Pope Stephen II
Pope Stephen II | |
---|---|
Bishop of Rome | |
Church | Catholic Church |
Papacy began | 26 March 752 |
Papacy ended | 26 April 757 |
Predecessor | Zachary |
Successor | Paul I |
Orders | |
Created cardinal | before 750 by Zachary |
Personal details | |
Born | Rome, Byzantine Empire |
Died | 26 April 757 (aged 43) Rome, Papal States |
Other popes named Stephen |
Pope Stephen II (Latin: Stephanus II; 714 – 26 April 757) was born a Roman aristocrat and member of the Orsini family. Stephen was the bishop of Rome from 26 March 752 to his death. Stephen II marks the historical delineation between the Byzantine Papacy and the Frankish Papacy. During Stephen's pontificate, Rome was facing invasion by the Lombards when Stephen II went to Paris to seek assistance from Pepin the Short. Pepin defeated the Lombards and made a gift of land to the pope, eventually leading to the establishment of the Papal States.
Election
In 751, the Lombard king Aistulf captured the Exarchate of Ravenna, and turned his attention to the Duchy of Rome.[1] Stephen, a Roman aristocrat and member of the Orsini family,[2][3] was selected on 26 March 752 to succeed Pope Zachary following the recent death of Pope-elect Stephen.
Lombard threat
Relations were very strained in the mid-8th century between the papacy and the Eastern Roman emperors over the support of the Isaurian dynasty for iconoclasm. Likewise, maintaining political control over Rome became untenable as the Eastern Roman Empire itself was beset by the Abbasid Caliphate to the south and Bulgars to the northwest. Constantinople could send no troops, and Emperor Constantine V Copronymus, in answer to the repeated requests for help of the new pope, Stephen II, could only offer him the advice to act in accordance with the ancient policy of Rome, to pit some other Germanic tribe against the Lombards.[4]
Stephen turned to Pepin the Short, the king of the Franks who had recently defeated the Muslim Umayyad invasion of Gaul.[5] He traveled to Paris to plead for help in person against the surrounding Lombard and Muslim threats.[6] On 6 January 754, Stephen re-consecrated Pepin as king. In return, Pepin assumed the role of ordained protector of the Church and set his sights on the Lombards, as well as addressing the threat of Islamic Al-Andalus.[7] Pepin invaded Italy twice to settle the Lombard problem and delivered the territory between Rome and Ravenna to the papacy, but left the Lombard kings in possession of their kingdom.
Duchy of Rome and the Papal States
Prior to Stephen II's alliance with Pepin, Rome had constituted the central city of the Duchy of Rome, which composed one of two districts within the Exarchate of Ravenna, along with Ravenna itself. At Quiercy the Frankish nobles finally gave their consent to a campaign in Lombardy.[1] Catholic tradition asserts that then and there Pepin executed in writing a promise to give to the Church certain territories that were to be wrested from the Lombards, and which would be referred to later as the Papal States. Known as the Donation of Pepin, no actual document has been preserved, but later 8th century sources quote from it.
Stephen anointed Pepin as king of the Franks[1] at Saint-Denis in a memorable ceremony that was evoked in the coronation rites of French kings until the end of the ancien régime in 1789. In return, in 756, Pepin and his Frankish army forced the Lombard king to surrender his conquests, and Pepin officially conferred upon the pope the territories belonging to Ravenna, even cities such as Forlì with their hinterlands, laying the Donation of Pepin upon the tomb of Saint Peter, according to traditional later accounts. The gift included Lombard conquests in the Romagna and in the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento, and the Pentapolis in the Marche (the "five cities" of Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Senigallia and Ancona). For the first time, the Donation made the pope a temporal ruler over a strip of territory that extended diagonally across Italy from the Tyrrhenian to the Adriatic. Over these extensive and mountainous territories the medieval popes were unable to exercise effective sovereignty, given the pressures of the times, and the new Papal States preserved the old Lombard heritage of many small counties and marquisates, each centered upon a fortified rocca.
Pepin confirmed his Donation in Rome in 756, and in 774 Charlemagne confirmed the donation of his father.[8] Stephen II died on 26 April 757 and was succeeded by his brother Paul I.[9]
See also
References
- ^ a b c Mann, Horace. "Pope Stephen (II) III." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 12 September 2017
- ^ Norwich, J. J. "The Popes: A History", p. 756. 2011
- ^ George L. Williams, Papal Genealogy, (McFarland & Company, 2004), 215.
- ^ Schnürer, Gustav. "States of the Church." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 12 September 2017
- ^ David Gress (11 May 2010). From Plato to NATO: The Idea of the West and Its Opponents. Preface: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781439119013.
He transferred his political allegiance from the empire to the king of the Franks, who lived north of the Alps, who had recently defeated the Muslims who were invading from Spain...
- ^ Peter O'Brien (23 Dec 2008). European Perceptions of Islam and America from Saladin to George W. Bush. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 24. ISBN 9780230617803.
- ^ Sampie Terreblanche (30 Sep 2014). Western Empires, Christianity and the Inequalities between the West and the Rest. Europes industrialisation: Penguin UK. ISBN 9780143531555.
To address the threat of an Islamic empire settled in south-western Europe, Pope Stephen II crowned Pippin (the son of Charles Martel) as king of the Frankish dynasty...
- ^ Pierre Riche, The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe, transl. Michael Idomir Allen, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), 97.
- ^ Biagia Catanzaro, Francesco Gligora, Breve Storia dei papi, da San Pietro a Paolo VI, Padova 1975, p. 84
Sources
- Paolo Delogu: Stefano II. In: Massimo Bray (ed.): Enciclopedia dei Papi. Volume 1: Pietro, santo. Anastasio bibliotecario, antipapa. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2000, pp. 660–665 (treccani.it).
- Ekkart Sauser (1995). "Stephan II. (III.)". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol. 10. Herzberg: Bautz. cols. 1351–1354. ISBN 3-88309-062-X.
- Rudolf Schieffer (1997). "Stephan II". Lexikon des Mittelalters, VIII: Stadt (Byzantinisches Reich) bis Werl (in German). Stuttgart and Weimar: J. B. Metzler. col. 116–117. ISBN 3-89659-908-9.
External links
- Catholic Encyclopedia: Papal States, section 3: Collapse of the Byzantine Power in Central Italy
- Medieval Sourcebook:
Catholic Church titles | ||
---|---|---|
Preceded by | Pope 752–757 | Succeeded by |
- v
- t
- e
- Peter
- Linus
- Anacletus
- Clement I
- Evaristus
- Alexander I
- Sixtus I
- Telesphorus
- Hyginus
- Pius I
- Anicetus
- Soter
- Eleutherius
- Victor I
- Zephyrinus
- Callixtus I
- Urban I
- Pontian
- Anterus
- Fabian
- Cornelius
- Lucius I
- Stephen I
- Sixtus II
- Dionysius
- Felix I
- Eutychian
- Caius
- Marcellinus
- Marcellus I
- Eusebius
- Miltiades
- Sylvester I
- Mark
- Julius I
- Liberius
- Damasus I
- Siricius
- Anastasius I
- Innocent I
- Zosimus
- Boniface I
- Celestine I
- Sixtus III
- Leo I
- Hilarius
- Simplicius
- Felix III
- Gelasius I
- Anastasius II
- Symmachus
- Hormisdas
- John I
- Felix IV
- Boniface II
- John II
- Agapetus I
- Silverius
- Vigilius
- Pelagius I
- John III
- Benedict I
- Pelagius II
- Gregory I
- Sabinian
- Boniface III
- Boniface IV
- Adeodatus I
- Boniface V
- Honorius I
- Severinus
- John IV
- Theodore I
- Martin I
- Eugene I
- Vitalian
- Adeodatus II
- Donus
- Agatho
- Leo II
- Benedict II
- John V
- Conon
- Sergius I
- John VI
- John VII
- Sisinnius
- Constantine
- Gregory II
- Gregory III
- Zachary
- Stephen II
- Paul I
- Stephen III
- Adrian I
- Leo III
- Stephen IV
- Paschal I
- Eugene II
- Valentine
- Gregory IV
- Sergius II
- Leo IV
- Benedict III
- Nicholas I
- Adrian II
- John VIII
- Marinus I
- Adrian III
- Stephen V
- Formosus
- Boniface VI
- Stephen VI
- Romanus
- Theodore II
- John IX
- Benedict IV
- Leo V
- Sergius III
- Anastasius III
- Lando
- John X
- Leo VI
- Stephen VII
- John XI
- Leo VII
- Stephen VIII
- Marinus II
- Agapetus II
- John XII
- Benedict V
- Leo VIII
- John XIII
- Benedict VI
- Benedict VII
- John XIV
- John XV
- Gregory V
- Sylvester II
- John XVII
- John XVIII
- Sergius IV
- Benedict VIII
- John XIX
- Benedict IX
- Sylvester III
- Gregory VI
- Clement II
- Damasus II
- Leo IX
- Victor II
- Stephen IX
- Nicholas II
- Alexander II
- Gregory VII
- Victor III
- Urban II
- Paschal II
- Gelasius II
- Callixtus II
- Honorius II
- Innocent II
- Celestine II
- Lucius II
- Eugene III
- Anastasius IV
- Adrian IV
- Alexander III
- Lucius III
- Urban III
- Gregory VIII
- Clement III
- Celestine III
- Innocent III
- Honorius III
- Gregory IX
- Celestine IV
- Innocent IV
- Alexander IV
- Urban IV
- Clement IV
- Gregory X
- Innocent V
- Adrian V
- John XXI
- Nicholas III
- Martin IV
- Honorius IV
- Nicholas IV
- Celestine V
- Boniface VIII
- Benedict XI
- Clement V
- John XXII
- Benedict XII
- Clement VI
- Innocent VI
- Urban V
- Gregory XI
- Urban VI
- Boniface IX
- Innocent VII
- Gregory XII
- Martin V
- Eugene IV
- Nicholas V
- Callixtus III
- Pius II
- Paul II
- Sixtus IV
- Innocent VIII
- Alexander VI
- Pius III
- Julius II
- Leo X
- Adrian VI
- Clement VII
- Paul III
- Julius III
- Marcellus II
- Paul IV
- Pius IV
- Pius V
- Gregory XIII
- Sixtus V
- Urban VII
- Gregory XIV
- Innocent IX
- Clement VIII
- Leo XI
- Paul V
- Gregory XV
- Urban VIII
- Innocent X
- Alexander VII
- Clement IX
- Clement X
- Innocent XI
- Alexander VIII
- Innocent XII
- Clement XI
- Innocent XIII
- Benedict XIII
- Clement XII
- Benedict XIV
- Clement XIII
- Clement XIV
- Pius VI
- Pius VII
- Leo XII
- Pius VIII
- Gregory XVI
- Pius IX
- Leo XIII
- Pius X
- Benedict XV
- Pius XI
- Pius XII
- John XXIII
- Paul VI
- John Paul I
- John Paul II
- Benedict XVI
- Francis
Antiquity and Early Middle Ages |
|
---|---|
High and Late Middle Ages |
|
Early Modern and Modern Era |
|
- Category
- Catholic Church Portal