Pope Stephen II
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Pope Stephen II |
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| Papacy began | 26 March 752 |
| Papacy ended | 26 April 757 |
| Predecessor | Pope-elect Stephen |
| Successor | Paul I |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 715 Rome, Byzantine Empire |
| Died | 26 April 757 Rome, Papal States |
Pope Stephen II (Latin: Stephanus II (or III); 715 – 26 April 757) was Pope from 26 March 752 to his death in 757. He succeeded Pope Zachary following the death of Pope-elect Stephen (sometimes called Stephen II). Stephen II marks the historical delineation between the Byzantine Papacy and the Frankish Papacy.
The Lombards to the north of Rome had captured Ravenna, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire Exarchate of Ravenna, in 751, and began to put pressure on the city of Rome.
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 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. As a result, Rome was unable to secure military support from Constantinople to push back Lombard forces.
Stephen turned to Pepin the Younger, the recently crowned King of the Franks (who had also recently defeated the Muslim Umayyad invasion of Gaul), and even traveled to Paris to plead for help in person against the surrounding Lombard and Muslim threats. 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.
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