John VI.: Pope 701-705. A Greek by birth, he was consecrated October 30. The Emperor Apsimar-Tiberius, disapproving his election, sent the exarch Theophylact to Rome to procure his deposition; but the military force of all Italy is said to have assembled around Rome in his defense. He was in greater danger from the Lombard Duke Gisulf of Benevento, but by means of gifts warded off this attack also. He died Jan. 11, 705.

(H. BOEHMER.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Liber pontificalis, ed. Duchesne, i. 383, Paris, 1886, ed. Mommsen, in MGH, Gest. pont. Rom., i (1898), 217-218; Jaffé, Regesta, i. 242; Mann, Popes, i. 2, pp. 105-108; Bower, Popes, ii. 9-12; B. Platina, Lives of the Popes, i. 172-173, London, n.d.; DCB, iii. 392-393.

John VII.: Pope 705-707. He was a Greek, renowned, according to the Liber pontificalis, for his eloquence, education, and taste for art. He showed little firmness in his dealings with Justinian II. in regard to the confirmation of the Quinisext Council. He maintained friendly relations with the Lombards.

(H. BOEHMER.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Liber pontificalis, ed: Duchesne, i. 384, Paris, 1896, ed. Mommsen, in MGH, Gest. pont. Rom., i (1898), 219-220; Jaffé, Regesta, i. 246-247; Mann, Popes, i. 2, pp. 109-123: J. Langen, Geschichte der römischen Kirche, ii. 595-596, Bonn, 1885; F. Gregorovius, Hist. of the City of Rome, ii. 194-196, London, 1894; Bower, Popes, ii. 12-13; B. Platina, Lives of the Popes, i. 173-175, London, n.d.; DCB, iii. 393.

John VIII.: Pope 872-882. He was a Roman by birth. On being elected pope Dec. 14, 872, he took up with alacrity the task of ruling in the spirit of Nicholas I. He had many qualities necessary for success, including a genius for financial and military organization and for promptly turning to advantage each change in the political situation. His whole force was devoted to two purely political aims, the liberation of Italy from the Saracens and its subjection, together with that of the empire, to the over-lordship of the papacy. The first, a necessary preliminary to the second, he pursued in alliance with the Emperor Louis II., but on his own account he built a fleet, organized a standing militia and completed the fortification of Rome. The greatest obstacle to the success of his plans was the impossibility of detaching the princes of Palermo, Naples, and Capua, and the maritime power of Amalfi, from their alliance with the Saracens, to whom he was himself forced toward the end of his reign to pay a yearly tribute. His natural unfriendliness to the Germans and the Carolingian dynasty showed itself on the death of Louis (Oct. 12, 875), when he invited not Louis the German but Charles the Bald to Rome to receive the imperial crown, which he placed on his head at Christmas. When Charles the Bald died in the next year, John had to reckon with the claims to the empire of his nephew Carloman, whose adherents appeared in Rome in the spring of 878, imprisoned John, and took an oath of the leading citizens to support Carloman as emperor. As soon as the pope was released, he went by sea to France and held a council at Troyes, where he crowned Louis the Stammerer (Sept. 7, 878); but as Louis showed little inclination to be mixed up in the Italian troubles, John had another candidate, Count Boso of Provence, who followed him back to Italy and was to have been crowned king in Rome. The plan failed because the German Carolingians had gained too much ground in northern Italy. In August, 879, John was forced to acknowledge Charles the Fat at Ravenna as king of Italy, and some time before Feb. 9, 881, to crown him as emperor, and

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thus bid farewell to any hope of realizing his Italian plans. In the controversy between Methodius and the Bavarian episcopate, he took the side of the former, although in 879 be summoned him to Rome to answer a charge of heresy. But John's attempts to please both parties sowed the seeds of future discord in the young Moravian church. He carried on his predecessors' policy more consistently in the Bulgarian question, but gained nothing except vague promises, while the Greek clergy and liturgy remained in possession. This question had troubled the relations of Rome with Ignatius, patriarch of Constantinople. After his death in 877, Photius (who had been deposed by the fourth council of Constantinople in 869) was reinstated. In 879, in order to win the Emperor Basil's support against the Saracens, John expressed his readiness to recognize him on certain conditions, and though Photius grossly falsified the terms when be recited them in the council of 879, John disavowed the action of his protesting legates and still sought for union. The assertion of later historians that he reversed this policy before his death (Dec. 15, 882) and once more deposed Photius finds no support in his letters.

(H. BOEHMER.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: The letters of this pope may be found in Mansi, Concilia, xvii, 1 sqq.; 8. Löwenfeld, Epistolae Romanorum pontificum ineditae, pp. 24-34, Leipsic, 1885; and Jaffé, Regesta, i, 376-422. Consult: Hincmar, Annales, ed. G. H. Pertz, in MGH, Script., i (1826), 495 sqq.; Liber pontificalis, ed, Duchesne, ii. 121-122, Paris, 1892; Mann, Popes, iii, 231-353; J. Hergenröther, Photius, 3 vols., Regensburg, 1867-69; B, Jungmann, Dissertationes seIectae, iii. 419-435, Regensburg, 1882; A. Gasquet, L'Empire byzantin et la monarchie franque, pp. 432-482. Paris, 1888; J. Langen, Geschichte der römischen Kirche, iii. 170-275, Bonn, 1892; A. Lapôtre, L'Europe et le Saint-Siège à l'époque carolingienne, vol. i., Paris, 1895 (Ultramontane); F. Gregorovius, Hist. of the City of Rome, iii. 171-203, London, 1895; Hauck, KD, ii. 558 sqq., 702 sqq.; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, iv. 447 sqq., 514 sqq.; Bower, Popes, 283-292; Milman, Latin Christianity, iii. 37, 81-100; B. Platina, Lives of the Popes, i. 232-233, London, n.d.