JOHN
425
JOHN
to seek peace at the shrine of the Apostles. Edrcd,
Arclibishop 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 16 Dec, SS2. One, however, who
wrote in distant Fulda, has given certain terrible de-
tails which are not accepted by the best modern his-
torians. According to the annals of that monastery,
one of John's relations, who wished to seize his
treasures, tried to poison him. Finding, however,
tliat the drug was doing its work too slowly, he killed
him by striking him on the head with a hammer.
Then, tei-rified 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.
See the large portion of John's Register, still extant in F. L., CXXVI; also fifteen Letters in Lowenfeld. Epp. Pont. Rom. (Ifiipzig, 1885): Liber Pontificalis ed. Duches.ne, II, 221 sq.; Flodoard, Annals; various contemporar>* annals and authors in Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script., I and II, and ibid.: Script. Langob.; Libellus de imp. potest, in P. L., CXXIX; .\n.xiLlDS and Vil- GARius in DuMMLER, AuxiUus und Vulgarius (Leipzig, 1866); Lapotre, Le Rape Jean VIII (Paris, 1895): Balan. 11 pontifi- cate di Giovanni VIII (Rome, 1880); Gat, L'ltalie meridionale et V empire byzantin (Paris, 1904): Hergenrother, Photius (Ratisbon, 1867); Jager, Hist, de Photius (Paris, 1844): FoR- TESCUE, The Orthodox Eastern Church (London, 1907); D'Avril, Si Cyrille (Paris. 1885) ; Leger. Cyrille et Methode (Paris, 1868); GiNZEL. Gesch. der Slavenaposteln (Vienna, 1861); Mann, Lives of the Popes, III, 231 sqq.
Horace K. Mann.
John IX, Pope (S9S-900) .— Not only is the date of John's birth unknown, but the date of his election as pope, and that of his death are alike uncertain. He became pope in the early part of SOS, and died in the beginning of the year 900. He was a native of Tivoli, and the son of Rampoald. Becoming a Bene- dictine, he was ordained priest by Pope Formosus. At this period factions filled the city of Rome, and one of them tried to force their candidate, Sergius, afterwards Sergius III, on the papal throne in oppo- sition to John. Perhaps because he was favoured by the ducal House of Spoleto, John was able to main- tain his position, and Sergius was driven from the city and excommunicated. With a view to diminish the violence of faction in Rome, John, who is ac- knowledged to have been both intelligent and moder- ate, held several synods in Rome and elsewhere (898). In them the ghastly synod of Stephen (VI) VII was condemned, and its Acts were burnt. Re- ordinations were forbidden, and those of the clergy who had been degraded by Stephen were restored to the ranks from which he had deposed them. The barbarous custom of plundering the palaces of bishops or popes on their death was ordered to be put down both by the spiritual and temporal authorities. The Synod of Rome also declared itself for Emperor Lam- bert and against his rival Berenger, and at the same time decided that the pope-elect was not to be conse- crated except in the presence of the imperial envoys. This canon was decreed in the hope that it might lessen the evils caused by the Roman factions. A synod which John held at Ravenna decreed that steps should be taken to put an end to the deeds of violence which were being perpetrated everywhere. To keep their independence, which was threatened by the Germans, the Slavs of Moravia appealed to John to let them have a hierarchy of their own. Not heeding the hectoring letters with which some of the German bishops endeavoured to dissuade him from hearkening to the Moravians, John sanctioned the consecration of a metropolitan and three bishops for the Church of the Moravians. On John's coins the name of the
emperor (Lambert) figures along with his own. He
was buried just outside St. Peter's.
Flodoard, De triumph. Christi, XII, 7, in P. L., CXXXV; AuxiLlus and Vulgarius in Dummler, ."iyjcilius tmd Vulgarizes (Leipzis, 1866): Mansi, Concilia, XVIII, 222 sqq.; Letters of John IX in P. L.. CXXXI; Duchesne, The Beginnings of the Temporal Power (London, 1908), 202 sqq.; Mann, Lives of the Popes, IV (London, 1910), 91 sqq.
Horace K. Mann.
John X, Pope, b. at Tossignano, Romagna; en- throned, 914; d. at Rome, 928. First a deacon at Bo- logna, he became Archbishop of Ravenna about 905, as successor of Kailo. In a document dated .5 Febru- ary, 914, he still appears as archbishop. Shortly after- wards, owing to the influence of the nobles dominant in Rome, he was made pope in succession to Lando. The real head of this aristocratical faction was the elder Theodora, wife of the Senator Theophylactus. Liutprand of Cremona (" Antapodosis", II, ed. in "Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script.", II, 297) affirms that Theodora supported John's election in order to cover more easily her illicit relations with him. This state- ment is, however, generally and rightly rejected as a calumny. Liutprand wrote his history some fifty years later, and constantly slandered the Romans, whom he hated. At the time of Jolm's election Theo- dora was advanced in years, and is highly lauded by other writers (e. g. Vulgarius). John was a relative of Theodora's family, and this explains sufficiently why she secured his election. The new pope was an active and energetic ruler, and exerted himself especially to put an end to the Saracen invasions. He brought about an alliance between Prince Landulph of Bene- ventum, Berengarius of Friuli, King of the Lom- bards, and other ItaHan rulers, and, when Berengarius came to Rome in 915, the pope crowned him emperor. John himself led against the Saracens a large army gathered by the allied Italian princes. The Saracens had built fortresses on the river Garigliano, but in August, 916, John completely routed them near the mouth of that river.
Concerning the ecclesiastical administration of this pope we possess many particulars. He sent to Ger- many his trusted friend Petrus, Bishop of Orte, who held in 916 a synod at Hohenaltheim (near Nord- lingen), and entered into friendly relations with King Conrad. John also concerned himself with affairs in France, where Count Heribert of Aquitaine held King Charles a prisoner, and demanded the election of his five-year-old son, Hugh of Vermandois, as Archbishop of Reims. John unhappily confirmed this choice after Heribert had promised the king's release. He further sought to bring the Slavs of Dalmatia into closer re- lations with Rome, and strove to induce the Arch- bishop of Spalato to adopt Latin as the liturgical lan- guage. His efforts to promote a more intimate union between the Bulgarians and Rome were frustrated by the opposition of the Patriarch of Constantinople. An- other opportunity offered, when later the Byzantine patriarch, Nicolaus Mysticus, sought the aid of the pope. The patriarch had been deposed by a synod, because he would not recognize the fourth marriage of Emperor Leo VI. Before his death, however, Leo restored Nicolaus to his office, and the new emperor (Alexander) was also on his side. But many bishops were yet opposed to the patriarch on account of liis deposition by the earlier synod. Under these circum- stances Nicolaus wished to have the decree of depo- sition declared invalid by another council, and to- wards this end desired the assistance of John. But John remained true to the discipline of the Western Church, which permitted as valid even a fourth mar- riage. Meanwhile, he was active in the political life of Italy. After the murder of King Berengarius in 924 the pope supported Hugh of Burgundy, and, when the latter landed in Pisa, John sent his legate to meet him and form an alliance. The dominant Roman faction disliked these measures. Foremost among them was the
