A Tenth-Century "Emperor Michael of Constantinople"

Abstract

THE pontificate of John XII (955-964) witnessed a major development in papal foreign policy. Repeating the actions of his predecessors two centuries earlier, John called a powerful northern ruler King Otto I of Germany to his aid against his Italian enemies. In the eighth century, however, the popes had had little choice, for the Byzantine Empire was entangled in its life-and-deathstruggle with the Arabs and the Bulgarians. But by the mid-tenth century, Byzantium had surmounted the crisis, and entered a new era of vigorous expansion on all fronts, including Italy. It has occurred to modern investigators that John XII may have considered calling in Byzantine aid, before he eventually threw in his lot with the Germans. Was there any evidence for this? The French scholar, Jules Gay, thought he had indeed discovered indications that John XII had made friendly overtures to Byzantium. In his work on southern Italy and the Byzantine Empire, published in 1904, but still regarded as definitive, Gay states that the official acts of Pope John XII, following the former protocol, which had been abandoned under [Pope] Hadrian I [772-775], bore the regnal year of the [Byzantine] basileus.' By 1922, the error had taken root deeply enough to become entrenched in the Cambridge Medieval History. C. W. Previte-Orton remarks in the third volume of that work that it is significant that he [John XII] renewed the long-forgotten habit of dating by the years of the Byzantine Emperor.2 The fallacy was current as late as 1962, for George Every, in his book on the Patriarchate of Constantinople, writes that the popes of the first half of the tenth century preferred the more distant protection of Byzantium [to that of the Germans]. John XII even dated his acts by the regnal year of the Byzantine Emperor.3 All three authors strongly imply that a large number of official papal acts was involved. But in fact, their assertion rests on the evidence of a single document. The dating of a unique source by the reign of the basileus can scarcely be said to constitute a trend. The document is brief enough to be quoted in toto:4