(3) 1. GAUDERICO, O.S.B.Cas. (?-?)

Cardinalate. Bishop cardinalis of Velletri in 867. Consecrated (no information found). He could not participate in the consecration of Pope Adrian II in 867 because he had been proscribed from his see by Emperor Louis II because of slanders against him (1); Stefano, bishop of Nepi, and Giovanni Immonide, deacon of the Roman Church and prestigious intellectual were also exiled with Cardinal Gauderico for the same reason; the new pope wrote to the emperor on their behalf and the monarch allowed their return to Rome and also granted the liberation of others who, though guilty of unspecified private violence, were imprisoned by the emperor in ergastulis, as if they were guilty of lesa maestà (2). Legate in 867 in the pontificate of Pope Adrian II. For several years beginning in 868, he was involved in the matter relative to the arrival of the missionaries Cyril and Methodius among the Slav peoples (they brought to Rome from Chersonesse, in Crimea, the relics of St. Clement, pope and martyr) and to the promotion of the devotion of that saint in Rome and Velletri; a letter from Anastasius Bibliotecario, dated between 877 and 878, shows the dedication of Cardinal Gauderico in that cause. In 868, he was charged, together with Formoso bishop of Porto, with the ordination of several disciples of Cyril and Methodius. Attended the Roman Synod of 869 convoked by Pope Adrian II, in preparation to the Eighth Ecumenical Council of Constantinople against Patriarch Photius together with Bishop Formoso of Porto, he was one of the leading voices of the episcopate close to the pontiff; he was charged with the reading of a reply of the synod to a discourse of the pope asking for the condemnation of the conciliabulum of Constantinople of August 867, which, by pressure from Patriarch Photius, had deposed and excommunicated Pope Nicholas I. Together with Cardinal Formoso, bishop of Porto, he was to represent the Holy See in the negotiations, held in Trent in May 872, between King Louis the German and Empress Engelberga. In 872, he took part in the ceremony of moving relics to an altar dedicated to the Blessed Virgin in the house of Giovanni Immonide, deacon of the Church of Rome and prestigious intellectuals, in Suburra, Rome. Pope John VIII sent him in August-September 875, together with Cardinal Formoso, bishop of Porto, and Bishop Giovanni of Arezzo, to offer King Charles II the Bald of West France the imperial crown and to invite him to go to Rome to be crowned. After the escape of Bishop Formoso from Rome the night of April 14 to 15, 876, fearing for his freedom and life because of disagreements with Pope John VIII, the pope sent Cardinal Gauderico, together with Bishop Zaccaria of Anagni to try to mediate with Bishop Formoso and his followers; the mediation failed and the break up between the pontiff and the bishop of Porto became complete. In 878, together with Bishop Zaccaria, he was sent as legate before the Duke Lamberto of Spoleto to dissuade him from going to Rome to bring back Formoso and his followers and have them restored to their old positions. In that same year, he participated in the Council of Ravenna, to which attended fifty bishops under the presidency of Pope John VIII. In 879, the pope rewarded his collaboration by asking Abbot Anastasio of S. Salvatore Maggiore to return to the cardinal the cellulam sancti Valentini, kept in Sabina, which had been taken from the patrimony of the see of Velletri, to which it belonged. In 879, he participated in the Synod of Rome for the preparation of the council celebrated in 879-880, in which Patriarch Photius was reintegrated. Resigned cardinalate in 879 and returned to the monastery of Montecassino. Together with some other characters, such as Anastasio Bibliotecario, Deacon Giovanni Immonide, and, in a less easily definable positions, Zaccaria, bishop of Anagni, and the same Formoso, bishop of Porto, who all were more or less his peers, Cardinal Gauderico stands as one of the prominent figures of the Roman world of the second half of the 9th century, expressing, as the latter, political and diplomatic activities that take place in parallel with efforts at various levels in the cultural and literary fields. He wrote the first version of a life of Sts. Cyril and Methodius in Latin, in Leggenda italiana (3). He collaborated with Deacon Giovanni Immonide in the writing of the Vita Clementis, the biography of the saintly pope and martyr. Some authors consider his cardinalate uncertain (3).

Death. (No date or place found). Buried (no place found).

Bibliography. Cardella, Lorenzo. Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome : Stamperia Pagliarini, 1792, I, pt. 1, 66; 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. 658, no. 1, col. 665; Cristofori, Francesco. Cronotasi dei cardinali di Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome : Tipografia de Propaganda Fide, 1888, p. 3; "Essai de liste générale des cardinaux. Les cardinaux des 10 premiers siècles". Annuaire Pontifical Catholique 1926. Paris : Maison de la Bonne Presse, 1927, p. 153, no. 3; Gams, Pius Bonifatius. Series episcoporum Ecclesiae catholicae. 3 v. in 1. Graz : Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1957, p. V; 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, 174, 176, 186; Marazzi, F. "Gauderico". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Roma : Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, 1960- , LII, 680-683.

Webgraphy. Biography by Federico Marazzi, in Italian, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 52 (1999), Treccani.

(1) This is according to Cardella, Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa, I, pt. 1, 66. Sunto Cronistorico Veliterno, indicates that he was exiled in 865.
(2) Le liber pontificalis, II, 176, believes that the reason for the misfortunes of Cardinal Gauderico and his companions were to be considered in conjunction with a raid in Rome of Duke Lamberto of Spoleto, who in 866 became ruler of Capua, but Duchesne does not specify whether the emperor had a role in this. The notation, made shortly before by the biographer in Le Liber pontificalis, of a rift between the imperial envoys in Rome and the Roman citizenship on the grounds that the latter had not notified the envoys of the choice of the new pontiff might perhaps show an attempt by the sovereign, through the Duke of Spoleto, to sow terror among the Romans, by deporting some of the most distinguished clerics and arresting others who had opposed the initiative of Duke Lamberto. At any rate, the biographer of Pope Adrian II had been very keen to stress the commitment of the pontiff in person to ensure that Bishop Gauderico together with the other companions in misfortune be returned to their previous status.
(3) Mgr G. Wilpert, in " Le pitture della basilica primitiva di S. Clémente", Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire, 1906, volume 26, issue 26, pp. 271, indicates that Leggenda, at least in its present form, dates back to the 12th century.
(3) Like Chacón, Vitæ, et res gestæ Pontificum Romanorum : et S.R.E. Cardinalium, I, col. 658, no. 1. Besides, Chacón, I, col. 658, no. 1 and col. 665, includes him among the cardinals of Pope Adrian II. Cardella, Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa, I, pt. 1, 66, indicates that it is very probable that he was promoted to the cardinalate as Cardinal Stefano Borgia says in his history of Velletri.

(4) 2. LEONE (?-?)

(1) "Essai de liste générale des cardinaux. Les cardinaux des 10 premiers siècles". Annuaire Pontifical Catholique 1926, p. 153, no. 4, indicates that without a doubt he is the same as Cardinal Leone, priest of S. Ciriaco alle Terme (853). Cristofori, Cronotasi dei cardinali di Santa Romana Chiesa, p. 143, lists a Cardinal Leone in 853; and another one in 867.

(5) 3. LEONE (?-?)

Birth. (No date or place found).

Education. (No information found).

Cardinalate. Presbyter cardinalis of the title of S. Lorenzo in Lucina in 867.

Death. (No date or place found). Buried (no information found).

Bibliography. Cardella, Lorenzo. Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome : Stamperia Pagliarini, 1792, I, pt. 1, ; 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. , no. ; Cristofori, Francesco. Cronotasi dei cardinali di Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome : Tipografia de Propaganda Fide, 1888, p. 49; "Essai de liste générale des cardinaux. Les cardinaux des 10 premiers siècles". Annuaire Pontifical Catholique 1926. Paris : Maison de la Bonne Presse, 1927, p. 152, no. 6.

(6) 4. LEONE (?-before 872)

Birth. (No date or place found).

Education. (No information found).

Cardinalate. Presbyter cardinalis of the title of S. Cecilia in 867 (1).

Death. Before 872, (no place found). Buried (no information found).

Bibliography. Cardella, Lorenzo. Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome : Stamperia Pagliarini, 1792, I, pt. 1, ; 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. , no. ; Cristofori, Francesco. Cronotasi dei cardinali di Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome : Tipografia de Propaganda Fide, 1888, p. 66; "Essai de liste générale des cardinaux. Les cardinaux des 10 premiers siècles". Annuaire Pontifical Catholique 1926. Paris : Maison de la Bonne Presse, 1927, p. 152, no. 5.

(1) He may be the same as Cardinal Leone, priest of S. Cecilia (853).

(7) 5. PAOLO (?-before 872)

Birth. (No date or place found).

Education. (No information found).

Cardinalate. Presbyter cardinalis of the title of S. Balbina in 867.

Death. Before 872, (no place found). Buried (no information found).

Bibliography. Cardella, Lorenzo. Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome : Stamperia Pagliarini, 1792, I, pt. 1, ; 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. , no. ; Cristofori, Francesco. Cronotasi dei cardinali di Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome : Tipografia de Propaganda Fide, 1888, p. 124; "Essai de liste générale des cardinaux. Les cardinaux des 10 premiers siècles". Annuaire Pontifical Catholique 1926. Paris : Maison de la Bonne Presse, 1927, p. 152, no. 7.

(8) 6. ROMANO (?-897)

Birth. (No date found), Gallese, near Civita Castellana, Tuscany. Son of Constantino. Nephew of Pope Marinus I. He is also listed as Romano Marin because of his relationship with that pope.

Education. (No information found).

Cardinalate. Presbyter cardinalis of the title of S. Pietro in Vincoli in 867.

Papacy. Elected pope in July or August 897. Kept his baptismal name as pope. On October 15, 897, he confirmed the possession of the see of Elna at the request of its bishop, Riculfo, by the bull "Quotiens illa"; and of the see of Gerona at the request of its bishop, Servidei, by the bull "Sicut per donum"; both sees are in Spain. He granted the pallium to Patriarch Vitalis of Grado as well as a privilege for his church. His coins have the name of Emperor Lambert, and his own papal monogram with the legend "Scs. Petrus". He was forcibly deposed by one of the Roman factions and imprisoned in a monastery, where he was poisoned for favoring Pope Formosus.

Death. November 897, poisoned, in Rome. Buried in the Vatican basilica. 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. 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. 683-684; Cristofori, Francesco. Cronotasi dei cardinali di Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome : Tipografia de Propaganda Fide, 1888, p. XL; Del Re, Niccolò. "Romano, papa." Mondo vaticano. Passato e presente. Città del Vaticano : Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1995, p. 902; "Essai de liste générale des cardinaux. Les cardinaux des 10 premiers siècles". Annuaire Pontifical Catholique 1926. Paris : Maison de la Bonne Presse, 1927, p. 152, no. 8; Kelly, John Norman Davidson. The Oxford Dictionary of Popes. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1986, p. 116; Loré, Vito. "Romano." Enciclopedia dei papi. 3 vols. Roma : Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, 2000, II, 50-51; 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, 230; Montini, Renzo Uberto. Le tombe dei papi. Roma : Angelo Belardetti, 1957. Note: At head of title: Instituto di studi romani, p. 148, no. 15; Reardon, Wendy J. The deaths of the popes : comprehensive accounts, including funerals, burial places and epitaphs. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., Publishers, 2004, p. 68; 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, 441.

Webgraphy. Biography by Vito Loré, in Italian, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 88 (2017), Treccani; biography by Horace Mann, in English, The Catholic Encyclopedia; biography, in English, Encyclopaedia Britannica; his image and biography, in Italian, Wikipedia; his engraving, Biblioteca comunale dell'Archiginnasio, Bolgna; his engraving, Bildarchiv Austria. Die Bildplattform der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek; his engraving, Bildarchiv Austria. Die Bildplattform der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek; his engraving from the same source; his engraving also from the same source.

(9) 7. GIOVANNI (?-882)

Papacy. Elected pope on December 14, 872, in the presence of Emperor Louis II, on the same day of the death of Pope Adrian II. Took the name John VIII (2). In spite of being old and sickly when he was elected pope, he worked hard to defend papal authority, to preserve intact the privileges and the Church and its property, and to establish the primacy of the Roman Empire. He was also a stern guardian of the discipline of the clergy. The pope fought hard against the encroachments of the church of Ravenna, perpetrated by its Archbishop Giovanni, and he did not hesitate to resort to excommunication against those who, clergy or laity, ignored his provisions. The broad authority that he could always have on the appointments and condemnation of the bishops allowed him to ensure unity on the side of what was dogmatically and doctrinally sound. Pope John VIII supported the missionary work of Methodius, future saint, among the Slavs and when Methodius clashed with the German clergy and was imprisoned, the pope obtained his release in 873. The pope had initially prohibited the Slavonic language for their liturgy but later, in 880, approved it when Methodius, summoned to Rome on a charge of heresy, totally vindicated himself. The intrigue and violence against Methodius and his Slavic followers by German and Hungarian princes and churchmen crushed the use of the Slavonic liturgy in Moravia but that liturgy survived among the Bulgars. The pope was not able to use the opportunity offered by King Boris I of Bulgaria of placing that Church under the direct jurisdiction of Rome instead of under Constantinople. The pontiff was able of keeping the Church of Croatia under the jurisdiction of Rome. Concerning the empire, he had the opportunity of decisively intervening twice in the election of the emperor. In the contest for the imperial crown between Charles the Bald and Louis the German, Pope John VIII sided in favor of the first ruler, who was praised for piety, culture and value. The pontiff then sent a mission headed by Cardinal Formoso, bishop of Porto, to invite Charles to Rome, where he was received with great honors, and crowned emperor in St. Peter's basilica on Christmas Day 875. In January 876, Pope John VIII appointed Anségise of Sens as his vicar for Gaul and Germany but the initiative was frustrated by Archbishop Hincmar of Reims. Soon the pope found himself alone against both factions of the Roman nobles and Spoletans, supporters of the German branch,and the same time, the pontiff had to front of the advancing of the Saracens, who had ravaged the environs of Rome. The old pope however, sustained by force and uncommon fortitude faced with unexpected fervor the situation, combining alliances, excommunicating enemies and even executing traitors. Finally, with a fleet of armed Romans dromons, the first instance of a papal navy, he sailed in the direction of Cape Circeo and there his soldiers slaughtered enemies and captured a portion of the enemy ships, freed a large number of prisoners and rescued others with the money. Pope John also was careful to prevent the looting of the Saracens in Rome, building around the basilica of S. Paolo a Joannopolis as Pope Leo I had walled the basilica of St. Peter. The death of Emperor Charles the Bald in 881 revived the German faction, but the pope did not hesitate to excommunicate them (including Bishop Formoso of Porto, future pope, who was deposed and reduced to the lay state) then turning to Charles the Fat, who he crowned emperor in St. Peter's basilica, but from whom nothing he could obtain, despite an insistent request of help. The pope was once again arbiter the fate of the empire, but in return he received bitter disappointments, due to un energetic nature of the new emperor, who very early proved to be unable to govern with prestige and, above all, to eradicate the Muslims. In matters concerning the East, Pope John VIII acted with precipitation, confirming in the old patriarchal see of Constantinople Photius, who once reinstated in his office, without taking any account of the conditions of his recognition, he read in council the letters sent by the pope, omitting the parts which bound him to obedience to the pontiff, for which, Pope John was left with no choice but to renew the condemnation against Patriarch Photius that had been pronounced by his predecessors. At an undetermined date, Pope John VIII issued the constitution De jure cardinalium by which he ordered that at least two times per month the cardinals of the Roman Church gathered to watch over the morals and obligations of clerics, ordered that in those reunions the cardinals found out about the life, behavior, quality, clothing, and study how each prelate conducted themselves toward their subjects and how the subjects obeyed their prelates, and insisted that the cardinals heard the complaints of lay and ecclesiastics and define the causes that belonged to them. He ordered that the cardinals go twice a week to the Lateran Palace to judge the causes of the churches, the discipline of clergy, and the complaints of lay people. Pope John VIII's Registrum epistolarum contains 320 letters plus the fragments of several others.

Death. December 16, 882, he was first poisoned and as the poison worked slowly, he was then finished with hammer blows to the head by some of his relatives in a local conspiracy, in Rome. Buried in a sepulcrum pulcherrimum in front of the Vatican basilica, iuxta portam iudicii (3). He was the first pope to have been assassinated.

Bibliography. Balan, Pietro. Il pontificato di Giovanni VIII. Libri tre di mons. Pietro Balan. Città del Vaticano : Biblioteca Apostolica Vatican, n.d. [1880?]. Bound with the author's Il processo di Bonfazio VIII; Cardella, Lorenzo. Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome : Stamperia Pagliarini, 1792, I, pt. 1, 67-70; 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. 659-666; Cristofori, Francesco. Cronotasi dei cardinali di Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome : Tipografia de Propaganda Fide, 1888, p. XL; "Essai de liste générale des cardinaux. Les cardinaux des 10 premiers siècles". Annuaire Pontifical Catholique 1926. Paris : Maison de la Bonne Presse, 1927, p. 152, no. 9; Gregorovius, Ferdinando. Le tombe dei papi.. Roma : Edizioni del Centauro, 1931. Seconda edizione italiana riveduta e ampliata da C. Huelsen, p. 32*-33*, no. 34; Kelly, John Norman Davidson. The Oxford Dictionary of Popes. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1986, p. 110-111; 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, LXVII, LXXVI, and 221-223; Montini, Renzo Uberto. Le tombe dei papi. Roma : Angelo Belardetti, 1957. Note: At head of title: Instituto di studi romani, p. 142, no. 108; Petruzzi, Catarino. "Giovanni VIII, papa." Mondo vaticano. Passato e presente. Città del Vaticano : Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1995, p. 535-536; Reardon, Wendy J. The deaths of the popes : comprehensive accounts, including funerals, burial places and epitaphs. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., Publishers, 2004, p. 65; 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, 376-422; Sennis, Antonio. "Giovanni VIII." Enciclopedia dei papi. 3 vols. Roma : Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, 2000, II, 28-34.

Webgraphy. Biography by Antonio Sennis, in Italian, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 55 (2001), Treccani; biography by Horace Mann, in English, The Catholic Encyclopedia; biography, in English, Encyclopaedia Britannica; his image and biography, in English, Wikipedia; biography, in Italian, Santi, Beati e Testimoni; biography by Antonio Sennis, in Italian, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 55 (2001), Treccani; biography, in Spanish, Gran Enciclopedia Rialp: Humanidades y Ciencia, Canal Social; Johannes VIII. Päpstliche Herrschaft in den karolingischen Teilreichen am Ende des 9. Jahrhunderts by Dorothee Arnold (Bern / Frankfurt a.M. [u.a.]: Peter Lang 2005); his engraving, in color, Fotosearch; his engraving, iStockphoto; his engraving, Bildarchiv Austria. Die Bildplattform der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek; his engraving, Bildarchiv Austria. Die Bildplattform der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek; his engraving from the same source; engraving from the same source; engraving also from the same source; Pope Joan: Old rituals, wild imaginations led to legend, archivist says by Carol Glatz, National Catholic Reporter, Vatican City, Dec 17, 2021.

(1) He may be the same as Cardinal Giovanni, archdeacon cardinalis of the Holy Roman Church (853).
(2) If Pope Joan, product of a discredited legend of the 13th century, would have existed, she would have been designated John VIII and this pope would have been John IX.
(3) This is the text of his epitaph, taken from Montini, Le tombe dei papi, p. 142, no. 108:

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