John VIII, Pope

JOHN VIII, Pope. - A Roman, elected on 14 December 872, died on 16 December 882. Archdeacon of the Roman Church for twenty years and a collaborator of Nicholas I, a friend of Louis II, he was elected already old and sickly, but he gave proof of singular energy and shrewdness.

I. ECCLESIASTICAL ACTIVITY

A convinced supporter of the pontiff's authority super gentes et super regna, he wished to strengthen the discipline of the clergy and of the faithful, to preserve intact the privileges and goods of the Church, and to consolidate the Roman primacy. He declared excommunicated anyone who left his wife or, while she was living, took another woman, likewise declaring invalid the marriage between nostrates et alienigenae. He asserted his authority against the usurpations of the Church of Ravenna and had a fierce struggle with John X, archbishop of Ravenna; he was nevertheless able to hold a council (Aug. 877) in Ravenna itself.

Here it was decided that the palliums of metropolitans should be requested from the Roman See; that bishops, clerics, nuns and wards could not be deferred to lay tribunals; that magistrates who neglected the complaints of ecclesiastics should be struck with excommunication; that in the dwellings of churches no custom of placitum or of hospitium could be claimed.

He attempted to establish in France and Germany a vicar of the Apostolic See, almost a secundus papa (876); but he could not overcome the opposition of Archbishop Hincmar of Reims and of the French clergy. He nevertheless had broad authority in the appointments and condemnations of bishops. He affirmed the immediate dependence of the bishops and faithful of Dalmatia on the Roman See, and saw the duke and people of Croatia returned to the obedience of Rome. He protested against the imprisonment of Methodius, the apostle of the Slavs, incarcerated by the Germans, eager to preserve the predominance of their race over the Slavic countries; he excommunicated the bishops who had condemned him (873) and obtained his liberation. And although, out of jealous defense of the Roman liturgy, he had at first condemned Methodius's use of celebrating Mass in the "barbarous" Slavic language and, ill-disposed toward him, had summoned him to Rome as suspected of heresy (June 879), when later Methodius came "ad limina", he recognized his full orthodoxy, reconfirmed his authority over the clergy of Moravia, and consented that the liturgy be celebrated in that land in the Slavic language, because "not in three languages only, Hebrew, Greek and Latin, but in all languages must the Lord be praised"; he only required that, as an affirmation of unity, the Gospel be first read in Latin (June 880).

II. JOHN VIII AND THE EAST

G. VIII's conduct with respect to the East was judged in various ways. Ignatius, having returned to the patriarchal see of Constantinople by the will of the emperor Basil and with the favor of Rome after the removal of the intruder Photius (v.), was attempting to withdraw the Bulgarians, wavering between Constantinople and Rome, from Roman obedience. The death of Ignatius (Oct. 23, 877) prevented an open rupture with the Pope; but the latter gradually detached himself from the Ignatians. On the other hand, Photius, having returned to the patriarchal throne with the favor of the majority of the Eastern clergy and with the consent, at least tacit, of the Emperor, sent deferential letters to the Roman See. The Pope was eager to re-establish concord in the Church and to have aid from the Emperor against the Saracens. He therefore sent legates to an Eastern Synod, convoked for the reinstatement of Photius; the papal letter, preserved in the Vatican register, granted it, provided that Photius asked for "mercy." But at the Synod another papal letter was presented, which praised Photius highly and annulled without conditions the measures against him. It is probable that this was a forgery, accepted out of weakness by the papal legates. Certainly the Synod ended in a glorification of Photius. The Pope, however, satisfied by the re-establishment of unity, declared that he confirmed the reinstatement misericorditer. A letter attributed to G. VIII, in which he would have condemned as corrupters of the doctrine of Christ and of the Fathers those who inserted the word "Filioque" into the Creed, is to be considered apocryphal. In any case, G. VIII succeeded not only in preventing the Greek schism for the time being, but also in having the rights of the Roman Church over the Bulgarians recognized, which the weakness of the following popes could not preserve.

III. JOHN VIII AND POLITICS

In the pontificate of G. VIII, religious questions were intertwined with political ones. He was by then the only force attempting to hold together the old Empire of Charlemagne, the only bulwark of Rome and of southern Italy against the threat of the Saracens. He provided for the defense of the city, creating a "Ioannipolis" around St. Paul's; he personally led victorious campaigns against the infidels, attempting to detach from them the small southern states, which out of interest or fear had allied themselves with them. He sought to strengthen the power of Louis II, arranging for the restoration to him of Lorraine by Charles the Bald and Louis the German, who had divided it between themselves after the death of Lothair II.

When the Emperor died without male heirs, in the absence of any rule of succession, he attributed to himself the right to designate the future emperor in order to prevent the Empire from completely disintegrating. And he designated Charles the Bald, sovereign of the most Roman part of the Empire, praised for piety, culture, and valor; he had him acclaimed by the clergy and people of Rome; he crowned him emperor (Dec. 25, 875), and obtained from him confirmation of all the possessions and rights of the Church. But the Spoletans and Saracens were devastating the very surroundings of Rome: in the city, at the instigation of Engelberga, widow of Louis II and favorable to the German Carolingians, a party hostile to the energetic Pontiff was forming. Not being strong enough, the conspirators fled, followed by papal excommunication (June 30, 876).

The Pope then turned to the enterprise against the Saracens: he gathered at Traetto on the Garigliano (June 877) the leaders of the Lombard states of Salerno and Capua, and of the Latins of Naples, Amalfi, and Gaeta: he gave money and received promises. And he hoped for the help of Charles the Bald, with whom he met at Vercelli and Pavia (Sept. 877). But Charles died (Oct. 6, 877); the promises of the southern Italian states were vain; Lambert of Spoleto and Adalbert of Tuscany occupied the Leonine City (Apr. 878), brought the Pope's enemies into Rome, held him in their hands for a month, but did not succeed in forcing him to swear fealty to Charlemagne, king of Germany. Once freed, G. excommunicated the aggressors; but, not feeling safe, he bought peace from the Muslims and went to France.

Here he vainly attempted to gather at Troyes (Aug. 878) the Carolingian princes and their bishops for the salvation of the Church and the Empire. He then thought of giving the imperial crown to Boson, count of Vienne, and said he wished to attend, without worldly cares, "to the things of God"; but Boson, more eager to procure for himself a small kingdom (vamalmo), limited himself to escorting the Pontiff back to Italy (Nov. 878).

The latter attempted once again to gather the forces of the south and to ally himself with the Byzantines; he succeeded in inducing Athanasius, bishop and duke of Naples, to rid himself of the Saracens; but the hoped-for liberation from the threat of the infidels was not achieved; indeed, the latter nestled in the very papal domain of Traetto (882), a perpetual threat to the southern lands and to the Papal State. With the same hope of aid against the Saracens, G. drew closer to the German Carolingians, by then prevailing in Italy, recognized as king of Italy that Charles who was later called the Fat: he crowned him emperor in Rome (Feb. 12, 881), and took part with him in a solemn diet at Ravenna (Feb. 882). But the weak Emperor once again disappointed his hopes. The old fighter ended, probably by a violent death, brought about by his own relatives.

G. Battista Picotti