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Bible Encyclopedias
Nicholas I
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or pope of Rome, one of the most celebrated of the Western pontiffs, who, next to Gregory the Great, may be regarded as the founder of the modern 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 papacy of Rome as a secular and sovereign power, supreme to all others. He was a native of Rome, and the descendant 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 cardinal 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 Germany, Louis II, then, too, king of Italy, was at that time at Rome, and he was therefore present at the consecration of the papal candidate. Besides being consecrated, Nicholas submitted to coronation. This was a new ceremony in popedom. The farseeing successor of Benedict comprehended that the empire of Charlemagne was fast breaking up, and that 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 office, 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 by him on his times, as we are told it in the Regin. Chron. ad ann. 868, 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 intruded into the see of Constantinople after the deprivation of Ignatius (q.v.). As soon as installed, Nicholas sent legates to Constantinople to urge the emperor Michael III to restore Ignatius to the patriarchal see, and at the same time to reclaim the dioceses of Illyricum, Apulea, Calabria, and Sicily, which the court of Constantinople had detached from the see of Rome 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 l'Eglise, 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 altogether ignore the word from Rome, and when Nicholas excommunicated Photius, he, in return, at a council assembled 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 Nicholas returned 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 was brought about, not because Rome had asked for it, but rather because 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 younger brother of emperor Louis, and had appointed legates to inquire into and report upon the case; and the legates-the archbishops of Trbyes 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 null, and in a new council called at Rome in A.D. 864, deposed and excommunicated them. Louis now espoused their cause, and marched his troops to Rome, in order to enforce satisfaction. After some hostile demonstrations, the emperor. terrified, it is said, by his own sudden illness, and some fatalities which befell his followers, desisted from the enterprise, and withdrew his troops.
Nicholas, once satisfied that he had his opponent in his power, constrained Louis to make submission; the papal decree was enforced, and Theutberga was formally reinstated in her position as wife and queen. Though by these acts Nicholas did not absolutely advance unexampled pretensions to supremacy in behalf of the Roman see. he yet did more than all his predecessors to strengthen and confirm it by the favorable juncture and auspicious circumstances which he seized to assert and maintain that authority. But this vast moral advancement of the popedom was not all which the Roman see owes to Nicholas I; she owes the questionable boon of the recognition of the False Decretals as the law of the Church. Nicholas I not only saw during his pontificate the famous False Decretals take their place in the jurisprudence of Latin Christendom: if he did not promulgate he assumed them as authentic documents; he gave them the weight of the papal sanction, and thus established 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 descent, and in a plenitude which could not be restricted or limited to the latest of his successors. ( (See DECRETALS), (See HINCMAR OF RHEIMS), and (See INFALIBILITY); and, besides the literature appended to these articles, comp. Jervis, Hist. of the Ch. of France, 1:3236; Fisher, Hist. of the Ref. p. 24, 25; Guettee, The Papacy, p. 293 sq. et al.) During the reign of pope Nicholas I the Bulgarians and their king, Bogoris, were converted to Christianity, and submitted to the authority of Romp (comp. Maclear, Hist. of Christian Missions during the Middle Ages, p. 281 sq.). Nicholas is also noted as the pope who formally accepted for the Western Church the disputed filioque (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. 15; a life of his is given in Muratori, R. R. Ital. SS. vol. iii, pt. ii, p. 301. See Giesebrecht, Quellen d.fjiih. Pabst-Gesch. in the Ahgem. Mon. — Schr. Feb. and April, 1852; Hardouin, Acta Concill. etc., vol. v; Hist. litter. de la France, vol. v; Gess, Merkwiiurdigk. aus d. Leben u. d. Schiften Hinkmar's (Getting. 1806); Bower, list. of the Popes (Lond. 1750, 7 vols. 4to); Gfrorer, Kirchenzgesch. 3:1, 237; Gieseler, Kirchengesch. 2:1; Milman, 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, 7:573-579; Hugo Limmer, Pabst Nikolaus I, u. d. Byzantinische Staats-Kirche seizer Zeit (Erl. 1857).
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Nicholas I'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/n/nicholas-i.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
