JOHN VIII. (pope from 872 to 882), successor of Adrian II., was a Roman by birth. His chief aim during his occupancy of the papal chair was to build up his temporal power by uniting the various discordant political elements of Italy into a theocracy under his own immediate control, and by subordinating the empire to the ecclesiastical authority of Rome. The qualifications he brought to the task he had undertaken were a resolute and unbending will, an unscrupulous readiness to employ any means that might best advance his purpose, and a thorough mastery of diplomatic intrigue. Events, however, were so fatally opposed to his designs that no sooner did one of his schemes begin to realize itself in fact than it was shattered and dissipated by an unlooked-for chance. To take advantage of the opportunity of winning a recognition of the dependence of the imperial authority on that of Rome, as well as to obtain an influential alliance against his enemies, he agreed, in 875, to bestow the imperial crown on Charles the Bald, but that monarch was too much occupied in Germany to grant him much effectual aid, and about the time of the death of Charles he found it necessary to come to ignominious terms with the Saracens, who were only prevented from entering Rome by the promise of an annual tribute. Carloman, the opponent of Charles’s son Louis, soon after invaded northern Italy, and, securing the support of the bishops and counts, demanded from the pope the imperial crown. John attempted to temporize, but Duke Lambert of Spoleto, a partisan of Carloman, whom events had recalled to Germany, entered Rome in 878 with an overwhelming force, and for thirty days virtually held him a prisoner in St Peter’s. He was, however, unsuccessful in winning any concession from the pope, who after ...