by a Saracen raid. He also helped with the rebuilding of Nonantola Abbey, which had suffered attacks from the Magyars, and finally he granted privileges to some monasteries and churches in West and East Francia. Relations with Constantinople Sergius, like his predecessors, continued to defend the Filioque interpolation into the Nicene Creed, which was at odds with the position of the eastern church. Papal legates who attended the Synod of Trosle in June 909 attacked the Byzantine position, which the synod then condemned in the fourteenth canon: Almost a century later, this decision led to the removal of Sergius's name from the Diptychs by Patriarch Sergius II of Constantinople. However, the major issue with Constantinople that presented itself during Sergius' pontificate was the question over the fourth marriage of the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI the Wise. Both the emperor, who wanted to marry Zoe Karbonopsina, and the patriarch of Constantinople, Nicholas Mystikos, appealed to Sergius; the pope sent legates to Constantinople, who confirmed the pope's ruling in favour of the emperor, on the grounds that fourth marriages had not been condemned by the Church as a whole. Nicholas' refusal to accept this ruling saw him deposed by Leo VI, upon which he too appealed to Sergius, claiming his deposition was unjustified. Alleged affair with Marozia Sergius' ties with the family of Theophylact were made even closer, at least according to rumour, by Sergius' supposed affair with Theophylact's daughter, Marozia. This relationship was promoted by Marozia's mother, Theodora, and the result of this affair was a male child who in time became Pope John XI (931–935). The only source of this alleged affair is the chronicler Liutprand of Cremona, writing some 50 years after the events of Sergius' pontificate. Neither Auxilius of Naples nor Eugenius Vulgarius, both of whom were exact contemporaries of Sergius, and both of whom were hostile towards Sergius for his attacks on Formosus, mention this allegation at all. The highly reliable chronicler Flodoard, who also is a contemporary does not mention it either. It should also be noted that Liutprand, as firm supporter of Emperor Otto I was often heavily biased against the papacy. The affair, while not an impossibility, would certainly not have persisted beyond Marozia's marriage to Alberic I of Spoleto in 909. The question of whether Theophylact and Theodora needed to tie Sergius to them by such means, particularly when Sergius was already deeply