Nicholas's-day (St.), a festival observed by the Romish and Greek churches on December 6, in honor of St. Nicholas of Myra (q. v.).
Nicholas I, pope of Rome, one of the most cele- brated of the Western pontiffs, who, next to Gregory the Great, may be regarded as the founder of the mod- ern papacy, and the first advocate of the infallibility dogma, by giving authority to the Isidorian decretals, is surnamed '■'■the Great'' because of the stupendous work he performed for the establishing of the pajiacy of Rome as a secular and sovereign power, supreme to all others. He was a native of Rome, and the de- scendant of a noble family. The time of his birth is not exactly known ; it falls near the opening of the 9th century. He early took holy orders, and was made car- dinal deacon by pope Leo IV. On the death of pope Benedict III, in A.D. 858, Nicholas became the choice of the papal conclave, and was at once elevated to the chair of St. Peter without consent or consultation of the secular power, as had been the custom since the days of Charlemagne. The emperor of German}^, Louis II, then, too, king of Italy, was at that time at Rome, and he was therefore present at the consecration of the pa- pal candidate. Besides being consecrated, Nicholas sub- mitted to coronation. This was a new ceremony in
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popedom. The farsecing successor of Benedict compre- hended tliat the empire of Charlemagne was fast break- ing up, and tliat this was his opportunity to secure greater power over the temporalities of the world. He therefore submitted to this additional ceremony to place himself by outward pomp and circumstance at least on a level with temporal princes. Superior by virtue of his ecclesiastical othce, the same prince would of course enjoy supremacy also as a secular ruler, and for this elevation Nicholas I now strove. That he succeeded may be learned from the impression left bj' him on his times, as we are told it in the Begin. Chron. ad ann. 8G8, pt. i, p. 579 : " Since the days of Gregory I to our time sat no high-priest on the throne of St. Peter to be compared to Nicholas. He tamed kings and tyrants, and ruled the world like a sovereign : to holy bishops and clergy he was mild and gentle, to the wicked and unconverted a terror; so that we might truly say a new Elias arose in him."
The earliest incident of importance in his pontificate is his conflict with Photius (q. v.), who had been in- truded into the see of Constantinople after the depriva- tion of Ignatius (q. v.). As soon as installed, Nicholas sent legates to Constantinople to urge the emperor Jli- chael III to restore Ignatius to the patriarchal see, and at the same time to reclaim the dioceses of lUyricum, Apulea, Calabria, and Sicily, which the court of Con- stantinople had detached from the see of Pome during the schism of the Iconoclasts, and which, after that schism had been put down by the Eastern emperors, had not been restored (Thomassin, Discipline de rEglise, voL i). The allegiance which the Roman pontiffs had paid to Charlemagne and his successors as emperors of the "West had greatly widened the breach between the Roman see and the Byzantines; it was therefore hardly to have been expected that the Eastern emperor would consent to Nicholas's propositions. Rather did he alto- getlier ignore the word from Rome, and when Nicholas excommunicated Photius, he, in return, at a council as- sembled at Constantinople, anathematized Nicholas and his followers, asserting at the same time that "since the seat of the empire had been removed from Rome to Constantinople, the primacy and privileges enjoyed till then by the Roman see had become transferred unto that of the new capital." The legates of Nicludas re- turned to Rome without having effected anything, the anathematized patriarch retaining his see by support from the emperor. It remained for Basil the Macedonian (q. V.) to effect the change asked for ; but it ^vas brought about, not because Rome had asked for it, but rather be- cause the new ruler deemed it best to reinstate Ignatius (q. v.). At Rome in the mean time a new conflict was encountered. Nicholas had been appealed to by the unjustly divorced wife of Lothaire, king of Lorraine, the j'ounger brother of emperor Louis, and had appointed legates to impure into and rejiort upon the case ; and the legates — the archbishops of Treves and Cologne — in a council held at Metz in 863, having exceeded their powers by giving a sentence in favor of Lothaire, the pope declared their sentence nidi, and in a new council called at Rome in A.D. 804, deposed and excommuni- cated them. Louis now espoused their cause, and marched his troops to Rome, in order to enforce satis- faction. After some hostile demonstrations, the em- peror, terrified, it is said, by his own sudden illness, and some fatalities which befell his followers, desisted from the enterprise, ami witlidrew his troops. Nicholas, once satisfied tliat he liad his opponent in his power, con- strained Louis to make submission ; the papal decree was enforced, and Thcutberga was formally reinstated in her position as wife and (jueen. Though bj' these acts Nicholas did not absolutely advance iniexampled pre- tensions to supremacy in behalf of the Roman see, lie j'etdid more than all his predecessors to strengthen and confirm it by the favorable juncture and auspicious cir- cumstances whicii he seized to assert and maintain that authoritv. Uut this vast moral advancement of the