Stephen III
Stephen III
(II), whose pontificate lasted from 752 to 757, is generally recorded as Stephen II. This pope was threatened by Astolph king of the Lombards, who took the exarchate of Ravenna. Stephen thereupon appealed to Pepin the Short, king of the Franks for help, and offered in return an eternal reward and all the joys of Paradise, but threatened him with forfeiture of his salvation if he should delay to undertake the required deliverance. Pepin besieged Astolph in Pavia (754), and compelled him to promise the renunciation of all his conquests. The latter, however, invaded the Roman territories once more, instead of fulfilling his agreement and Pepin was obliged to return to Italy (755). He defeated the Lombard, and wrested from him the territories he had conquered, and then raised the pope to the patriarchate, and made him possessor of the exarchate. This act first made the pope the secular head of a country and a people. Stephen, in return, anointed Pepin king. He died in 757, leaving a number of letters and canonical constitutions.
