Pope Eugene II - Frankish Influences

Frankish Influences

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, but also checked the power of the nobles. 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 and from the Greeks concerning the image question. At first the Eastern Roman Emperor Michael II showed himself tolerant towards the image-worshippers, and their great champion, Theodore the Studite, wrote to him to exhort him "to unite us to the head of the Churches of God, Rome, and through it with the three Patriarchs" and to refer any doubtful points to the decision of Old Rome in accordance with ancient custom. 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 certain points connected with the worship of images. Before taking any steps to meet the wishes of Michael, Louis asked the pope's permission for a number of his bishops to assemble and make a selection of passages from the Fathers to elucidate the question that the Greeks had put before them. The leave was granted, but the bishops who met at Paris in 825 were incompetent for the task. 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 decrees of the Second Council of Nicæa. Nothing is known of the result of their researches.

A council which assembled at Rome in the reign of Eugene passed several enactments for the restoration of church discipline, took measures for the foundation of schools and chapters, and decided against priests wearing secular dress or engaging in secular occupations. Eugene also adopted various provisions for the care of the poor, widows and orphans, and on that account received the name of "father of the people". He died on 27 August 827.

In 826 Eugene held an important council at Rome of 62 bishops, in which 38 disciplinary decrees were issued. One or two of its decrees are noteworthy as showing that Eugene had at heart the advancement of learning. Not only were ignorant bishops and 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. To help in the work of the conversion of the North, Eugene wrote commending St. Ansgar, the Apostle of the Scandinavians, and his companions "to all the sons of the Catholic Church". Coins of this pope are extant bearing his name and that of Emperor Louis. It is supposed that he was buried in St. Peter's Basilica in accordance with the custom of the time, even though there is no documentary record to confirm it.