The Romans murder Waldipert, the personal representative of the Lombard King Desiderius, and Desiderius blames Chrisopher the Primicerius. Pepin, king of the Franks, dies and his kingdom passes to two sons, Carloman and Charles (Charlemagne) who immediately begin feuding. Their mother Bertrada arranges for a marriage between Charles and a Lombard princess, sending the papacy into a panic. Desiderius exacts his revenge on Christopher--cosmic justice for the likely architect of the papal policies described in this podcast series.

Now a temporal power in Italy, the papacy meddles in the Lombard election and helps get Desiderius elected king of the Lombards. After the death of Pope Paul I, Toto and his brother Constantine seize the papal throne, and drive out of the city their rival, the primicerius Christopher. Christopher allies with Desiderius to retake the city and sets off a week of chaos in Rome marked by no less than 3 popes.

Pope Stephen II plays his hole card by producing the famous forgery, The Donation of Constantine, "proving" that the Lombards have stolen Ravenna not from the Emperor but from St. Peter. The reluctant Frankish warriors at last agree to make war on the Lombards, and, under the command of King Pepin, do so twice in a year's time. The end result is the creation of the Republic of St. Peter--what historians later call the Papal States. The last tiny remnant of the Papal States is Vatican City, where even today the pope rules with the powers of a medieval king.

The Lombards choose a new king, Aistulf, who renews their aggression and captures Ravenna. Pope Stephen II decides it's time to call in his marker with King Pepin and travels north of the Alps to make his appeal in person.

In 750 A.D. the Frankish royal throne was occupied by an ancient dynasty called the Merovingians, famous for their long hair. The Merovingians reigned but did not rule. Real power was exercised by a royal officer called the mayor of the palace. Mayor Pepin, facing threats to his rule from his own relatives, decides to take the revolutionary step of becoming king himself, and turns to the only power greater in the Frankish mind than the Merovingian mystique: Saint Peter. Pepin cleverly employs an Anglo-Saxon missionary named Boniface to conduct negotiations with the papacy. Pepin gets his wish, but in the process the Church becomes much more powerful.

In this episode, we set the scene for the events that will result in the creation of what would become the Papal States and, later, Vatican City. Specifically, we describe Italy in 750 A.D., a tiny sliver of which is still part of the Roman Empire (aka the Byzantine Empire) but is surrounded by a hostile barbarian people called the Lombards. The Romans, led by their bishop (whom we call the pope), should be able to count on support from the emperor in Constantinople, but he is distracted by threats closer to home: the Muslims and the Bulgars. In addition, the Emperor Constantine V Copronymus is estranged from his subjects over his ban on icons. Much of the episode is devoted to explaining how the bishop of Rome came to have unique authority among Europe's Christians.

This episode serves as a teaser for those who might be on the fence about whether a podcast about the papacy in the eighth century could be interesting. Welcome to the blood-stained world of the medieval popes!