Nicholas the Great

Italian pope (858-867)

• Born: c. 819-822
• Birthplace: Rome (now in Italy)
• Died: November 13, 0867
• Place of death: Rome (now in Italy)

Nicholas strengthened the power of the Papacy by actively promoting the primacy of the Holy See in all Church matters and in secular cases of moral consequence.

Early Life

Nicholas the Great was born to a noble family in Rome. His father was Theodorius, a man of great learning, who served as a regionary notary and worked for Pope Leo IV. No facts are extant about Nicholas's mother. As a youngster, Nicholas was serious, intelligent, and eager to learn, traits he inherited from his father and which Theodorius encouraged in the boy. Nicholas was always a good student; he became well read in both secular and theological writings. The clergy at Rome anticipated a bright future for the young scholar.

In 845, Pope Sergius II called Nicholas to serve him as a subdeacon and a member of the Curia at the Lateran palace. Nicholas was made a deacon by Sergius's successor, Pope Leo IV, and during the reign of Benedict III, Nicholas became a highly valued adviser to the Holy See. Benedict was extraordinarily fond of Nicholas as a personal companion and respected his counsel. Benedict died on April 17, 858; Nicholas is said to have wept openly and profusely at the funeral.

Nicholas's success as a scholar and adviser for almost fifteen years in Rome also brought him to the attention of Emperor Louis II, who befriended him. When a successor was being considered after Benedict's death, Louis remained in Rome and pressed for Nicholas's acceptance by the balloting clergy. On April 22, 858, Nicholas was elected to the papacy. His formal installation took place on April 24, 858. Nicholas is thought to have been the first pope to be fitted with a gem-encrusted secular crown at his consecration the following October, although no records exist to confirm this fact positively.

Nicholas's rise to the papacy resulted from several factors, all involving his personal attributes. He was a handsome man with fine facial features and a graceful bearing, winning laymen and clergy alike to his favor. He was very learned but at the same time modest, and he also had a reputation as an eloquent speaker. When Nicholas held to a principle, he did so faithfully and with more courage and commitment than did most men. He was also sincere, just, and honest in his dealings with all, whether of noble or humble rank.

Nicholas would have to call on all of these traits to aid him through a short but difficult papacy. He reigned for nine years, at a time when anarchy threatened Western Europe. The descendants of Charlemagne had divided his empire into three sections. These rulers often quarreled among themselves; they had unruly offspring as well. This civil discontent also made for some anarchic acts by the clergy. Some corrupt bishops held small kingdoms of their own, where they ruled over both civil and spiritual issues. Others came under the influence of powerful civil leaders. Some ambitious and undisciplined clergy took goods and property from their parishioners and guided these people ineffectively, if at all. When Nicholas became pope, the issues created by such disobedience and strife fell to him to resolve.

Life's Work

Nicholas's papacy is marked by three major crises that occurred almost simultaneously with one another. The first crisis involved his disciplining of corrupt and ambitious clergymen. Nicholas came into conflict with the powerful, independent Archbishop Hincmar of Reims . Hincmar had dismissed a member of the clergy for being an unworthy administrator; that bishop, Rothad of Soissons, appealed to Pope Nicholas, complaining that Hincmar had judged him unfairly. Nicholas, as defined in canon law, was the spiritual authority to whom all bishops were to appeal when they were in conflict with their archbishops. Hincmar had deposed Rothad at a synod in 862, after which time that bishop was imprisoned. Nicholas overturned the decision of this synod because at the time that it met, Rothad had already begun an appeal to Rome. Hincmar was forced to abide by the pope's pronouncement and reinstate Rothad at Soissons during Christmas week of 864.

In a similar case of a tyrannical church leader, Nicholas came into conflict with Bishop John of Ravenna. John had begun to confiscate lands in his area, even some belonging to the Holy See. In addition, Nicholas learned that John made exorbitant demands on his congregation for his housing, food, and entertainment. John also had dismissed any clergymen who disagreed with his method of administration. Nicholas sent warnings to the bishop to end his misconduct, but they were ignored. Nicholas intervened and went to Ravenna personally to restore property to its rightful owners. In November of 861, John came to Rome to beg the pope's pardon; Nicholas reinstated him as bishop, with the stipulation that John personally report annually to Rome on his activities.

The second area in which Nicholas had to intervene for the sake of justice was in royal marriages in Europe. The most famous case of Nicholas's defending an oppressed, defenseless spouse came in the two marriages of King Lothair II, a Frankish ruler. Lothair had taken a wife, Waldrada, in 855 in what was then a Germanic traditional ceremony but not a Church-sanctioned marriage. Waldrada, a noblewoman from Lorraine, had three children by Lothair. In 857, the king married Theutberga, the daughter of Count Bosco of Burgundy, in the Church; this marriage was a politically feasible union, but it produced no children. In 860, Lothair decided to return to Waldrada. The Frankish archbishops whom Lothair requested to dissolve his marriage to Theutberga readily complied with their civil ruler. Nicholas, after Theutberga made an appeal to him, intervened and declared Lothair's marriage to her to be the only valid union. Emperor Louis II marched on Rome with his imperial army to protest what he believed was an unfair decision about Lothair's choice of wife. Nicholas retreated inside the buildings of Saint Peter's to fast and pray, while Louis's troops angrily smashed up religious processions in the Roman streets. Finally, after two days, both men agreed to discuss the case. Possibly, this meeting was mediated by Louis's wife. The result of the discussion was that Theutberga would remain Lothair's legitimate wife and that he was to cease living with or meeting with Waldrada. Nicholas was so eager to see full justice done in this case that in October, 863, he called to Rome the two archbishops who had supported Lothair in his renunciation of Theutberga. These two Frankish archbishops, Günther of Cologne and Theutgard of Trier, were deposed by Nicholas and replaced. Nicholas also excommunicated Waldrada and her principal supporters.

These conflicts concerning corrupt and ambitious church officials and immoral imperial marriages are relatively minor in comparison with the one great crisis that Nicholas faced in his papacy. For several reasons, including cultural differences between Rome and Constantinople and the personal ambitions of a learned Constantinopolitan layman, Nicholas's papacy was marred by a serious schism between the Western and the Eastern churches.

At Constantinople, Emperor Michael III had an adviser named Bardas who lived an immoral personal life; Bardas had left his wife to live with his son's young widow. When ordered by the patriarch, Ignatius, to return to his wife, Bardas refused. After that incident, Ignatius did not allow the adulterer to receive Communion at Mass on the Feast of the Epiphany in 857. When the emperor saw how his favored adviser was being treated, he dismissed Ignatius in late 858. Michael replaced Ignatius with Photius, a learned Greek layman and his imperial secretary; in less than a week, Photius was consecrated through all the various stages of the clergy, from lector to priest. Then, on December 25, 858, he assumed the office of patriarch. Protests arose from angered supporters of Ignatius, who was in exile at Terebinthos. Michael announced that Ignatius had resigned his office, but historical evidence does not exist to prove that claim. One particularly vocal supporter of Ignatius, the monk Theognostos, traveled to Rome, where he lodged an appeal with Pope Nicholas to intervene on Ignatius's behalf.

As an investigation into this incident at Constantinople began, Nicholas declared that no one was yet to recognize Photius because his case had to be reviewed. When Photius wrote a courteous letter to Nicholas requesting that he be sanctioned as the patriarch, the pope answered by sending two legates to Constantinople to study the situation. The two trusted legates that Nicholas sent on this delicate mission, Radoald of Porto and Zachary of Agnani, immediately had trouble in the Byzantine city. They were pressured by Photius and the emperor to vote at a council held on the patriarchal dispute. Nicholas had sent these two clergymen only to investigate and to report back to him; they were not authorized to represent him in any voting assembly. This Council of Constantinople, convened in late 861, voted to accept Photius as the legitimate patriarch.

When the two legates returned to Rome in 862, Nicholas immediately deposed them, their votes, and the decision of the Council of Constantinople. Nicholas then convened his own Council of Rome in early 863, at which Photius was threatened with excommunication if he did not restore Ignatius to the patriarchy. When Photius learned of this decision and ignored it, the split between the Eastern and the Western churches grew wider.

In August of 867, Photius conducted a council of his own, at which time he declared Nicholas to be deposed and excommunicated. On September 24, 867, Michael was assassinated; his successor, Emperor Basil, reinstated Ignatius to the See of Constantinople on November 26, 867, and Photius was deposed. Pope Nicholas did not live to hear of these events; he died on November 13, 867. Each November 13, the Roman Catholic church celebrates the Feast of Saint Nicholas in honor of the canonized pope.

Significance

Nicholas the Great was a persistent and courageous fighter for the rights of all oppressed people. His actions in defending parishioners from corrupt clergymen and betrayed spouses from cruel husbands clearly show how uncompromising he was in the pursuit of justice. Nicholas also gained a reputation throughout Europe as a friend to the poor. He established an innovative program by which all the poor of Rome were fed on a regular schedule. Anyone blind or disabled had a daily meal sent to him. The able-bodied reported to the Lateran palace once a week to receive a food ration. Nicholas even devised a special token to be carried by each person to remind him on which day of the week to report for food.

This pope was also a very organized and eloquent letter writer. On his ascension, he had appointed Anastasius the Librarian his personal secretary. Nicholas's choice of such a highly literate man proved valuable, especially when the pope's health failed. Nicholas, in his last years of life, was frequently incapacitated by a painful illness and also from general exhaustion from his zealous attention to his numerous duties. In such instances, Anastasius helped the weakened pope to draft his typically long letters.

Nicholas sent missionaries to Scandinavia to convert people there to Christianity . He was also chiefly responsible for the conversion of Bulgaria in the time of King Boris I . Boris had been baptized by the clergy at Constantinople, with Michael as his godfather. When Boris became disappointed with what he believed was the Eastern Church's lack of enthusiasm and of useful aid in their missionary efforts in Bulgaria, he turned to Nicholas for advice. Nicholas immediately sent to Boris two bishops and a very lengthy, meticulously detailed letter. This letter, known as Responsa Nicolai ad Consulta Bulgarorum (866), answers the 106 questions that Boris had concerning Christianity and his role as a Christian ruler. Nicholas responded to these questions with precise answers and in terminology Boris could understand. Theologians to this day praise Nicholas's response to Boris as one of the greatest documents in papal history.

Nicholas was also responsible for a great secular achievement during his time in office. He was able to unite Western Europe by providing a strong central authority for all church matters. Europe in the mid-800's lacked cohesion, consisting of several small, bickering kingdoms. Nicholas continually kept Rome at the forefront of European life, both in religious and in civil matters. When King Boris requested that a code of civil laws be sent to him, it was Latin laws Nicholas sent.

Pope Nicholas's greatest lasting achievement was his maintaining and strengthening the supreme authority of the Roman See. When arrogant and independent clergymen attempted to rule their parishioners with no input from Rome, Nicholas swiftly ended their autonomy. He reserved for himself and future popes the right to intercede in any church affairs gone wrong. Nicholas was one of the most powerful, beneficent, and active popes of the Middle Ages.

Bibliography

Cavarnos, Constantine. Saint Photios the Great: Philosopher and Theologian. Belmont, Mass.: Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 1998. A collection of monographs delivered in 1987 at the Library of Hellenic College/Holy Cross Creek Orthodox School of Theology on Photius, Nicholas the Great’s counterpoint. Bibliography and index.

Coppa, Frank J., ed. Encyclopedia of the Vatican and Papacy. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999. An encylopedia of the popes. Lists antipopes and ecumenical councils. Bibliography and index.

Duffy, Eamon. Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes. 2d ed. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2001. A general history of the popes, with information on Nicholas the Great.

Dvornik, Francis. The Photian Schism: History and Legend. 1948. Reprint. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1970. A leading authority describes the events leading to and widening the schism between Nicholas and Photius. This book serves two purposes: to dispel the myths about how the schism occurred and to replace these myths with accurate historical evidence about it. An extremely well-documented and scholarly study.

Levillain, Philippe, ed. The Papacy: An Encyclopedia. New York: Routledge, 2002. A dictionary of the Papacy that covers the medieval years. Bibliography and index.

Ullmann, Walter. A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages. 1972. Reprint. New York: Routledge, 2003. This book contains a substantial section of bibliographical notes giving Ullmann’s sources for each chapter. He points out the long-term significance of Nicholas’s solutions to the various crises he faced. Much space is devoted to a discussion of the conflict between Nicholas and Photius and the strategies that each man employed in dealing with the other.