Pope John VIII (Latin:Ioannes VIII; died 16 December 882) was thebishop of Rome and ruler of thePapal States from 14 December 872 to his death. He is often considered one of the most ablepopes of the 9th century.[1]
John devoted much of his papacy to attempting to halt and reverse theMuslim gains in southern Italy and their march northwards. When his efforts to obtain assistance from either the Franks or the Byzantines failed, John strengthened the defences ofRome. He supportedMethodius of Thessalonica in his mission to theSlavs, defended him against theCarolingian rulers and Bavarian clergy, and authorized thetranslation of the Bible intoOld Church Slavonic. John also extended diplomatic recognition to theDuchy of Croatia and resolved thePhotian schism. John's pontificate ended with his assassination, and the papacy became significantly weaker in the aftermath.
Pope Adrian II consecratedMethodius of Thessalonica as archbishop and supported his mission to the Slavs. Unbeknownst to Rome, Methodius was imprisoned in 870 by theCarolingian KingLouis the German and Bavarian bishops, who objected to his use of theSlavonic language in theliturgy and his encroachment on their jurisdiction inMoravia.[2] Adrian II died in 872, and John VIII, a Roman native,[3] wasselected to succeed him. When BishopAnno of Freising visited Rome, John inquired about the whereabouts of the missing Methodius, but Anno lied to him. In the summer of 873, John finally learned the truth. Furious, he forbade the celebration ofmass in Bavaria until Methodius was released.[4] After his release, Methodius came to Rome and convinced John to allow him totranslate the Bible to Slavonic as well as to perform liturgy in Slavonic. John wrote: "He who made three main languages –Hebrew,Greek, andRoman – also made all other languages to sing his praise and glory."[5]
As a young man, John witnessed theArab raid against Rome. Their expansion into Italy was severely affecting the economy of thePapal States.[3] After the raids againstCampania and theSabine Hills, Pope John asked for military aid from EmperorCharles the Bald and later CountBoso of Provence.[6] His efforts failed and he was forced to pay tribute to theEmirate of Sicily.[7] It was said the pope ultimately paid 25,000 silvermancusi to theArabs to secure peace for theChurch's territories.[8] The threatening Muslim military presence (which he believed was God's punishment against "bad Christians"),[9] coupled with alliances they formed with the local Christians, prompted John to promote "a new and uncompromisingly hostile view of the Saracens." This included a ban on forming alliances with the Muslims. However, his efforts proved unsuccessful,[10] partly because Christian leaders viewed his calls for unity as an excuse to assert papal authority in southern Italy.[9]
An 876 bull of John VIII
In 876, John VIII traveled throughoutCampania in an effort to form an alliance among the cities ofSalerno,Capua,Naples,Gaeta andAmalfi against Muslim raids. By 877, all five cities sent delegates to Traietto to formalize an alliance.[11] Pope John VIII urged Charles to come to his defence in Italy. Charles again crossed the Alps, but this expedition was received with little enthusiasm by the nobles, and even by his regent in Lombardy, Boso, and they refused to join his army. At the same timeCarloman of Bavaria, son ofLouis the German, entered northern Italy. Charles, ill and in great distress, started on his way back to Gaul, but died while crossing the pass of Mont Cenis on 6 October 877.[12]
Obtaining relatively little support from outside sources, John fell back on what resources he could command. He reinforced the walls previously restored byPope Leo IV. As theBasilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls was located outside theAurelian Walls, and had been damaged in a Saracen raid, the pope fortified the basilica, the monastery, and the nearby dwellings of the peasants.[13] He also founded a papal fleet.[5]
In 879, John recognised the reinstatement ofPhotios I as the legitimatepatriarch of Constantinople. Photius had been condemned in 869 by Adrian II. This was undertaken mainly to appease the Byzantines, since in them he saw the only hope of removing the Arabs from Italy.[14] It was commonly believed that some time afterward John VIII re-confirmed theexcommunication of Photius, which eventually enabledEmperor Leo VI to move against Photius.[15] However, modern scholarship, particularly influenced by Catholic scholarFrancis Dvornik, has demonstrated this to be a Latin myth, as Photius died in visible perfect communion[clarification needed] within the Roman Church.[16]
John was anxious that theDuchy of Croatia would follow in the steps ofBulgaria, which had recently accepted the spiritual authority of Constantinople rather than that of Rome. After the overthrow of the pro-ByzantineZdeslav in 879, John thanked the new duke,Branimir, for returning Croatia to papal jurisdiction. In return, John recognized Croatian independence from the Carolingians.[17][18]
John VIII was assassinated in 882 by his own clerics; he was first poisoned, and then clubbed to death.[5] The motives may have been his exhaustion of the papal treasury, his lack of support among the Carolingians, his gestures towards the Byzantines, and his failure to stop the Saracen raids.[19] Without the protection of powerful magnates or the Carolingian emperor, the papacy after John VIII's reign became increasingly subject to the machinations and greedy ambition of the rival clans of the local nobility.[5]
^Pierre Riche,The Carolingians: A family who forged Europe, Transl. Michael Idomir Allen, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), p. 203.[ISBN missing]
^The Expansion of Saracens:Africa and Europe, C.H. Becker,The Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. 2, Ed. John Bagnell Bury, (The Macmillan Company, 1913), p. 387.[ISBN missing]
^Lewis, Archibald R. (1951).Naval Power and Trade in the Mediterranean, A.D. 500–1100. Princeton University Press. p. 138.
^abJohn Victor Tolan; Gilles Veinstein; Henry Laurens (2013).Europe and the Islamic World: A History (illustrated ed.). Princeton University Press. p. 35.ISBN978-0691147055.
^Barbara M. Kreutz (2011).Before the Normans: Southern Italy in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 60.ISBN9780812205435.
^Barbara M. Kreutz (2011).Before the Normans: Southern Italy in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 59–60.ISBN978-0812205435.
