Pope Eugene II

Eugene II became bishop of Rome on 6 June 824 after Roman nobles selected him over Zinzinnus, the choice of both clergy and people — a power play that cemented Carolingian influence over papal succession. A native of Rome, he governed the Papal States until his death on 27 August 827. In 826 he convened a council that condemned simony, suspended untrained clergy, and decreed that cathedral churches and other centers establish schools for instruction in sacred and secular literature. His entanglement in the Byzantine Iconoclasm controversy yielded little. He died three years into his papacy, le…