Alphabetical list of Popes

The Popes, in chronological order

AD 800-900

98. St Stephen IV. b. Rome; elected 22 June 816; d. 24 Jan, 817. A Roman from a noble family, he had been made a deacon by Leo III and as pope he traveled to Rheims to crown Charlemagne's successor, Louis, emperor of the Franks,  signifying a subtle shift of power about who endorsed whom. "All popes are a species of man-god"  declared Stephen (PRW) , and the freedom and autonomy of the papal state was guaranteed at least for his pontificate..

99. St Paschal I b.  Rome; elected 25 Jan, 817; d. 11 Feb, 824. He was abbot of the Benedictine monastery of St Stephen, close to the Vatican. He had himself consecrated right after his election ("to forestall any imperial interference"--S&S). As pope he protested unsuccessfully to eastern emperor Leo V about the latter's revival of iconoclasm, and he gave refuge to Greek monks fleeing persecution. Good relations  with the Holy Roman emperor Louis I were enhanced by the latter's promise not to intervene in papal elections on condition that the latter was kept informed and that friendly relations were formally renewed. Later, however Louis' son Lothair (crowned as co-emperor in 817) provoked animosity by interfering in clerical affairs, and when two of his supporters were executed, "rumor linked Paschal himself to the foul deed"  (ODP). Having antagonized influential Romans, he was the subject of an attempted attack which was foiled.  "Troubled in his lifetime, insulted when he died, he is accounted a saint" (tP)
Depicted in painting of Virgin and Child in S. Maria in Dominica and in mosaic in Sta. Cecilia in Trastevere.

100. Eugene II. b. Rome; elected 11 May, 824; d. 27 Aug, 827. Elected after several months of disputes with the support of Lothair, the new pope quickly swore loyalty to the emperor reversing his predecessor's independence from the imperial assent. Among the decisions the emperor managed to have accepted, was  that citizens could choose to be judged by Roman Frankish or Lombard law, and that laymen could participate in papal elections. Iconoclasm was still an issue but the dispute remained lowkey. Eugene instituted seminaries,  streamlined the advisory assembly that eventually became the Roman Curia., and surrounded the Coliseum with a wall which was pulled down at his death.

101. Valentine. b. Rome; elected Aug. 827; d. 16 Sept, 827. An archdeacon and member of the Roman nobility, he was elected unanimously but according to LP died 40 days later, by other accounts he served less than one month.

102. Gregory IV. b. Rome; elected 20 Sept 827; d. 11 Jan 844. Power had once more shifted to the emperor, to whom the pope had to pledge allegiance before his pontificate was ratified. Attempting to mediate a quarrel  between Emperor Louis I and his sons, the pope unwisely crossed the Alps with Lothair, one of the sons, and thus for a time was perceived as being dangerously partisan  gaining  the emnity of all the factions. Returning to Rome he faced the threat to Rome from a Moslem seizure of Sicily by constructing  a fortress at the Roman port of Ostia. Gregory's death left the church, says tP, "in very evil days".
9th c. mosaic, S. Marco.

103. Sergius II. b. Rome; elected Jan 844; d. 27 Jan, 847. An archpriest who had been promoted by successive popes and then elected by the Roman aristocracy, his first task was to eject from the Lateran palace the anti-pope John, a deacon  who had been elected by the laity. Then he had to pacify Emperor Lothair, whose ratification had not been given, by appointing Archbishop Drogo of Metz as "Vicar of the Holy See" with wide-ranging authority in the north. It was once again conceded that the pope could not be consecrated without the imperial mandate, although Sergius crowned the Lombard King Louis. Saracens overran the Ostia defences, attacked Rome and plundered the main churches. Simony or the selling of church offices became rife in the church because the pope's brother Benedict ("who has left a bad reputation for greed and tyranny"-tP) ran things for a pope largely incapacitated by gout and who died "unmourned".

anti-pope   John (844)

104 St. Leo IV. b. Rome; elected 10 April 847; d. 17 July, 855. Elected unanimously on the day his predecessor died and consecrated six weeks later, he excused himself for not waiting for the consent of the emperor by pointing to Saracen attacks on the city. As a  defense against future assaults, he personally supervised laborers who built  40ft high walls, l2 feet thick  ("the Leonine city") to enclose the Vatican. It had grown from a marshy area known in Roman times as Ager Vaticanus. Leo was legendarily credited with putting out burning St Peter's by waving a cross at the flames.  Coordinating the fleets of several Italian cities he won a sea battle against the Saracens just off the coast. His crowning of emperor Lothair's son Louis did not prevent disagreements with him, notably over his excommunication of a Leo favorite, cardinal Anastasius. According to BS, "his (Leo's) benefactions to churches take up 28 pages in the Liber Pontificalis." .
Portrait after Raphael, in the  Vatican.
   "Pope Joan": There is no evidence  for the existence of any such person. The rumor dates from an anonymous (1250) Dominican  chronicle and was "to prove a godsend to the enemies of the papacy (S&S)

105. Benedict III. b. Rome; elected 29 Sept, 855; d. 17 April 858. Members of Rome's aristocratic Crescenti family, supporters of Emperor Louis II, attempted to install the previously excommunicated Cardinal Anastasius whose disagreements with Pope Leo had caused him to flee Rome.  These imperialists had Benedict imprisoned, but popular support and the influence of the Tusculum family from the Alban hills reversed the situation partly because several bishops would not accept as pope a man who had been excommunicated. While maintaining peaceful relations with Constantinople, Benedict nevertheless managed to reassert the church's spiritual authority. BS says he was described by his contemporaries "as a champion of the people" 

anti-pope  Anastasius  (855)

106. St Nicholas I. b. Rome; elected 24 April 858; d. 13 Nov, 867, aged about 66. Son of a senior official and chief adviser to Pope Benedict, almost his first act as pope was to rehabilitate Anastasius, appointing him abbot of the monastery of Sta. Maria in Trastevere where he had been confined, and later making him papal secretary. Nicholas was a strong pope who reprimanded,  and then initially threatened to excommunicate, the archbishops of Ravenna and Rheims for challenging his authority. He  battled with, then allied with emperor Louis II--who at one time marched on Rome and then withdrew--to fight the Saracens.  Nicholas had supported Constantinople's patriarch Ignatius, until he was deposed by the emperor for meddling in imperial affairs. His rejection of Photius ("a learned and holy man"-tP) as Ignatius' successor (because of the latter's heretical view of the Trinity) revived the schism between east and west.  "The pope", Nicholas declared, "has authority over all the earth and that is over every church".ODP terms him "an outstanding and masterful pontiff.... able to strike awe into the most powerful princes and prelates". He was the last strong pope in an era that subsequently became dominated by aristocratic Roman famiies.

107. Adrian II.  b. Rome; elected 14 Dec, 867; d.  Dec, 872, aged about 74. Having twice rejected the office in earlier years, he was a compromise candidate and later felt it necessary to compromise over various theological disputes.  "The papal power declined during his reign, for conciliatory by nature and already advanced in age, he was confronted with serious conflicts" concludes NCE. Adrian at first dismissed Anastasius on suspicion of complicity in the murder of his wife and daughter, then reinstated him as  librarian and papal adviser. The new emperor, Basil I, ended the schism by joining with the pope to convene an ecumenical council which condemned Photius and his followers. Adrian was the first pope to crown an English king, Alfred the Great (ISPR)
Portrait  S. Clemente.

108. John VIII. b. Rome; elected 14 Dec, 872; d. 16 Dec, 882. He strengthened Rome's defences and built a fleet to fight the Saracens but, unable to find allies, was obliged to turn to Constantinople for help. Here Photius  had been restored as patriarch despite being condemned in 870 by a Church Council in Constantinople. John anointed France's Charles the Bald as emperor in the not-to-be-realised hope that he would protect central Italy from Moslem attacks. When Charles died, the pope then anointed  Germany's Charles the Fat who had succeeded him. Pope John ranked those killed in prosecuting a holy war as martyrs (Uz),  their sins forgiven if they were "pure at heart". Among the prelates the pope excommunicated on suspicion of intriguing against him ("treason" says ODP), was Formosus, bishop of Porto, who had been serving in Bulgaria at a time when it seemed likely to come under the aegis of the east. John was killed by his relatives (BP) or his close associates after an earlier unsuccessful poisoning attempt, because (says LP) of his constant intervention in episcopal nominations and refusal to allow dissolution of marriages.

109. Marinus I. b. Tuscany; elected 16 Dec 882; d. 15 May 884. Son of a priest, he became archdeacon and treasurer of the Roman church. Meeting with Emperor Charles III (whom he had earlier visited as a papal envoy) shortly after his election, he agreed to pardon Formosus and the others whom John had excommunicated.  Additionally, he made peace with the  Photius who had been reinstated as patriarch of Constantinople.

110. St Adrian III. b. Rome; elected 17 May 884; d. Sept 885.  Details of his reign remain obscure but "bloody vendettas" (ODP) dating from John's assassination continued, and the pope had one of John's enemies blinded, a high official of the Lateran Palace whom Marinus had allowed back from exile. A nobleman's widow was whipped naked through the streets. "When such measures were thought necessary" says tP, "it is clear that the situation in Rome was very bad". Summoned by the emperor to attend at the city of  Worms  a parliament to settle the question of imperial sucession (Charles had no heir),  Adrian died enroute and may have been poisoned. He was buried in the abbey of Nonantula.

111. Stephen V. b. Rome; elected Sept 885; d. 14 Sept, 891. A member of the Roman nobility, he was opposed by Emperor Charles who was deposed a year later. Stephen initially tried to decline his election but was forcibly carried to St Peter's to assume office (ISPR). His alliance with the ambitious  Duke of Spoleto, Guido III,  whom he crowned as Holy Roman Emperor, brought him little help and his preference for his own candidate to succeed the deceased Archbishop Methodius in Moravia lost Rome the allegiance of that bishopric. ODP says he was "the victim of intrigues he did not understand".

112. Formosus. b. Ostia; elected 6 Oct, 891; d. 4 April, 896.  Serving as a missionary in Bulgaria and as a papal legate in France and Germany, he had been excommunicated  by Pope John VIII and rehabilitated by Pope Marinus. As pope, he sought to escape imperial domination by seeking help from Arnulf, king of the East Franks, and crowning him king of Italy  instead of the son of Agiltruda who was the wife of Lambert,  now the Lombard duke of Spoleto. Agiltruda with an army seized Rome, was thrown out by Arnulf and was about to be invaded in Spoleto by Formosus' army when the pope died (or was poisoned). Although a man "of exceptional intelligence, exemplary life and strict ascetism" (ODP) he was so hated by his enemies that nine months after his death, Pope Stephen VII had him exhumed, dressed in papal robes and tried.

113. Boniface VI. b. Rome; elected April 896; d. April 896. With Rome in a tumult, he was elected by the populace in defiance of the new emperor  Arnulf,  who had returned to Germany. The son of a bishop, he had twice been degraded and defrocked for immorality.  Died of gout (but maybe of poison) after 15 days. The duke of Spoleto, Lambert, and his wife Agiltruda imposed the next six popes.

114. Stephen VI .b. Rome; elected 22 May, 896; d. Aug 897. With the connivance of  Lambert, who had taken charge in Arnulf's absence,  Stephen  exhumed Formosus for a "trial" with a young deacon speaking for him. "Because I was evil" said the deacon when Formosus was asked why he "usurped" the throne of the Holy See. Formosus was found guilty and thrown  into the Tiber. Stephen also began to nullify the clerical appointments Formosus had made, but within months was overthrown by Romans and  imprisoned. He was strangled while in jail.

115  Romanus  b. Rome; elected  Aug 897, d.  Nov. 897. Tried to rehabilitate Formosus but according to LP was within months retired to a monastery by dissidents and replaced by Theodore.

116. Theodore II. b. Rome; elected Dec 897; d. Dec 897. During his three-week reign, he recovered Formosus' body from the Tiber and reburied it in St Peter's. He also  restored the bishops whom Stephen had divested of office.  "There was a suspicion of poisoning  in his sudden and unexpected death" (ISPR)

117. John IX. b. Tivoli; elected Jan 898; d. Jan. 900. A Benedictine monk whom Formosus had ordained, John was elected by the pro-Formosans with whose help, and that of Spoleto's Duke Lambert,  he first had to eject from the Lateran Palace the rival bishop of Cerveteri, Sergius, installed by partisans of Stephen VI. At his first synod, the new pope annulled the sentence of  the "cadaver synod" which had condemned Formosus, and also denounced  his crowning of the German king Arnulf. At a later synod in Ravenna, the papal alliances with Lambert were renewed and Romans were granted the right to appeal to the emperor whose supreme jurisdiction was acknowledged. Pope John IX opened up papal elections to clergy outside Rome giving the aristocracy  more influence in elections. When Lambert died, the pope remained neutral over the rival claimants for the imperial throne, Italy's King Berengar and Louis, King of Burgundy.