From The Lives of the Popes from the Time of our Saviour Jesus Christ to the Accession of Gregory VII. Written Originally in Latin by B. Platina, Native of Cremona, and translated into English (from an anonymous translation, first printed in 1685 by Sir Paul Rycaut), Edited by William Benham, Volume I, London: Griffith, Farran, Okeden & Welsh, [1888, undated in text]; pp. 210-212.
The Lives of the Popes,
BY
B. Platina
Volume I.
PASCHAL I.
A.D. 817-824.
PASCHAL, a Roman, son of Bonosus, was created Pope without any interposition of the emperor’s authority. Whereupon at his first investiture in that office, he forthwith sends Nuncios to Louis, excusing himself, and laying all the blame upon the clergy and people of Rome, who had forcibly compelled him to undertake it. Louis, accepting this for satisfaction from Paschal, sends to the clergy and people, admonishing them to observe the ancient constitution, and to beware how they presumed for time to come to infringe the rights of the emperor. Also, in the assembly held at Aachen, he associated to himself in the empire his eldest son, Lotharius, and declared Pipin, his second son, king of Aquitain; and Louis, his third son, king of Bavaria. But Bernardus, king of Italy, having, upon the instigation of certain bishops and seditious citizens, revolted from the empire, and compelled some cities and states to swear allegiance to himself, Louis, being hereat incensed, sends a strong army into Italy; whose passage over the Alps Bernardus endeavouring to oppose, he was vanquished. The heads of the rebellion being taken, were presently cut off, and Bernardus himself, though he very submissively begged forgiveness, was put to death at Aachen. Those bishops who had been authors of the mischief were, by a decree of synod, confined into several monasteries. This tumult, for so it was rather than a war, being thus composed, Louis moves with his army against the Saxons rebelling now afresh, and overcomes and slays Viromarchus, their hardy chief, who aspired to the kingdom. After this, he sends his son Lotharius, whom he had declared king of Italy, to the Pope, by whom he was anointed in the church of St Peter’s, with the title of 211 Augustus. But there arising great commotions in Italy, and Lotharius seeing himself unable to withstand them, he goes to his father in order to provide greater force. Upon which Theodorus the Primicerius, and Leo the Nomenclator, having had their eyes first pulled out, were murdered in a tumult in the Lateran Palace. There were some who laid the blame of the disorder upon Paschal himself; but he in a synod of thirty bishops did both by conjectures and by reasons, and by his oath purge himself of it. Louis rested himself satisfied herewith, and as Anastasius tells us, that no future disturbance might arise from uncertain pretensions, writing to Paschal, he declared in his letters what cities of Tuscany were subject to the empire, viz., Arezzo, Volterra, Chiusi, Florence, which had been repaired and enlarged by his father, Charles the Great, Pistoia, Lucca, Pisa, Perugia, and Orvieto; the others he allowed to be under the jurisdiction of the Church of Rome. He added, moreover, Todi in Umbria, and Romagna beyond the Apennine, with the Exarchate of Ravenna. The same Anastasius says that Louis granted to Paschal a free power (the same which he also tells us was given by Charles to Pope Adrian) of choosing bishops, whereas before the emperors were wont to be advised, and their consent and confirmation desired in the case. Our Paschal, who, for his piety and learning, had been by Pope Stephen made prior of the monastery of St Stephen in the Vatican, being now in the chair, both caused the bodies of several saints, which before lay neglectedly, to be conveyed into the city with great solemnity, and honourably interred; and also by paying their creditors procured the release of divers poor prisoners. He also built from the ground the church of St Praxedes the blessed martyr, not far from the old one, which, through age and the clergy’s neglect, was run to ruin. This church having consecrated, he oftentimes celebrated Mass in it, and also deposited therein the bodies of many saints which lay about unregarded in the cemeteries. In the same church was an oratory dedicated to St Agnes, which he made very stately and ornamental. Moreover, he built the church of St Cecilia (as appears still by an inscription on the nave of it), in which he in like manner reposited the bodies of that virgin herself, and her affianced husband, Valerianus, as also of Tiburtius and Maximus, martyrs, and Urban and Lucius, Bishops of Rome, adorning it with all 212 kinds of marble, and enriching it with presents of gold and silver. He also repaired the church of St Mary ad Præsepe, that had been decayed by age, and altered the nave of it to advantage. In fine, having been very exemplary for religion and piety, good nature and bounty, after he had been in the chair seven years, two months, seven days, he died, and was buried in St Peter’s. The see was then vacant only four days.
Previous Pope: 99. Stephen II. 100. Paschal I. Next Pope: 101. Eugenius II.