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Styles of
Pope Nicholas I |
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| Reference style |
His Holiness |
| Spoken style |
Your Holiness |
| Religious style |
Holy Father |
| Posthumous style |
Saint |
Pope Nicholas I, (Rome c. 820 – November 13,
867), or Nicholas the Great, reigned from April 24,
858 until his death. He is remembered as a consolidator of papal authority and power, exerting
decisive influence upon the historical development of the papacy and its position among the Christian nations of Western Europe,
and is considered a saint.
He refused to grant an annulment to Lothar II from Theutberga so that
Lothar could marry his mistress Waldrada; when a Council pronounced in favor of annulment, Nicholas I declared the Council to be
deposed, its messengers excommunicated, and its decisions void. Despite pressure from the Carolingians, who laid siege to Rome, his decision held. During his reign, relations with the
Byzantine Empire soured over his support for Ignatius as Patriarch of
Constantinople, who had been removed and Photius appointed
to replace him.
Early life
Born to a distinguished family, son of the Defensor Theodore, Nicholas received excellent training. Distinguished for his
piety, benevolence, ability, knowledge, and eloquence, he entered the service of the Church at an early age, was made subdeacon
by Pope Sergius II (844-47), and deacon by Leo IV
(847-55). After the death of Benedict III (7 April
858), Louis II, Holy Roman Emperor, who was in
the neighbourhood of Rome, came into the city to exert his influence upon the election. On 24
April Nicholas was elected pope, consecrated, and enthroned in St. Peter's in the presence of the emperor. Three days
after, he held a farewell banquet for the emperor, and afterward, accompanied by the Roman nobility, visited him in his camp
before the city, on which occasion the emperor came to meet the pope and led his horse for some distance.
Papacy
To a spiritually exhausted and politically uncertain Western Europe beset by Muslim and Norse incursions, Pope Nicholas
appeared as a conscientious representative of the Roman primacy in the
Church. He was filled with a high conception of his mission for the vindication of Christian morality, the defence of God's law
against powerful, worldly bishops.
Bishops
Archbishop John of Ravenna oppressed the inhabitants of the papal territory, treated his suffragan bishops with violence, made
unjust demands upon them for money, and illegally imprisoned priests. He also forged documents to support his claims against the
Roman See and maltreated the papal legates. As the warnings of the pope were without result, and the archbishop ignored a
thrice-repeated summons to appear before the papal tribunal, he was excommunicated. Having first visited the Emperor Louis at
Pavia, the archbishop repaired, with two imperial delegates to Rome, where Nicholas cited him before the Roman synod assembled in
the autumn of 860. Upon this John fled from Rome.
Going in person to Ravenna, the pope then investigated and equitably regulated everything. Again appealing to the emperor, the
archbishop was recommended by him to submit to the pope, which he did at the Roman Synod of November, 861. Later on, however, he
entered into a pact with the excommunicated archbishops of Trier and
Cologne, was himself again excommunicated, and once more
forced to make his submission to the pope. Another conflict arose between Nicholas and Archbishop Hincmar of Reims: this concerned the prerogatives of the papacy. Bishop Rothad of Soissons had appealed to the pope against the decision of the Synod of Soissons, of
861, which had deposed him; Hincmar opposed the appeal to the pope, but eventually had to acknowledge the right of the papacy to
take cognizance of important legal causes (causae majores) and pass independent judgment upon them. A further dispute broke out
between Hincmar and the pope as to the elevation of the cleric Wulfad to the archiepiscopal See of Bourges, but here, again, Hincmar finally submitted to the decrees of the
Apostolic See, and the Frankish synods passed corresponding ordinances.
Marriage laws
Nicholas showed the same zeal in other efforts to maintain ecclesiastical discipline, especially as to the marriage laws.
Ingiltrud, wife of Count Boso, had left her husband for a paramour; Nicholas commanded the bishops in the dominions of
Charles the Bald to excommunicate her unless she returned to her husband. As she paid
no attention to the summons to appear before the Synod of Milan in 860, she was put under the ban.
The pope was also involved in a desperate struggle with Lothair II of Lorraine over the inviolability of marriage. Lothair had
abandoned his lawful wife Theutberga to marry Waldrada. At the Synod of Aachen, 28 April
862, the bishops of Lorraine approved this union, contrary to ecclesiastical law. At the Synod of
Metz, June, 863, the papal legates, bribed by the king, assented to the Aachen decision, and condemned the absent Theutberga.
Upon this the pope brought the matter before his own tribunal. The two archbishops, Günther of Cologne and Thietgaud of Trier,
who had come to Rome as delegates, were summoned before the Lateran Synod of October, 863, when the pope condemned and deposed
them as well as John of Ravenna and Hagano of Bergamo. The Emperor Louis II took up the cause of the deposed bishops, while King
Lothair advanced upon Rome with an army and laid siege to the city, so that the pope was confined for two days in St. Peter's
without food. Yet Nicholas did not waver in his determination; after being reconciled with the pope, the emperor withdrew from
Rome and commanded the former Archbishops of Trier and Cologne to return to their homes. Nicholas never ceased from his efforts
to bring about a reconciliation between Lothair and his lawful wife, but without
effect.
Another matrimonial case in which Nicholas interposed was that of Judith, daughter
of Charles the Bold, who had married Baldwin, Count of Flanders, without
her father's consent. Frankish bishops had excommunicated Judith, and Hincmar of Reims had taken sides against her, but Nicholas
urged leniency, in order to protect freedom of marriage.
Relations with the Eastern Church
Nicholas was seen in the East as trying to extend his papal power beyond what was the canonical authority asserting a
"rulership" over the Church instead of the position of "highest honor among equals" accorded to the pope of Rome by the East. He
contended that, in violation of ecclesiastical law, the Patriarch Ignatius
was deposed in 857 and Photius raised to the patriarchal see. In a
letter addressed (8 May, 862), to the patriarchs of the East,
Nicholas called upon them and all their bishops to refuse recognition to Photius, and at a Roman synod held in April, 863, he
excommunicated Photius.
Photius was elected lawfully and canonically in 858 according to the Eastern church. This was affirmed two months later in a
true ecumenical council where Ignatios’ elevation to the Patriarchate was declared to be uncanonical and Photius was acclaimed as
properly elected as the new Patriarch. This led to conflict between East and West over doctrinal issues such as the Filioque and
territorial claims due to Nicholas stance as a “ruler” over the church. An ecumenical synod was convened in 867 in Constantinople
where Nicholas was excommunicated along with the rejection of his claims of primacy, his intrusion into Bulgaria, and the
innovative addition of the Filioque.
Bulgaria having been converted by Greek missionaries, its ruler, Prince Boris, in August, 863, sent an embassy to the pope with one hundred six questions on the
teaching and discipline of the Church. Nicholas answered these inquiries exhaustively in his "Responsa Nicolai ad consulta
Bulgarorum" (Mansi, "Coll. Conc.", XV, 401 sqq.). At the same time he sent
an embassy to Prince Boris in an abortive attempt to convert him to the western usage; ultimately the prince elected to join the
Eastern Church.
Legacy
He encouraged the missionary activity of the Church. He sanctioned the union of the Sees of Bremen and Hamburg, and confirmed
to St. Anschar, Archbishop of Bremen, and his successors the office of papal legate to the Danes, Swedes, and Slavs. In many
other ecclesiastical matters, he issued letters and decisions, and he took active measures against bishops who were neglectful of
their duties.
At Rome, Nicholas rebuilt and endowed several churches, and constantly sought to encourage religious life. His led a pious
personal life guided by a spirit of Christian asceticism. Regino of Prüm reports that
Nicholas was highly esteemed by the citizens of Rome and by his contemporaries generally (Chronicon, "ad annum 868," in
"Mon. Germ. Hist." Script.", I.579), and after death was regarded as a saint.
A much discussed question and one that is important in judging the position taken by this pope is whether he made use of the
forged pseudo-Isidorian papal decretals. After exhaustive investigation, Schrörs has
decided that the pope was neither acquainted with the pseudo-Isidorian collection in its entire extent, nor did he make use of
its individual parts; that he had perhaps a general knowledge of the false decretals, but did not base his view of the law upon
them, and that he owed his knowledge of them solely to documents which came to him from the Frankish Empire [Schrörs, "Papst
Nikolaus I. und Pseudo-Isidor" in Historisches Jahrbuch, XXV (1904), 1 sqq.; Idem, "Die pseudoisidorische 'Exceptio
spolii' bei Papst Nikolaus I" in Historisches Jahrbuch, XXVI (1905), 275 sqq.].
References
This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
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