“an insolent step,” says Pasquier. “unknown and contrary to the ancient “decrees, which do not wish that causes should “pass the confines of the kingdom in which they “had their origin.” They hesitated not to break this appeal, they even deposed the appellant. A second fit of rage seizes Adrian, who commands the king, by his apostolic power, to send the parties to Rome to await their judgment there. In the vigorous reply of Charles, he protests that the kings of France, sovereigns in their states, never shall humiliate themselves so far as to hold themselves but as popes’ lieutenants,: "exhorting him, in fine,” adds Pasquier, “that for the future he might desist from “letters of such a nature towards him and his pre− “lates, lest he should be obliged to reject them.” This epistle of Charles produced the effect which persevering firmness always secures: the holy father became softened, excused himself, abandoned Carloman, confirmed the deposition of the bishop of Laon, and said no more about the partition made of the states of Lothaire. He wrote the king a letter so full of professions of regard, of praises, and of promises, that it contained the request to keep it very secret: but it became and remains public.⁹⁷ Adrian died a short time after having written it, and John VIII. succeeded him in December, 872. ⁹⁷ Concilior. vol. 8, p. 936.;—Coll. of Histories of France, vol. 7, p. 456—468. The ravages of the Saracens in Italy, and especially about Rome, obliged the pope, John, to use a degree of management with the princes of Christendom. He refrained, for instance, from displeasing Basilius, when this emperor, having been reconciled to Photius, wished to replace this prelate in the patriarchal chair of Constantinople, which the death of Ignatius had left vacant. John, by his legates and letters, concurred in the acts of the Council of Constantinople, which restored Photius, and carried his desire to please the Greeks so far, as to blame those who had added the word ‘filioque,’ to the Creed.⁹⁸ ⁹⁸ Fleury’s Eccles. History, b. 53. n. 24. But the competition which divided the numerous ‘heritors of Charlemagne, offered more than one opportunity to John VIII. to constitute himself arbiter, in return for the services he rendered to some, the right of humiliating others, and of ruling over all.