Pope Saint Zachary (741-752)

The pope who spoke as an equal to the Lombard kings

For half a century, Rome endured the shockwaves of a powerful, ambitious Lombard kingdom that never gave up on integrating the Roman duchy. When Zachary was elected, Gregory III had just died after calling unsuccessfully on the Franks for armed intervention against Liutprand. Instead of repeating this approach, Zachary chose to negotiate personally with the Lombard king.^[11][12]

The result was spectacular: Liutprand returned four cities to the Roman duchy—Amelia, Orte, Bomarzo, Blera—restored Church properties seized over the previous thirty years, and accepted a twenty-year truce.^[13] The following year, the pope traveled to Pavia to prevent the assault on Ravenna. For the first time in a long while, the pope was not merely a supplicant to Byzantium but a central political actor in Italy. This shift directly prepared the birth of the Papal States under his successors.^[14]

The pope who legitimized the transfer of Frankish kingship

The most famous episode of his pontificate is the consultation brought to Rome around 749 by Bishop Burchard of Würzburg and the chaplain Folrad on behalf of Pepin the Short. The Annales regni Francorum, a nearly contemporary Frankish source, gives a sober and clear formula: Zachary replied that “it is better to call king the one who holds power than the one who remains without royal power.”^[15]

This response paved the way for Pepin’s coronation at Soissons in November 751, the deposition of Childeric III, and the birth of the Carolingian dynasty—in simple terms: the crown passed from the Merovingians, who no longer governed, to the Carolingians, who already did. With Zachary, the papacy publicly legitimized the transfer of power from one ruler to another: an act that long-term prepared the transfer of the Empire to Charlemagne in the year 800.^[16][17]

The pope of Saint Boniface, synods, and discipline

Zachary was also the great correspondent of Saint Boniface. He confirmed the new Germanic bishoprics of Würzburg, Buraburg, and Erfurt, approved missionary councils, resolved disciplinary matters from the north, and convened two Roman synods (743 and 745). The 745 synod anathematized the heretics Aldebert and Clement; the 743 synod legislated against clerical hunting, the sale of Christian slaves to pagans, and marriages with consecrated persons.^[18][19][20]

Roman authority here appears both doctrinal and pastoral: Rome received questions, held synods, issued orders, anathematized, and preserved the acts. Under Zachary, Roman primacy was exercised concretely, not merely asserted: it is Rome that decides and sees it applied.

Table of Witnesses

The pontificate of Zachary is documented by seven families of sources that complement each other: the official Roman notice, the Catholic encyclopedic synthesis, modern critical reading, the Frankish chronicle, Boniface’s correspondence, and conciliar acts. The table below classifies them by nature, period, and specific contribution before the article explores them in detail.

The Liber Pontificalis: Moral Portrait and Firm Chronology

The Liber Pontificalis is the principal source. Its notice opens with an exceptionally warm moral portrait: Zachary is “very gentle and very affable,” “slow to anger and quick to mercy,” “returning evil to no one,” “pious and merciful.”^[21] This portrait is not hagiographic in the sense of embellishment: the rest of the notice describes a pope who acts, negotiates, travels, restores, and decides.

The same notice provides the reference chronology: a pontificate of 10 years, 3 months, and 15 days from election — a figure placing his death around March 20, 752, consistent with the liturgical memory of March 15.^[22][23] It enumerates the Lombard peace treaties, the entry of Carloman and Ratchis into Monte Cassino, works at the Lateran basilica, the oratory of the Holy Savior, and the Greek translation of Gregory the Great’s Dialogues.^[24]

The Catholic Encyclopedia and Treccani

The entry by Johann Peter Kirsch in the Catholic Encyclopedia (1912) remains the best English-language synthesis, firm on sources and dense on the Frankish, Lombard, and Byzantine dossiers.^[25] The Enciclopedia dei Papi of Treccani, authored by Ottorino Bertolini (2000), offers the modern critical reading: Zachary is not merely the peaceful pope of the Liber Pontificalis, but the man who lays the first legal and political stones of the future Papal State by secularizing the relationship with Lombard power and shifting the Roman political horizon toward Carolingian Francia.^[26]

The Annales regni Francorum and the Letters of Boniface

The Annales regni Francorum, compiled in the early 9th century within the Carolingian circle, provide the canonical formula on Pepin’s legitimation.^[27] They are a Frankish source, written to justify the dynasty: they probably do not invent the embassy but formulate the memory with a clarity that serves Carolingian power.

The letters of Boniface, preserved in the critical edition by Michael Tangl (1916, MGH Epp. Sel. I), provide the other side of the pontificate: the pastoral, doctrinal, and disciplinary correspondence between Rome and Germany. At least five letters directly concern Zachary: confirmation of bishoprics (ep. 51, 743), the baptism affair (around 746), the case of bishops Milon and Gewilieb (ep. 87), the Virgil affair (ep. 80, May 1, 748).^[28][29]

A Calabria Still Byzantine

Santa Severina—the Calabrian town traditionally identified as his birthplace—perched on a plateau in inland Calabria, still belonged to the Byzantine Empire in the 8th century. The region was Greek-speaking, of Byzantine rite, and constituted one of the human reservoirs supplying the Roman clergy since the 7th century. Since Saint Agatho (678), a long series of Greek, Syrian, or Italo-Greek popes governed the Church of Rome—a sequence historians call the Byzantine Papacy.^[30][31]

Zachary was its last representative. After him, Stephen II would open the Frankish era. This transition was no mere coincidence of personalities: it was precisely Zachary’s pontificate that prepared the new political horizon.

Deacon in Rome

Zachary served as a deacon of the Roman Church under Gregory III. His education was both Greek and Latin; he knew Latin well enough to later prepare a Greek translation of the Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great. He was among the clergy close to the pope, present in embassies and synods.^[32]

His closeness to Gregory III was as much doctrinal as pastoral. Gregory III had anathematized Byzantine iconoclasm at the Roman synod of November 731; he had vainly sought Frankish aid against Liutprand. Zachary inherited both issues and chose, on the second, an opposite approach: no longer calling the Franks into Italy, but personally negotiating with the Lombards.^[33][34]

A Swift Election after Gregory III’s Death

Gregory III died at the end of November 741 (buried on November 29, according to Kirsch). Zachary was elected immediately: Bertolini gives December 3, 741 for his elevation to the pontificate, and Kirsch specifies that he was consecrated and enthroned on December 5.^[35][36] For its part, the Fontistoriche editorial notice gives the election on November 29 and the consecration on December 10: a variant not retained here, the two scholarly syntheses agreeing on an immediate succession in early December.^[37]

The rapid election signals an undisputed succession. In a Rome threatened by Liutprand and an empire disorganized by the iconophile usurpation of Artabasdos against Constantine V, the Roman clergy could not afford a prolonged vacancy. Doctrinal continuity with Gregory III was immediate; the political method change would be visible from the first weeks.^[38]

No Appeal to the Franks

The first decisive act, negative but crucial: Zachary did not send an embassy to renew the Frankish request for aid. Gregory III’s policy had exhausted its usefulness; Charles Martel had not responded favorably and had just died in October 741. The mayor of the palace who might take over—Carloman, Pepin’s elder brother—was still stabilizing the succession.^[39][40]

Zachary took the opposite gamble: to negotiate directly with Liutprand. This reversal bore fruit by summer 742.

Terni, August 742: Four Cities Returned and Twenty Years’ Truce

In the summer of 742, Zachary met Liutprand at Terni (ancient Interamna). The meeting, prepared by several embassies, was diplomatically risky—a pope of Rome negotiating directly with the king of the Lombards without going through the Exarch of Ravenna—but it succeeded beyond expectations.^[41][42]

The Catholic Encyclopedia summarizes:

“Zachary obtained from Liutprand that the four cities of Ameria, Horta, Polimartium, and Blera be returned to the Romans, along with all the patrimonies of the Roman Church taken by the Lombards over the past thirty years; he also concluded a twenty-year truce between the Duchy of Rome and the Lombards.” — J. P. Kirsch, Catholic Encyclopedia, 1912^[43]

Ameria (Amelia), Horta (Orte), Polimartium (Bomarzo), and Blera were strategic strongholds between Rome and Lombard Tuscany: their restitution reestablished a buffer zone securing communications. The twenty-year truce gave Rome an unexpected political horizon. The patrimonies—ecclesiastical landed estates—provided the essential material resources for Roman governance.^[44]

Pavia, 29 June 743: Saving Ravenna

The following year, Liutprand resumed his offensive toward Ravenna, the Byzantine capital of Italy. The exarch Eutychius begged Rome to intervene; Zachary set out. He arrived at Pavia for the vigil and feast of Saints Peter and Paul, 29 June 743, and obtained from Liutprand a renunciation of the attack.^[45][46]

The gesture was heavy with meaning. The pope of Rome crossed Lombard Italy, celebrated the feast of the two Roman apostles in Lombard territory, and won his case on a purely Byzantine matter. For the first time in a long while, Rome’s moral authority concretely supplemented the emperor’s political authority. Bertolini sees this as one of the moments when the papal state was practically invented: the pope was no longer merely bishop of Rome but became the political guarantor of a portion of Italy.^[47]

January 744: Death of Liutprand, Hildebrand Deposed, Ratchis King

Liutprand died in January 744. His nephew Hildebrand, briefly associated with the throne, was quickly deposed. Ratchis, Duke of Friuli, was elected king. The transition was not immediately favorable to Rome—Ratchis was an Eastern Lombard, attached to expansionism—but he soon confirmed the treaty concluded with Zachary and observed the truce.^[48]

Perugia 749: Ratchis’ Abdication

In 749, Ratchis contemplated attacking the Byzantine Pentapolis. Zachary went to meet him at Perugia. The meeting was decisive: Ratchis renounced not only the offensive but the crown itself. With his wife Tassia and daughter Rotrude, he went to Rome and received the tonsure from the pope; tradition then leads him to Monte Cassino.^[49][50]

“In 749, the new king confirmed the peace treaty with the Duchy of Rome. That same year, Ratchis abdicated, and with his wife and daughter, took the monastic habit before the pope.” — J. P. Kirsch, Catholic Encyclopedia, 1912^[51]

A king’s abdication before a pope was a momentous event for the political imagination of the early Middle Ages. Ratchis’ brother, Aistulf, immediately succeeded him. Aistulf would break the peace after Zachary’s death and capture Ravenna in 751–752—forcing Stephen II to cross into Francia and conclude the Donation of Pepin. Zachary would not see this rupture, but his diplomacy had won Rome seven more years of respite.^[52]

Timeline of Lombard Affairs

Zachary’s Italian negotiations spanned seven years and three Lombard kings. The table summarizes the six decisive stages—election, Terni, Pavia, Liutprand’s succession, Perugia, and Aistulf’s arrival—explaining the main actor, the event, and the political significance of each episode.

An iconoclast emperor, a civil war, a pope as mediator

At the time Zachary was elected, Constantine V Copronymus had just succeeded Leo III. Official iconoclasm, condemned in Rome as early as 731 by Pope Saint Gregory III, became persecution. But in 741-743, Constantine V had to face a civil war against his brother-in-law Artabasdos, who temporarily seized Constantinople by presenting himself as a defender of images.^[53][54]

Zachary did not politically side with Artabasdos. He maintained diplomatic relations and sent embassies to Constantinople to urge the emperor to restore the veneration of sacred images:

“The pope exhorted the emperor to restore the doctrine and practice of the Church concerning the veneration of images.” — J. P. Kirsch, Catholic Encyclopedia, 1912^[55]

This stance — doctrinal protest, maintaining liturgical communion, avoiding political rupture — anticipates the approach that would prevail until the Second Council of Nicaea in 787.^[56]

The estates of Nympha and Norma

As a sign of political goodwill, Constantine V granted the Roman Church two estates in the Roman countryside, Nympha and Norma. These massae supplied the domus cultae that Zachary organized to feed Rome. The gift did not lift doctrinal opposition, but it showed that Constantine V wished to keep the pope as an interlocutor in the peninsula.^[57]

Santa Maria Antiqua: a Roman anti-iconoclast iconographic program

In Rome itself, Zachary’s pontificate left a precise artistic trace: the chapel of Theodotus at Santa Maria Antiqua, at the foot of the Palatine Hill, is adorned with a cycle depicting the martyrdom of Saint Cyriacus and Saint Julitta. The dating to Zachary’s pontificate (741-752) rests on material evidence: the portrait of the pope as donor, with a square halo—thus depicted alive—repainted over that of his predecessor Gregory III.^[58] The iconographic program is dense, didactic, and highly iconophile: in Rome, saints are painted precisely at the moment Constantinople removes them.^[59]

Zachary was therefore not only a diplomat: he defended iconographic orthodoxy through the stones, frescoes, and liturgy of his own city.

Confirmation of the Germanic bishoprics (743)

For twenty years, Saint Boniface (c. 675-754) evangelized Hesse, Thuringia, and Bavaria. A bishop without a fixed see under Gregory III, he had just founded, around 742, the bishoprics of Würzburg, Buraburg, and Erfurt. Boniface wrote to Zachary to have these foundations confirmed and to request disciplinary advice.^[60][61]

Zachary responded with letter 51 (Tangl), dated April 1, 743: he confirmed the new bishoprics, gave instructions on upcoming Frankish councils, and insisted on the need to persevere. The correspondence that followed dealt with very concrete questions: what to do with ignorant priests? How to combat simony? How to handle relations with worldly bishops such as Milon of Reims and Gewilieb of Mainz?^[62]

“As for Milon and his like, who cause great harm to the Church of God, preach at all times, in season and out of season, according to the word of the Apostle.” — Pope Zachary to Saint Boniface, letter 87 (Tangl)^[63]

The Roman synod of 743: fourteen disciplinary canons

In March 743, Zachary held a synod at the Lateran gathering about sixty bishops. Fourteen disciplinary canons were promulgated. Several aimed to correct abuses observed in Italy and beyond: forbidding clerics from hunting and bearing arms; condemning the sale of Christian slaves to pagans (with the Venetian trade to Saracen Africa in the background); precise rules on marriage and consanguinity.^[64]

Canon 5, particularly clear, targeted sacrilegious unions:

“Let no one presume to unite in a criminal marriage with a presbytera, a diacona, a nun, a monastic woman, or his spiritual godmother […]” (the rest of the canon pronounces anathema against offenders) — Synod of Rome (743), canon 5, translation collated from the Latin^[65]

The acts of the synod, sent to Boniface and received in the Frankish councils, became one of the practical bases of Carolingian disciplinary reform. The legislation of Pepin and Charlemagne on clerics, slaves, and marriage directly inherited from these canons.^[66]

The synod of 745: Aldebert and Clement anathematized

In October 745, a second Lateran synod dealt with two cases brought by Boniface. Aldebert was a false Gallic thaumaturge who distributed his hair and nails as relics, consecrated chapels in his own name, and circulated a “letter of Jesus Christ” fallen from heaven. Clement, a priest of Scottish (Irish) origin, taught that Christ, descending into hell, also freed non-believers, based Christian marriage on the Old Testament, defended a harsh form of predestination, and challenged Roman ecclesiastical discipline.^[67][68]

The synod condemned both. Clement was excommunicated as a heretic. Aldebert, considered disturbed, was deposed and invited to penance; his writings were burned. Boniface was mandated to enforce the sentence in Francia. The case went beyond the two individuals: it showed the papacy serving as a discerning authority facing disorderly religious phenomena at the Church’s periphery.^[69]

Virgilius of Salzburg and the letter of May 1, 748

The most debated case of the pontificate was that of Virgilius (Fergal), an Irish monk who became administrator of the see of Salzburg in Bavaria. Boniface reported to Rome that Virgilius taught “that beneath the earth there is another world and other men, another sun and another moon.” On May 1, 748, Zachary replied to Boniface (Tangl ep. 80):

“If it is proven that he professes that beneath the earth there is another world and other men, or another sun and another moon, expel him from the Church, stripped of priestly dignity.” — Pope Zachary, letter to Saint Boniface, May 1, 748^[70]

The matter is often caricatured as a “papal condemnation of the Earth’s sphericity.” The historical truth is more precise: Zachary was responding to an accusation and conditioned his sentence on the truth of the charge. No effective sanction was taken against Virgilius: he administered Salzburg from 746 to 784, was consecrated bishop in 767, evangelized the Slavs of Carantania, and was canonized in 1233 by Gregory IX. The letter shows Catholic prudence: it does not condemn an open scientific question, but condemns a cosmology incompatible with the doctrine of one Adam and one Christ.^[71][72]

The traditional narrative of an “anti-scientific Church” in the 8th century is therefore fragile. Zachary asks Boniface, if the accusation is confirmed, to act; and subsequent events show that no effective condemnation occurred. The fundamental question — are there other men besides the descendants of Adam? — remained open until the discovery of America seven centuries later.

The baptism “in nomine patria et filia”

A famous letter from the pontificate, preserved in Boniface’s correspondence, examines a practical case: an ignorant priest baptized using a faulty formula — patria in the ablative instead of the genitive patris, filia instead of filii:

“I baptize you in the name of the patria and the filia and the Holy Spirit.” — defective formula reported by Saint Boniface to Rome, literally rendered “I baptize you in the name of the fatherland, and of the daughter, and of the Holy Spirit”^[73]

Should the faithful thus received into the Church be rebaptized?

Canonical tradition attributes to Zachary a decision retained by sacramental theology to this day: if the priest did not intend to profess another faith but only spoke defective Latin, the baptism is valid and rebaptism is not required; however, if the error expressed a distorted faith, the rite would be invalid. This distinction between material form and intention within the faith of the Church would become a fundamental principle of sacramental theology.^[74]

Carloman at Monte Cassino (747)

On August 15, 747, Carloman, eldest son of Charles Martel and mayor of the palace of Austrasia, abdicates. He comes to Rome, receives the tonsure from Zachary’s hands, and founds a monastery on Mount Soracte north of Rome. Later, he joins Monte Cassino, where he lives under the Benedictine rule until his death in 754.^[75][76]

The following year, in 748, Zachary himself travels to Monte Cassino to consecrate the new church, confirm the monastery’s gifts, and exempt it from episcopal jurisdiction. Zachary’s pontificate is thus structurally linked to the revival of Monte Cassino and the European spread of the rule of Saint Benedict of Nursia.^[77]

The embassy of 749: the Frankish question

With Carloman gone, Pepin the Short remains sole mayor of the palace, but theoretically governs in the name of a shadow Merovingian king, Childeric III. The question, latent for a century, becomes politically urgent. In 749, Pepin sends an embassy to Rome composed of Bishop Burchard of Würzburg (trained by Boniface) and Folrad, his chaplain. They pose to the pope a political question of immense significance.^[78][79]

The response, transmitted by the Annales regni Francorum, is famous:

“Pope Zachary answered Pepin that it was better to call king the one who holds power than the one who remains without royal power; and, so that order would not be disturbed, he ordered by apostolic authority that Pepin be made king.” — Annales regni Francorum, under the year 749^[80]

Meaning and limits of the decision

This formula must be read carefully. Zachary does not depose Childeric III; he says that it is better to call king the one who holds real power. But the apostolic authority invoked — “by apostolic authority” in the Frankish text — religiously legitimizes the operation. This is, in the history of Christian Western Europe, the first clear act by which a pope sanctifies a transfer of kingship.^[81]

Several hermeneutical precautions are necessary. The transmitted formula is in Frankish Latin, not in a preserved papal bull; its late formulation — “it would be better that he who holds power be called king, rather than he who remains without royal power” — may have smoothed over the reality of a more cautious decision. The famous traditional, even sharper version — “it is better to call king the one in whom supreme power resides, rather than the one who is called king only wrongly” — is a later reformulation, not to be directly put into Zachary’s mouth.^[82]

That said, subsequent events confirm the essential point. In November 751, at Soissons, Saint Boniface crowns Pepin king of the Franks as papal legate.^[83] Childeric III is deposed, tonsured, and confined to the Abbey of Saint-Bertin. Three years later, Stephen II will personally go to Francia to crown Pepin and his sons again at Saint-Denis (754), and obtain the Promise of Quierzy which will lead to the first donation to the Holy See.^[84][85]

A prepared transfer, not invented

It would be inaccurate to present Zachary as “the one who made Pepin king.” The Carolingian dynasty had been in formation since Pepin of Herstal; Charles Martel had stabilized it militarily; Pepin and Carloman consolidated it politically. The papacy did not create this situation, it recognized it. But this recognition changed the very nature of royal power in the West: the king ceased to be merely an elected war leader, becoming an anointed, a sacred, a religious figure. With Zachary begins the long history which, through Charlemagne, Otto, and beyond, will make Christian kingship a sacramental institution.^[86]

The Lateran Palace and the Oratory of the Savior

The Liber Pontificalis devotes a lengthy section to Zachary’s Roman works. He restored the Lateran Palace (Patriarchium Lateranense), built a defensive tower and a new reception hall there. He erected an oratory dedicated to the Holy Savior, into which he transferred the famous acheiropoietic icon of Christ — the so-called “Acheiropoietos” image — which would be venerated for centuries in the Sancta Sanctorum at the Lateran.^[87]

At the moment when Byzantine iconoclasm sought to abolish sacred images, Rome built a specific oratory to display and honor an icon. The gesture was as much doctrinal as architectural.^[88]

Saint Peter, San Giorgio in Velabro, and the Domus Cultae

At the Vatican basilica, Zachary ordered maintenance and decoration works. He also translated the head of Saint George from the Lateran sacristy to the church of San Giorgio in Velabro, where the relic would be venerated throughout the Middle Ages.^[89]

He reorganized the Roman Church’s landed estates into domus cultae: large, structured agricultural estates (Lauretana, Antius, Capracorum) intended to directly feed the Roman population and supply the diaconiae that distributed aid to the poor. This was the beginning of a logistical system that his successors would massively develop.^[90]

The Ransom of Christian Slaves

A moral detail of the pontificate deserves mention: the ransom of Christian slaves sold to Muslims:

“When merchants from Venice bought slaves in Rome to resell them to the Saracens of Africa, the pope redeemed all the slaves, so that Christians would not become the property of pagans.” — J. P. Kirsch, Catholic Encyclopedia, 1912^[91]

This act aligns with the canons of the 743 synod against the sale of Christian slaves to pagans. It shows a papacy combining doctrinal authority with practical action: condemning the trade and redeeming the victims with resources from the Patrimony.^[92][93]

The Greek Translation of the Dialogues

Zachary’s most enduring intellectual work is his Greek translation of the four books of the Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great. The Liber Pontificalis briefly notes:

“The four books of the Dialogues composed by Pope Gregory of blessed memory, he translated from Latin into Greek.” — Liber Pontificalis, Vita Zachariae^[94]

The translation circulated widely in the East. It became one of the channels through which Latin monastic spirituality influenced Byzantine East, at a time when ecclesial communion was doctrinally strained by iconoclasm. In the process, it earned Gregory his Byzantine nickname Gregory the Dialogist (ὁ Διάλογος). A culturally immense choice for a Greek pope: to give the East its own hearing of the great Latin voice.^[95][96]

March 752: Death in Rome

Zachary died in Rome in March 752. The calculation in the Liber Pontificalis — ten years, three months, and fifteen days from 5 December 741 — gives a date near 20 March; the liturgical memory holds 15 March; some later French-speaking traditions give 22 March. The sources agree on the month and year, differing slightly on the day.^[97][98]

He was buried in the Vatican basilica, near the tomb of Saint Peter, according to the custom of eighth-century popes.

The Complicated Succession

After Zachary, the election was confused. A priest named Stephen was elected but died three days after his election, before being consecrated; he is not counted in modern official lists of popes — hence the numbering “Stephen II” given today to the actual successor. Stephen II (sometimes noted as III depending on the count) was quickly elected and consecrated. Three years later, he traveled to Francia to crown Pepin and his sons: the political transfer then became a military alliance and the first territorial donation to the Holy See.^[99]

Saint Zachary in the Calendar

The Roman Martyrology celebrates Saint Zachary on 15 March. His sanctity is ancient, attested immediately in Latin and Greek sources. He is one of the last popes of the early Middle Ages to bear the title of saint without formal canonization, based on continuous veneration since the eighth century.^[100]

The Political Papacy in Formation

Zachary did not invent the Papal States, but he laid several of its essential foundations. For the first time in a long while, a pope negotiated as an equal with a Lombard king, secured territorial restitutions, organized domus cultae, publicly legitimized a transfer of kingship in the West, and received the monastic abdication of a king. Bertolini summarizes: with Zachary, the papacy ceased to be merely an ecclesiastical seat and became a central political actor in medieval Italy.^[101]

The Pastoral Papacy at Its Height

Pastorally, Zachary brought to a peak the collaboration begun under Gregory II and Gregory III with Saint Boniface. Confirmation of Germanic bishoprics, support for Frankish synods, anathemas against Aldebert and Clement, prudence in the Virgilius affair: the papacy acted as a doctrinal and disciplinary court of appeal for the entire Western Church. The legislation of the Roman synods of 743 and 745 directly nourished the Carolingian reform.^[102][103]

The Faithful Doctrinal Papacy

Doctrinally, Zachary remained firm on the two fronts opened by his predecessor. Against Byzantine iconoclasm, he exhorted without breaking, defended images through Roman precedents, thus preparing the horizon for Nicaea II. Against Western religious deviations, he anathematized false miracle workers and heretics. Regarding the form of the sacraments, his decision on improperly pronounced baptisms became a lasting canonical reference. On cosmology, he refused to condemn out of prejudice while demanding fidelity to the doctrine of universal salvation through one Adam and one Christ.^{[104][105][106]}

The Charitable Papacy

Morally, Zachary left an image of gentle action: he redeemed Christian slaves, welcomed Lombard kings who chose monastic conversion, translated the Dialogues of the great shepherd Gregory into Greek for the Eastern brethren, and governed without rancor. The portrait in the Liber Pontificalis is not mere flattery: it is a reading of his deeds.^[107]

• Pope Saint Gregory III — immediate predecessor; first Roman appeal to the Franks against the Lombards, condemnation of iconoclasm.
• Pope Stephen II — successor; personally crowned Pepin and his sons at Saint-Denis, obtained the promise of Quierzy.
• Saint Boniface — apostle of the Germans, major correspondent of Zachary, papal legate for Pepin’s coronation at Soissons.
• Saint Gregory the Great — author of the Dialogues translated into Greek by Zachary.
• Saint Benedict of Nursia — rule received at Monte Cassino by Carloman, Ratchis, and their families.
• Byzantine iconoclasm — doctrinal backdrop of papal diplomacy with Constantinople.