The Historians' History of the World 07

Pepin was still at his palace at Dietenhofen, when the intelligence reached him that the pope, with a splendid retinue, had passed the Great St. Bernard, and was hastening, according to agreement, to the monastery of St. Maurice at Agaunum. It had been expected that the king himself would be there to receive the illustrious fugitive; but Stephen on his arrival found in his stead the abbot Fulrad and the duke Rothard, who received the holy father with every mark of joy and reverence, and conducted him to the palace of Ponthion, near Châlons, where he arrived on the 6th of January, 754. As a still further mark of veneration, the young prince Charles was sent forward to welcome Stephen at a distance of about seventy miles from Ponthion;[129] and Pepin himself is said to have gone out three miles on foot to meet him, and to have acted as his marshal, walking by the side of his palfrey. The extraordinary honours paid by Pepin to the aged exile proceeded partly, no doubt, from the reverence and sympathy which his character and circumstances called forth. But his conduct might also result from a wise regard to his own interests, and a desire of inspiring his subjects with a mysterious awe for the spiritual potentate at whose behest he had himself assumed the crown.

The decisive conference between Pepin and Stephen took place at Ponthion on the 16th of January. The pope appeared before the Frankish monarch in the garb and posture of a suppliant, and received a promise of protection, and the restoration of all the territory of which the Lombards deprived him.

[754-755 A.D.]

The winter, during which no military operations could be undertaken, was spent by Stephen at the monastery of St. Denis at Paris. The spectacle of the harmony and friendship subsisting between the Roman pontiff and King Pepin was calculated to produce a good effect on the Romance subjects of the latter; who, on account of his German origin and tendencies, was regarded with less attachment in Neustria and Burgundy than in his Austrasian dominions.

This effect was increased by Stephen’s celebrating in person that solemn act of consecration which he had already performed by proxy. At the second coronation of Pepin, which took place with great solemnity and pomp in the church of St. Denis on the 28th of July, 754, his queen, Bertrada, and her two sons, Charles and Carloman, were also anointed with the holy oil, and the two last were declared the rightful heirs of their father’s empire. That nothing might be wanting on the part of the church to set apart the Carlovingian family as the chosen of God, Stephen laid a solemn obligation on the Franks, that “throughout all future ages neither they nor their posterity should ever presume to appoint a king over themselves from any other family.”

The title of Patricius Romanorum, which had first been worn by Clovis, was bestowed by the pope upon the king and his sons. It is difficult to understand how this dignity could at this period be imparted to any one without the authority of the Byzantine emperor. Constantine (nicknamed Copronymus) may indeed have taken the opportunity of the pope’s journey to offer the patriciate to Pepin; but it is more consistent with the circumstances we have described to suppose that Stephen was acting irregularly and without authority in conferring a Roman title on the Frankish king; and that he intended at the same time to give a palpable proof of his independence of the emperor who had neglected to aid him, and to point out Pepin as his future ally and protector.

On the 1st of March, 755,[130] Pepin summoned his council of state at Bernacum (Braine), where the war against the Lombards was agreed to, provided no other means could be found to reinstate the pope. In the meantime ambassadors were despatched to Aistulf, with terms which show that the Franks were by no means eager for the expedition. King Pepin on this occasion styles himself “defender of the holy Roman church by divine appointment,” and demands that the territories and towns should be restored—not to the Byzantine emperor, to whom they at any rate nominally belonged, but “to the blessed St. Peter and the church and commonwealth of the Romans.”

It is at this crisis of affairs that Carloman, the brother of Pepin, once more appears upon the stage, and in a singular character, viz., as opponent of the pope. Aistulf, by what influence we are not informed, prevailed upon him to make a journey to the Frankish court, for the purpose of counteracting the effect of Stephen’s representations. He met of course with no success, and was sent by Pepin and Stephen into a monastery at Vienne, where he died in the same year.

PEPIN INVADES ITALY (755 A.D.)

[755 A.D.]