., II, p. 69 SGC.; L. Duchesne, Les premiers temps de l'Etat pontifical, 3e ed., Parigi 1911, pp. 195-202; E. Amaro, L'Epoca carolingia, in Fliche-Martin-Fruze, VI, pp. 212 SGC., 240 SGC., etc. Pier Fausto Palumbo