ance with the pseudoisidorian principles, the power of bishops was exalted, while that of metropolitans was depressed. He met the emperor at Vercelli, and proceeded in his company to Tortona, where Richildis, the wife of Charles, was crowned as empress." But the emperor, instead of prosecuting his expedition, retired before the advancing force of Carloman, the son and successor of Louis the German; and he died in a hut on the pass of Mont Cenis.* The concessions which this prince had made both to Rome and to his nobles had greatly weakened the power of the Frankish crown, and the policy which he had lately followed in ecclesiastical affairs was very dangerous to the rights of the national church. Yet although, for the sake of his private objects, he had in his latter days behaved with much obsequiousness to the pope, it is clear that he had no intention of allowing the principles of the decretals to be established in their fullness within his dominions north of the Alps.

y

A.D. 878.

After the death of Charles, the empire was vacant until 884. The pope, finding himself continually annoyed by Lambert, marquis of Spoleto, and other partisans of the German Carolingians," declared his intention of seeking aid in France,a and, after some forcible detention, which he avenged by anathemas against Lambert and Adalbert of Tuscany," he embarked on board ship, and landed at Genoa. The reception which he at first met with in France was not encouraging. He had offended the clergy by his attempts against the national church, and especially by the commission to Ansegis; while all classes were irritated on account of the costly and fruitless expedition which he had induced their late sovereign to undertake. John wrote letters to all the Frankish princes, urgently summoning them and their bishops to attend a council at Troyes; but the bishops of Gaul only appeared, and the only sovereign present was the king of France, Sept. 14. Louis the Stammerer, who was crowned anew by the pope, although, in consequence of an irregularity in his marriage, he was unable to obtain that the queen should be included in the coronation. At Troyes, as at Ravenna, John proposed and passed some canons which raised the episcopal privileges to a height before

unknown, and he dealt about anathemas with his usual profusion. The bishops joined with him in condemning Adalbert, Lambert, and his other Italian enemies, and in return obtained from him a sentence against the invaders of their own property. But they resolutely stood out for their national rights, insisting on the Sardican canon which limited the power of the Roman see as to appeals, and on those ancient laws of the church which forbade translations such as that of Frotarius. And when the pope produced a grant of Charles the Bald, bestowing the abbey of St. Denys on the Roman see, they met him with a positive denial that the king could alienate the possessions of the crown.k

John was greatly provoked by Hincmar's steady resistance to the pretensions of Rome; and some of the archbishop's enemies now took advantage of this feeling to annoy him by bringing forward his nephew, who, after having been imprisoned and banished, had at last been blinded by order of Charles on account of his connexion with an invasion from the side of Germany." The unfortunate man was led into the place of assembly, and petitioned for a restoration to his see. But the pope, besides that he may have been afraid to venture on a step so offensive to the metropolitan of Rheims, was restrained by the circumstance that he had confirmed the deposition of the younger Hincmar, and had consecrated his successor, Hildenulf." He therefore only in so far favoured the petition as to give the deposed bishop leave to sing mass, and to assign him a pension out of the revenues of Laon, while he refused to accept the resignation of Hildenulf, who alleged that his health disqualified him for the performance of his duties. The enemies of the elder Hincmar, however, were resolved to make the most of the matter as a triumph over him; they arrayed the blind man in episcopal robes, and, after having with great ceremony presented him to the pope, led him into the cathedral, where he bestowed his benediction on the people." It does not appear what answer the pope obtained to his request for assistance; but it is certain that no assistance was sent.P

John had conceived the idea of carrying his claim to the power of bestowing the empire yet further by choosing a person whose elevation should be manifestly due to the papal favour aloneBoso, viceroy of Provence, who had gained his friendship on

Oct. 879.

occasion of his visit to France. The project, however, was found impossible, nor was the pope more successful in an attempt to secure the kingdom of Italy for his candidate. But, on the death of Louis the Stammerer, Boso was chosen by a party of bishops and nobles as king of Provence, which was then revived as a distinct sovereignty; and it would seem that a belief of the pope's support contributed to his election, although John soon after wrote to the archbishop of Vienne, reproving him for having used the authority of Rome in behalf of Boso, whom the pope denounces as a disturber of the kingdom." John died in December 882; it is said that some of his own relations administered poison to him, and, finding that it did not work speedily, knocked out his brains with a mallet."

In the same month died the great champion of the Frankish church. Towards the end of his life Hincmar had had a serious. dispute with Louis III. as to the appointment of a bishop to Beauvais. In answer to the king's profession of contempt for a subject who attempted to interfere with his honour, the archbishop used very strong language as to the relations of the episcopal and the royal powers. He tells him that bishops may ordain kings, but kings cannot consecrate bishops; and that the successors of the Apostles must not be spoken of as subjects. "As the Lord said, Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,' so may I say in my degree, You have not chosen me to the prelacy of the church, but I, with my colleagues and the other faithful ones of God, have chosen you to be governor of the kingdom, under the condition of duly keeping the laws.'""" Hincmar was at length compelled to leave his city by the approach of a devastating force of Northmen. He set out in a litter, carrying with him the relics of St. Remigius, and died at Epernay, on the 21st of December. The Annals of St. Bertin, which are the most valuable record of the period, are supposed to have been written by him from the year 861 to within a month of his death.

X

The first and second successors of John in the papacy, Marinus (A.D. 882) and Adrian III. (A.D. 884), appear to have been chosen without the imperial licence, and by means of the German interest."

On the death of Adrian, which took place as he was on his way to Germany in 885," Stephen V. was consecrated without any application for the consent of the emperor, Charles the Fat; but Charles expressed great indignation at the omission, and had already taken measures for deposing the pope, when a Roman legate arrived at the imperial court, and succeeded in appeasing him by exhibiting a long list of bishops, clergy, and nobles who had taken part in the election.b

d

Charles the Fat, a younger son of Louis the German, had received the imperial crown from John VIII. in 881, and, by the deaths of other princes, had gradually become master of the whole Carolingian empire. But his reign was disastrous; in 887 he was deposed by Arnulf, an illegitimate son of his brother Carloman; and, after having been supported for some months by alms, he died in the following year-whether of disease or by violence is uncertain. The popular feeling as to this unfortunate prince, the last legitimate descendant of Charlemagne, may be inferred from the tone in which he is spoken of by the annalists of the time. They tenderly dwell on his virtues and amiable qualities; they express a trust that the sufferings which he patiently bore in this world may be found to have prepared his way to a better inheritance; it is even said that at his death heaven was seen to open, and to receive his soul."

ment that no one but an Italian should thenceforth be king of Italy, see Schröckh, 222; Gfrörer, ii. 271-2.

Annal. Fuld. 885, ap. Pertz, i. 402. b Ibid.

Herm. Contract. ap. Pertz, v. 108;

Murat. Ann. V. i. 199-201.

d See Annal. Vedast. 887, ap. Pertz, i. 525; Pagi, in Baron. xv. 534; Mansi, ib.

e Annal. Fuld. ap. Pertz, i. 405; Annal. Vedast. ib. 525; Regino, ib. 597-8.

CHAPTER III.

THE GREEK CHURCH- PHOTIUS.

A.D. 842-898.

MICHAEL III., the son of Theophilus and Theodora, grew up under evil influences. His maternal uncle Bardas founded schemes of ambition on the corruption of the young prince's character. He removed one of the male guardians by death, and another by compelling him to retire into a monastery; and by means of a worthless tutor, as well as by his own discourse, he instilled into the emperor a jealous impatience of the control of his mother and sister. At the age of eighteen Michael threw off this yoke. Theodora called together the senate, showed them the treasures which her economy had amassed, in order that she might not be afterwards suspected of having left her son without ample provision, resigned her share in the regency, and withdrew from the palace.

a

b

Michael now gave the loose to his depraved tastes and appetites. His chosen associates were athletes, charioteers, musicians, buffoons, and dancing-girls. He himself entered the lists in the public chariot races, and insisted on receiving his prizes from the hand of a consecrated image. He joined in the feasts and drinking bouts of his companions; he became sponsor for their children, and on such occasions bestowed lavish presents; he rewarded acts of disgusting buffoonery with costly gifts, and even encouraged his vile favourites to practise their gross and brutal jests on his mother. The wealth which he had inherited was soon dissipated; and after having endeavoured to supply his necessities by plundering churches of their ornaments, he was reduced to melt down his plate, and even the golden tissues of the imperial robes."

The most outrageous of Michael's extravagances was his profane mimicry of religion. He organised a mock hierarchy, of which one Theophilus, who was known by the name of Gryllus, was the chief.

e

d Const. Porph. iv. 21, v. 20-27; Cedren. 544, 552-4; Schlosser, 574-7. Γρύλλος, οι γρῦλος, a sucking-pig.

е