Nicholas I. (858–867), anathematized Photius, the usurping Patriarch of Constantinople. The empire having fallen to Michael III., a child of three years old, his mother Theodora, assisted by his uncle Bardas, carried on the government in his name. When this prince grew up, Bardas ousted Theodora, and, in order to maintain himself in power, pandered to the passions of his nephew. Michael gave himself up to such scandalous excesses that the Patriarch Ignatius excluded him from the church, and excommunicated Bardas. In six days, Photius, a layman who could be depended upon to do as he was told, was made patriarch in the room of Ignatius. This was the prelude to the separation of the Greek Church. Photius added heresy to his revolt against the pope, by asserting that the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father only, and not from the Son. Nicholas’ successor, Adrian II., appointed his legates to preside at the council which deposed the Patriarch Photius. He also upheld the sentence of his predecessor against Lothair, whom he compelled to renounce his adulterous union with Valdrade. When that prince came before him to partake of the sacrament, the pope said in a loud tone of voice, as he presented the host, “If thou hast given up thy adultery, if thou hast broken off all connection with Valdrade, may this sacrament comfort thee! But if thy heart is still perverse, it will be for thy punishment.” This lofty firmness of speech was all the more praiseworthy because the pope, in thus maintaining the rights of morality, had to defy and admonish a prince who had delivered Rome from the Saracens. No one can tell whether the doubt expressed by Adrian, as to the sincerity of Lothair’s conversion, was well grounded or not; but it is at least certain that the latter died forty days afterwards, and that his death appeared to be a judgment from Heaven. The legates of John VIII., the successor of Adrian, allowed themselves to be intimidated and corrupted by Photius. Deceived by their false representations, John VIII. at first approved of what they had done; but when he learnt the truth he publicly excommunicated at Rome both Photius and the cowardly legates who had betrayed their trust in order to curry favour with this impostor (880). John VIII. was the first pope, since the fall of the Roman Empire, who had to decide between two competitors for the Imperial crown. He declared, that as the empire had been conferred upon Charlemagne by the grace of God and the authority of the pope, he transferred it to the King of the Franks, Charles the Bald.