Stephen III (Pope)

This article is about the Pope 768–772. For the after alternative count Stephen III. mentioned Pope 752–757 see Stephen II (Pope) .

Stephen III (IV.) († January 24, 772 ) was Pope from 768 to 772.

After the death of Paul I , Constantine II was installed as a layman by force of arms with the help of his brother, the Duke Toto of Nepi and Tuscia . He was deposed by the Lombards about a year later, in mid-768, and Philip was installed as pope. Today both count among the anti- popes . On August 7, 768 Stephen III. elected by the Franconian party led by Christophorus. He was consecrated two days later. Philipp previously resigned voluntarily. Christopher now took cruel revenge on the opposing party with his followers. As Charlemagnethrough a political marriage with the daughter of the Lombard king Desiderius entered into an alliance that Stephan had tried in vain to prevent, Stephan switched from the Franconian party to the supporters of the Lombards and became oppressively dependent on Desiderius. At the same time, the pro-Franconian party got it on: Christophorus and his son Sergius were murdered. When Charlemagne rejected his Longobard wife and became enemies with Desiderius, Stephen's policy finally failed. He died on January 24, 772 and is said to be buried in the Vatican . The location of his grave is not known.

count

In an alternative count, the priest Stephen (II.) , who was elected pope but died before his episcopal consecration, is recognized as pope. As a result, all other popes of this name are counted with a higher number, i.e. Stephen III. as Stephan IV. - in specialist literature, the spelling Stephan III is often used to avoid misunderstandings . (IV.) used.

literature

• Ekkart Sauser :  Stephen III. In: Biographical-Bibliographical Church Lexicon (BBKL). Volume 10, Bautz, Herzberg 1995, ISBN 3-88309-062-X , col. 1354–1355.
• Rudolf Schieffer: Stephen III . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA) . tape 8 . LexMA-Verlag, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-89659-908-9 , Sp. 117 .
• Eugenio Susi:  Stefano III. In: Massimo Bray (ed.): Enciclopedia dei Papi. Volume 1:  Pietro, santo. Anastasio bibliotecario, antipapa. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2000, pp. 677–681 ( treccani.it )..

web links

Commons : Stephen III.  – Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Stephen III . In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website, English), accessed 27 November 2011.

predecessor	government office	successor
Paul I	Pope 768–772	Hadrian I