STATES
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STATES
him by the Byzantine emperor. In order, however,
to fulfil the wishes of the pope Pepin had eventually to
obtain the consent of his nobles to a campaign into
Italy. This was rendered imperative, when several
embassies, which attempted by peaceful means to
induce the Lombard king to give up his conquests,
returned witliout accomplishing their mission. At
Quierey on the Oise the Prankish nobles finally gave
their consent. There Pepin executed in writing a
promise to give to the Church certain territories, the
first documentary record for the States of the Church.
This document, it is true, has not been preserved in
the authentic version, but a number of citations,
quoted from it during the decades immediately
following, indicate its contents, and it is likely that
it was the source of the much interpolated "Frag-
mentum Fantuzzianum", which probably dates from
778-80. In the original document of Quierey Pepin
promised the pope the restoration of the lands of
Central Italy, which had been last conquered by
Aistulf , especially in the exarchate and in the Roman
Duchy, and of a number of more or less clearly de-
fined patrimonies in the Lombard Kingdom and in
the Duchies of Spoleto and Benevento. The lands
were not yet in Pepin's hands. They had therefore
first to be conquered by Pepin, and his gift was con-
ditioned by this event. In the summer of 754 Pepin
with his army 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 districts of Venetia and
Istria, and 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 actual "Donation of 754". But Pepin had
hardly recrossed the Alps on his return home, when
Aistulf not only failed to make prejjarations for the
return of the promised cities, but again advanced
against Rome, which had to endure a severe siege.
The pope sent a messenger by sea, summoning Pepin
to fulfil anew his pledge of loyalty. In 756 Pepin
again set out with an army against Aistulf and a
second time hemmed him in at Pavia. Aistulf was
again compelled to promise to dehver to the pope the
cities granted him after the first war and, in addi-
tion, Commachio at the mouth of the Po. But this
time the mere promise was not considered sufficient.
Messengers of Pepm visited the various cities of the
exarchate and of the Pentapolis, demanded and re-
ceived 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, which
together with the keys of the cities were deposited
on the grave of St. Peter (Second Donation of 756).
The Byzantine Government naturally did not
approve of this result of the intervention of the
Franks. It had hoped through the instrumentality
of the Franks to regain possession of the districts
that had been wrested from it by the Lombards.
But Pepin took up arms, not to render a service to
the Byzantine emperor, but for the sake of St. Peter
alone, from whose protection he expected earthly
happiness and everlasting salvation. Just as kings
at that time founded monasteries and endowed them
with landed |)roperties, that i)rayers might be offered
for them there, so Pepin wished to provide the poi)e
with temporal territories, that he might be certain
of the prayers of the pope. Therefore Pepin answered
the Byzantine amljassadors, who came to him before
the second cxijcdition (if 75ti and asked him to return
to the eniiirror the cities to be tak<'n from the Lom-
bards, that he had undertaken the expedition for
St. Peter alone and not for the emperor; that to
St. Peter alone would he restore the cities. Thus
did Pepin found the States of the Church. The
Greeks undoubtedly had the formal right to the
sovereignty, but as they had failed to meet the obU-
gation of sovereignty to give protection against
foreign enemies, their rights became illusorj-. If the
Frariks had not interfered, the territorj- would by
right of conquest have fallen to the Lombards;
Pepin by his intervention prevented Rome with the
native population from falling into the hands of the
foreign conquerors. The States of the Church are
in a certain sense the only remnant of the Roman
Empire in the West which escaped foreign conquerors.
Gratefully did the Roman population acknowledge
that they had escaped subjection to the Lombards
only through the mediation of the pope. For it was
only for the pope's sake that Pepin had resolved
to interfere. The results were important, (a)
chiefly because the pope through his temporal sover-
eignty received a guarantee of his independence, was
freed from the fetters of a temporal power, and ob-
tained that freedom from interference which is
necessary for the conduct of his liigh office; (b) be-
cause the papacy threw off the political ties that
bound it to the East and entered into new relations
with the West, 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 the relations with the Lom- bards soon became strained again. Adrian I com- plained that the Lombard king Desiderius had in- vaded the territories of the States of the Church, and reminded Charlemagne of the promise made at Quierey. As Desiderius also championed the claims of Charlemagne's nephews, he endangered the unity of the Prankish kingdom, and Charlemagne's own interests therefore bade him to oppose Deside- rius. 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 maile at Quierey, Soon after this De- siderius 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 Quierey. Adrian construed it to mean that Charlemagne should take an elastic concept of the "respublica 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 interpretaion 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 antl in the States of the Church founded by Pepin's donations of 754-56. He now executed a new document in which were enumerated all the dis- tricts in which the pope was recognized !Js 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 Uniana); next the patri- monies were specified in various groups: m the Sabine,
