GUNTARDO, archbishop of COLOGNE. — Consecrated on 22 April 850, d. in 873. Sumptuous and a patron of the arts, he kept the Irish poet Sedulius Scottus at his court; he had artistic paintings and a magnificent Bible executed for the Cathedral Library. From Fulda he summoned the monk Meignard as master at the cathedral school of Cologne.
At the Council of Aachen in 862, which he presided over, he allowed Lothar to marry his mistress Waldrada without awaiting the reply of Pope Nicholas I, to whom Queen Teutberga had appealed, and confirmed his actions again at a synod in Metz. But in 863 Pope Nicholas I annulled these decisions. G. rebelled against the Pope’s sentence in a violent memorandum and continued to exercise his episcopal functions. Only under Adrian II was G. admitted to Communion, though only lay Communion, on 19 July 869 at Monte Cassino.