Reigned from 824 to 827. Born in Rome, Italy; died there. The archpriest of Santa Sabina, his election was a triumph for the Roman nobility and the Franks whose power his predecessor, Pope Paschal I, had attempted to curb. The Frankish influence was strengthened politically, but lessened ecclesiastically when Louis the Pious sent his son to Rome and a constitution was agreed upon between the emperor and the pope. In 826 he advanced the cause of learning by decrees promulgated at a council in Rome.