THE LIVES OF THE POPES VOL. II. ^> [ / THE LIVES OF THE POPES IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES BY THE REV. HORACE K. MANN " De gente Anglorum, qui maxime familiares Apostolicae Sedis semper existunt." {Gesta Abb. Fontanel. A.D. 747-752, ap. M.G. SS. II. 289). HEAD MASTER OF ST. CUTHBERT's GRAMMAR SCHOOL, NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF HISTORY OF SPAIN THE POPES DURING THE CAROL1NGIAN EMPIRE Leo III. to Formosus 795-891 VOL. II. 795-858 KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER, & CO., LTD. PATERNOSTER CHARING CROSS ROAD HOUSE, ^ LONDON, W.C. SEEN BY PRESERVATION DATE, "8* loiO Go HIS ALMA MATER st cuthbert's college, ushaw THIS VOLUME 50 respectfully S)eolcateD BY A GRATEFUL SON PREFACE. ENCOURAGED by the reception which was accorded by the press of various shades of opinion both at home and abroad to my previous volumes, which treated of the Lives of the Popes who flourished during the seventh and eighth centuries, and moved especially by the words addressed to me by our late Holy Father Leo XIII., of blessed and glorious memory, I venture to offer to the reading public another series of papal biographies. The first series dealt with the Pontiffs who reigned whilst the Lombards lorded it over the one embraces the lives of those Italy ; present who ruled the Church whilst the Carolingians, the conquerors of the Lombards, held the reins of Empire, and will be pub- lished in two volumes. Considering how tenderly my first literary offspring was to criticise treated by those who undertook it, it would ill become me to forget to thank them. To my thanks I would only add that, as my one wish is to produce a good and reliable work, I shall be grateful for any helpful criticisms. I have endeavoured to profit by those which my former volumes received, and it will not be my fault but my misfortune if I cannot still further profit by those which may be passed on the ones I have just completed. But I cannot help feeling in regard to them what Wibert felt concerning his biography of S. Leo IX., namely, that I shall have had a great measure of success if I become the vim BPAC1 means of transmitting to posterity, no matter in what of ry style, some slight knowledge of the great deeds 1 the Roman Pontiffs. For I can never forget the striking " words of Archbishop Hincmar, that he who honours the See of Peter and its bishop honours Him who said : 'he 2 that receiveth whomsoever I send, receiveth Me'" (John xiii. 20). Nor must I omit to thank once more the authorities of the Public Library of the City of Newcastle-on-Tyne for the most obliging manner in which, at all times, they have placed their services and books at my disposal. My friends, C. Hart, Esq., B.A., and F. F. Urquhart, Esq., M.A., have assisted me in the most ungrudging manner. They have read over the proof-sheets for me with the greatest care, and Have saved me from many a mistake. To express to them my sincerest gratitude is at once my duty and. my pleasure. H. K. MANN. 1 "Unde ab ipsius (Leo IX.) exordio jam ordiatur sermo, in quo plurimum nobis successise credemus, si ea tantum, qua? in pontificatu Leucorum laudabiliter gessit, ex aliqua parte quovis stylo posteris iniserimus." Wibert, in vit. Leo /.\\, Prolog. 1 "Cujus (Petri) sedem, su.xque sedis pontificcm qui honorat, ilium honorat qui dixit: 'Qui accipit si quern inisero, me accipit. Hin< mar, . ap. /'. /,., t. 126, p. 33. A LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS VOLUME . ed. Jaffe, or Regesta . =. Regesta Pontificum Romanorum, Jaffe, 2nd ed., Lipsiae, 1885. Labbe = Sacrosancta Concilia, ed. Labbe and Cossart, Paris, 167 1. L. or the = Liber 2 ed. L. P., Anastasius, | Pontificalis, vols., Duchesne, Paris, 1886. = Monumenta Germanice Historica, either Scriptores (M. G. SS.) or Epistolce (M. G. Epp.). = Patrologia Grcsca, ed. Migne, Paris. Patrologia Latina, ed. Migne, Paris. = Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, ed. Muratori, Milan, 1723 ff. The sign t placed before a date indicates that the date in question is the year of the death of the person after whose name the sign and the date are placed. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Preface, vii Leo III. (795-816), 1 Stephen (IV.) V. (816-817), m Paschal I. (817-824), 122 Eugenius II. (824-827), 156 Valentine (827), 183 Gregory IV. (827-844), .... .187 Sergius II. (844-847), 232 S. Leo IV. (847-855), 2 5 8 Benedict III. (855-858), 308 Genealogical Table The Descendants of Charlemagne, 329 Index, 331 J I LEO III. A.D. 795-816. Sources. Although the life of Leo III. is the longest one in the * Liber Pontificalis (L. P.), sometimes here cited as The Book of the Popes, it furnishes us with comparatively little information as to his doings. Apart from a short account of his early years, and a more detailed notice of the attack made upon him by Paschal and his associates, there is practically nothing else in it but an interminable list of expenses incurred by the Pope in connection with different churches in Rome and elsewhere. Among the other sources whence we must seek fuller informa- 2 tion are ten of his letters to Charlemagne in the Codex Carolinus, or rather, to speak more accurately, in another beautifully written MS. of the beginning of the ninth century, drawn up, like the Codex Car., by order of Charlemagne. A few more of his letters will be found ap. P. L., t. 129; M. G. Epp., v., etc. Various letters of Alcuin (ap. Monument. Ale; Bib. Per. Germ., vi., ed. of Jaffe, or, more recently, ap. M. G. Epp., iii.) and Charlemagne (Mon. Carol., ed. Jaffe; Bib. Rer. Germ., iv.) are addressed or have reference to Leo III. The latter may also be read ap. P. L., t. 98, and, best of all, in M. G. Epp., iv. The Carmen de Carolo Magno (ap. P. L., t. 98), assigned by some to Angilbert (f8i4), abbot of St. Riquier at Centula, in 1 it ff. this On see vol. i., pt. i., p. 259 of work. 2 See ib., pt. ii., p. 203. VOL. II. I 2 LEO III. in imitated from Picardy, gives a contemporary narrative verse, the jfcneid, of the above-mentioned attack on the Pope. Very are the Annales veteres Francorum P. L., I, of course, (ap. time G. L 98) and the other chronicles of the (ap. M. SS., i., etc.). ( )ur own historians, William of Malmesbury, etc., must be consulted on the relations of the Pope with regard to this country. The documents will be found in Haddan and Stubbs, ff. renaissance in Councils, iii. p. 516 Evincing the literary progress among the Franks at this period, our authorities are now more satisfactory. Modern Works. Of the first importance are biographies of Charlemagne and his entourage. To those cited in the previous rolume under Hadrian I., add Vempereur Charlemagne, by L. 2 sur la vie F. Hamelin Double (Paris, 1881) ; Essai dAlcuin, by Alcuin A. F. a (Paris, 1873); ^d t by West (London, 1893), very sympathetic work on our industrious and practical scholar. Alcuin: His Life and His Work, by C. Gaskoin (London, 1904), is the most complete work on Alcuin. Thtodulfe, by Ch. Cuissard (Orleans, 1892), may also be usefully consulted. On the Holy Roman Empire, created by Leo III., see the well- known work of J. Bryce which bears that title (London, 1889), and which treats most ably on the establishment of the Caro- lingian Empire. He would seem, however, to show too great a for obsolete law see also respect ; Vempire Carolingien, by A. Kleinclausz (Paris, 1902), a work which, though very learned, to 4 appears me somewhat to drag its weary length along,' and Le Empire, by J. Birot (Paris, 1903). C. Bayet has published il pamphlets on this period*.^. Vilection de Leon III. et la rivoltt des Romains en 799 (Paris, 1883). As the modern ire which might be cited in connection with Leo III. is exceedingly extensive, we will confine ourselves to naming two 1 See ib., p. 225. 5 This author, writing as a modern patriotic Frenchman, and con- sidering Charlemagne as a modern German, passes judgment accordingly pint of the work may be gathered from this quotation : "Jamais peut-ctre la France ne fut plus miserable que sous le de cet Austrasien cruel et regne sanguinaire, debauche," p. ix. Cf. 180 p. regarding "l'epais cerveau du Germain enivre, du babare ebloui. LEO III. 3 more works : Les premiers temps de Fetat pontifical, by L. Duchesne (Paris, 1898), and vol. viii. of Dr. Hodgkin's Italy and Her Invaders, Oxford, 1899. Emperors of the East. Emperors of the West. Constantine VI. (Porphyrogenitus), Charlemagne (King of the Franks), 780-797. 771-800. Irene, 797-802. (Emperor), 800-814. Nicephorus, 802-811. Louis, the Pious or Debonnaire, Michael I., 811-813. 814-840. Leo V, 813-820. THE period of the history of the papacy, co-extensive with introduc- the duration of the Carolingian Empire (795-891), opens papacy at external conditions to those under very different under ning ofthe which its commenced. preceding period (590-795) During century the latter the were the nominal at epoch popes subjects beginning least of the emperors at Constantinople, whose repre- jjj^ sentatives were installed in the crumbling palace on the Palatine. Their election had to be confirmed by them, and their lives and liberties were dependent on their whims.