Theotgaud

Who was Theotgaud?

Theotgaud was the archbishop of Trier from 850 until his deposition in 867. He was the abbot of Mettlach prior to his election in 847 to succeed his uncle, Hetto, as archbishop. He took up his post three years later, but was inadequately trained in theology and politically and administratively inept.

In 857, the Annales Bertiniani reported that a dog sat on the archiepiscopal throne of Trier, which was interpreted as an omen portending the fall of Theotgaud. In the middle of June 863, Theotgaud and Gunther, Archbishop of Cologne, the two archbishops of Gallia Belgica, presided over a church synod of all the bishops of Lotharingia held at the bequest of Lothair II concerning his abandonment of his first wife Teutberga and his union with a woman named Waldrada. Pope Nicholas I sent apostolic legates to investigate the matter, but Lothair's bishops affirmed that they had advised him to spurn his lawful wife and take another. Theotgaud and Gunther gave grounds for their actions in a letter which they personally brought to Nicholas. He anathematised the council anyway and excommunicated all the bishops. Theotgaud and Gunther continued to defend their actions in a seven-page tome accusing the pope of unjustly banning them. The tome was sent to the rebellious Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople, and to the bishops of Lotharingia. Even the Emperor Louis II, who had secured the pope's election in 858, supported the archbishops. Theotgaud, who is sometimes regarded as a mere tool of Gunther, returned to his diocese to perform his episcopal and pastoral functions for Easter despite the ban.