Letters (Register)
The register of Pope John VIII. It contains his letters on Methodius and the Slavonic liturgy, first forbidding and then permitting it, and his letters of 879 on the restoration of Photius.
A large part of John VIII’s register survives in a later copy, so that for this pope, unusually, there is a run of dated outgoing letters. Three matter for Cyril and Methodius among the Slavs: letter 200 to Svatopluk and letter 201 to Methodius (both summer 879), which summon the archbishop to Rome and recall an earlier ban on mass in Slavonic; and letter 255, Industriae tuae (June 880), which declares him orthodox and allows the Slavonic liturgy. Letter 207 (879), to the emperors at Constantinople, argues that the Roman see may loose what a synod has bound, with Photius in view. Beside the Latin of letters 207 to 209 the editor prints the Greek version read at the council of 879–880, which he heads Versio Graeca adulterata, a falsified version with Photius as its author; a letter on the creed that survives only in Greek (258a) he judges to be, as it seems, wholly invented. On the dispute see Acts of the Council of Constantinople (879–880).
These are the pope’s own words, written at the time, and they are the firmest evidence on either question.
Cited in
- AD 863 to AD 885, estimated date
- AD 863 to AD 867, estimated date
- AD 864–866, estimated date
- November AD 879 – March 880, firm date