NIC 
pontiff. Some days afterwards, being told that the pope, 
cada by the Roman nobility, was coming to vifit him, 
he went out to meet him, and after difmounting took hold 
of the pope’s bridle, and condefcended to lead his horfe for 
the new pope, wa a 
ftan cee which ‘had divided the eaftern b 
Ignatius, on not finding him fufficiently obfequious to his 
pleafure, commanded him to be driven from his fee, declared 
lawfully depofed, and fent into exile. At the fame time 
Photius, who was univerfally regarded as a man of extra- 
ordinary abilities, and as the rival of the ancients themfelves 
in every branch of literature, was elected his fucceffor, and 
s he was at that time a layman, he was hurried through 
the ecclefiaftical degrees required by the canons, and confe- 
Thefe events occafigned no little difturb- 
ti nd ot y hed 
council of bifhops held at Conftantinople in the year 860, 
communicated Photius, who had fupplanted Ignatius in the 
fee of Conftantinople, as an ufurper. When information of 
this procedure was brought to the emperor Michael, he fent 
a letter to his holinefs, filled with the fevereft reproaches and 
menaces, to which Nicholas returned a long reply, confifting 
of anfwers to the various 7 or blafphemies againft 
God and St. Peter, contained in All intereourfe from 
this time was broken off presse G diadtautis and Rome, 
and Photius propofed t 
with him. otius alfo wrote a circular letter to the pa- 
triarchs and bifhops of the Eaft, charging the Roman church 
with feveral erroneous doétrines, and various practices re- 
pugnant to the canons of the univerfal church, and exhort- 
them to concur with him for the purpofe of reforming 
et corrupted church. The tafix of anfwering thefe charges 
Nicholas devolved on Hincmar and the Gallican bifhops, but, 
: the mean time, a change of affairs in church and ftate 
ook place, in confequence of the murder of sae eggs 
Micheel, and Bafil’s becoming head of the emp Fo 
on the very next day after this event, pies Photiu $ 
to be depofed and confined in a monatter 
a 
o Rom icholas aid cae live long enough to enjoy 
the fatisfaGtion which the tidings of it would have afforded 
e died in the year 867, ane he had prefided over 
the Roman church nine years an alf. He was reckone 
a perfon of confiderable abilities ant learning, and particu, 
larly excelled as a canonitt. By fome writers he has been 
¢ompared with Leo L and Gregory I., (fee their articles, ) 
NIC 
and pronounced worthy with them of the furname of Great. 
He is commended b 
which are inferted in the eighth volume of the Colleé. 
ciliorum ; ae have been likewife publifhed feparately at 
ome. 
s of Nich 
his forgiven and protefted that he had been compelled to 
accept the which he now moft readily laid afide. 
ee sccotdia ly abfolved him from all guilt, but di- 
vefte of his ecclefiailical functions, and obliged him to 
s days in the church of St. Mar 
to lay-communion. 
{pend che remainder of his 
at — where he was pour onl 
In t rit hae of the - 
a relating to the me ae 
e fame council, a decree wae paffed concerning the 
eleGion of the pope, confining it to the cardinals, and only 
leaving to the people, the clergy, and to the emperor, the 
ower of confirming the eleGtion = they had made. 
Several oanons were alfo in it again{t fimony, inceftuous 
marriages of priefts, and various abufes, which preceding 
opes had pametioi in vain, to extirpate. During the 
this council was held, the pope oo 
Norman, who ha 
Apulia, and fpread his conquefts over the — part of 
Calabria. After a few conferences, it was agreed between 
paca 
Rome, attended with a numerous bo 
obliged the inhabitants of Prenefte, Pafeulum, and No- 
mentum, to fubmit to the Roman fee, from which they had 
revolted; and thefe warriors alto aye the ftrong ae 
