NICHOLAS. 
54 
authorifed to confirm the depofition of Ignatius, and the 
election of Photius; and that he never had confented, 
nor ever would content, to the one meafure or the other. 
It was, mod probably, during the time when the buli- 
nefs relating to the fee of Conftantinople was agitating, 
that the quarrel took place between pope Nicholas and 
John arclibifhop of Ravenna; though we are not informed 
precifely in what year it happened. Cave places it under 
the year 861. According to Anaftafius, John, acting 
more like a lawlefs tyrant than a bifliop, had excommuni¬ 
cated feveral perfons without juft caufe, and feized on 
•their eftates. He had alfo pofleffed himlelf of lands be¬ 
longing to the Roman church, and had arbitrarily depofed 
and imprifoned prefbyters and deacons of the province of 
,/Emilia, under the immediate jurifdiftion of the apoftolic 
fee. What was hill more aggravating, he had diverted 
devout people from pilgrimages to the tombs of the holy 
apoltles ; and was bold enough to maintain that the pope 
had no power to fummon him to Rome. This interference 
with the interefts, and opppfition to the authority, of the 
papal fee, Nicholas could not digeft ; and therefore, after 
citing John three times to a council at Rome, upon his 
non-appearance, pronounced fentence of excommunica¬ 
tion againfl him. The archbilhop, not intimidated in the 
leaft at this fentence, immediately determined to maintain, 
even at Rome, the independency of his fee; and he fet 
out accordingly for that city, accompanied by feveral 
perfons of diftindtion, whom the emperor Louis had ap¬ 
pointed to attend him in the character of his envoys, and 
to countenance him on his arrival there. Thefe envoys, 
however, the pope contrived to gain over, and then fent 
the arclibifhop an order to appear on a given day before 
the council which had condemned him, and there give 
ai} account of his conduft. To this order the prelate 
paid no regard, but immediately quitted Rome, and re¬ 
turned to Ravenna. Alarmed at his return, many of the 
inhabitants of the firft diftinftion in that city, as well as 
in the province of ./Emilia, haftened to Rome, attended 
by crowds of people, in order to lay their grievances be¬ 
fore the pope. They even entreated his holinefs to viiit 
that city and diocefe in perfon, and redeem them by his 
prefence from the infuft'erable oppreffions under which 
they groaned.' With this requeft the pope complied ; and, 
being informed upon the fpot of the tyranny and rapine 
of the archbilhop, reftored to every perfon the property 
of which he had been plundered, and ifl'ued a decree 
confirming what he had done. John had not waited the 
arrival of the pope ; but, when he heard of his approach, 
fled to Pavia, to implore the protection of the emperor, 
v yvho refuted there. To his great mortification, neither 
the bifliop .nor any of the inhabitants of the city, who 
had heard of his being excommunicated, would admit 
him into their houfes, nor fuller any necefiaries to be fold 
to him and his attendants, nor even fo much as converfe 
with them. The treatment which the archbilhop met 
with from the emperor was not lefs mortifying: for that 
prince refufed to admit him to his prefence, and fent him 
his advice, to fubmit and obtain the absolution of the pope, 
if he hoped for his favour. Finding himlelf thus aban¬ 
doned to the mercy of his holinefs, John at length re- 
folved to fatisfy him, and with that yiewfet out forRome, 
with envoys, .whopi the emperor, at his parneft requefl, 
had appointed to attend him thither. Here he fucceeded, 
by tears and prayers, and e.xpreflions of great contrition 
for his pait offences, in appealing the wrath of the pontiff, 
and was abfolve.d by him from the fentence .of excommu¬ 
nication ; but not' before he had appeared at a council 
fummoned by the pope on that occalion, and there lub- 
fcribed and fworp to a nioft humiliating aft of fubmiffion. 
Thus at laffthe fee of Ravenna became entirely lubjeCjed 
to that of Rome. 
We ha.ve juff feen that, in a pouncil held at Rome in the 
year 863, pope Nicholas excommunicated Photius, wbohad 
fupplanted Ignatius in the fee of Conftantinople, as an u.fur- 
per. When information of this procedure was brought to 
the emperor Michael, lie fent a letter to his holinefs, filled 
with the fevered inveftives, reproaches, and menaces: to 
which Nicholas, returned by the meflengerwho broughtit 
a long reply, ftill extant, confiding of anfwers, one by 
one, to the various articles, or, as he dyles them, b}af-. 
phemies againdGod and St. Peter, contained in it. Soon 
afterwards he wrote another letter to the emperor, and 
nominated legates, who were direfted to proceed to Con- 
dantinople, and to deliver it into his own hands: but, as 
foon as they entered the territories of the empire, their 
further advance was prohibited by an officer, who told 
them, that the emperor did not want them, and that they 
might therefore return home, All intercourfe being now 
broken off between Conffantinople and Rome, Photius 
determined to keep no meafures with the pope, and pro- 
pofed to the emperor the aflembling of a council at Con- 
ffantinople, for the purpofe of depoiing and excommuni¬ 
cating Nicholas with the fame folemnity with which the 
pontiff' had depofed and excommunicated him at Rome.. 
The emperor liavingconfented, acouncilmet accordingly 
by his order, confiding of feveral bilhops under the im¬ 
mediate jurifdiftion of the fee of Conftantinople, and of 
perfons who were called legates from the patriarchal fees 
of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerufalem. Before this 
aflembly the pope was arraigned of innumerable crimes, 
and, being pronounced guilty, was fialemnly depofed, as 
altogether unworthy of the epifcopal dignity, and excom¬ 
municated, with all who fliould communicate with him. 
Photius alfo wrote a circular letter to the patriarchs and 
bilhops of the eaft, charging the Roman church with fe¬ 
veral erroneous doftrines, and various praftices repugnant 
to the canons of the univerfal church, and exhorting then* 
to concur with him in an oecumenical council, for the 
purpofe of reforming that corrupted church. The talk of 
anfwering thefe charges, Nicholas devolved on Hincmar 
and the Gallican bilhops ; but in the mean time a change 
of affairs in church and Hate took place, in confequence 
of the murder of the emperor Michael, and Bafil’s becom¬ 
ing foie head of the empire, for : on the very next day 
after this event, Bafil ordered Photius to be depofed and 
confined to a monaftery ; and then, fending for Ignatius, 
he reinftated him in the patriarchal dignity. Of this 
change an account was immediately lent to Rome ; but 
our pontiff' did not live to enjoy the fatisfaftion which 
the tidings of it would have afforded him. He died in 
the year 867, after he had prelided over the Roman church 
nine years and between fix and feven months. 
Nicholas was a perfon of confiderable abilities and 
learning, and particularly excelled as a canonift. By fome 
writers he has been compared to Leo I. and Gregory I. 
and pronounced equally worthy with them of the furname 
of Great. In ambition it is certain that he did not fall 
Ihort of them ; and he made it the fluffy of his pontificate, 
to fubjugate all other fees to his own, and, by depreciating 
the authority of the princes, to raife his own power above 
theirs, and that of the church above the ftate. Hence his 
fuccefl'ors in the papal fee were induced to bellow on him 
the honours of fajntfhip. He is commended by Anafta¬ 
fius for his charity to the poor, and the magnificent pre- 
fents which he made to the churches at Rome, particularly 
that of St. Peter. The public works of his pontificate 
were, the repairing of an aqueduft which conveyed water 
to the Vatican balilic, and the re-building of the city of 
Oltia, which was ftrengthened with new works to relift the 
fudden attacks of the Saracens. Of his “ Letters,” nearly 
a hundred have reached our times, which are inl'erted in 
the eighth volume of the Colleft. Concil. and they were 
publilhed feparately at Rome, in 1542, folio. 
NICHOLAS II. (Pope), whole original name was 
Gerard, was a native of Burgundy, and became bifliop of 
Florence, JVhen, in the year 1058, the death of pope 
Stephen IX. at Florence was known at Rome, a ftrong 
party, at the head of whom were the counts of Tulculum, 
determined tq choofe for his fucceflor John Mincius, 
bilhop of Veletri; and, placing him upon the pontifical 
throne. 
