uncle Bardas, he began his reign with the murder of Theo- A.C. clistus, one of his guardians.

Pope Leo the Fourth caused the city of Ceutumcellæ, now 854 Civita Vechia, which had been destroyed by the Saracens, to be rebuilt.

At this period, Pope Joan is supposed to have occupied the papal chair for two years.

Notwithstanding the incessant ravages of the Danes, Ethelwolf, king of England, proceeded on a pilgrimage to Rome, with his favourite son Alfred, then only six years of age; and having spent a year in devotion, he returned to England, and espoused Judith, daughter of the emperor Charles the Bold. On landing, he found that his eldest son Athelston was dead, and that Ethelbald, his second son, had assumed the government, who, with many of the nobles, had formed the project of excluding him from the throne. Ethelwolf, to prevent a civil war, yielded to the major part of his son's pretensions, partitioning off the kingdom, the western part of which he resigned to Ethelbald. Having thus arranged the civil affairs of the state, he summoned a council to take into consideration the ecclesiastical claims, when such cessions were made to the church, that the tithes, which until that period could never be collected, were granted without opposition to the clergy.

The following year, the emperor Lotharius divided his kingdom between his three sons; to Louis, the eldest, he assigned the empire and the kingdom of Italy; to Lotharius, he gave Lorraine; and to Charles, Burgundy, Provence, and Dauphiny. After making such dispositions, being disgusted with the grandeur of this world, he retired to the monastery of Prum, in the environs, where he died on the 28th of September.

Louis the Second succeeded his father Lotharius in the empire of the West, or Germany. Michael, emperor of the East, confined his mother Theodora, and his three sisters, in a monastery; where it is said she afterwards died by poison, administered by the command of her son.

Ethelwolf, king of England, died on the 13th of January, 857 and left his kingdom to his two elder sons, Ethelbald and Ethelbert, the western territories being assigned to the former, and those of the east to the latter.

papacy.

858

Nicholas the First was elevated to the Ethelbald, a profligate prince, created great scandal, and 860 gave offence to the English people, by espousing Judith, his mother-in-law; whom he was ultimately prevailed upon to divorce, through the remonstrances of Swithin, bishop of

A.C. Winchester; soon after which he died, leaving his brother Ethelbert sole occupant of the throne.

861 The caliph Motawakkel, who had succeeded his brother Vatheck Billah, was assassinated by his own son Monstanser, whose reign lasted only six months; when his cousin Mostain succeeded him as caliph of the Saracens.

863

866

867

868

Rurik, a Gothic adventurer, erected a grand duchy at Novogorod, and was recognised prince of Russia, from whom were descended all the grand dukes and czars until the year

1598.

Bruno, and Trancmor, his brother, laid the first foundation of the city of Brunswick.

The following year, Louis, king of Germany, despatched a priest to the Sclavonians for the purpose of converting them to Christianity; when his mission was crowned with the greatest possible success. The whole nation demanded of the pope the liberty of celebrating the church service in the language of their country, which was accorded them.

Lothaire espoused Waldrade, niece of Gontier, archbishop of Cologne.

The council of Metz, convened in the month of June, sanctioned the marriage of Waldrade; while the pope held another at Rome, which condemned the decisions of that of Metz, and excommunicated Gontier, archbishop of Cologne, Thietbrand, archbishop of Treves, as well as Waldrade.

The following year, Robert the Strong, great-grandfather of Hugues Capet, obtained the government of the duchy of France.

King Ethelbert, having reigned over England for five years after the demise of his brother, in a manner worthy of his birth and station, (during which period, however, the island was as usual infested by the Danes,) died, and was succeeded by his brother Ethelred.

Michael, emperor of the East, ordered his uncle Bardas to be assassinated; giving the title of Cæsar to the Macedonian Basilius, whom he associated with himself in the empire.

Adrian the Second mounted the papal chair.

In the ensuing year, Basilius learned that it was the emperor's intention to put him to death, upon which he caused his assassination, and seized upon the throne, after Michael had reigned 14 years with his mother, and 5 years and 3 months by himself.

Lotharius repaired to Rome, and became reconciled to the pope, who annulled the excommunication thundered against him in consequence of his divorce from Thietberge. When

returning to his territories, Lotharius died at Plaisance, upon A.C. which his body was interred in the church of Saint Antonin.

The same year, Charles, king of Provence, died without issue; when Charles the Bald took possession of the realm, which he divided with Louis, king of Bavaria.

Charles the Bald possessed himself of Lorraine, and was crowned king at Metz, by Hincmar, archbishop of Reims. Basilius, emperor of the East, invested his three sons, Constantine, Alexander, and Leo, with the title of Cæsar, and associated the latter with himself in the empire. While enjoying the pleasures of the chase, Basilius was attacked by a stag, which dragged him by his belt; when one of the guards cutting the same with his weapon, in order to extricate his prince, was punished with death for having raised his sword at the person of the emperor.

The emperor Basilius made war against the Saracens; 869 passed the Euphrates, and rendered himself master of Samosata and many other places in Mesopotamia. On returning to Constantinople, he despatched succours to king Louis, who then waged war against the Saracens in Italy.

The Danes in the course of this year ravaged the English coast, and during one of their incursions, murdered Edmund, titular king of the East Angles; whose burial-place was afterwards called St. Edmund's Bury.

EIGHTH ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.

The eighth general council was convened at Constan- 870 tinople, under pope Adrian the Second and the emperor Basilius; when Photius, the schismatic, was deposed, and Saint Ignatius re-established on the patriarchal seat of Constantinople *.

Pope Adrian the Second threatened Charles the Bald and Louis of France with excommunication, for having possessed themselves of the dominions of Lotharius. Hincmar, archbishop of Reims, in consequence, forwarded letters to the pope, representing to him that he had not the right to dispose of kingdoms.

Photius was author of the schism which still exists between the Latin and Greek churches. That patriarch, not satisfied with refusing obedience to the Holy See, accused the whole Romish church of error and superstition respecting the procession of the Holy Ghost; the fasting on Saturdays; the celibacy of priests, &c., c.

The Danes ravaged England, pillaged the churches and monasteries; when one community of nuns, to escape any attempts upon their chastitity, mutilated their faces and cut off their noses; upon which the Danes in revenge set fire to the building and consumed the sisterhood in the flames.

The following year, Ethelred, king of England, gained several victories over the Danes, but was ultimately slain in battle. He was succeeded by Alfred, his brother, who subsequently reconquered the whole realm. After the uniting of the seven kingdoms of Britain by Egbert, in 827, England was far from having enjoyed a state of uninterrupted repose. The piratical Normans or Danes for 50 years desolated her coasts, and continued for some centuries after that period to be a perpetual scourge to the country. Under Alfred, justly surnamed the Great, grandson of Egbert, the kingdom was on that account reduced to great wretchedness, when Alfred, in the short space of one year, engaged and overthrew the Danes in eight pitched battles; after which a fresh incursion of their countrymen compelled him to solicit a peace, which those pirates incessantly interrupted by new hostilities. Under those harassing circumstances, that great monarch found himself compelled to seek safety for many months in an obscure quarter of his dominions, till the disorders of the Danish army offered him a fair opportunity, of which he took such signal advantage as to accomplish the entire overthrow of his implacable enemies. Upon that occasion, he might have cut them in pieces to a man, but from motives of humanity, which always actuate the truly magnanimous and great, he rather chose to spare and incorporate them with his English subjects. This clemency did not restrain the barbarians from attempting a fresh invasion, when they were again defeated with horrid slaughter; so that the extreme severity then resorted to from dire necessity had the effect of suspending for several years all further depredations on the part of the Danes.

Whether Alfred be considered in his public or private character, he equally deserves to be ranked among the best and greatest of monarchs. He united the most enterprising and heroic spirit with consummate prudence and moderation; the utmost rigour of authority with engaging gentleness of manners; the most exemplary justice with the greatest lenity; and the talents of the statesman, and the man of letters, with the intrepid resolution and conduct of a most experienced general. He found his kingdom in the most abject state to which anarchy, domestic barbarism, and foreign hostility could reduce it; and he brought it to a pitch

of eminence, surpassing in many respects, the situation of A.C. its contemporary nations. In fine, to sum up the character of that magnanimous prince, Alfred the Great may be regarded as one of the best and wisest men that ever occupied the royal seat, and is truly deserving of the love and veneration in which his memory is held by every Englishman. John the Eighth succeeded to the papacy.

During this year clocks were first introduced at Constan- 872 tinople from Venice.

Charles the Bald caused his son Carloman to be seized for 873 having conspired against him; upon which he ordered him to be tried, when the judges condemned him to death; Charles, however, ordered his eyes to be put out, and doomed him to be incarcerated in a narrow dungeon.

The emperor Louis the Second, having governed the em- 875 pire of the West for 20 years, died at Milan, on the 6th of August, and was interred in the church of St. Ambrose. As he left no male children, Charles the Bald proceeded to Italy, when the pope crowned him emperor of Germany, in St. Peter's church, on the 25th of December.

Harold Harfager united the Norwegian provinces, conquered Orkney, Shetland, and the Hebrides, and appointed earls to govern them.

The following year, the emperor Charles, in his progress through Italy, when returning to France, stopped at Pavia, where he received the iron crown of the kingdom of Lombardy from the hands of the archbishop Anspert.

Louis, surnamed the German, died, and bequeathed his 877 kingdom to his three sons, Carloman, Louis, and Charles, surnamed the Fat. The first obtained Bavaria; the second, Saxony and part of Lorraine; and the third, Alsace, Swabia, and Switzerland.

The emperor Charles the Bald set forwards for Italy, with the intention of assisting the pope against the Saracens, when he was poisoned by his Jew physician Zedekiah, and expired in the hut of a peasant on this side Mount Cenis, at the of 54. He was interred at Mantua, and 7 years after transferred to the abbey of Saint Denis, after a reign of 37 years, two of which he had ruled as emperor.

age

Louis the Stammerer succeeded his father Charles the Bald in France, and was crowned at Compiegne, by Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, on the 8th of December.

The following year, Lambert, duke of Spoletto, and Adalbert, marquis of Tuscany, took possession of Ronie, at which period Pope John was compelled to seek refuge in France;