Son of Photius. His pontificate lasted only twenty days; neither the date of his birth nor of his accession to the papacy is known; it is probable that he was pope during December 897. He reinstated in synod the clerics who had been degraded by Stephen (VI) VII, ordered the burning of the acts of resignation which they had been forced to tender, and formally recognized the validity of the orders conferred by Pope Formosus. He caused the body of the last-named pope, which had been thrown into the Tiber and cast ashore by a flood, to be reburied in St. Peter's. By his contemporary Frodoard he is said to have been beloved by the clergy, to have himself loved and promoted peace, and to have been temperate, and chaste, and charitable to the poor.

FRODOARD, De Christi triumph. in P.L., CXXXV; AUXILIUS in DÜMMLER Auxilius und Vulgarius (Leipzig. 1866); JAFFÉ, Regesta. I (Leipzig, 1888); MANN, Lives of the Popes in the early Middle Ages (London, 1910), 88 sqq.

HORACE K. MANN
Transcribed by Marjorie Bravo-Leerabhandh

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIV
Copyright © 1912 by Robert Appleton Company
Online Edition Copyright © 1999 by Kevin Knight
Nihil Obstat, July 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor
Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York