Background
Saint Nicholas I was born in 800 in Rome.
Saint Nicholas I was born in 800 in Rome.
During the pontificates of his predecessors, Leo IV and Benedict III, he greatly influenced papal policy. Elected pope in 858, he ruled during a time when the newly created Carolingian empire was showing itself incapable of maintaining its supranational position. Nicholas was a ruler of talent and independence. He maintained the prerogatives of Rome vigorously against John of Ravenna, who, with imperial support, was aiming at independence, and against Hincmar, Archbishop of Reims. He was equally firm in defending the marriage canons against Lothair II, King of Lorraine. He also carried on a bitter controversy with Photius, patriarch of Constantinople, which contributed to the later schism between the Eastern and Western churches.
Nicholas supported the patriarch St. Ignatius of Constantinople, who was uncanonically replaced by the scholar Photius after the Byzantine emperor Michael III had unjustly humiliated and deposed him. To investigate this state of affairs, Nicholas dispatched legates to Constantinople, but when they confirmed judgment against Ignatius in 861, he disavowed them.
