Pope Eugene II

Last updated
Pope

Eugene II
Bishop of Rome
Church Catholic Church
Papacy beganJune 4, 824
Papacy ended27 August 827
Predecessor Paschal I
Successor Valentine
Personal details
Born
Died27 August 827
Rome, Papal States [2]
Other popes named Eugene

Pope Eugene II (Latin : Eugenius II; died 27 August 827) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 6 June 824 to his death. A native of Rome, he was chosen by nobles to succeed Paschal I as pope despite the clergy and the people favoring Zinzinnus. The influence of the Carolingian Franks on the selection of popes was then firmly established. Pope Eugene convened a council at Rome in 826 to condemn simony and suspend untrained clergy. It was decreed that schools were to be established at cathedral churches and other places to give instruction in sacred and secular literature. His involvement in the Byzantine Iconoclasm controversy was largely inconsequential.

Contents

Early career

In earlier editions of the Liber Pontificalis Eugene is said to have been the son of Boemund, but in the more recent and more accurate editions, his father's name is not given. While he was archpriest of St Sabina on the Aventine, and was said to have fulfilled most conscientiously the duties of his position. Eugene is described by his biographer as simple and humble, learned and eloquent, handsome and generous, a lover of peace, and wholly occupied with the thought of doing what was pleasing to God. [3]

Accession

Eugene was elected pope on 6 June 824, after the death of Paschal I. Paschal had attempted to curb the rapidly increasing power of the Roman nobility, who had turned for support to the Franks to strengthen their positions against him. When Paschal died, these nobles made strenuous efforts to replace him with a candidate of their own. The clergy put forward Zinzinnus, a candidate likely to continue the policy of Paschal. Even though the Roman Council of 769 under Stephen III had decreed that the nobles had no right to a real share in a papal election, the nobles were successful in securing the consecration of Eugene. Eugene's candidacy was endorsed by Abbot Walla, who was then in Rome and served as a councilor to both the current emperor, Louis the Pious, and his predecessor, Charlemagne. [4]

The election of Eugene II was a triumph for the Franks, and they subsequently resolved to improve their position. Emperor Louis the Pious accordingly sent his son Lothair I to Rome to strengthen the Frankish influence. The Roman nobles who had been banished during the preceding reign and fled to France were recalled, and their property was restored to them. A Constitutio Romana was then agreed upon between the pope and the emperor in 824 which advanced the imperial pretensions in the city of Rome, but also checked the power of the nobles. This constitution included the statute that no pope should be consecrated until his election had the approval of the Frankish emperor. It decreed that those who were under the special protection of the pope or emperor were to be inviolable, and that church property not be plundered after the death of a pope. [3]

Pontificate

Seemingly before Lothair left Rome, there arrived ambassadors from Emperor Louis and from the Greeks concerning the controversy of Byzantine Iconoclasm. At first the iconoclast Eastern Roman Emperor Michael II showed himself tolerant towards the icon worshippers, and their great champion, Theodore the Studite, wrote to him to exhort him "to unite us (the Church of Constantinople) to the head of the Churches of God, Rome, and through it with the three patriarchs" and to refer any doubtful points to the decision of Old Rome in accordance with ancient custom. But Michael soon forgot his tolerance, bitterly persecuted the icon worshippers, and endeavoured to secure the co-operation of Louis the Pious. He also sent envoys to the pope to consult him on certain points connected with the worship of icons. Before taking any steps to meet the wishes of Michael, Louis asked the pope's permission for a number of his bishops to assemble and make a selection of passages from the Fathers to elucidate the question that the Greeks had put before them. The leave was granted, but the bishops who met at Paris in 825 were incompetent for the task. Their collection of extracts from the Fathers was a mass of confused and ill-digested lore, and both their conclusions and the letters they wished the pope to forward to the Greeks were based on a complete misunderstanding of the decrees of the Second Council of Nicaea. Their labours do not appear to have accomplished much; nothing is known of the result of their researches. [3]

In 826 Eugene held an important council at Rome of 62 bishops, in which 38 disciplinary decrees were issued. The council passed several enactments for the restoration of church discipline, and took measures for the foundation of schools or chapters. The decrees are noteworthy as showing that Eugene had at heart the advancement of learning. Not only were ignorant bishops and priests to be suspended till they had acquired sufficient learning to perform their sacred duties, but it was decreed that, as in some localities there were neither masters nor zeal for learning, masters were to be attached to the episcopal palaces, cathedral churches and other places to give instruction in sacred and polite literature. It also ruled against priests wearing secular dress or engaging in secular occupations. Simony was forbidden. [4] Eugene also adopted various provisions for the care of the poor, widows and orphans, and on that account received the name of "father of the people".

To help in the work of the conversion of the North, Eugene wrote commending St. Ansgar, the Apostle of the Scandinavians, and his companions "to all the sons of the Catholic Church". [4]

Death and legacy

Eugene II died on 27 August 827. It is supposed that he was buried in St. Peter's in accordance with the custom of the time, even though there is no documentary record to confirm it. [3] He was succeeded by Valentine, with whom he had been so close that rumours circulated that Eugene was Valentine's father or lover. [5]

Coins of Eugene II are extant bearing his name and that of Emperor Louis. As pope, Eugene beautified his ancient church of St. Sabina with mosaics and metalwork bearing his name that were still intact as late as the 16th century. [3]

Related Research Articles

The First Council of the Lateran was the 9th ecumenical council recognized by the Catholic Church. It was convoked by Pope Callixtus II in December 1122, immediately after the Concordat of Worms. The council sought to bring an end to the practice of the conferring of ecclesiastical benefices by people who were laymen, free the election of bishops and abbots from secular influence, clarify the separation of spiritual and temporal affairs, re-establish the principle that spiritual authority resides solely in the Church and abolish the claim of the Holy Roman Emperor to influence papal elections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis the Pious</span> Emperor of the Carolingian Empire from AD 813 to 840

Louis the Pious, also called the Fair and the Debonaire, was King of the Franks and co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aquitaine from 781. As the only surviving son of Charlemagne and Hildegard, he became the sole ruler of the Franks after his father's death in 814, a position that he held until his death except from 833 to 834, when he was deposed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pope Gregory IV</span> Head of the Catholic Church from 827 to 844

Pope Gregory IV was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from October 827 to his death. His pontificate was notable for the papacy’s attempts to intervene in the quarrels between Emperor Louis the Pious and his sons. It also saw the breakup of the Carolingian Empire in 843.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pope Callixtus II</span> Head of the Catholic Church from 1119 to 1124

Pope Callixtus II or Callistus II, born Guy of Burgundy, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1 February 1119 to his death in 1124. His pontificate was shaped by the Investiture Controversy, which he was able to settle through the Concordat of Worms in 1122.

Pope Stephen IV was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from June 816 to his death. Stephen belonged to a noble Roman family. In October 816, he crowned Louis the Pious as emperor at Reims, and persuaded him to release some Roman political prisoners he held in custody. He returned to Rome, by way of Ravenna, sometime in November and died the following January.

Pope Sergius II was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from January 844 to his death in 847. Sergius II's pontificate saw the Arab raid against Rome as well as the city's redevelopment.

Pope Valentine was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States for two months in 827. He was unusually close to his predecessor, Eugene II, rumoured to be his son or his lover, and became pope before being ordained as a priest. He was a nobleman and elected by nobility, which later became the custom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pope Paschal I</span> Head of the Catholic Church from 817 to 824

Pope Paschal I was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 25 January 817 to his death in 824.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pope Leo IX</span> Head of the Catholic Church from 1049 to 1054

Pope Leo IX, born Bruno von Egisheim-Dagsburg, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 12 February 1049 to his death in 1054. Leo IX is considered to be one of the most historically significant popes of the Middle Ages; he was instrumental in the precipitation of the Great Schism of 1054, considered the turning point in which the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches formally separated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lothair I</span> Emperor of the Carolingian Empire from 817 to 855

Lothair I or Lothar I was emperor, and the governor of Bavaria (815–817), King of Italy (818–855) and Middle Francia (840–855).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Investiture Controversy</span> 11th/12th-century dispute between secular rulers and the papacy

The Investiture Controversy or Investiture Contest was a conflict between the Church and the state in medieval Europe over the ability to choose and install bishops (investiture) and abbots of monasteries and the pope himself. A series of popes in the 11th and 12th centuries undercut the power of the Holy Roman Emperor and other European monarchies, and the controversy led to nearly 50 years of conflict.

The Constitutio Romana was drawn up between King Lothair I of Italy (818–855), co-emperor with his father, Louis the Pious, since 817, and Pope Eugene II (824–827) and confirmed on 11 November 824. At the time the election of Eugene was being challenged by Zinzinnus, the candidate of the Roman populace. Eugene agreed to several concessions to imperial power in central Italy in return for receiving the military and juridical support of Lothair. The Constitutio was divided into nine articles. It introduced the earliest known Papal Oath, which the Pope-elect was to give to an imperial legate before receiving consecration. It also restored the custom established by Pope Stephen III in 769 whereby both the laity and clergy of Rome would participate in Papal elections.

Jonas was Bishop of Orléans and played a major political role during the reign of Emperor Louis the Pious.

Freculf, a Frankish ecclesiastic, diplomat and historian, was a pupil of the palace school of Aachen during the reign of Charlemagne and Bishop of Lisieux from about 824 until his death. He is now best remembered for his universal chronicle, the Twelve Books of Histories, which is a source of information about the conversion of Gaul and the history of the Franks. Chronicles such as that of Freculf attempted to show world history from Creation to the present, but most history writing in the eighth and ninth centuries was considerably more local and specific.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claudius of Turin</span> Catholic bishop of Turin

Claudius of Turin was the Catholic bishop of Turin from 817 until his death. He was a courtier of Louis the Pious and was a writer during the Carolingian Renaissance. He is most noted for teaching iconoclasm, a radical idea at that time in Latin Church, and for some teachings that prefigured those of the Protestant Reformation. He was attacked as a heretic in written works by Saint Dungal and Jonas of Orléans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Papal selection before 1059</span> Selection of popes before 1059

The selection of the pope, the bishop of Rome and supreme pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, prior to the promulgation of In nomine Domini in 1059 varied throughout history. Popes were often appointed by their predecessors or by political rulers. While some kind of election often characterized the procedure, an election that included meaningful participation of the laity was rare, especially as the popes' claims to temporal power solidified into the Papal States. The practice of papal appointment during this period would later result in the jus exclusivae, i.e., a right to veto the selection that Catholic monarchs exercised into the twentieth century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frankish Papacy</span> Aspect of papal history

From 756 to 857, the papacy shifted from the orbit of the Byzantine Empire to that of the kings of the Franks. Pepin the Short, Charlemagne, and Louis the Pious had considerable influence in the selection and administration of popes. The "Donation of Pepin" (756) ratified a new period of papal rule in central Italy, which became known as the Papal States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the papacy (1048–1257)</span>

The history of the papacy from 1046 to 1216 was marked by conflict between popes and the Holy Roman Emperor, most prominently the Investiture Controversy, a dispute over who— pope or emperor— could appoint bishops within the Empire. Henry IV's Walk to Canossa in 1077 to meet Pope Gregory VII (1073–85), although not dispositive within the context of the larger dispute, has become legendary. Although the emperor renounced any right to lay investiture in the Concordat of Worms (1122), the issue would flare up again.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor</span> Holy Roman Emperor (r. 1111–1125) of the Salian dynasty

Henry V was King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor, as the fourth and last ruler of the Salian dynasty. He was made co-ruler by his father, Henry IV, in 1098.

The Council of Pisa, was convened by Pope Innocent II in May 1135. An extraordinary number of prelates, archbishops, bishops, monks, and abbots attended the council, including a large number of Italian clergy. The council addressed simony, schismatic clerics, heresy, as well as donations to the Templar Order. Pisa would be the third council Innocent would convene to address issues within the Catholic Church.

References

  1. ""Eugene II", The Holy See".
  2. The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Eugenius II". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Mann, Horace. "Pope Eugene II." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 13 September 2017
  4. 1 2 3 ""Brusher, S.J., Joseph. "Eugene II - the Reformer", Popes Through the Ages".
  5. DeCormenin, Louis Marie; Gihon, James L., A Complete History of the Popes of Rome, from Saint Peter, the First Bishop to Pius the Ninth (1857), p. 217-218

Wikisource-logo.svg This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Popes Eugene I-IV". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company.

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Pope
824–827
Succeeded by