The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church

Biographical Dictionary
Pope Marinus I (882-884)
882 (I)


(1) 1. BASILIO (?-882)

Birth. (No date or place found).

Education. (No information found).

Cardinalate. Presbyter cardinalis of the title of Ss. Quattro Coronati in 882 (1).

Death. 882, (no place found). Buried (no information found).

Bibliography. Chacón, Alfonso. Vitæ, et res gestæ Pontificum Romanorum : et S.R.E. Cardinalium ab initio nascentis Ecclesiae usque ad Clementem IX P. O. M. Alphonsi Ciaconii Ord. Praed. & aliorum opera descriptæ : cum uberrimis notis. Ab Augustino Oldoino, Soc. Jesu recognitae, et ad quatuor tomos ingenti ubique rerum accessione productae. Additis Pontificum recentiorum imaginibus, & Cardinalium insignibus, plurimisque aeneis figuris, cum indicibus locupletissimis. Romæ : P. et A. De Rubeis, 1677, I, col. 668-669, no. I; Cristofori, Francesco. Cronotasi dei cardinali di Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome : Tipografia de Propaganda Fide, 1888, p. 152; "Essai de liste générale des cardinaux. Les cardinaux des 10 premiers siècles". Annuaire Pontifical Catholique 1926. Paris : Maison de la Bonne Presse, 1927, p. 154, no. 2.

(1) This is according to "Essai de liste générale des cardinaux. Les cardinaux des 10 premiers siècles". Annuaire Pontifical Catholique 1926, p. 154, no. 2, which adds that Chacón, Vitæ, et res gestæ Pontificum Romanorum : et S.R.E. Cardinalium, col. 668, confuses him with Cardinal Stefano ( 882)

Cool Archive

(2) 2. STEFANO (?-891)

Birth. (No date found), Rome. Son of Adriano, of a noble family from the Roman region of Via Lata.

Education. He was educated by his relative Bishop Zaccaria of Anagni, librarian of the Holy See.

Early life. During the pontificate of Pope Adrian II, he became part of the Lateran patriarchum.

Sacred orders. He received the subdiaconate and the diaconate.

Cardinalate. Presbyter cardinalis of the title of Ss. Quattro Coronati in 882 (1). Cardinal primoprete. Pope Adrian III left Rome to travel through Italy leaving the government of the city to Bishop Giovanni of Pavia; when the pope died soon after having left the city, Bishop Giovanni immediately convoked the clergy and the aristocracy of Rome in order to proceed to the election of a successor. They unanimously elected Cardinal Stefano.

Papacy. Elected pope toward the end of September 885. Took the name Stephen V (VI). When the pope was elected, Rome was suffering from a painful famine, whose hardships the pontiff tried to alleviate by distributing money to the people from his personal patrimony. At the beginning of his pontificate, Pope John V (VI) was opposed by Emperor Charles the Fat, who was upset for not having been consulted about the election and wanted to impose his own candidate; the emperor sent his chancellor Liutward to Rome to have the pope deposed; the pope was able to successfully thwart the emperor's maneuvers and demonstrate to the chancellor that he had been unanimously elected and that the resident imperial envoy had assisted him in taking possession of the Lateran patriarchum; after this, the imperial opposition was abandoned. In 888, with the death of Emperor Charles, the Caroligian empire was dissolved. Pope Stephen V (VI), who desperately needed a protector against the incursions of the Saracens, found himself in the serious difficulty of having to choose between three aspiring competitors to the imperial crown: Arnulf of Germany, Guido di Spoleto and Berengar, marquis of Friuli. The pope sided with the second and crowned him and his wife, Ageltrude, in St. Peter's basilica on February 21, 891. Pope Stephen V (VI) clashed with the Byzantine Emperor Basil I the Macedonian for the support given to Photius, the rebel patriarch of Constantinople, excommunicated by Nicholas I. The pope forcefully intervened to resolve thorny disagreements that had arisen in some local churches, instructing, among other things, the archbishop of Reims, Folco, to convene a council at Worms, to examine the question of the archbishop of Cologne, who claimed to have the rights to the metropolitan see of Bremen, which had been established by Pope Nicholas I. The pope also summoned Bishop Frotario to return to his see of Bordeaux, leaving the one of Bourges, to which he had been transferred uncanonically. The pontiff consecrated, as bishop of Langres, the deacon Tybalt, whose election Archbishop Aurelian of Lyon unsuccessfully tried to oppose. The pope let himself to be involved in the intrigues of filogermanic Bishop Wiching, and formally interdicted the use of the Slav language in the liturgy, sending a letter to Moravian Prince Sventopulk in November 885; and also in a Commonitorium to the legates sent to Germany; the use of the Slav in the liturgy had been introduced by St. Methodius and authorized by Pope John VIII at the end of 880. He created two cardinals in two promotions.

Death. End of September 891, Rome. Buried in the portico of the Vatican basilica, Rome (2). His tomb was destroyed during the demolition of the old basilica and the construction of the new one in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Bibliography. Bonaccorsi, Ilaria. "Stefano V." Enciclopedia dei papi. 3 vols. Roma : Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, 2000, II, 38-41; Cardella, Lorenzo. Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome : Stamperia Pagliarini, 1792, I, pt. 1, 70-71; Chacón, Alfonso. Vitæ, et res gestæ Pontificum Romanorum : et S.R.E. Cardinalium ab initio nascentis Ecclesiae usque ad Clementem IX P. O. M. Alphonsi Ciaconii Ord. Praed. & aliorum opera descriptæ : cum uberrimis notis. Ab Augustino Oldoino, Soc. Jesu recognitae, et ad quatuor tomos ingenti ubique rerum accessione productae. Additis Pontificum recentiorum imaginibus, & Cardinalium insignibus, plurimisque aeneis figuris, cum indicibus locupletissimis. Romæ : P. et A. De Rubeis, 1677, I, col. 668-669, no. I; and col. 671-674; Cristofori, Francesco. Cronotasi dei cardinali di Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome : Tipografia de Propaganda Fide, 1888, p. 152; Del Re, Niccolò. "Stefano V (VI), papa." Mondo vaticano. Passato e presente. Città del Vaticano : Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1995, p. 1014-1015; "Essai de liste générale des cardinaux. Les cardinaux des 10 premiers siècles". Annuaire Pontifical Catholique 1926. Paris : Maison de la Bonne Presse, 1927, p. 154, no. 3; Gregorovius, Ferdinando. Le tombe dei papi.. Roma : Edizioni del Centauro, 1931. Seconda edizione italiana riveduta e ampliata da C. Huelsen, p. 34*-35*; Kelly, John Norman Davidson. The Oxford Dictionary of Popes. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1986, p. 113-114; Le Liber pontificalis. Paris : E. de Boccard, 1981, 1955. 3 v. : facsims. (Bibliothèque des Écoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome). Notes: Reprint of the 1955 edition./ Includes indexes./ Vol. 3: "Additions et corrections de L. Duchesne publiées par Cyrille Vogel ... avec L'Histoire du Liber pontificalis dupuis l'édition de L. Duchesne une bibliographie et des tables générales, II, LXVIII, LXXV and 226; Montini, Renzo Uberto. Le tombe dei papi. Roma : Angelo Belardetti, 1957. Note: At head of title: Instituto di studi romani, p. 145; Reardon, Wendy J. The deaths of the popes : comprehensive accounts, including funerals, burial places and epitaphs. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., Publishers, 2004, p. 66; Regesta pontificum Romanorum ab conditio Ecclesia. Ad annum post Christum natum MCXCVIII. Graz : Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1956. 2 v. Reprint. Originally published : Lipsiae : Veit et comp., 1885-1888. Original t.p. included : Regesta pontificum Romanorum ab condita ecclesia : ad annum post Christum natum MCXCVIII. Editionem secundam correctam et auctam edidit Philippus Jaffè ; auspiciis Gulielmi Wattenbach; curaverunt S. Loewenfeld, F. Kaltenbrunner, P. Ewald, I, 427-435.

Webgraphy. Biography by Ilaria Bonaccorsi, in Italian, Enciclopedia dei Papi (2000), Treccani; biography by Horace Mann, in English, The Catholic Encyclopedia; biography, in English, Encyclopaedia Britannica; his image and biography, in English, Wikipedia; his engraving, Biblioteca comunale dell'Archiginnasio, Bologna; his engraving, i Stockphoto; his engraving, Bildarchiv Austria. Die Bildplattform der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek; his engraving, Bildarchiv Austria. Die Bildplattform der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek; his engraving from the same source.

(1) This is according to "Essai de liste générale des cardinaux. Les cardinaux des 10 premiers siècles". Annuaire Pontifical Catholique 1926, p. 154, no. 2, which adds that Chacón, Vitæ, et res gestæ Pontificum Romanorum : et S.R.E. Cardinalium, col. 668, no. I, confuses him with Cardinal Basilio (882). Cardella, Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa, I, pt. 1, 70, indicates that several sources, Chacón among them, call him Basilio. Cristofori, Cronotasi dei cardinali di Santa Romana Chiesa, p. 152, indicates that he was promoted to the cardinalate in 883.
(2) This is the text of his epitaph, taken from Reardon, The deaths of the popes : comprehensive accounts, including funerals, burial places and epitaphs, p. 66:

ACCEDIS QVISQVIS MAGNI SVFFRAGIA PETRI
CELESTIS REGNI POSCERE CLAVIGERI
INTENTIS OCVLIS COMPVNCTO CORDE LOCELLVM
CONSPICE PERSPICVVM QVO PIA MEMBRA IACENT
HIC TVMVLVS QVINTI SACRATOS CONTINET ARTVS
PRAESVLIS EXIMII PONTIFICIS STEPHANI
BIS TERNIS ANNIS POPVLVM QVI REXIT ET VRBEM
ET GESSIT DOMINO QVAE FVERVNT PLACITA
SVSCEPIT TELLVS CONSVMPTVM PVLVERE CORPVS
AETHERA SED SCANDIT SPIRITVS ALMVS OVANS
VNDE PETO CVNCTI VENIENTES DICITE FRATRES
ARBITER OMNIPOTENS DA VENIAM STEPHANO

Top Consistories Catalogs Home

©1998-2023 Salvador Miranda.