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This chapter discusses Pope Nicolas I and the alliance of papacy and Frankish empire in the assertion of Roman authority. The nine and a half years of Nicolas' tenure of papacy were marked by the strongest affirmations of his Petrine authority to govern all churches in the universal body. Nicolas also came to know and use the False Decretals, a brilliantly constructed corpus of canon law, mingling authentic conciliar canons and papal decretals with spurious texts. The Decretals offered a solution to a problem which had long caused difficulty to the papacy, that canon law had been made by primatial authority but by provincial councils, which the bishops of Rome or Carthage or Constantinople were expected to enforce. The Donation of Constantine or Constitutum Constatini. By this Emperor Constanine bestowed on Pope Silvester and all his successors' jurisdiction to decide on all matters affecting Christian faith and worship, and the right to permanent residence in the Lateran Palace.

This chapter discusses Pope Nicolas I's support to Ignatius. Nicholas suspended any decision on recognition in the canon of the western Council of Serdica against elevating laity to be bishops without having been presbyter or deacon, and wished to await the reports of his legates on the moral character of Photius. In facing the question of canonical qualification for consecration to episcopal orders, Photius was not unwilling to make concessions to Nicolas. At a synod he arranged for a canon to be enacted for the Greek churches that in future a layman or monk should not be elevated to the episcopate without having passed through the diaconate and presbyterate. In response to Pope Nicolas' reservations about his ejection, the proceedings for reviewing Ignatius' case began.

This chapter describes the retrial of Ignatius. Deudedit's record of the Roman legate's investigation of Ignatius' case shows that with striking tact Photius absented himself from the proceedings. Nevertheless, it can be assumed that wherever concessions were made to the legates, Photius was behind the scenes acquiescing in what was being said on behalf of the patriarchate. The Constantinople synod under Photius in 861 did more than re-examine Ignatius' case, at a second session canons were approved against sudden elevation of neophytes to the episcopate and against ordination of castrated persons. At a Lateran synod in 863 Pope Nicolas declared Photius excommunicated and all his ordinations null and void.