ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 16th of December
JOHN VIII., POPE
(Sat from A.D. 872-82) He was a Roman and the son of Gundus. He seems to have been born in the first quarter of the ninth century; he died December 16, 882. In 853 and 869 he appears as archdeacon of the Roman Church, and it was as such that he became pope (December 14, 872).
His election was opposed by Formosus, who remained in opposition to him throughout the whole of his pontificate. All modern historians are agreed that John was one of the greatest of the great popes who sat on the chair of Peter during the ninth century. Some, however, on what would seem to be insufficient grounds, regard him as cruel, passionate, worldly-minded, and inconstant. The more important acts of John's reign may be divided into four groups, according as they relate to the affairs of Eastern Europe, to the empire of the West, to Southern Italy and the Saracens, or to those persons with whom he came into more frequent contact.
During the whole period of his pontificate, John was troubled almost as much by enemies in and around Rome as he was by the Saracens. When he mounted the throne of Peter, he found many of the chief offices of the Church in the hands of disreputable nobles, most of them connected with one another, and with a number of women who were as bad as themselves. Among the former were Gregory, the primicerius of the Roman Church, a shameless peculator; his brother Stephen, the secundicerius, as deep in crime as himself, and his infamous son-in-law, the murderer and adulterer, George of the Aventine. Allied with these, by crime at least, were Sergius and Constantiana. With some of these men, Formosus, Bishop of Porto, had the misfortune to be linked by some ties of friendship. The death of the Emperor Louis II (August, 875), who had been a patron of some of this nefarious clique, left John more at liberty to deal with them.
When he began to proceed against them, they succeeded for a time in avoiding appearing before him. Meanwhile they hatched plots against him, and sought to obtain the aid of the Saracens. Finding at last that the pope was too strong for them, they fled from the city, carrying with them the treasures of the Church. Unfortunately for his reputation, Formosus fled with them. Failing to appear for trial, the exiles were degraded and excommunicated.
When in France, whither Formosus bad fled, John caused the sentence passed against Gregory and his party to be repeated, and insisted on Formosus's signing a declaration that he would never return to Rome (878). John had not gone to France altogether of his own free will. Acting ostensibly in the interests of Carloman of Bavaria, who was aspiring to the empire, Lambert, Duke of Spoleto, put all the pressure he could on the pope, constantly harrying his territory (876). At length he seized Rome itself (878). Unable to endure the persecution of this petty tyrant, and anxious at the same time to come into personal contact with the different candidates for the imperial throne, vacant since the death of Charles the Bald (October 6, 877), John went to France. While there he crowned Louis as king (September, 878), but was unable to effect anything in the way of obtaining a suitable candidate for the empire.
John's action was not confined to Italy, Germany, and France. In Spain we find him constituting Oviedo a metropolitan see. By his influence, also, a law against sacrilege was added to the Gothic Code of Spain. John received in Rome Burhred (Burgraed), King of Mercia, whom the miseries which the Danes were causing throughout England had driven to seek peace at the shrine of the Apostles. Edred, Archbishop of Canterbury, also turned to the pope for consolation. He was distressed by the Danes and worried by King Alfred, who in his youth was not the wise monarch he afterwards became. John wrote to commiserate with him, and told him that he had written to urge the king to offer proper obedience to him.
Most contemporary historians tell us simply that John died on December 16, 882. One, however, who wrote in distant Fulda, has given certain terrible details which are not accepted by the best modern historians. According to the annals of that monastery, one of John's relations, who wished to seize his treasures, tried to poison him. Finding, however, that the drug was doing its work too slowly, he killed him by striking him on the head with a hammer. Then, terrified by the hostility which was at once manifested towards him, he fell dead without any one laying a hand upon him. This introduction of the marvellous and the wrong date which the Fulda annals assign to John's death have justly rendered this narrative suspected.
(Excerpts from Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)
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