Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/673

 EUGENE

599

EUGENE

The election of Eugene II was a triumph for the Franks, and they resolved to improve the occasion. Emperor Louis the Pious accordingly sent his son Lothair to Rome to strengthen the Frankish influ- ence. Those of the Roman nobles who had been ban- ished during the preceding reign, and who had fled to Frankland (Francia), were recalled, and their property was restored to them. A concordat or constitution was then agreed upon between the pope and the em- peror (824). This "Constitutio Romana", in nine articles, was drawn up seemingly w-ith a view of ad- vancing the imperial pretensions in the city of Rome, but at the same time of checking the power of the nobles. It decreed that those who were under the special protection of the pope or emperor were to be inviolable, and that proper obedience be rendered to the pope and his officials ; that church property be not plundered after the death of a pope ; that only those to whom the right had been given by the decree of Stephen IV, in 769, should take part in papal elections; that two commissioners (missi) were to be appointed, the one by the pope and the other bj' the emperor, who should report to them how justice was administered, so that any failure in its administration might be corrected by the pope, or, in the event of his not doing so, by the emperor; that the people should be judged according to the law (Koman, Salic, or Lombard) they had elected to live under; that its property be restored to the Church ; that robbery with violence be put down ; that when the emperor was in Rome the chief officials should appear before him to be admonished to do their duty; and, finally, that all must obey the Roman pontiff. By command of the pope and Lothair the people had to swear that, saving the fidelity they had promised the pope, they would obey the Emperors Louis and Lothair; would not allow a papal election to be made contrary to the canons; and would not suffer the pope-elect to be consecrated save in the presence of the emperor's envoys.

Seemingly before Lothair left Rome, there arrived ambassadors from Emperor Louis, and from the Greeks concerning the image-question. At first the Greek emperor, Michael II, showed himself tolerant towards the image-worshippers, and their great cham- pion, Theodore the Studite, WTote to him to exhort him " to unite us [the Church of Constantinople] to the head of the Churches of God, viz. Rome, and through it with the three Patriarchs" (Epp., II, lx.xiv); and in accordance with ancient custom to refer any doubtful points to the decision of Old Rome (II, Ixxxvi ; cf . II, cxxix). But Michael soon forgot his tolerance, bitterly persecuted the image-worshippers, and en- deavoured to secure the co-operation of Louis the Pious. He also sent envoys to the pope to consult him on certain points connected with the worship of images (Einhard, Annales, 824). Before taking any steps to meet the wishes of Michael, Louis sent to ask the pope's permission for a number of his bishops to as.semble, and make a selection of passages from the Fathers to elucidate the question the Greeks had put before them. The leave was granted, but the bishops who met at Paris (825) were incompetent for their work. Their collection of extracts from the Fathers was a mass of confused and ill-digested lore, and both their conclusions and the letters they wished the pope to forward to the Greeks were based on a complete misunderstanding of the decreesof the Second Council of Nicaia (cf. P. L., XCVUI, p. 129.3 sqq.). Their labours do not appear to have accomplished much; nothing at any rate is known of their consequences.

In 826 Eugene held an important council at Rome of sixty-two bishops, in which thirty-eight disciplinary decrees were issued. One or two of its decrees are note- worthy as .showing that Eugene had at heart the ad- vance "of learning. Not only were ignorant bishops an<l priests to be suspended till they had acquired sufficient learning to perform their sacred duties, but it was

decreed that, as in some localities there were neither masters nor zeal for learning, masters were to be attached to the episcopal palaces, cathedral churches and other places, to give instruction in sacred and polite literature (can. xxxiv). Tohelpon the work of the conversion of the North, Eugene wrote commending St. Ansgar, the Apostle of the Scandinavians, and Ids companions "to all the sons of the Catholic Church" (JafF6, 2564). Coins of this pope are extant bearing his name and that of Emperor Louis. It is supposed, for no doctmient records the fact, that, in accordance with the custom of the time, he was buried in St. Peter's.

Liber Pontificalis, ed. Duchesne, II, 69-70; Einhard and other chroniclers in Mon. Germ. Hist., Script., I-II; Letters of Theodore the Studite in P.G.. XCIX; Duchesne. The Be- ginnings of the Temporal Sovereigntij of the Popes (tr. London, 1908), 128 sqq.; Mann, Lives of the Earbj Popes. II. 156 sqq.

Horace K. Mann.

EoGENE III, Blessed (Bernardo Pign.\telli), born in the neighbourhood of Pisa, elected 15 Feb., 1145; d. at Tivoli, 8 July, 1153. On the very day that Pope Lucius II succumbed, either to illness or wounds, the Sacred College, foreseeing that the Roman populace would make a determined effort to force the new pontiff to abdicate his temporal power and sw'ear allegiance to the Senatus Populusque Roma- nus, hastily buried the deceased pope in the Lateran and withdrew to the remote cloister of St. Ca;sarius on the Appian Way. Here, for reasons unascertained, they sought a candidate outside their body, and imanimously chose the Cistercian monk, Bernard of Pisa, abbot of the monastery of Tre Fontane, on the site of St. Paul's mar- tyrdom. He was enthroned as Eugene III without de- lay in St. John Lateran, and since residence in the rebel- lious city was impossible, the pope and his cardinals fled to the country. Their rendezvous was the monastery of Farfa, w'here Eugene received the epis- copal consecration. The city of Viterbo, the hospit- able refuge of so many of the afflicted medieval popes, opened its gates to welcome him; and thither he pro- ceeded to await developments. Though powerless in face of the Roman mob, he was assured by embassies from all the European powers that he possessed the sympathy and affectionate homage of the entire Christian world.

Concerning the parentage, birth-place, and even the original name of Eugene, each of his biographers has advanced a different opinion. All that can be affirmed as certain is that he was born in the territory of Pisa. Whether he was of the noble family of Pig- natelli, and whether he received the name of Bernardo in baptism or only upon entering religion, must remain uncertain. He w-as educated in Pisa, and after his ordination was made a canon of the cathedral. Later he held the office of vice-dominus or steward of the temporalities of the diocese. In 11.30 he came under the magnetic influence of St. Bernard of Clairvaux; five years later when the saint returned home from the Synod of Pisa, the ince-dnminus accompanied him as a novice. In course of time he was employed by his order on several important affairs ; and lastly was sent with a colony of monks to repeople the ancient Abbey of Farfa ; but Innocent II placed them instead at the Tre Fontane.

St. Bernard received the intelligence of the eleva- tion of his di.sciple with astoni.shment and pleasure, and gave expression to his feelings in a paternal letter addressed to the new pope, in which occurs the famous pa.s.sage so often (pioted by reformers, true and fal.se: " Who will grant me to see, before I die, the Church of God as in the days of old when the .\postles let down their nets for a draught, not of silver and gold, but of souls?" The saint, moreover, proceeded to compose in his few moments of leisure that admirable hand- book for popes called " De Consideratione". Whilst Eugene sojourned at Viterbo, Arnold of Brescia