Pope Stephen II (752-757)

The pope who crossed the Alps

Stephen II is the first pope to travel in person to Francia to ask the Frankish king for help.^[6][7] The gesture is immense. Until then, the pope had negotiated with emperors, exarchs, Lombards, Italian dukes or Frankish kings by letters and embassies. In 753-754, Stephen set his body, his weakness, his authority and his office on the road to Gaul.

The Liber Pontificalis gives a very concrete scene: the pope left Rome on 14 October 753, accompanied by Romans in tears, then set out from Pavia towards Francia on 15 November 753 after facing Aistulf's pressure.^[8] This is no comfortable diplomatic journey. It is the act of a pope with no other protector left.

The Frankish turn of the papacy

Rome's former protector is the Empire. But the exarchate of Ravenna — the Italian province that the emperor of Constantinople governed from Ravenna through his representative, the exarch — collapsed when the Lombards took Ravenna in 751. New Advent sums up the consequence: the capture of Ravenna ended the power of the Byzantine exarchs and opened the way for a Lombard attempt to seize the duchy of Rome.^[9]

Stephen thus turned to Pepin the Short. Pepin, elected king of the Franks at Soissons in 751 then anointed by Saint Boniface, sought from the pope a second consecration — the solemn anointing given at Saint-Denis on 28 July 754^[10]; the pope, for his part, needed an armed force capable of stopping Aistulf. The alliance that was forged is not a mere political transaction: it redrew the Latin West.

The practical birth of the Papal States

The Papal States did not fall from the sky in 756 as an already formed modern State. They were born of a sequence: the fall of Ravenna, Pepin's promise, the Frankish expeditions, restitution not to Constantinople but to Saint Peter, the handing over of keys and deeds upon the apostle's tomb.^[11][12]

New Advent formulates the result forcefully: after Pepin's second campaign, Stephen was put in possession of the cities of the exarchate and the Pentapolis — the Byzantine "five cities" of the Adriatic coast (Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Senigallia and Ancona) —, becoming practically the first "pope-king".^[13] The formula must be handled prudently, since pontifical temporal power organised itself progressively. But the turning point is indeed there.

Table of witnesses

Stephen II or Stephen III?

The name of Stephen II is tricky. On Zachary's death, a priest named Stephen was elected, introduced into the Lateran, then died very quickly before being consecrated. The Liber Pontificalis recounts that he remained two days in the Lateran patriarchate, suddenly lost the use of speech and died the following day.^[15]

Since this first Stephen did not actually exercise the pontificate, he is not counted in the current list of the Holy See. The pope of 752-757 is therefore Stephen II in the contemporary official numbering. Many older works nevertheless call him Stephen III, because they include the pope-elect who died before consecration. New Advent keeps this double numbering in its title: "Stephen (II) III".^[16]

Ravenna taken by Aistulf

The starting fact is military: Ravenna, the Byzantine capital in Italy, fell into the hands of the Lombard king Aistulf in 751. The old Italian balance collapsed. Rome was no longer protected by an exarch installed north of the Adriatic; the Lombard king could now aim at the duchy of Rome.^[17]

Aistulf did not merely want to control a frontier. He sought to submit the Romans to his jurisdiction and to levy a tribute. The Liber Pontificalis lends him the intention of imposing on the inhabitants of Rome one gold solidus per head each year.^[18] Even if the formula is written in a very lively anti-Lombard style, it expresses a political reality: Rome felt threatened as a city, as a Church and as a people.

Constantinople no longer protects Rome

Stephen did not first break with the Empire. He sent representatives, received John — an officer of the emperor, what was called a "silentiary", that is a messenger of the court of Constantinople —, transmitted appeals to Constantinople and asked the emperor to come and deliver Rome and Italy from the bites of the "son of iniquity", a violent formula of the Liber Pontificalis against Aistulf.^[19]

But help did not come. The emperor Constantine V was occupied by his own wars and by the iconoclast crisis; imperial Italy was too weak to save Rome. The pope could no longer content himself with waiting for a Byzantine army that would not come down.

A pope elected in urgency

The Liber Pontificalis presents Stephen as a Roman, son of Constantine, kept from childhood at the Lateran to be formed there in the apostolic tradition.^[20] The text insists on his charity: lover of the churches of God, defender of his flock, constant preacher, swift support of the poor, visitor of widows and orphans.^[21]

« Pauperum Christi velox subventor » — Stephen is, according to the Liber Pontificalis, a swift helper to the poor of Christ.^[22]

This portrait matters. Stephen's great political decision sprang from a pastoral responsibility. Rome is not a geopolitical abstraction: it means basilicas, hospitals, widows, orphans, monasteries, poor to be fed, a population to be protected.

Fruitless negotiations with Aistulf

Stephen first tried peace. From the third month of his pontificate, he sent his brother Paul, deacon, and Ambrose, primicerius, to Aistulf with many gifts to obtain and confirm a peace pact.^[23] The primicerius is a very high official of the Lateran, in a sense the head of the pope's offices. The Lombard king seemed at first to accept, then broke the agreement after a few months.

The pope tried again. He sent abbots of the monasteries of Saint-Vincent and Monte Cassino to ask for peace. Aistulf despised them and sent them back without effect.^[24] The narrative of the Liber Pontificalis is dramatic, but its chronology is clear: before calling on the Franks, Stephen multiplied approaches towards the Lombards.

Public prayer before diplomacy

The same text never separates politics and prayer. Stephen gathered the people, asked them to implore God's mercy, held litanies, walked barefoot with the people carrying the acheiropoieta image of Christ to Saint Mary Major, and attached to the cross the deed of the pact broken by Aistulf.^[25] "Acheiropoieta" means, in Greek, "not made by human hand": it is an image of the Saviour venerated as miraculous, which the pope himself carried on his shoulder, barefoot, in the midst of his people.

« Quaeso vos, filii karissimi, pro nostrorum delictorum mole Domini imploremus clementiam » — "I beseech you, dearest sons, let us implore the mercy of the Lord for the weight of our sins."^[26]

This sentence sets the spiritual tone of the crisis. Stephen did not read the event only as a strategist: Rome was threatened, but Rome must also do penance. Before going to seek Pepin, the pope made his people pray.

Ponthion: the meeting with Pepin

Stephen left Rome, passed through Pavia, crossed the Alps and reached the Frankish world. On 6 January 754, at Ponthion, Pepin came out to meet him. The Liber Pontificalis describes an extremely solemn welcome: the king dismounted, prostrated himself with his family and his nobles, then walked beside the pope's mount like a servant of honour.^[27]

In the palace oratory, Stephen asked Pepin to defend the cause of Saint Peter and of the republic of the Romans. The king promised on oath to obey the pope's requests and to restore the exarchate of Ravenna and the rights of the republic.^[28]

Saint-Denis: the Carolingian anointing

After Ponthion, Stephen wintered with Pepin at the monastery of Saint-Denis. There, on 28 July 754, he anointed Pepin and his two sons, Charles and Carloman, as kings of the Franks.^[29][30] New Advent sums up the gesture: the pope crowned Pepin as king of the Franks and received from him, at Quierzy, the solemn assurance of his defence and of the restitution of the exarchate to Saint Peter.^[31]

The pontifical anointing did not create Pepin's kingship out of nothing, already recognised by the Franks and supported by Zachary. But it gave it an exceptional Roman consecration. In blessing Pepin, Bertrada and the Carolingian sons, Stephen inscribed the dynasty in a direct relation with Saint Peter.

A promise made to Saint Peter

At Quierzy (Carisiacus), Pepin gathered his nobles and confirmed what he had decided with Stephen: to defend the cause of the Church of God and of the republic of the Romans.^[32] Tradition calls this commitment the promise of Quierzy or Donation of Pepin. With one limit to keep in mind: no original deed of this promise has come down to us; it is known only through the narrative of the Liber Pontificalis and the pontifical letters of the crisis.^[33]

It must not be confused with the false Donation of Constantine, an apocryphal document which would later claim to trace the temporal power of the popes back to Constantine. The Donation of Pepin, for its part, belongs to the military context of the 8th century: the territories had to be wrested from Aistulf and handed over to Saint Peter.

Two Frankish campaigns

Pepin crossed the Alps a first time in 754. Aistulf was compelled to swear the restitution of Ravenna and of the other captured cities.^[34] But when Pepin withdrew, the Lombard king resumed his aggressive policy. In January 756, he appeared before Rome, ravaged the surroundings and tried to take the city.^[35]

Stephen then sent appeal upon appeal. Pepin recrossed the Alps in 756, again forced Aistulf into submission and imposed a more concrete restitution. This second intervention was decisive: the pope obtained not merely a general promise; he received a territorial taking of possession.

The keys upon Saint Peter's tomb

The most famous gesture concerns the keys. The Liber Pontificalis reports that Abbot Fulrad, Pepin's agent, received the keys of Ravenna and of other cities, then laid them with the deed of donation upon Saint Peter's tomb.^[36][37]

Summary after the Liber Pontificalis, notice on Stephen II: the keys of the cities and the deed of donation were laid upon Saint Peter's tomb — in Latin, Fulrad "ipsas claves […] in confessione beati Petri ponens".^[38]

The symbol is precise. The cities were not handed over to the Byzantine emperor; they were handed over to Saint Peter. The pope is not merely a political recipient: he acts as guardian of the apostle's patrimony. This political theology would nourish the whole medieval history of pontifical power.

Neither a mere Byzantine province, nor a Lombard kingdom

After 756, Rome was no longer merely an ill-defended imperial city. Nor was it absorbed by the Lombard kingdom. It became the centre of a territory handed over to Saint Peter, under Frankish protection, with an increasingly temporal pontifical authority.^[39]

This position was fragile. The donated cities were not all immediately controlled; the Lombards remained powerful; the Franks did not live in Italy; relations with Constantinople did not vanish all at once. But a new architecture was born: the pope could call himself protected by the Franks and holder of a territorial patrimony.

The title of patrician of the Romans

Historians often sum up by the title of patrician of the Romans the role of defender of Rome entrusted to Pepin and his sons. The title had Byzantine resonances, but it was henceforth attached to Frankish power. Pepin was not emperor; he nevertheless became protector of the apostolic city. The exact date and scope of this title remain discussed; the primary dossier is that of the letters of Stephen II to Pepin and to the Franks, preserved in the Codex Carolinus.^[40]

This shift prepared the scene of 800. When Charlemagne is crowned emperor by Leo III, the ground will have been prepared by the alliance forged between Stephen II and Pepin. The papacy did not pass from one world to another in a single day; it did so in stages, of which 754-756 is the most decisive.

The Carolingian precedent

The pontificate of Stephen II gave the Carolingians a Roman religious legitimacy and gave the pope a Western military protection. This double benefit explains the solidity of the alliance, but also its ambiguities. The pope gained freedom against the Lombards; he became dependent on a new protector.

The whole medieval history of Latin Christendom will hold in this tension: the papacy seeks a concrete freedom for the Church, but this freedom passes through political alliances that always carry a price.

Xenodochia, poor and hospitals

New Advent notes that Stephen was remarkable for his love of the poor and built hospitals near Saint Peter's.^[41] The Liber Pontificalis is more detailed: he restored four ancient xenodochia of Rome, founded a xenodochium at Platana for a hundred poor of Christ, and established two hospices outside the walls near the basilica of Saint Peter.^[42]

These data prevent reducing his pontificate to diplomacy alone. While negotiating with Aistulf and Pepin, Stephen also repaired Rome's charitable institutions. The protection of the city began with the poor.

Restored churches and spiritual life

The Liber Pontificalis also reports restorations of churches and cemeteries, as well as an ordinance of regular litanies for the health of the province and of all Christians.^[43] In the Roman narrative, military defence, public penance, charity and liturgy do not form four separate dossiers.

The pope acted as bishop of Rome before acting as territorial chief. This hierarchy of reading is essential: what was born under Stephen is not first an ambition of State, but a pastoral answer to a crisis of protection.

The end of the pontificate

At the end of 756, Aistulf died while preparing new breaches of his commitments.^[44][45] Two claimants appeared among the Lombards: Desiderius, duke of Tuscany^[46], and Ratchis, Aistulf's brother turned monk at Monte Cassino. Stephen intervened to avoid civil war and pressed Ratchis to remain faithful to his monastic vows.^[47][48]

Desiderius was recognised king around March 757, but did not fully keep his promises towards Rome. He handed over Faenza, Ferrara and two small towns, but kept Bologna, Imola and other cities until his future defeat by Charlemagne.^[49][50] Stephen died on 26 April 757, before seeing stabilised the order he had just inaugurated.

Did Stephen II invent the Papal States?

No, if by that is meant a modern, centralised, juridically homogeneous State. Yes, if it designates the concrete shift by which territories of the exarchate and of the Pentapolis were handed over to Saint Peter and placed under effective or claimed pontifical government.^[51]

The best formula is therefore: Stephen II did not "conceive" the Papal States in theory; he made their practical birth possible.

Did he betray Constantinople?

Chronology answers: Stephen first asked the emperor for help and still used imperial mediations.^[52] He turned to Pepin because Byzantine help no longer came and because Rome risked Lombard absorption. To say "betrayal" is therefore too simple. Stephen acted in a void of protection.

From Constantinople's point of view, the handing over of the territories to Saint Peter rather than to the Empire was evidently a grave rupture. From Rome's point of view, it was a solution of survival.

Why anoint an already recognised king?

Pepin had already been elected king of the Franks at Soissons in 751, after the deposition of Childeric III, then anointed by Saint Boniface, with Zachary's moral support.^[53] Stephen's gesture at Saint-Denis in 754 was therefore not Pepin's first anointing: it added something else — a pontifical confirmation, a dynastic anointing for Pepin's sons and a direct bond between the Carolingian house and Saint Peter.^[54]

The anointing did not replace Frankish politics; it consecrated and romanised it. In exchange, Frankish protection did not replace the pontifical mission; it gave it an armed arm.

Is the Donation of Pepin the Donation of Constantine?

No. The Donation of Constantine is a false document, fabricated later, which claims to attribute immense rights to the pope since Constantine. The Donation of Pepin refers to commitments and restitutions of the 8th century, in the concrete crisis of the Lombards, of Ravenna, of the Pentapolis and of Rome.

Confusing the two obscures history. Pontifical temporal power did not need the false Donation of Constantine to have a historical starting point: the alliance of Stephen II and Pepin suffices to explain the practical birth of Saint Peter's patrimony in central Italy.^[55]

The concrete freedom of the Church

Stephen II shows that the freedom of the Church is not merely an abstract principle. In the 8th century, it depended on walls, granaries, roads, garrisons, diplomacy and cities that someone had to defend. A pope without protection quickly became the hostage of a neighbouring king or of a distant emperor.

The birth of pontifical temporal power answered this problem: how could the See of Peter exercise its mission if it was delivered to the Lombards or abandoned by the Empire? Stephen chose an imperfect solution, but a historically decisive one: an alliance with the Franks and a territorial patrimony placed under Saint Peter.

The permanent risk of temporal power

The same act opened a risk. In gaining territories, the papacy would have to manage cities, frontiers, loyalties, governors, revolts, alliances and wars. The freedom obtained through the temporal could help the spiritual mission; it could also complicate it.

The later history of the Papal States, down to the Lateran agreements and the creation of the Vatican City State, can be read as a long attempt to resolve this paradox: the Church needs a visible freedom, but this freedom must not swallow up its spiritual vocation.^[56]

A secondary article, but a major crossroads

Stephen II comes from the "Our other articles" sub-tree, but his dossier is not marginal. Without him, one poorly understands the end of Byzantine Italy, the Carolingian rise, the birth of the Papal States, the preparation of Charlemagne's imperial coronation and the medieval evolution of the papacy.

For an Ignispedia reader, the stake is simple: Stephen II is the pope who makes visible Rome's passage from one world to another. After him, the pope no longer looks only towards Constantinople; he looks towards the Franks, towards Pepin, then towards Charlemagne.

• The Papal States (756-1870) — complete historical development of the territorial patrimony born in the 8th-century crisis.
• The coronation of Charlemagne — imperial outcome of the Franco-Roman alliance prepared by Stephen II and Pepin.
• Pope Zachary — immediate predecessor, whose support for Pepin prepared the Carolingian transition.
• Pope Paul I — brother and successor of Stephen II in managing the new Italian balance.
• The old Saint Peter's Basilica — symbolic place where the keys of the cities were laid upon the apostle's tomb.
• The iconoclast controversy — broader 8th-century Byzantine context, under Constantine V.
• History of Catholicism — general framework for situating the passage from the late-antique world to medieval Christendom.