Editing Pope Stephen II (section)

==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 duchies of [[Spoleto]] and [[Benevento]], and the [[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 (architecture)|rocca]]''.

Pepin confirmed his Donation in Rome in 756, and in 774 [[Charlemagne]] confirmed the donation of his father.<ref>Pierre Riche, ''The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe'', transl. Michael Idomir Allen, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), 97.</ref> Stephen II died on 26 April 757 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>