Sept. 895. Arnulf again in Italy. In Rome. Arnulf. Italy quailed before him. Arnulf treated the claims of Berengar and Lambert with impartial contempt. Every city and castle hastened to tender submission. Though Italy's best allies, disease and pestilence, had already begun again to weaken the German army, and gathering movements in the north under Berengar threatened to cut off the retreat to the Alps, Arnulf reached the gates of Rome at the earnest supplication of Formosus, now the captive of his subjects." For there the faction adverse to the Pope Formosus had gained the mastery. They had the boldness, and imagined that they had strength to resist. Preparations were made for defence. Arnulf moved with his whole army to the siege of the imperial city, to the release of the Pope. A trivial accident betrayed Rome into his hands. A hare startled by the noise ran towards the city, followed by a hooting multitude. The Romans mistook this for a general assault, were seized with a panic, and many threw themselves over the walls. The Leonine quarter was easily taken; the whole city submitted to the conqueror. The first act of the ally and deliverer of the Pope was publicly to behead the chiefs of the opposite faction. The first act of the grateful Formosus was the coronation of Arnulf as emperor. He declared null, as extorted by compulsion, the inauguration of Lambert. The next day the people were summoned to take the oath of allegiance to the Emperor. The oath was in these words: "I swear by these holy mysteries, that, saving my honour, my law, and the fidelity I owe to my Lord the Pope Formosus, I both April, 896. Coronation of Liutprand, i. 8. "A Romanis vehementer afflictabatur."-Hermann. Contract. in Chronic. am and will be faithful all my life to the Emperor Arnulf; that I will never assist Lambert the son of Ageltruda, nor Ageltruda herself, nor be accessory to the surrender of the city to either of them, or to their followers." Arnulf ventured to remain in Rome no more than fifteen days. He left Farold, one of his great vassals, as governor and protector of the city. He marched towards Spoleto, where Ageltruda, the widow of Guido, had taken refuge. As he approached that city, he was seized with a paralytic disorder, attributed to poison administered to him by a servant of Ageltruda. Already was this crime in Italy the suspected cause of every sudden death or dangerous malady. He hastened almost as a fugitive to Germany. Though of the German party, Liutprand, Bishop of Cremona, sees the hand of God in this shameful flight of Arnulf. The Italian hatred of the German breaks through even party feeling. "Not merely did Arnulf assume all the glory of his victories to himself, instead of referring them to God, but the conduct of his troops demanded the divine vengeance. Priests were led about in chains; nuns violated; even the churches were no asyla; the soldiers held their profane orgies, performed their shameless. acts, sang their ribald songs, indulged in the open prostitution of women, within the consecrated walls." Formosus, Before Arnulf had crossed the Alps, the Pope Formosus had died; all Italy had risen. The Death of two factions of Berengar and Lambert were May 23, 896. equally hostile to the Germans. Arnulf governor in Boniface VII, Rome seems to have exercised no influence in the election of the Pope, which was carried at once by the opposite party. The choice fell on Boniface VII. The new pontiff laboured under the VOL. III. R imputation of having been twice deposed for his profligate and scandalous life, first from the subdiaconate, afterwards from the priesthood. Boniface died of the gout fifteen days after his elevation. The Italian June 6, 896. party hastened to the election of Stephen VI. Stephen VI. Probably the German governor had withdrawn before Stephen and his faction proceeded to wreak their vengeance on the lifeless remains of Formosus." Fierce political animosity took the form of ecclesiastical solemnity. The body was disinterred, dressed in the papal habiliments, and, before a council assembled for the purpose, addressed in these words: "Wherefore wert thou, being Bishop of Porto, tempted by ambition to usurp the Catholic see of Rome?" The deacon who had been assigned as counsel for the dead maintained a prudent silence. The sacred vestments were then stripped from the body, three of the fingers cut off, the body cast into the Tiber. All who had been ordained by Formosus were re-ordained by Stephen. Such, however, were the vicissitudes of popular feeling in Rome, that some years after a miracle was said to have asserted the innocence of Formosus. His body was found by fishermen in the Tiber, and carried back for burial in the church of St. Peter. As the coffin passed, all the images in the church reverentially bowed their heads.t The pontificate of Stephen soon came to an end. A new revolution revenged the disinterment of the insulted prelate. And now the fierceness of political, rather than religious faction, had utterly destroyed all • Liutprand attributes the violation | under John IX.—Labbe, p. 502. of the tomb of Formosus to Sergius, his former rival; he must be corrected by the acts of the Council of Rome Liut "Hoc namque a religiosissimis Romanis persæpe audivi.” prand. reverence for the sacred person of the Pope. Stephen was thrown into prison by his enemies, and strangled." The convenient charge of usurpation, always brought against the Popes whom their adversaries dethroned or put to death, may have reconciled their minds to the impious deed, but it is difficult to discover in what respect the title of Pope Stephen VI. was defective. Pope now succeeded Pope with such rapidity as to awaken the inevitable suspicion, either that those were chosen who were likely to make a speedy vacancy; or they received but a fatal gift in the pontificate of Rome. Romanus and Theodorus II. survived their promotion. each only a few months. The latter, by his restoration of Formosus to the rights of Christian burial, and by his reversal of the acts of Stephen VI., may be presumed to have belonged to that faction. The next election was contested with all the strength and violence of the adverse parties. John IX. was successful; his competitor, Sergius, according to some accounts formerly the discomfited competitor of Formosus, and his bitter and implacable enemy, fled to the powerful protection of the Marquis of Tuscany." See Flodoard, and the epitaph on Stephen, found in the time of Alexander III. After stating that "reputet Formosi spurca superbi crimina," it says "Captus et a sede pulsus ad ima fuit Carceris interea vinclis constrictus, et uno Strangulatus nervo, exuit et hominem." * A.D. 897, Romanus, July, Nov. “Quatuor haud plenos tractans in culmine menses. Flodoard. Theodorus II., Nov. Dec. Flodoard says that he sate only twenty days. Some months must have slipped out. Theodorus had time to reverse the decrees of Stephen, and solemnly to reinter Formosus. Theodorus seems to Atque sacerdotes concordi junxit ho- In the strange confusion which prevails throughout this period, it is doubtful whether this election of Sergius and his flight to the court of Tuscany did take place on two occasions, or whether the first is not an anticipation of the event which now took place. "Fellitur urbe pater, pervadit sacra Joannes, Romuleosque greges dissipat ipse lupus.' John IX. John IX. was not content with the replacement of the remains of Formosus in the sacred quiet of the tomb. He determined to crush the opposing party by the decree of a Council. This Council -for the dominant assembly was always a Council (that of which the decrees were to be revoked was degraded to a synod)—annulled at once the unprecedented judgement passed on a dead body; it excused those who were present at that synod, as acting under compulsion, and severely condemned all who should use such violence against the clergy. It declared that the translation of Formosus from another see, though justified by necessity in his case, was not to be drawn into a precedent. The orders which he had bestowed were confirmed, the reordinations condemned. It sentenced the June, 898. decrees of that synod to be burned. But though John IX. was thus avowedly of the party of Formosus, he found it expedient to submit to the Italian Emperor. The title of Lambert was fully recognised at Rome: the coronation of the Barbarian Arnulf" rejected with scorn. The secret of this apostacy was the utter extinction of the German party. Arnulf, by his flight, had become contemptible to the whole of Italy; and he was known to be dying of a slow disease. The Council endeavoured to secure the more peaceful election and consecration of the Popes. The people were to demand, the bishops and clergy to elect, and immediately to consecrate in the presence of the Imperial Legates. No oaths or promises were to be So writes the hostile author of the Epitaphium Sergii apud Pagi. The more friendly Flodoard "Joannes subit hic qui fulsit in ordine nonus, Pellitur electus patriâ quo Sergius urbe, Romulidumque gregum quidam traduntur abacti." Jaffe must be right in reading Arnulfi for Berengarii. Regesta, p. 304. |