That a Pope should venture under such conditions to depose Bishops or Archbishops was a thing unheard of. It was in national or provincial councils that condemnation had been pronounced upon Theodulf, Bishop of Orleans, in 817, and upon the Archbishops Ebbo of Rheims, Agobard of Lyons, Bernard of Vienne and Bartholomew of Narbonne in 835, when the reigning Popes had not even been consulted. But Nicholas I had resolved not to be guided by these precedents. At the same synod in which he pronounced the deposition of the two Archbishops in Lorraine, as if to shew his determination to deal once and for all with all unworthy prelates, he further declared to be deposed Hagano, Bishop of Bergamo, and John, Archbishop of Ravenna, the first being accused of having lent his help to Gunther and Theutgaud, the second of having made common cause with the enemies of the Holy See (October 863). At the same time he announced that a like penalty would be inflicted upon any bishop who did not immediately signify his adhesion to the sentence which he had pronounced. Finally, he threatened with anathema anyone who should contemn on any occasion whatsoever the measures taken by the Pope, the orders given or the sentences pronounced by him.
Thus above the will of kings the will of the Pope asserted itself haughtily and resolutely. Lothar's brother, the Emperor Louis II, appealed to by the deposed prelates to intervene, determined to vindicate the honour of kings, and marched straight upon Rome at the head of his army. But Nicholas I did not yield to the storm. Having ordered fasts and litanies, he shut himself up in the Church of St Peter and awaited in prayer the moment when Louis II should be overawed and brought to give way. The advantage remained with the Pope, and he even came forth from the struggle with a heightened conception of his own power.
The affair of the Patriarch Photius, to be dealt with more at length in the next volume, the controversies arising from which became in the end involved with the Lorraine question, had accentuated the triumphant mood of the Pope. The Patriarch Ignatius, having been banished by order of Bardas the Regent, and Photius, an official of the imperial palace having been put in his place, Nicholas I was requested to sanction what had been done (860). Reports containing a distorted account of the facts were submitted to him, but he resolved that as the first step an inquiry should be held, and despatched two legates. This was inconvenient to Photius and to the court at Constantinople, for they had counted upon the Pope's unconditional acceptance. They succeeded in terrorising the legates and inducing them to preside over a so-called general council at Constantinople, which condemned Ignatius and confirmed his deposition (May 861). Nicholas I, from whom the details of the affair were sedulously concealed, limited himself for the time being to the disavowal of the decrees, the council having been
