Pope Eugene II (824-827)

The pope of a difficult transition

Eugene II stood at the meeting point of three forces. Rome wanted to preserve the freedom of the Apostolic See; the Roman lay nobility wanted greater weight in the pontifical election; the Carolingians wanted to prevent the city, now the symbolic capital of the Western Empire, from being governed by local factions alone.^[14]

His pontificate matters because it gives a concrete face to this tension. He was no great doctrinal pope like Leo the Great, nor as visible a builder as Paschal I. But he was the pope under whom the Carolingian papacy accepted partial imperial control over its temporal government while keeping hold of doctrine, ecclesial reform and mission.

A weak pope or a realistic pope?

The temptation would be to present Eugene II as a pope submissive to the Franks. That would be too simple. The sources show that he consented to the Constitutio Romana because the Roman situation was explosive: confiscations, assassinations, factional revenge, unstable justice, rivalry between partisans of Paschal and pro-Frankish nobles.^[15][16]

At the same time, when the question became doctrinal, Eugene II did not yield. Faced with the demands of Michael II the Amorian, the Byzantine emperor, and the theological hesitations of the Frankish bishops assembled at Paris in 825, he maintained the Roman position in favour of the Second Council of Nicaea and did not let the two empires impose a compromise on the holy images.^[17][18]

"Eugene II died in August 827 after doing everything possible to maintain the spiritual authority of the Church of Rome, while conceding, on the temporal plane, what circumstances imposed." — Jean-Marie Sansterre, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (translated from Italian), synthesis of the pontificate^[19]

Table of witnesses

A brief chronology

A probable Roman origin

Treccani notes that Eugene II's origin is not given in the oldest manuscript of the 9th-century pontifical biographies, but that later copies of the Liber Pontificalis call him probably Roman.^[20] New Advent recalls that some old editions gave as his father a certain Boemund, while the best modern editions of the Liber Pontificalis, notably Duchesne's, do not retain this name.^[21][22]

This precision avoids a misunderstanding. No theory of his origins should be built on an uncertain paternal name. What is better attested is his place in the Roman clergy: before his election, Eugene had long been archpriest of Saint Sabina, one of the oldest and most prestigious titles in Rome.^[23]

The moral portrait in the Liber Pontificalis

The pontifical notice gives him a favourable portrait: a humble, peaceful, learned, eloquent man, generous to the widow and the orphan, desirous of doing what pleases Christ.^[24][25] This portrait is not a modern psychological photograph; it is hagiographical language. But it indicates that even his adversaries did not remember him as an adventurer imposed from outside.

"Simple and humble, learned and eloquent, handsome and generous, a friend of peace, wholly occupied in doing what pleases God." — Summary of the pontifical portrait transmitted by New Advent after the Liber Pontificalis^[26]

Saint Sabina as personal memory

New Advent reports that after his election, Eugene embellished his former church of Saint Sabina with mosaics and metalwork bearing his name, still visible in the 16th century.^[27] Mann also signals an inscription linked to a translation of relics to Saint Sabina, even if the form of the verses seems later than the pontificate.^[28]

Saint Sabina thus provides the only strongly personal place in the dossier.

The crisis left by Paschal I

The end of Paschal I's pontificate was marked by violence. Two dignitaries of the patriarchium, Theodore the primicerius and Leo the nomenclator, linked to the pro-Frankish party, were blinded then killed at the Lateran by members of the familia Sancti Petri.^[29][30] Paschal denied under oath any complicity, but maintained that the victims deserved their fate; the tension was such that his body could not at first be buried in Saint Peter's.^[31]

Eugene II was therefore elected in a Rome where the question was not only liturgical or canonical. Behind the choice of a pope lay the balance of real power: who controlled justice, property, militias, appointments and the relationship with the Carolingians?

A double election

The Annales regni Francorum report that after Paschal's death, two men were elected through the contention of the people, but that Eugene, archpriest of Saint Sabina, was finally substituted and ordained thanks to the victory of the noble party.^[32] Mann stresses the Latin formula vincente nobilium parte: the victory of the noble party announces the growing weight of Roman families in pontifical elections.^[33]

"Two men having been elected through the contention of the people, Eugene, archpriest of the title of Saint Sabina, was nevertheless substituted and ordained, the party of the nobles prevailing." — Annales regni Francorum, year 824^[34]

Late tradition sometimes gives the other candidate the name of Zinzinus or Zinzinnus, but Mann stresses that the authority for this name is uncertain.^[35] The article must therefore speak of an opposing candidate without building too precise a narrative around him.

The role of Wala

Treccani adds an important actor: the Frankish monk Wala, counsellor of Lothair, supported Eugene II because he hoped for the election of a pope willing to collaborate in the necessary reforms.^[36] Mann confirms that Wala worked for Eugene's election in the hope that long-neglected abuses would be corrected.^[37]

The point is decisive: Frankish support aimed not only at political domination. In Carolingian culture, moral reform, public order and imperial intervention were closely intertwined. The risk is real: confusing reform of the Church with imperial control of Rome. Eugene II would have to live within this ambiguity.

Why did Lothair come to Rome?

Louis the Pious learned of Eugene's election through the subdeacon Quirinus. Occupied by an expedition to Brittany, he sent his son Lothair, already associated with the Empire, to settle at Rome with the new pope and the Roman people what the situation required.^[38][39]

The Annales regni Francorum present the operation as a reform: Lothair was honourably received by Eugene, set out his mission, then corrected the state of the Roman people with the pope's benevolent adherence.^[40] Frankish language is obviously favourable to imperial intervention. But the preceding crisis makes this intervention understandable: injured families wanted reparation, Frankish partisans wanted security, and the emperor wanted stable order in the city of Peter.

The nine articles of the constitution

The Constitutio Romana was promulgated in November 824. New Advent summarises nine articles; Treccani specifies their juridical scope.^[41][42] The text pursued three objectives: pacifying the factions, supervising justice, inscribing imperial rights in the temporal government of Rome.

The constitution was therefore not a simple crushing of the papacy. It advanced imperial claims, but it also limited the nobles and confirmed that obedience remained due to the Roman pontiff.^[43][44]

The oath of the Romans

An oath was imposed on the clergy and laity of Rome with the agreement of Eugene II and Lothair. The Romans promised fidelity to the emperors Louis and Lothair, except for the fidelity due to the pope; they also promised not to permit an election contrary to the canons and not to let an elected man be consecrated before the required oath in the presence of the imperial envoys.^[45][46]

"Except for the fidelity I have promised to the sovereign pontiff." — Formula of the Roman oath of 824, quoted by Mann after the continuator of Paul the Deacon^[47]

This clause is crucial. It shows that imperial fidelity was real, but subordinated to an already sworn pontifical fidelity. The emperor intervened in the temporal order; he did not become bishop of Rome.

Eugene's voluntary adherence

Treccani insists on a point often forgotten: the Annales regni Francorum stress that Eugene II's adherence to the constitution was voluntary.^[48] That does not mean it was free in the modern sense, without political pressure. It means that Eugene chose to enter into the agreement rather than let Rome fragment.

Historians discuss the practical scope of the constitution. Some see in it a clear modification of relations between Franks and papacy; others stress that the clauses were applied according to circumstances and the balance of power. Treccani notes that some successors of Eugene would be consecrated without waiting for the arrival of an imperial envoy.^[49]

Michael II seeks a compromise

While the Roman question was being settled, the quarrel over images returned from the East. The Byzantine emperor Michael II sent an embassy to Louis the Pious with a letter asking for peace, but also for Frankish support in a negotiation with Rome on the cult of images.^[50][51]

Michael II claimed to seek a middle way between iconodule devotion and radical iconoclasm. He also asked that the Greek iconodule refugees in Rome be expelled, since they opposed his religious policy.^[52] For Rome, the stakes were very concrete: accepting such a demand would mean handing over the refugees and relativising the Second Council of Nicaea.

The assembly of Paris in 825

Louis the Pious asked Eugene for permission to gather Frankish bishops to examine the patristic texts on the question. Eugene authorised it, but as a consultative assembly, not as a council imposing a doctrine on Rome.^[53][54]

The assembly met at Paris in November 825. The Frankish bishops spoke with respect of the authority of the Apostolic See, but criticised the Roman position on images and proposed a letter they hoped to see sent by the pope to Constantinople.^[55] Mann judges their work very severely, considering it confused and founded on a misunderstanding of the Second Council of Nicaea.^[56]

Rome does not yield on substance

Louis himself did not brutally transmit the Paris documents. He charged Jeremiah of Sens and Jonas of Orleans with summarising them, then wrote to Eugene that he only wished to help him, not to teach him.^[57][58]

What followed disappears from the sources. But Treccani concludes that no Roman, Frankish or Byzantine source attests the sending of a pontifical delegation to Constantinople; it is therefore reasonable to think that Eugene did not let himself be convinced and maintained the Roman position against the two empires that hoped for a compromise.^[59]

This firmness is the best counterweight to the Constitutio Romana. Eugene could concede on the temporal administration of Rome; he did not concede the Church's doctrine to political pressure.

Sixty-two bishops and thirty-eight canons

On 14 and 15 November 826, Eugene II presided at Rome over a council of sixty-two bishops from the pontifical territories and the Frankish kingdom of Italy.^[60] New Advent speaks of an important council publishing thirty-eight disciplinary decrees.^[61]

The canons concern episcopal elections, simony, the conduct of bishops and clerics, instruction, churches, monasteries, Sunday rest, the behaviour of the laity in church and the morality of marriage.^[62]

The instruction of clerics

The most famous canon is canon 34. It orders that masters be established in bishoprics, cathedral churches and other necessary places, in order to teach letters, the liberal arts and the holy dogmas.^[63][64]

Canon 34 provides, in Mann's summary of it, that where masters and zeal for study are lacking, masters be attached to episcopal palaces, cathedrals and other necessary places, to teach there sacred and profane letters.^[65]

This canon does not make Eugene II the inventor of the medieval cathedral school. But it shows that Rome took up the Carolingian school reform movement on its own account. Knowledge is no luxury: an ignorant cleric must be suspended until he can worthily fulfil his sacred functions.^[66]

Private churches and episcopal control

Treccani also signals canon 21, important because it recognises for the first time in pontifical fashion the regime of private churches: he who has built according to the rules a monastery or an oratory cannot be deprived of it against his will; he may propose a priest for divine service, on condition that the local bishop approves.^[67]

The canon does not deliver the Church to proprietors. It seeks rather to regulate an already massive social reality. Aristocrats built places of worship on their lands; Rome tried to keep episcopal validation, and thus ecclesial unity, at the heart of the system.

Rome retakes the lead of reform

Treccani sums up the issue: the canons of the Roman council often borrow from Carolingian legislation, but the acts stress the central role the papacy must have in the reform of the Church.^[68] Eugene II thus transformed Frankish pressure into a Roman act. Reform came not only from Aachen or Lothair; it was assumed by the Apostolic See.

Ansgar and the mission to the North

The Scandinavian mission, begun within the Carolingian framework, received Eugene II's support. New Advent reports that the pope commended Saint Ansgar, the future "apostle of the North", and his companions "to all the sons of the Catholic Church", according to Jaffé's register.^[69] Mann places this commendation towards the end of 826 or the beginning of 827, when Ansgar left for Denmark with Harald.^[70]

This gesture is brief in the sources, but it is important. It shows that the papacy did not withdraw into its Roman crises. Even under partial Carolingian control, Rome blessed and commended the mission to the peoples of the North.

The translation of Saint Sebastian to Soissons

In 826, Abbot Hilduin of Saint-Denis obtained, with Eugene's agreement, the relics of Saint Sebastian, transferred to Soissons in the basilica of Saint-Medard.^[71][72] The Frankish annals report that many miracles took place near the relics, in very strong terms.^[73]

Treccani notes that Eugene probably could not prevent this translation of a major Roman martyr, but that Frankish veneration of these relics also contributed to Rome's prestige.^[74] The remark is apt: a relic leaving Rome is not only a loss; it becomes a spiritual and political bond between Rome and Gaul.

Coinage and probable burial

New Advent and Mann signal the existence of coins of Eugene II bearing his name and that of Emperor Louis.^[75][76] The detail is telling: even coinage made visible the balance of the pontificate, between Peter, Rome, the pope and the emperor.

Eugene died on 27 August 827 according to the Catholic Encyclopedia; the Annales regni Francorum simply note that he died in August.^[77][78] Valentine, deacon, was elected and ordained by the Romans, but reigned only about a month.^[79] Eugene's burial is not documented by the Liber Pontificalis; New Advent and Mann suppose, according to the usage of the time, that he was buried in Saint Peter's.^[80][81]

Three lines of force

Eugene II was therefore a pope of prudent government, not a pope of rupture. He accepted imperial intervention to correct Roman violence; he did not let the emperor define the faith. He received reform frameworks from the Carolingian world; he promulgated them at Rome under pontifical authority.

A short pontificate for understanding the 9th century

His pontificate was short and less spectacular than those of Leo III, Paschal I or Nicholas I. Yet it helps to understand the whole 9th-century pontificate: rise of Roman families, dangerous Carolingian protection, fragility of urban order, reform of the clergy, quarrel over images, northern missions.

In this history, Eugene II was neither a solitary hero nor a mere instrument. He was an aged pope, formed in the Roman clergy, placed on the see of Peter by a difficult compromise, and realistic enough to save what could be saved: the order of Rome, the reform of the clergy, the dignity of the pope, and above all the doctrinal freedom of the Apostolic See.

• Pope Saint Paschal I — immediate predecessor of Eugene II, whose final crisis explains the Carolingian intervention.
• Pope Stephen IV — pope of the coronation of Louis the Pious at Reims, in 816.
• Pope Saint Leo III — pope of the coronation of Charlemagne, background of the Carolingian papacy.
• Louis the Pious — Frankish emperor under whom the Constitutio Romana was imposed.
• The quarrel over images — doctrinal context of Roman firmness against iconoclasm.
• The Papal States — political framework of relations between Rome, papacy and Carolingian Empire.