popedom was not all wliich the Roman «ee owes to Nicholas I; she owes the questionable boon of the rec- ognition of the False Decretals as the law of the Church. Nicholas I not only saw during his pontificate the fa- mous False Decretals take their place in the jurispru- dence of Latin Christendom : if he did not promulgate, he assumed them as authentic dociuncnts; he gave them the weight of the jwipal sanction, and thus estab- lished the great principle which Gregory- I had before announced of the sole legislative power of the pope. Every one of these papal epistles was a canon of the Church ; every future bull therefore rested on the same irrefragable authority, and commanded the same implicit obedience. The papacy became a legislative as well as an administrative authority. Infallibility was the next inevitable step, if infallibility was not already in the power asserted to have been bestowed by the Lord on St. Peter, by St. Peter handed down in unbroken de- scent, and in a plenitude which could not be restricted or limited to the latest of his successors. (See the arti- cles Decretals, IIin'cmak of Rheims, and Infai.li- DiLiTY; and, besides the literature appended to these articles, comp. Jervis, Hist, of the Ch. of France, i, 32- 36 ; Fisher, Hist, of the Ref. p. 24, 25 ; Guettee, The Pa- pacy, p. 293 sq. et al.) During the reign of pope Nich- olas I the Bulgarians and their king, Bogoris, were con- verted to Christianity, and submitted to the authority of Rome (comp. Maclear, IHst. of Christian Missions during the Middle Ages, p. 281 sq.). Nicholas is also noted as the pope who formally accepted for the West- ern Church the disputed flioque (q. v.) clause (comp. Lumby, Hist, of the Creeds [Lond. 1875, 8vo], p. 37 sq.). Pope Nicholas died Nov. 13, 867. He was afterwards canonized. He wrote about one hundred epistles, which, together with his decretals, are to be found in Mansi, vol. XV ; a life of his is given in Muratori, R. R. Ital. SS, vol. iii, pt. ii, p. 301. See Giesebrecht, Qvelkn d.friih. Pahst-Gesch. in the Allgem. Mon.-Schr. Feb. and April, 1852; Hardouin, Acta Concill. etc., vol. v; Hist, litter, de la France, vol. v ; Gess, MerkwUrdigl: aus d. Lehen u. d. Schriften Hinhnai-'s (Gotting. 1806) ; Bower, Hist, of the Popes (Lond. 1750, 7 vols. 4to) ; Gfrcirer, Kirchen- gesch, iii, 1, 237 ; Gieseler, Kirchengesch, ii, 1 ; Blilman, Hist, of Latin Christianity, vol. iii, ch. iv ; Hardwick, Ch. Hist. (Middle Ages) p. 123, 124, 136, 153, 166 n. 1, 182; Wetzer u. Welte (R. C), Kirchen-Lexikon, vii, 573-579 ; Hugo LLiramer, Pahst Nikolaiis I, v. d. Byzan- titiische Staats-Kirche seiner Zeif (Erl. 1857). (.J. H.W.) Nicholas II, Pope, figures like the preceding as a most zealous advocate of papal supremacy. His original name was Gerard of Bwgnndy, and he Avas a native of that province. He entered the service of the Church, and for a time held the archbishopric of Florence. In 1059 he was elected successor to Stephen IX in the pon- tificate. An opposite faction had chosen John, bishop of Velletri, who assumed the pontifical office under the natne of Benedict X. The Council of Sutri, how- ever, disavowed him, and he was obliged to resign his claim. The principal opponent of this rival pope was Hildebrand [see Greookv YII]; he had determined that Gerard of Burgundy should succeed Stephen IX, and the word of this wily churchman was law. The imperial party, which by request of the Roman nobles had con- sented to the advancement of the bishop of Velletri, was won over to the Hildehrandian canditlate by Hildebrand himself; and the imperialists afterwards consented not only to the degradation, but also to the disfranchisement of their own candidate from all ecclesiastical offices. Such was the power of pajial Rome under the guidance of the man cek4)rated in liistory as pope Gregory VII. Pope Niciiolas II himself was a man of ordinary abilit\-, and but little activity. His pontificate, it is true, wit- nessed the two great changes in the papal policy which laid the foundations of its vast niedian-al power — the decree for the election of the pope by the cardinals of Rome, and the alliance witli the Normans [see Papacy] ; yet these changes were effected mainly through the
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