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{{short description|Head of the Catholic Church from 752 to 757}}
{{Pope Stephen ToP Dab|II}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| type = Pope
| honorific-prefix = [[List of popes|Pope]]
| name = Stephen II
| title = [[Bishop of Rome]]
| church = [[Catholic Church]]
| image =
| image_size = 220px
| caption = [[Miniature (illuminated manuscript)|Miniature]] of Stephen II
| term_start = 26 March 752
| term_end = 26 April 757
| predecessor = [[Pope Zachary|Zachary]]
| successor = [[Pope Paul I|Paul I]]
| cardinal = before 750
| created_cardinal_by = [[Pope Zachary|Zachary]]
| birth_date = 714
| birth_place = [[Rome]], [[Exarchate of Italy|Italy]], [[Eastern Roman Empire]]
| death_date = 26 April 757 (aged 43)
| death_place = [[Rome]], [[Papal States]]
| other = Stephen
}}

'''Pope Stephen II''' ({{langx|la|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 on 26 April 757. 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 [[Donation of Pepin|a gift of land]] to the pope, eventually leading to the establishment of the [[Papal States]].

==Election==
In 751, the [[Lombards|Lombard]] king [[Aistulf]] captured the [[Exarchate of Ravenna]], and turned his attention to the [[Duchy of Rome]].<ref name="ce">[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14288c.htm Mann, Horace. "Pope Stephen (II) III." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 12 September 2017</ref> Stephen, a Roman aristocrat and member of the [[Orsini family]],<ref>Norwich, J. J. "The Popes: A History", p. 756. 2011</ref><ref>George L. Williams, ''Papal Genealogy'', (McFarland & Company, 2004), 215.</ref> was [[papal selection before 1059|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 [[Byzantine Iconoclasm#The first iconoclast period: 730–787|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.<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14257a.htm Schnürer, Gustav. "States of the Church." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 12 September 2017</ref>

Stephen turned to [[Pepin the Short]], the [[king of the Franks]] who had recently defeated the Muslim [[Umayyad invasion of Gaul]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=David Gress|title=From Plato to NATO: The Idea of the West and Its Opponents|date=11 May 2010|publisher=Simon and Schuster|location=Preface|isbn=9781439119013|quote=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...}}</ref> He traveled to [[Paris]] to plead for help in person against the surrounding Lombard and Muslim threats.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Peter O'Brien|title=European Perceptions of Islam and America from Saladin to George W. Bush|date=23 Dec 2008|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=9780230617803|page=24}}</ref> 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]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Sampie Terreblanche|title=Western Empires, Christianity and the Inequalities between the West and the Rest|date=30 Sep 2014|publisher=Penguin UK|location=Europes industrialisation|isbn=9780143531555|quote=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...}}</ref> 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==
[[File:La donacion de Pipino el Breve al Papa Esteban II.jpg|thumb|Painting depicting Abbot Fulrad giving Pepin's written guarantee to Stephen II]]
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.<ref name="ce"/> [[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<ref name="ce"/> at [[Saint Denis Basilica|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 [[Duchy of Spoleto|duchies of Spoleto]] and [[Duchy of Benevento|Benevento]], and the [[Duchy of the Pentapolis|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 Sea|Tyrrhenian]] to the [[Adriatic Sea|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 (fortification)|rocca]]''.

Pepin confirmed his Donation in Rome in 756, and in 774 [[Charlemagne]] confirmed the donation of his father.{{sfn|Riche|1993|p=97}} Stephen II died on 26 April 757{{efn|Thomas Noble states Stephen was buried 26 April 757.{{sfn|Noble|1984|p=103}}}} and was succeeded by his brother [[Pope Paul I|Paul I]].<ref>Biagia Catanzaro, Francesco Gligora, ''Breve Storia dei papi, da San Pietro a Paolo VI'', Padova 1975, p. 84</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|Christianity|History}}
*''[[Annales laureshamenses]]''
*[[List of Catholic saints]]
*[[List of popes]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

== Sources ==
* {{EnciclopediaDeiPapi|Verfasser=Paolo Delogu|ID=stefano-ii_(Enciclopedia_dei_Papi)/|Lemma=Stefano II|Band=1|SeiteVon=660|SeiteBis=665|Kommentar=|kurz=}}.
* {{BBKL|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070629104500/http://www.bautz.de/bbkl/s/s4/stephan_ii_p.shtml |autor=Ekkart Sauser|artikel=Stephan II. (III.)|band=10|spalten=1351–1354}}
* {{LexMA|8|116|117|Stephan II|[[Rudolf Schieffer]]}}
* {{cite book |title=The Republic of St. Peter: The Birth of the Papal State, 680-825 |first=Thomas F. X. |last=Noble |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=1984 |isbn=9780812200911 }}
* {{cite book |first=Pierre |last=Riche |title=The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe |translator-first=Michael Idomir |translator-last=Allen |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=1993 |isbn=9780812213423 }}

==External links==
{{commons category|Stephanus II}}
*[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14257a.htm ''Catholic Encyclopedia'']: Papal States, section 3: Collapse of the Byzantine Power in Central Italy
*[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/lorsch1.html Medieval Sourcebook:]

{{s-start}}
{{s-rel|ca}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Pope Zachary|Zachary]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Pope]]|years=752–757}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Pope Paul I|Paul I]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Popes}}
{{Catholicism}}
{{History of the Catholic Church}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephen 02}}
[[Category:757 deaths]]
[[Category:Popes]]
[[Category:Sicilian popes]]
[[Category:8th-century archbishops]]
[[Category:Foreign relations of the Holy See]]
[[Category:People from the Papal States]]
[[Category:714 births]]
[[Category:8th-century popes]]
[[Category:Burials at St. Peter's Basilica]]

Pope Stephen II - Revision history

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