He declares to Charles the Bald,⁹¹ that Theutberga having had recourse to the church, she could no longer be subject to a secular tribunal. In another letter to the same monarch,⁹² he announces that he writes no longer to Lothaire because he has excommunicated him. Lothaire, indeed, though he had taken back Theutberga, had not altogether relinquished Valdrade; and Nicholas would not be satisfied with a shew of compliance. ⁸⁹ Coll. Histories of France, vol. 8, p. 419. ⁹⁰ Ibid, p. 428. ⁹¹ Ibid, p. 422. ⁹² Ibid, p. 438. Theutberga, finally, wearied with these contests, designed renouncing for ever the titles of wife and of queen:—the pontiff would not permit it; he addressed her in a long epistle, in which he recommended to her perseverance and intrepidity, and directed her rather to die than to yield.⁹³ The same principles relative to the jurisdiction and independence of the clergy, are to be found in ‘Nicholas’s Rescript to the Bulgarians:’⁹⁴ “You who “are laymen,” says he to them, “ought not to “judge either priest or clerk: they must be left to “the judgment of their prelates.” Thus, while the pope censures the conduct of kings, annuls or confirms their civil acts, and even disposes of their crowns, the members of the clerical body, to the lowest degree, are freed from all secular jurisdiction. Such is the _regime_ to which Nicholas wished to subject the East and the West. He especially had at heart to make Constantinople submit; and his first step was to condemn and depose the patriarch Photius, in defiance of the emperor Michael. He threatened to burn, in the face of the world, an energetic letter which this emperor had written him, to excommunicate the ministers who had advised him to this step, and to annul in a Western council whatever had been done for Photius in the East This quarrel, winch was prolonged under the successors of Nicholas, was the prelude to the schism of the Greek Church. ⁹³ Concilior, vol. 8, p. 425. ⁹⁴ Henry’s Eccles. Hist -b. 60. n. 61. Basilius Cephalas, or the Macedonian, assassinated his benefactor Michael, and seized upon the throne of Constantinople. Photius, on this occasion, was willing to imitate St. Ambrose, and ventured to address Basilius: “Your hands are polluted with. “blood: approach not the sacred mysteries.” But Basilius did not in any respect imitate Theodosius: he banished Photius, and re-established Ignatius, whom Michael had, not less unjustly, driven from, the patriarchal chair. Adrian II. took advantage from the disgrace of Photius to renew against him the anathemas of Nicholas. Photius, condemned already at Rome, was also condemned in a general council held at Constantinople.