Patrimonium Sancti Petri - Intervention of The Franks. Formation of The States of The Church

Intervention of The Franks. Formation of The States of The Church

The pope thereupon crossed the Great St. Bernard Pass into the Frankish kingdom. Pepin received his guest at Ponthion, and promised to do all in his power to recover the Exarchate of Ravenna and the other districts seized by Aistulf. The pope then went to St-Denis, near Paris. He concluded a firm alliance of friendship with Pepin and made him the first Carolingian king, probably in January 754. He bound the Franks under the threat of excommunication, never thereafter to choose their kings from any other family than the Carolingian. At the same time he bestowed on Pepin and his sons the title of "Patrician of the Romans", the title the Exarchs, the highest Byzantine officials in Italy, had borne. In their stead now the King of the Franks was to be the protector of the Romans and their Bishop. The pope in bestowing this title probably acted also with authority conferred on him by the Byzantine emperor. However, to fulfil the wishes of the pope, Pepin had eventually to obtain the consent of his nobles to a campaign into Italy. This became imperative, when several embassies attempted by peaceful means to induce the Lombard king to give up his conquests but returned without accomplishing their mission.

At Quiercy on the Oise, the Frankish nobles finally gave their consent. Pepin promised in writing to give the Church certain territories, the first documentary record for the States of the Church. This document has not been preserved, but a number of citations during the decades immediately following indicate its contents, and it is likely that it was the source of the much interpolated "Fragmentum Fantuzzianum", which probably dates from 778-80. In the original document of Quiercy Pepin promised to restore to the pope the lands of central Italy conquered by Aistulf, especially in the exarchate and the Roman Duchy, and of a number of patrimonies in the Lombard Kingdom and the Duchies of Spoleto and Benevento. These lands had yet to be conquered by Pepin, so his promise was on condition that he did.

In the summer of 754 Pepin and the pope began their march into Italy, and forced King Aistulf, who had shut himself up in his capital, to sue for peace. The Lombard promised to give up the cities of the exarchate and of the Pentapolis, which had been last conquered, to make no further attacks upon or to evacuate the Duchy of Rome and the northwest Italian districts of Venetia and Istria, and also acknowledged the sovereignty of the Franks. For the cities in the exarchate and in the Pentapolis, which Aistulf promised to return, Pepin executed a separate deed for the pope. This is the first "Donation of 754".

But Pepin had hardly recrossed the Alps on his way home, when Aistulf again advanced against Rome, and lay siege. The pope summoned Pepin to fulfil anew his pledge of loyalty. In 756 Pepin set out with an army against Aistulf and again hemmed him in at Pavia. Aistulf was again compelled to promise to the pope the cities granted him after the first war and, in addition, Commachio at the mouth of the Po. But this time a promise was not sufficient. Pepin's messengers visited the various cities of the exarchate and of the Pentapolis, demanded and received the keys to them, and brought the highest magistrates and most distinguished magnates of these cities to Rome. Pepin executed a new deed of gift for the cities thus surrendered to the pope, and laid it with the keys of the cities on the grave of St. Peter in the Second Donation of 756.

The Byzantine Government naturally did not approve of this result of Frankish intervention. It had hoped to regain possession of the districts that had been wrested from it by the Lombards. But Pepin took up arms, not for the Byzantine emperor, but for the sake of the pope. Kings at that time founded monasteries and endowed them with landed properties, so that prayers might be offered for them there; Pepin wished to provide the pope with temporal territories, so he might be certain of the prayers of the pope. Therefore when the Byzantine ambassadors came to him before the second expedition of 756 and asked him to return to the emperor the cities taken from the Lombards, he said that to Rome alone would he restore the cities. Thus did Pepin found the States of the Church.

The States of the Church were in a certain sense the only remnant of the Roman Empire in the West which escaped foreign conquerors. Gratefully the Roman population acknowledged that they had escaped subjection to the Lombards. Also, temporal sovereignty guaranteed the pope's independence, which made possible the development of the new Western civilization. The latter was destined to become especially prominent under Pepin's son, Charlemagne. Under Charlemagne relations with the Lombards became strained again. Adrian I complained that the Lombard king Desiderius had invaded the territories of the States of the Church, and reminded Charlemagne of the promise made at Quiercy. As Desiderius also championed the claims of Charlemagne's nephews, he endangered the unity of the Frankish kingdom, and Charlemagne's own interests therefore bade him to oppose Desiderius. In the autumn of 773 Charlemagne entered Italy and besieged Desiderius at Pavia. While the siege was in progress, Charlemagne went to Rome at Easter, 774, and at the request of the pope renewed the promises made at Quiercy.

Soon after this Desiderius was forced to capitulate, and Charlemagne had himself proclaimed King of the Lombards in his place. Charlemagne's attitude toward the States of the Church now underwent a change. With the title of King of the Lombards he also assumed the title as "Patricius Romanorum", which his father had never used, and read into this title rights which under Pepin had never been associated with it. Moreover, differences of opinion arose between Adrian and Charlemagne concerning the obligations which had been assumed by Pepin and Charlemagne in the document of Quiercy. Adrian construed it to mean that Charlemagne should take an elastic concept of the "res publica Romana" to the extent of giving up not only the conquests of Aistulf in the exarchate and in the Pentapolis, but also earlier conquests of the Lombards in Central Italy, Spoleto and Benevento.

But Charles would not listen to any such interpretation of the document. As both parties were anxious to come to an understanding, an agreement was reached in 781. Charlemagne acknowledged the sovereignty of Adrian in the Duchy of Rome and in the States of the Church founded by Pepin's donations of 754-756. He now executed a new document in which were enumerated all the districts in which the pope was recognized as ruler. The Duchy of Rome (which had not been mentioned in the earlier documents) heads the list, followed by the exarchate and the Pentapolis, augmented by the cities which Desiderius had agreed to surrender at the beginning of his reign (Imola, Bologna, Faenza, Ferrara, Ancona, Osimo and Umana); next the patrimonies were specified in various groups: in the Sabine, in the Spoletan and Beneventan districts, in Calabria, in Tuscany and in Corsica. Charlemagne, however, in his quality of "Patricius", wanted to be considered as the highest court of appeal in criminal cases in the States of the Church. He promised on the other hand to protect freedom of choice in the election of the pope, and renewed the alliance of friendship that had been previously made between Pepin and Stephen II.

The agreement between Charlemagne and Adrian remained undisturbed. In 787 Charlemagne further enlarged the States of the Church by new donations: Capua and a few other frontier cities of the Duchy of Benevento, besides several cities in Lombardy, Tuscany, Populonia, Roselle, Sovana, Toscanella, Viterbo, Bagnorea, Orvieto, Ferento, Orchia, Marta and lastly Città di Castello appear to have been added at that time. This is based upon deductions, since no document survives either from the time of Charlemagne or from that of Pepin. Adrian proved himself no mean politician, and is ranked with Stephen II as the second founder of the States of the Church. His ageement with Charlemagne remained authoritative for the relations of the later popes with the Carolingians and the German emperors. These relations were given a brilliant outward expression by Charlemagne's coronation as emperor in 800.

For the further history, see Papal States