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42 kingdoms of France, Germany and Provence. The assembly was to be presided over by two envoys from the Holy See, John, Bishop of Cervia, and Radoald, Bishop of Porto. But Lothar's partisans were on the alert, and were working to gain time. The papal letters carried by the two legates were stolen from them by skilful thieves and they were forced to apply for new ones. While they were waiting, and while, on the other hand, Lothar's absence in Provence to take up the inheritance of his brother delayed the calling of the Council, the emissaries of Gunther and Theutgaud succeeded in bribing Radoald and his colleague. The legates failed to convoke the foreign bishops, and the purely Lotharingian synod held at Metz was a tool in the hands of Gunther. It therefore confirmed the decisions of the assembly of Aix, basing them on the ground of an alleged marriage between Lothar and Waldrada, previous to his union with Theutberga (June 863).

This statement, improbable as being now produced for the first time, did not suffice to appease the righteous anger of Nicholas I when he learned by what methods the case had been conducted. He did not hesitate to quash the decisions of the Council, to condemn Radoald and John, and, irregular as the proceeding was, to depose Gunther and Theutgaud by the exercise of his own authority. On the other hand, Louis II, who had shewn some disposition, at first, to support the Lotharingian bishops, now abandoned his brother, in spite of the interview which he had just had with him at Orbe. Louis the German and Charles the Bald, on the contrary, drew closer together. In February 865, they had an interview at Tusey, where, under colour of renewing their mutual oaths of peace and concord, and of reprehending their nephew, they arranged a treaty for the eventual partition of his lands. The Lotharingian bishops became restive, and drew up a protest to their brethren in Gaul and Provence, in which they declared themselves ready to support their sovereign "calumniated by the malignant." Lothar, equally alarmed, dreading an armed collision with his uncles, and dreading no less that the Pope should pronounce him excommunicate, thought it advisable to have recourse himself to the Holy See, and by the mediation of the Emperor to announce to the Pope that he was prepared to submit to his decision, provided that a guarantee was given him that the integrity of his kingdom should be respected.

Nicholas I was now become the mediator between kings and the supreme judge of Christendom. He immediately despatched a legate, Arsenius, Bishop of Orta, with orders to convey to the three sovereigns the expression of the Pope's will. After an interview with Louis the German at Frankfort, Arsenius reached Lothar's court at Gondreville by the month of July 865, and in the Pope's name, called upon him to take back Theutberga on pain of excommunication. Lothar was obliged to promise obedience. Arsenius then betook himself to Attigny