John III, Pope, a native of Rome, was elected to succeed Pelagius I in 560, and was confirmed by the exarch of Ravenna in the name of the emperor Justin- ian. Like many of his predecessors, he used his powers mainly for the aggrandizement of the I^oman see. He is noted for his interference in behalf of the two French bishops of Embrun and of Gap, who had been deposed by local councils for improper conduct. Though known to be guilty, he ordered their restoration, which (jJon- tram, the Burgundian king, was only too happy to en- force in opposition to the French clergy. But the Gal- ilean Church, which had with very great hesitancy permitted the restoration of the guilty men, soon proved them to be unworthy of ecclesiastical office, and a new French council confirmed their previous deposition. John died in 574. See Riddle, Papacy, i, 210 ; Bower, History of the Popes, ii, 426 sq.
John IV, Pope, a Dalmatian by birth, was conse- crated Dec. 25, 640. He displayed great zeal in foiuid- ing convents and endowing the churches of Rome. But he is noted especially for his strife against his Greek rival. The INIonothelite creed of the patriarch Sergius, promidgated by the emperor Herodius as iK^imc, was denounced by John as heresy, and condemned by a Roman synod A.D. 641. John IV defended Ilonorius from the charge made by the I'^astern Church that he was guilty of the Monothelite heresy, and Eutycliius informs us that, before his death (Oct. 12, 642), the em- peror Constans gave John IV the promise of ^vithdraw- ing the tK^taiQ, but the controversy continued under his successors. See Bower, History of the Popjcs, iii, 24 sq. ; Herzog, Real-Kncyklop. vi, 754.
John V, Pope, a native of Syria, elevated to the pai)al dignity in May or July, 085, hardly ever left the lied during the short time of his insignificant pontificate. The authenticity of the letters assigned to him, and of the book De dir/nitate pallii, has been contested. He died Aug. 2, 686.
John VI and VII, Popes, both Greeks by birth, were quite insignificant occupants of tlic j^apal throne. The former was consecrated October 10, 701, and buried January 10, 705. He Avas defended by Roman soldiers against the exarch Theophylact, who was ordered to drive him from the apostolic see. In a council which ho held at Rome he acquitted Wilfred, archbishop of York, of several charges brought against him by the iMiglish clergy. The latter (consecrated March 1, 705, buried Oct. 18, 707) is described as weak and spiritless. The happiest illustration of the weakness of the Roman see at this time is afforded us in the action of this pope, who did not dare to venture to express an opinion on tlic Trullan canon, submitted to his examination br the
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emperor Justinian II, for fear of giving offence to some- body ; and we do not wonder that an able ecclesiastical writer of our day (Butler, in his Ch. History, i, 359) says that the whole period from Gregory I to Gregory II " may be briefly designated as that in which the popes were under subjection to the emperors of the East and their lieutenants, the exarchs of Ravenna." See the Vitm in Anastasius; Bower, History of the Popes, iii, 159 sii.. 1G7 sq. ; Riddle, Papacy, i, 305 sq.
John VIII, Pope (stj'led the ninth by those who believed in the ston,' of pope Joan [q. v.], whom they stylo John VIII), a native of Rome, succeeded Adrian II Dec. 14, 872. He displayed much tact, and harbored great schemes, but was destitute of noble motives, and the spirit displayed during his administration is in keep- ing with the ideas of the pseudo-Isidorian collection, to which his predecessor Nicholas I had first ventured to appeal. John's designs, however, found but a tardy re- s]ionse in the little minds with which he had to deal, and the prevalence of general anarchy was not more auspicious to their execution. The pope, as well as the clergy, in the strife after power, actuated only by world- ly ambition, knew no other arms than cunning and in- trigue, and with these they were neither able to control the rude powers which sapped the fomidations of the Carlovingian monarchy, nor to erect on its ruins the fabric of ecclesiastical dominion. AVhen Louis II died, 875, without an heir to his land and crown, Charles the Bald marched hastily into Italy, and took posses- sion of the Italian dominions. Then he proceeded to Rome, and accepted (Christmas, 875), as a boon of the chair of St. Peter, the imperial crown, to which he had no lawful claim. Some Church annalists claim that the two then entered into a compact by which the em- peror ceded to the pope the absolute and independent government of Rome, a confirmation and amplification of Pepin's donation ; but documcntarj'- proof (and that of an ambiguous kind) can be deduced only for the sur- render of Capua (compare ]\Iansi, Concil. xvii, 10). B_y this alliance not much was directly gained by either party, for Charles, ha\-ing once secured his coronation, cared but little for the papal interests; yet eventually the manner in which Charles had become possessed of the empire and of Italy increased very materially the jiapal power, especially when, in a moment of fear for his throne, Charles the Bald suffered the pope to declare that to him had been intrusted the imperial diadem by the only power on earth that coidd claim its disposal — the vicar of Rome. The emperor, however, failed to protect the papal dominions from the attacks of the Saracens. It is true he at one time led an army against the infidels (877), but his sudden death cut off all further hope of relief, especially after Athanasius's( bishop-duke of Naples) double-handed game of pleasing the pope and forming alliances with the Saracens became known at Rome, and we do not wonder that the plundering of Campania and the exactions of John make jMilman say of the pope's difficulties from this score that " the whole pontificate of John VIII was a long, if at times interrupted, agony of apprehension lest Rome should fall into the hands of the unbeliever" {Latin Christianity, iii, 8-1). IVIuch more precarious became the condition of the Roman pontiff after the death of Charles the Bald, whose son and successor in tlie West Frank dominion, Louis the Hammerer, engaged in warfare with the Nor- mans, found himself neither in a position to be an aspi- rant for the imperial crown, nor to afford assistance to the vicar of Christendom. The only one from whom the jiope really received any assurances of succor was Carloman, who at this time, with an army in Upper It- aly, and just recognised as king at Pavia, was aiming at the imperial throne against the French line. But, finding the pope more favorably inclined towards the French, he suddenly departed, and left to his nobles the disposition of the pope's case. Lambert, duke of Spoleto, and Adel- bert, count of Tuscany, immediately made themselves masters of Rome, and, after imprisoning the pope, com-