1.
Pope Eugene II
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Pope Eugene II was Pope from 11 May 824 to his death in 827. A native of Rome, he was chosen to succeed Paschal I and he was elected pope on 6 June 824, after the death of Paschal I. The late pope had attempted to curb the increasing power of the Roman nobility. When Paschal died, these nobles made strenuous efforts to him with a candidate of their own. The clergy put forward a candidate likely to continue the policy of Paschal and their candidate is said in earlier editions of the Liber Pontificalis to have been the son of Boemund, but in the more recent and more accurate editions, his fathers name is not given. While archpriest of the Roman Church, he is credited with having fulfilled most conscientiously the duties of his position. After he became pope, he beautified his ancient church of St. Sabina with mosaics and metalwork bearing his name that were still intact as late as the 16th century. Eugene is described by his biographer as simple and humble, learned and eloquent, handsome and generous, a lover of peace, the election of Eugene II was a triumph for the Franks, and they subsequently resolved to improve their position. Emperor Louis the Pious accordingly sent his son Lothair to Rome to strengthen the Frankish influence, the Roman nobles who had been banished during the preceding reign and fled to France were recalled, and their property was restored to them. A Constitutio Romana was then agreed upon between the pope and the emperor in 824 which advanced the imperial pretensions in the city of Rome and this constitution included the statute that no pope should be consecrated until his election had the approval of the Frankish emperor. Seemingly before Lothair left Rome, there arrived ambassadors from Emperor Louis, but Michael soon forgot his tolerance, bitterly persecuted the image worshippers, and endeavoured to secure the co-operation of Louis the Pious. He also sent envoys to the pope to consult him on points connected with the worship of images. The leave was granted, but the bishops who met at Paris in 825 were incompetent for the task, nothing is known of the result of their researches. Eugene also adopted various provisions for the care of the poor, widows and orphans and he died on 27 August 827. In 826 Eugene held an important council at Rome of 62 bishops, one or two of its decrees are noteworthy as showing that Eugene had at heart the advancement of learning. To help in the work of the conversion of the North, Eugene wrote commending St. Ansgar, the Apostle of the Scandinavians, coins of this pope are extant bearing his name and that of Emperor Louis. It is supposed that he was buried in St. Peters in accordance with the custom of the time, opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Latina with analytical indexes This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Herbermann, Charles, ed. Popes Eugene I-IV
2.
Pope Gregory IV
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Pope Gregory IV was Pope from October 827 to his death in 844. His pontificate was notable for the attempts to intervene in the quarrels between the emperor Louis the Pious and his sons. It also saw the breakup of the Carolingian Empire in 843, the son of a Roman patrician called John, Gregory was apparently an energetic but mild churchman, renowned for his learning. Consecrated a priest during the pontificate of Pope Paschal I, at the time of Pope Valentine’s death in 827, like his predecessor, Gregory was nominated by the nobility, and the electors unanimously agreed that he was the most worthy to become the Bishop of Rome. Gregory’s elevation to the see is believed to represent a continuation of the attempts to control the local political situation in Rome which had begun during Pope Eugene II’s pontificate. His consecration was delayed, however, until March 29,828 and it was said that the emperor reprimanded Gregory for attempting to have himself consecrated before receiving the approval of the emperor. Gregory complied with demands of imperial supremacy, and in 828 and 829. In January 829, Gregory was involved in a dispute with Farfa Abbey over the ownership of local monastic land by the Roman church, the imperial representative made a ruling in favour of the abbey, and that the lands were to be restored to the monastery. Although Gregory refused to accept the ruling, there is no evidence that he managed to get the decision overturned, when the war between father and sons resumed in Easter 833, Gregory was approached by Lothair, seeking his intervention to bring about reconciliation between Lothair and his father. Suspicious of Gregory’s intent, they refused to obey the Pope, and threatened to excommunicate him, were he to excommunicate them, annoyed by their actions, Gregorys response was to insist upon the primacy of St Peters successor, the papacy being superior to the Emperor. But you ought to have regarded an order from the Apostolic See as not less weighty than one from the emperor, besides, it is false that the emperors prohibition preceded your receiving mine. The government of souls, which belongs to bishops, is more important than the imperial, which is only concerned with the temporal. With regards to the oaths I have taken to the emperor, I will avoid perjury by pointing out to the emperor what he has done against the unity and peace of the Church and his kingdom. With regards to the bishops, in opposing my efforts in behalf of peace, what they threaten has not been done and their position was clear, that the equality of all the bishops outranked the leadership of the pope. The armies of Louis and two of his sons met at Rotfeld, near Colmar, on June 24,833, the sons persuaded Gregory to go to Louiss camp to negotiate, and initially Louis refused to treat Gregory with any honour. However, Gregory managed to convince Louis of his good faith, however, Gregory soon learned that he had been deceived by Lothair. Following these events, Gregory returned to Rome, while Louis was subsequently restored in 834, Gregory swore an oath that his intentions were honourable, and that he had always sought to achieve a peaceful solution to the conflict between Louis and his sons. Accepting Gregory’s word, the returned to Louis
3.
Rome
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Rome is a special comune and the capital of Italy. Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region, with 2,873,598 residents in 1,285 km2, it is also the countrys largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the center of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents, the city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio, along the shores of the Tiber. Romes history spans more than 2,500 years, while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at only around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The citys early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans and it was first called The Eternal City by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy. Rome is also called the Caput Mundi, due to that, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, in 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic. Rome has the status of a global city, Rome ranked in 2014 as the 14th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, monuments and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are among the worlds most visited tourist destinations with both locations receiving millions of tourists a year. Rome hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics and is the seat of United Nations Food, however, it is a possibility that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself. As early as the 4th century, there have been alternate theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. There is archaeological evidence of occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago. Evidence of stone tools, pottery and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence, several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum. Between the end of the age and the beginning of the Iron age. However, none of them had yet an urban quality, nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city was gradually born through the aggregation of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. All these happenings, which according to the excavations took place more or less around the mid of the 8th century BC. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome has been indeed founded with an act of will as the legend suggests in the middle of the 8th century BC remains a fringe hypothesis. Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth
4.
Papal States
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The Papal States, officially the State of the Church, were territories in the Italian Peninsula under the sovereign direct rule of the pope, from the 8th century until 1870. They were among the states of Italy from roughly the 8th century until the Italian Peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. At their zenith, they covered most of the modern Italian regions of Lazio, Marche, Umbria and Romagna and these holdings were considered to be a manifestation of the temporal power of the pope, as opposed to his ecclesiastical primacy. By 1861, much of the Papal States territory had been conquered by the Kingdom of Italy, only Lazio, including Rome, remained under the Popes temporal control. In 1870, the pope lost Lazio and Rome and had no physical territory at all, Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini ended the crisis between unified Italy and the Vatican by signing the Lateran Treaty, granting the Vatican City State sovereignty. The Papal States were also known as the Papal State, the territories were also referred to variously as the State of the Church, the Pontifical States, the Ecclesiastical States, or the Roman States. For its first 300 years the Catholic Church was persecuted and unrecognized and this system began to change during the reign of the emperor Constantine I, who made Christianity legal within the Roman Empire, and restoring to it any properties that had been confiscated. The Lateran Palace was the first significant new donation to the Church, other donations followed, primarily in mainland Italy but also in the provinces of the Roman Empire. But the Church held all of these lands as a private landowner, the seeds of the Papal States as a sovereign political entity were planted in the 6th century. Beginning In 535, the Byzantine Empire, under emperor Justinian I, launched a reconquest of Italy that took decades and devastated Italys political, just as these wars wound down, the Lombards entered the peninsula from the north and conquered much of the countryside. While the popes remained Byzantine subjects, in practice the Duchy of Rome, nevertheless, the pope and the exarch still worked together to control the rising power of the Lombards in Italy. As Byzantine power weakened, though, the took a ever larger role in defending Rome from the Lombards. In practice, the papal efforts served to focus Lombard aggrandizement on the exarch, a climactic moment in the founding of the Papal States was the agreement over boundaries embodied in the Lombard king Liutprands Donation of Sutri to Pope Gregory II. When the Exarchate of Ravenna finally fell to the Lombards in 751, the popes renewed earlier attempts to secure the support of the Franks. In 751, Pope Zachary had Pepin the Younger crowned king in place of the powerless Merovingian figurehead king Childeric III, zacharys successor, Pope Stephen II, later granted Pepin the title Patrician of the Romans. Pepin led a Frankish army into Italy in 754 and 756, Pepin defeated the Lombards – taking control of northern Italy – and made a gift of the properties formerly constituting the Exarchate of Ravenna to the pope. The cooperation between the papacy and the Carolingian dynasty climaxed in 800, when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor, the precise nature of the relationship between the popes and emperors – and between the Papal States and the Empire – is disputed. Events in the 9th century postponed the conflict, the Holy Roman Empire in its Frankish form collapsed as it was subdivided among Charlemagnes grandchildren
5.
Pope
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The pope is the Bishop of Rome and, therefore, the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church. The current pope is Francis, who was elected on 13 March 2013, the office of the pope is the papacy. The pope is considered one of the worlds most powerful people because of his diplomatic and he is also head of state of Vatican City, a sovereign city-state entirely enclaved within the Italian capital city of Rome. The papacy is one of the most enduring institutions in the world and has had a prominent part in world history, the popes in ancient times helped in the spread of Christianity and the resolution of various doctrinal disputes. In the Middle Ages, they played a role of importance in Western Europe. Currently, in addition to the expansion of the Christian faith and doctrine, the popes are involved in ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, charitable work, Popes, who originally had no temporal powers, in some periods of history accrued wide powers similar to those of temporal rulers. In recent centuries, popes were gradually forced to give up temporal power, the word pope derives from Greek πάππας meaning father. The earliest record of the use of title was in regard to the by then deceased Patriarch of Alexandria. Some historians have argued that the notion that Peter was the first bishop of Rome, the writings of the Church Father Irenaeus who wrote around AD180 reflect a belief that Peter founded and organised the Church at Rome. Moreover, Irenaeus was not the first to write of Peters presence in the early Roman Church, Clement of Rome wrote in a letter to the Corinthians, c. 96, about the persecution of Christians in Rome as the struggles in our time and presented to the Corinthians its heroes, first, the greatest and most just columns, the good apostles Peter and Paul. St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote shortly after Clement and in his letter from the city of Smyrna to the Romans he said he would not command them as Peter and Paul did. Given this and other evidence, many agree that Peter was martyred in Rome under Nero. Protestants contend that the New Testament offers no proof that Jesus established the papacy nor even that he established Peter as the first bishop of Rome, others, using Peters own words, argue that Christ intended himself as the foundation of the church and not Peter. First-century Christian communities would have had a group of presbyter-bishops functioning as leaders of their local churches, gradually, episcopacies were established in metropolitan areas. Antioch may have developed such a structure before Rome, some writers claim that the emergence of a single bishop in Rome probably did not occur until the middle of the 2nd century. In their view, Linus, Cletus and Clement were possibly prominent presbyter-bishops, documents of the 1st century and early 2nd century indicate that the Holy See had some kind of pre-eminence and prominence in the Church as a whole, though the detail of what this meant is unclear. It seems that at first the terms episcopos and presbyter were used interchangeably, the consensus among scholars has been that, at the turn of the 1st and 2nd centuries, local congregations were led by bishops and presbyters whose offices were overlapping or indistinguishable
6.
14 regions of Medieval Rome
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During the Middle Ages, Rome was divided into a number of administrative regions, usually numbering between twelve and fourteen, which changed over time. Originally the city of Rome had been divided by Augustus into 14 regions in 7 BC, then sometime during the 4th century, Christian authorities instituted seven ecclesiastical regions, which ran parallel to the civil regions. With the collapse of Imperial authority in the Western Roman Empire, after the death of Julius Nepos in 480, after the destructive Gothic Wars of the 6th century, the city of Rome had become virtually depopulated. When the city began to recover it was inhabited in new parts, consequently, the Augustan regions now had no relationship to the administration of the city, but they continued to be used as a means for identifying property. In particular, it is suggested that it was connected with the Byzantine military system and was introduced into Rome in the 7th century and this saw the creation of a new series of regions based upon a different principle from either of the older ones. However, this revision did not last much longer than two centuries after the fall of the Exarchate of Ravenna in 751. Certainly, the division of the city according to the revised civil, local variations seem to have sprung up that were adopted, used and then discarded as the years progressed. It has been conjectured that the sack of Rome by Robert Guiscard in 1084 caused a displacement of the population which made a revision of the regions necessary. The district from the Lateran Palace to the Colosseum was engulfed and ruined by fire, the next major reform was after the revolution of 1143 and the establishment of the Commune of Rome, as the city was redivided into 14 regions. Unlike the Augustan regions of Rome, the regions were not numbered. They are numbered here merely for convenience, by the 12th century, its name had changed to Montium et Biberatice, before simply becoming Montium at the close of the 14th century. This change of name reflected the fact that the Esquiline and the Viminal Hills, and parts of the Quirinal, the Colosseum had at some point during the Middle Ages been fortified and for a time belonged to the area controlled by the Frangipani family. The importance of location in Medieval Rome is that it was the main output for the Aqua Virgo aqueduct. Its name was transformed in times to become the region of Trevi. It also contains the remains of the Temple of Hadrian, with its columns also contributing to the name of the region. Prior to the 16th century, the region was never densely populated and it now forms part of the modern rione of Colonna. Included the parts of Rome around the Campo Marzio and San Lorenzo in Lucina, included the parts of Rome around Ponte. Unlike its modern counterpart, it included the area across the Tiber spanned by the Ponte SantAngelo and this bridge was built by Emperor Hadrian in 134 to connect his mausoleum to the rest of the city
7.
Lateran Palace
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The Lateran Palace, formally the Apostolic Palace of the Lateran, is an ancient palace of the Roman Empire and later the main papal residence in southeast Rome. Located on St. Johns Square in Lateran on the Caelian Hill, the edifice is adjacent to the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral church of Rome. From the fourth century, the palace was the residence of the popes. The palace is now used by the Vatican Historical Museum, which illustrates the history of the Papal States. The palace also houses the offices of the Vicariate of Rome, as well as the apartments of the Cardinal vicar. Until 1970, the palace was home to the important collections of the Lateran Museum. Following the Lateran Treaty of 1929, the palace and adjoining basilica are extraterritorial properties of the Holy See, the site on which the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano sits was occupied during the early Roman Empire by the domus of the Plautii Laterani family. The Laterani served as administrators for several emperors, their ancestor Lucius Sextius Lateranus is said to have been the first plebeian to attain the rank of consul, one of the Laterani, Consul-designate Plautius Lateranus, became famous for being accused by Nero of conspiracy against the emperor. The accusation resulted in the confiscation and redistribution of his properties, the Domus Laterani fell into the hands of the emperor when Constantine I married his second wife Fausta, sister of Maxentius. Known by that time as the Domus Faustae or House of Fausta, the equites singulares had allegedly supported Maxentius against Constantine. He commissioned the construction of the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano the site, the domus was eventually given to the Bishop of Rome by Constantine. As Byzantium grew less able to help prevent Lombard incursions, the became more independent of the Empire. Author Erik Thunø notes that the incentive to refurbish the Lateran Palace was to create a residence from which the pope could exercise not only spiritual. The pope’s palace at the Lateran in Rome was extensively added to in the eighth century by Pope Hadrian I. Leo III, built an enormous Triclinium and it was one of the most famous halls of the ancient palace and was the state banqueting hall, lined with mosaics. Nothing remains of this, but in 1743 copies of the mosaics were made from drawings, the Triclinium and the sala del concilio, an oblong hall with apse mosaic and five ornate niches on each side, were built around 800 to serve as the heart of papal ceremonial. Architecturally they were reminiscent of Byzantine imperial buildings in Constantinople, in the tenth Century Sergius III restored it after a disastrous fire, and later it was greatly embellished by Innocent III. This was the period of its greatest magnificence, when Dante speaks of it as all human achievements
8.
Liber Pontificalis
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The Liber Pontificalis is a book of biographies of popes from Saint Peter until the 15th century. The original publication of the Liber Pontificalis stopped with Pope Adrian II or Pope Stephen V, although quoted virtually uncritically from the 8th to 18th century, the Liber Pontificalis has undergone intense modern scholarly scrutiny. The title Liber Pontificalis goes back to the 12th century, although it only became current in the 15th century, in the earliest extant manuscripts it is referred to as Liber episcopalis in quo continentur acta beatorum pontificum Urbis Romae and later the Gesta or Chronica pontificum. The attribution originated with Rabanus Maurus and is repeated by Martin of Opava, other sources attribute the early work to Hegesippus and Irenaeus, having been continued by Eusebius of Caesarea. Most scholars believe the Liber Pontificalis was first compiled in the 5th or 6th century, because of the use of the vestiarium, the records of the papal treasury, some have hypothesized that the author of the early Liber Pontificalis was a clerk of the papal treasury. The Liber Pontificalis originally only contained the names of the bishops of Rome, from Stephen V through the 10th and 11th centuries, the historical notes are extremely abbreviated, usually with only the popes origin and reign duration. It was only in the 12th century that the Liber Pontificalis was systematically continued, Duchesne refers to the 12th century work by Petrus Guillermi in 1142 at the monastery of St. Gilles as the Liber Pontificalis of Petrus Guillermi. Boso drew on Bonizo of Sutri for popes from John XII to Gregory VII, an independent continuation appeared in the reign of Pope Eugene IV, appending biographies from Pope Urban V to Pope Martin V, encompassing the period of the Western Schism. A later recension of this continuation was expanded under Pope Eugene IV, the two collections of papal biographies of the 15th century remain independent, although they may have been intended to be continuations of the Liber Pontificalis. The first extends from popes Benedict XII to Martin V, or in one manuscript to Eugene IV, the second extends from Pope Urban VI to Pope Pius II. The Liber Pontificalis was first edited by J. Busæus under the title Anastasii bibliothecarii Vitæ seu Gesta, a new edition, including the Historia ecclesiastica of Anastasius, was edited by Fabrotti. Another edition, editing the older Liber Pontificalis up to Pope Adrian II, muratori reprinted Bianchinis edition, adding the remaining popes through John XXII. Migne also republished Bianchinis edition, adding several appendixes, modern editions include those of Louis Duchesne and Theodor Mommsen. Duchesne incorporates the Annales Romani into his edition of the Liber Pontificalis, mommsens edition is incomplete, extending only until 715. Translations and further commentaries appeared throughout the 20th century, list of popes Raymond Davis, The Book of Pontiffs. Liverpool, University of Liverpool Press,1989, Raymond Davis, The Book of Pontiffs. Liverpool, University of Liverpool Press,2000, ISBN 0-85323-545-7 Stops with Pope Constantine, 708-715. Contains an extensive and up to date bibliography, Raymond Davis, The Lives of the Eighth Century Popes Liverpool, Raymond Davis, The Lives of the Ninth Century Popes Liverpool, University of Liverpool Press,1989
9.
Deacon
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Deacon is a ministry in Christian Churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. In many traditions the diaconate, the term for an office, is a clerical office. The word deacon is derived from the Greek word diákonos, which is a standard ancient Greek word meaning servant, waiting-man, minister, or messenger. One commonly promulgated speculation as to its etymology is that it literally means through the dust, female deacons are mentioned by Pliny the Younger in a letter to the emperor Trajan dated c. The title deaconess is not found in the Bible, however, a woman, Phoebe, is mentioned at Romans 16, 1–2 as a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. Nothing more specific is said about her duties or authority, the exact relationship between male and female deacons varies. A biblical description of the qualities required of a deacon, and of his household, can be found in 1 Timothy 3, prominent historical figures who played major roles as deacons and went on to higher office include Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, Thomas Becket and Reginald Pole. On June 8, A. D.536 a serving Roman deacon was raised to Pope and his father, Pope Agapetus, had died and the office had been vacant for over a month. The title is used for the president, chairperson, or head of a trades guild in Scotland. The diaconate is one of the orders in the Catholic, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox. The other major orders are those of bishop and presbyter, the diaconate continued in a vestigial form as a temporary, final step along the course toward ordination to priesthood. In Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican churches, deacons assist priests in their pastoral and administrative duties and they have a distinctive role in the liturgy of the Eastern and Western Churches. In the Eastern Church, deacons have a profound presence in the Divine Liturgy. In the Western Church, Pope St. Today, deacons are also granted permission to preach, beginning around the fifth century, there was a gradual decline in the permanent diaconate in the Latin church. It has however remained a part of the Eastern Catholic Churches. These men are known as permanent deacons in contrast to those continuing their formation, there is no sacramental or canonical difference between the two, however, as there is only one order of deacons. The permanent diaconate formation period in the Roman Catholic Church varies from diocese to diocese as it is determined by the local ordinary, although they are assigned to work in a parish by the diocesan bishop, once assigned, deacons are under the supervision of the parish pastor. Unlike most clerics, permanent deacons who also have a profession have no right to receive a salary for their ministry
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pope Valentine". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton.
