Pope Stephen III (768-772)

A reforming pope facing the scandal of 767-768

The election of 768 did not take place in the serenity of a canonical transition. For thirteen months, Rome saw the succession of an armed duke, a layman consecrated pope, a Lombard monk enthroned by the troops of King Desiderius, then a military purge of the opposing parties.^[13][14] Stephen therefore inherits a materially soiled See: invalid ordinations, signatures torn off under duress, two antipopes alive, a fractured Roman crowd. His first mission is not so much to govern the universal Church as to reestablish in Rome the truth of apostolic succession.

This is what gives the Lateran Council of 769 its exceptional character. It is not an abstract theological assembly, but a reordering of the institutional foundations of the papacy, taken in the still fresh blood of Roman battles.^[15]

The Lateran Council 769 and the electoral lock

The major decision of the council is less known than the great Christological councils, but it is constitutionally decisive. The synod forbids any layman from accessing the papacy or even participating in the election. Only cardinal priests and cardinal deacons of previous ordination can now be elected pope. Armed soldiers from Tuscany and Campania are excluded from the process.^[16][17]

This measure states for the first time the legal principle from which the future conclave would inherit. The continuity is not institutional — the Roman nobilities will regain a foothold in the 9th-10th centuries and everything will have to be started over —, but it is a continuity of principle: this principle will be taken up, hardened and systematized by Nicholas II in 1059 (In nomine Domini), Alexander III at the Third Lateran Council (1179), Gregory X in Lyon (Ubi periculum, 1274) and all subsequent canon law. The thought of Stephen III is correct: the election of the Pastor of the Church cannot be at the mercy of an armed faction.^[18]

Between Lombards and Franks, the invention of papal diplomacy

Stephen III is also a diplomatic pope. On the external level, his pontificate took place between two powers: the Lombard kingdom of Desiderius, which weighed on Rome from the Italian peninsula; and the double Frankish kingdom of the sons of Pippin the Short, Charlemagne and Carloman, which are not yet unified.^[19][20]

The issue is the survival of the Papal State founded a quarter of a century earlier by the “donation of Pippin” to Stephen II. If the Franks allied themselves with the Lombards, Rome was isolated. Stephen III had neither an army nor finances: he only had his pen, the authority of Peter, and the art of goading Christian princes. The Codex Carolinus preserves several of his letters, and the most famous of them — letter No. 45 against marriage to Desiderata — ranks among the most striking documents of medieval papal rhetoric, by the violence of its tone as by its posterity.^[21][22]

Table of main witnesses

The documentary framework rests on three pillars: the Liber Pontificalis, the Codex Carolinus, and the acts of the Lateran Council. All three are scientifically published in the collection of Monumenta Germaniae Historica and in the Translated Texts for Historians of Liverpool.^[23][24]

The Liber Pontificalis, official memory of the curia

The biography of Stephen III in the Liber Pontificalis is one of the most detailed accounts in the collection. It opens with a reminder of the death of Paul I and goes into the details of Roman violence: forced enthronement of Constantine by his brother Toton, flight of the servants from the Lateran, embassy to the Lombard king, intervention of Desiderius, elevation of Philip, then canonical election of Stephen in Saint Peter's basilica.^[25]

The story is not neutral. The editor does not want to honor Constantine II and only mentions his pontificate as a prelude to be corrected. It is precisely this bias that makes the document valuable: it testifies to the official memory that the curia wants to impose immediately after the events.^[26][27]

“The holy Roman Church, mother of all Churches, having suffered so much violence and so many innovations, had to first be cleansed and restored to its order, before anything else could be considered.” — Paraphrase taken from the synodal preamble of April 769, according to the Liber Pontificalis and the acts of the council^[28][29]

The Codex epistolaris Carolinus

Compiled in 791 on the orders of Charlemagne, this collection brings together 99 letters addressed by the popes (from Gregory III to Adrian I) to the mayors of the palace and to the Frankish kings between 739 and 791. Stephen III is represented by several letters; the most important are letter 44 (announcement of the election and call for Frankish loyalty) and the famous letter 45 (prohibition of marriage with Desiderata).^[30][31]

The unique preserved manuscript — Codex Vindobonensis 449 (Vienna, 9th century) — was published by Wilhelm Gundlach in 1892 in the MGH Epistolae III. A critical English translation, edited by Rosamond McKitterick et al., was published in 2021 in the Translated Texts for Historians series (no. 77).^[32][33]

The acts of the Lateran Council 769

The acts of the synod of April 769 — four sessions, approximately fifty-two participants — are preserved in Latin in the great conciliar collections (Mansi, Hardouin), which publish the canons and the subscription of the bishops.^[34]

Three canons attract attention:

• Canon 1: election of popes reserved for cardinal-priests and cardinal-deacons; prohibition against any layman from accessing the papacy or election.
• Canon 2: annulment of ordinations conferred by antipope Constantine and reconciliation by the imposition of hands.
• Canon 3: solemn confirmation of the veneration of sacred images, against the iconoclastic conciliabule of Hiereia (754).

The synod thus marks, in Rome and before Nicaea II, a firm Catholic position in the controversy over images, eighteen years before the ecumenical council which reaffirmed the same doctrine in 787.^[35]

Born in Sicily, probably in Syracuse, around 720

The Liber Pontificalis indicates that Stephen is Sicilian, son of Olivus — that is all the notice says of his origin.^[36] Syracuse is often put forward as the place of birth, but this detail appears neither in the Liber Pontificalis nor in the notice of the Catholic Encyclopedia (Mann, 1912), which says only “Sicilian, son of Olivus”.^[37] The probable date is around 720, which makes him about 52 years old at his death.^[38]

Sicily in the 8th century was still a Byzantine province, populated by a mixed population, strongly marked by Greek culture. Stephen belongs to this Greek-Roman diaspora which has populated the monasteries of the City since Gregory III. His probable knowledge of Greek - which is not explicitly attested, but which corresponds to his environment - undoubtedly explains his ease with the question of sacred images.^[39]

Benedictine monk at the monastery of Saint-Chrysogonus

Coming to Rome under the pontificate of Saint Gregory III (731-741), Stephen entered the monastery of Saint Chrysogonus (San Crisogono in Trastevere), where he took the Benedictine habit.^[40][41] The detail is important: the future pope is not a secular cleric, but a religious trained in the monastic observance of Saint Benedict, marked by lectio divina, obedience and stability.

“Listen, my son, to the precepts of the Master, and incline the ear of your heart.” — Saint Benedict, Rule, prologue 1^[42]

This training partly explains the spiritual tone of Stephen III's letters, heavy with biblical imprecations and calls for conversion, more than a pure diplomatic chancery pen.

Cardinal priest under Zacharias, Stephen II and Paul I

It was Pope Saint Zacharias (741-752) who ordained Stephen deacon then priest, and attached him to the Lateran. Under Stephen II and then under Paul I, he served in the papal familia and acquired a perfect knowledge of the Roman liturgy and Lombard affairs.^[43][44]

When Paul I died in June 767, Stephen was a cardinal priest of the Roman clergy; he is not the instigator of the troubles that follow, but one of the candidates that the officials of the curia will seek to bring to the See as soon as canonical order is re-established. This biographical detail is important: Stephen is neither an opportunist nor a coup-maker; he is the candidate of legality.^[45]

The death of Paul I and the power vacuum

Paul I died on June 28, 767, after a ten-year pontificate. Very quickly, the Lombard question and the weight of the military nobility transformed into an open crisis. No pope has been canonically elected, and several factions are arming themselves.^[46][47]

The issue is not only spiritual. Since the “donation of Pippin” (754-756), the papacy has controlled a territorial state – duchy of Rome, exarchate of Ravenna, Pentapolis – whose possession excites local ambitions. Any candidate for the papacy inherits a heritage, a chancellery, an army and a diplomatic service.

The armed intrusion of Toton of Nepi

Duke Toton of Nepi (sometimes Totton), a man of war originally from Tuscia, took the initiative. He gathered his parents, his peasants and his soldiers in his Roman house, and had his own brother Constantine, a simple layman, acclaimed as pope.^[48][49]

Constantine, who is not even a cleric, must successively receive the ordination of porter, lector, acolyte, subdeacon, deacon, priest and finally the episcopal consecration - a chain of ordinations compressed over a few days which will be precisely what the synod of 769 will seek to prohibit for the future.^[50][51]

Constantine II, lay antipope (June 767 – July 768)

Constantine lasts for thirteen months. He acts as pope: he ordains bishops, sends letters, celebrates ceremonies. The Liber Pontificalis presents him as a “usurper” whose acts will be annulled en bloc.^[52][53]

One thing is clear: the procedure for electing a layman, by a coup of armed nobility, does not conform to Roman tradition. Neither in the ancient rite of elections by the clergy and the consent of the people, nor in the canonical practice of the 8th century, the direct passage from the century to the papal seat does not have the slightest legitimacy. Future canon law will learn precisely from this precedent.

Antipope Philip and Lombard mediation

Remaining clandestine, the primicerius (head of the staff of the Lateran palace) Christopher and his son Sergius, whom the Liber Pontificalis calls secundicerius (second of the notaries, deputy of the primicerius)^[54][55], senior officials of the Pauline curia, managed to flee Rome. They reach the Lombard kingdom and obtain military support from King Desiderius to overthrow Toton. Desiderius entrusts the expedition to a priest, Waldipert, who marches on Rome with a Lombard troop.^[56]

At the entrance to the City, Waldipert in turn raised a second antipope, Philip, a monk from the monastery of Saint-Vitus, convinced that this would rally the Romans to the Lombard cause. But Christopher refuses this new irregular enthronement. Philip is quickly sent back to his monastery, where he ends his days in silence; his enthronement lasted barely a day.^[57][58]

Christopher and Sergius reestablish canonical legality

Toton is killed in Roman battles. Constantine is arrested, dragged to penance, then locked up in the monastery of Cellanova. The curia then convenes a regular assembly of the clergy, the armies and the Roman people, in the most ancient tradition. The violence did not stop overnight, and many clerics close to Toton were blinded or beaten to death. The Liber Pontificalis itself recognizes this brutality of the restoration, which it deplores while recounting it.^[59][60]

The ambivalence is real: canonical legality is reestablished, but at the cost of cruel reprisals that the acts of the council of 769 will partly seek to repair.

The canonical election (August 1-7, 768)

The clergy, the armies and the Roman people elect Stephen, cardinal priest with the title of Saint Cecilia. The Liber Pontificalis specifies the acclamation at Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, then the transfer to the Lateran, then the consecration at Saint Peter’s in the Vatican on August 7, 768.^[61][62]

The two dates come from two distinct readings: the official list of the Holy See opens the pontificate on August 1, 768 (“1,7.VIII.768”) — a reading followed by Britannica, which gives the election on August 1 and the consecration on the 7th —, while the Liber Pontificalis (§ 21) explicitly dates only the consecration of August 7 at Saint Peter’s; the Catholic Encyclopedia (Mann, 1912) likewise retains, with precision, only August 7, and GCatholic gives the election to the nearest month (“768.01”).^{[63][64][65][66]}

“After his election as pontiff, all the Roman people gave thanks to God for having rescued the Roman Church from the oppression of tyrants.” — Liber Pontificalis, life of Stephen III, § 21 (translation; Latin original in note)^[67]

Date, location and participants

The synod was held at the Lateran, in the Basilica of the Savior, from April 12 to 14 (or 15) 769. Four sessions are held. There are approximately 52 bishops or representatives, including 12 Frankish bishops specially sent by Charlemagne and Carloman. A crowd of priests, deacons, monks and faithful attend the sessions.^[68][69]

It is an enlarged Roman provincial council but with a universal scope, insofar as it rules on the regularity of a papal election and on the Catholic doctrine of images. The strong presence of Frankish bishops demonstrates the young alliance between the papacy and the Carolingian dynasty.

The Trial of Antipope Constantine II

The former antipope, already blinded outside the council by uncontrolled elements of Christopher's faction, was dragged before the Fathers. The conciliar account says that he initially confesses, then recants his confession and challenges the legitimacy of the synod. He is then flogged with rods, degraded from every order and excommunicated.^[70][71]

The acts of his pseudo-pontificate are solemnly burned on the floor of the basilica, while the bishops prostrate themselves, singing the Kyrie eleison. The ordinations of bishops and priests made by Constantine are cancelled, unless they receive, after penance, the canonical imposition of hands.^[72][73]

“It is decreed that no layman, nor anyone coming from the lay order, should ever be promoted to the pontifical dignity.” — Lateran Council, April 769, first canon, from the conciliar collections (translation; Latin original in note)^[74]

The reform of papal elections

The first canon is the great legislative act of the council. It sets several blocking rules for the future:

• no layman can ever be elected pope;
• the election is reserved for cardinal priests and cardinal deacons of previous ordination;
• the soldiers of Tuscany and Campania have no right of armed presence at the election;
• the consecration can only take place with the consent of the clergy and the Roman people.^[75][76]

This is the first time that a Roman synod formalized the election procedure in such an explicit legal form. The principle laid down in 769 will be taken up by Nicholas II (In nomine Domini, 1059), Alexander III (III Lateran Council, 1179), Gregory X (Ubi periculum, 1274) and beyond all the law of the conclave — through successive renewals, not through continuous institutional filiation.^[77]

The defense of sacred images

The second great canon rules on the controversy over images. Fifteen years after the iconoclastic conciliabule of Hiereia (754) convened by the Byzantine emperor Constantine V Copronymus, the Lateran Council of 769 condemns its acts and affirms the Catholic legitimacy of the veneration of sacred images: of Christ, the Virgin, the angels and the saints.^[78][79]

The opposing argument deserves to be stated fairly: at Hiereia, the iconoclast bishops maintain that Christ, true God and true man, cannot be painted without dividing his two natures or claiming to enclose his uncircumscribable divinity in colours; the only legitimate image of Christ would be the Eucharist, and any venerated material image would fall back under the biblical ban on idols.^[80] The reply of Lateran 769 holds on the contrary that the image is not adored for itself — adoration is due to God alone — but that the honour paid to the image passes to its prototype, according to apostolic tradition: to paint Christ confesses the Incarnation instead of dividing it.^[81][82]

This Roman position preceded by eighteen years the ecumenical council of Nicaea II (787), which made the Catholic doctrine of the veneration of images obligatory for all of Christendom. Stephen III therefore places Rome on the Orthodox side in the Byzantine quarrel, even before the East officially recovered.^[83]

This point is important for the Catholic compass: the venerated images of the Virgin, saints, relics and apparitions are not a late Baroque excess. They are part of an apostolic tradition supported by Pope Stephen III, the Lateran Council of 769, Pope Adrian I and the ecumenical council of Nicaea II.

The scope of the council of 769

The Lateran Council of 769 does not have the status of an ecumenical council. Its scope is nevertheless considerable:

• it purifies the Roman See from a schism whose ramifications reach the whole of Italy;
• it lays the first seed of a papal electoral law;
• it places Rome in the orthodox camp of the controversy over images, eighteen years before Nicaea II;
• it finally consolidated the Franco-Roman alliance, by associating twelve Frankish bishops with the ecclesial sovereignty of the Apostolic See.

These four decisions alone justify speaking of the pontificate of Stephen III as a founding moment of the medieval papacy.^[84][85]

Italian diplomacy in 769-770

Barely elected, Stephen III wrote to Pippin the Short – who died in September 768 – then to his sons Charlemagne and Carloman. He announces his election to them and asks them to renew the alliance that their father had sealed with Stephen II and Paul I. Above all, he asks them for protection against the Lombards and confirmation of the “donation”.^[86][87]

Charlemagne, having come of age, accepts the principles of the alliance, but intends to pursue his own Italian policy. He even welcomed part of the Lombard aristocracy to the Frankish court. A queen mother, Bertrade de Laon (the “Berthe with the big foot”), then threw all her weight into reconciling the Franks and Lombards.^[88]

The letter against marriage with Desiderata (770)

It is in this context that the project arises, encouraged by Bertrade, of a marriage between one of the Frankish brothers and a daughter of the Lombard king Desiderius, whom historiography designates by the conventional name of Desiderata (Desiderata, sometimes Desideria): no contemporary source gives her true first name — Einhard, who recounts her repudiation after one year of marriage, calls her only “the daughter of King Desiderius”.^[89] Stephen III sees in this alliance the end of all pontifical freedom: if the Lombards enter the Frankish family, Rome is isolated.^[90][91]

He then wrote letter 45 of the Codex Carolinus — one of the most violent texts of the medieval pontifical chancery —, in which he forbade the two Frankish kings this marriage, threatening them, should they disregard him, with the anathema of Saint Peter and eternal damnation: a solemn and conditional warning, not a formally pronounced anathema. In it he denounces the Lombards as perfidae ac foetentissimae Langobardorum genti (“the perfidious and most foul nation of the Lombards”).

“What then, O most excellent sons, great kings, is this madness, that it must even be said that your illustrious nation of the Franks, which shines above all nations, and your so splendid and most noble royal offspring, allow themselves to be sullied — God forbid — by the perfidious and most foul nation of the Lombards, which is counted in the number of no nation, and from which it is certain that the race of lepers draws its origin?” — Pope Stephen III, letter 45 of the Codex Carolinus, to Charlemagne and Carloman (translation from the Latin of Gundlach, MGH Epp. III, p. 561)^[92]

The text is scandalous. It is harsh, almost insulting to the Lombards, and marks a break with Roman diplomatic sobriety. But it also reveals the spiritual dismay of an isolated pope, forced to use the most extreme verbal weapons to prevent the collapse of the Papal State.

This letter rightly raises an ethical debate: can a pope describe an entire nation as “the most foul”? Classical Catholic theology always distinguishes between people, who deserve love, and politics or factions, who can be condemned. Stephen III, in an existential situation for the Apostolic See, uses an Old Testament rhetoric of prophetic denunciation, comparable to the invectives of Elijah or Isaiah against idolatrous nations. This does not sanctify the formula, but allows it to be read historically, in its context of real political threat and biblical rhetorical tradition.^[93][94]

The reversal of Charlemagne and the Lombard trap (771)

Charlemagne, despite the letter, married Desiderata in 770. Papal diplomacy has failed. Worse: Bertrade joins Rome on pilgrimage and negotiates with Desiderius the restitution of certain territories, in exchange for promises which will never be entirely kept.^[95][96]

Desiderius took the opportunity to come to Rome in person. He comes on pilgrimage to the tomb of Saint Peter, supported by the chamberlain Paul Afiarta, an agent won over to the Lombard cause, who has introduced himself into the papal familia.^[97]

The torment of Christopher and Sergius (771)

Christopher and Sergius, the men who saved the papacy in 768, are accused by Paul Afiarta of plotting against Desiderius and the pope. Cornered, they took refuge in Saint Peter, begging Stephen III to protect them, but he, under the joint pressure of Desiderius and Afiarta, ended up handing them over to the Lombards.^[98][99]

Both are blinded. Christopher died of his wounds three days later, Sergius survived, mutilated and detained at the Lateran. The Liber Pontificalis considers this episode to be the greatest wound of the pontificate; even the official chronicle does not fully cover the event, which will be re-examined under Adrian I.^[100][101]

“And such tortures took place in the atrium of Saint Peter that all those present burst into tears.” — Liber Pontificalis, life of Stephen III, on the end of Christopher and Sergius (translation; Latin original in note)^[102]

The episode is the tragic setback of a pontificate which was unable to fully resist Lombard pressure. It recalls that the sanctity of the See does not guarantee the personal sanctity of all the acts of the pontiff. The distinction is old: the Petrine ministry is unwavering in faith and dogma (cf. Luke 22, 32), but the individual pope, like any Christian, remains fallible in political conduct. Stephen III is here overwhelmed by events, not unfaithful to dogma.^[103]

January 24, 772 and St. Peter's Basilica

Stephen died on January 24, 772, at around 52 years old, after less than four years of pontificate. The precise cause is not known: wear and tear, illness, perhaps the effect of the strong tensions of 771. The official list of the Holy See retains this date.^[104]

He is buried in the Vatican Basilica of Saint Peter, near the other popes of the 8th century. The Constantinian basilica, predecessor of the current basilica, houses an essential part of the memory of the Apostolic See.^[105][106]

Stephen II / III / IV numbering

A historiographical difficulty persists: the numbering of the Stephen popes. In 752, a man named Stephen had been elected pope; he died three days after his election, before his episcopal consecration. Medieval lists and the Patrologia Latina have long counted him as Stephen II, making our pope of 768 a Stephen IV (and Stephen II, the great ally of Pippin the Short in 754, a Stephen III).^[107][108]

In the 16th century, some editors began to exclude the pope who died in three days from the list, considering that episcopal consecration is required to open a pontificate. The modern official list of the Holy See follows this logic: it does not include Stephen of 752 and names our pope Stephen III.^[109][110]

The correct canonical title, followed by this article and by the official Vatican portal, is therefore Stephen III (768-772). But the form Stephen IV that we encounter in editions prior to 1960 is not an error; it reflects the older numbering. Read ancient sources with discernment: Stephen (III) IV is the convention of the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1912, for example.^[111]

Saint Stephen? Between Sicilian piety and official list

Stephen III was neither beatified nor canonized by an official act of the Holy See, and he has no memorial in the General Roman Calendar (Calendarium Romanum, 1969)^[112]. In the Middle Ages, however, he was honoured as a saint in his native island: Horace Mann reports an old calendar of the saints of Sicily which lists Stephen on February 1, as well as a step — which came to nothing — by the Syracusans to have his sanctity officially recognized^[113]. The Catholic Encyclopedia (1912) likewise notes that he is “honoured as saint in some Martyrologies”^[114]. Medieval local cult and formal pontifical act remain two distinct things: only the second makes a saint in the canonical sense.

The Church does not consider a pope as saint in the canonical sense for the sole fact of having occupied the See; there still needs to be a certified cult, an investigation, a formal pontifical act. Sicilian piety testifies to a filial attachment to a son of the country who became pope, without this committing the doctrine. On this point, Catholic rigor distinguishes official cult and popular devotion: the second can nourish the first, without replacing it.^[115]

The electoral decree of 769, matrix of the conclave

The most enduring rule of the pontificate of Stephen III is the electoral decree of the Lateran Council 769. Three centuries later, Nicholas II in 1059 (In nomine Domini) took up the principle and transformed it into an electoral constitution reserving the election for cardinals. Alexander III, in 1179, required a two-thirds majority. Gregory X, in 1274, created the conclave in the strict sense.^[116][117]

Without the decision of 769, the law of the modern conclave, codified by Paul VI (Romano Pontifici eligendo, 1975) then by John Paul II (Universi Dominici gregis, 1996) and Benedict XVI (motu proprio De aliquibus mutationibus, 2007), would have a radically different genealogy. It is to Stephen III that the legal idea of an electoral sanctuary protected from the armed irruption of factions dates back.^[118][119]

The defense of images, Latin foundation of Nicaea II

In 769, Stephen III officially placed Latin Christianity in the Orthodox camp of the controversy over images. When in 787 the ecumenical council of Nicaea II solemnly defined the legitimacy of the veneration of sacred images, it would only prolong the Roman decision of 769. The role of Stephen III is therefore founding, and it helps to understand that the Catholic iconographies — icons, statues, stained glass windows, medals, scapulars, frescoes — are not baroque excesses after the Council of Trent: they are part of an apostolic tradition defended very early by the Roman See.^[120][121]

“The honor given to the image passes to its prototype.” — Saint Basil of Caesarea, De Spiritu Sancto XVIII, 45, cited by the Second Council of Nicaea^[122][123]

This principle, taken up by Trent against the Protestant iconoclasts, by the popes of the 19th century against rationalism and by the Vatican II Council which maintains the veneration of images in Sacrosanctum Concilium 122-125, has very ancient roots: the council of 769, convened by Stephen III, is one of its fixed points.

A primacy injured but maintained

The episode of Christopher and Sergius - the delivery of two faithful servants to the Lombards, their blindness, their death - remains the major shadow of the pontificate. The Pope allowed himself to be manipulated by a foreign agent installed in his immediate entourage. The papacy did not know how, in 771, to defend its own ministers.^[124][125]

But the Catholic Church has never taught the impeccability of popes. The retained doctrine, established by the First Vatican Council (Pastor Aeternus, 1870), is that of infallibility in the teaching ex cathedra of dogma, not that of moral perfection in political conduct. Stephen III is a tragic witness to this distinction: his doctrinal decisions – Lateran Council 769, defense of images, electoral law – are entirely received by Tradition; his political choices of 771 are deplored by the Roman chronicle itself.^[126][127]

This tension is not an argument against the papacy. On the contrary, it confirms that the Petrine ministry is carried by the grace of Christ and not by human perfection. It is precisely because Christ prayed for Peter so that his faith would not fail (Luke 22:32) that the personal failures of a pope do not ruin the solidity of the See.

• Pope Saint Paul I (757-767) — immediate predecessor of Stephen III, whose death opens the antipope crisis of 767.
• Pope Stephen II (752-757) — pope of the “donation of Pippin” and the territorial foundation of the Papal State.
• Pope Adrian I (772-795) — successor of Stephen III, partner in the Council of Nicaea II in 787 and the great Carolingian rise.
• Pope Saint Zacharias (741-752) — pope who ordains Stephen deacon then priest and attaches him to the Lateran.
• Lateran Council (769) — acts, canons and personalities, for the complete file on the defense of images and electoral law.
• Second Council of Nicaea (787) — ecumenical definition of the veneration of sacred images, in continuity with the Roman decree of 769.
• The controversy over images — theological synthesis of the iconoclast dossier, from the origins to Trent.
• Roman primacy — history and theology of the See of Peter.