ON SAINT PAUL I, ROMAN PONTIFF.
A.D. 767.
A PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
On his cult, the Acta in Anastasius and Peter de Natalibus; Analecta on the Acta.
Paulus I, Roman Pontiff (S.)
D. P.
First Peter de Natalibus to the Catalogue of the Saints added this Pontiff, inscribed (so far at least as we know) in no Fasti before, How it came about that, though dead in June, and that on the 27th of January, as we there among the Passed-over said: on which day him followed the Cologne Carthusians, in their additions to Usuardus, Canisius, Felicius and Maurolycus. That in the month of June drawing to its end Paul died was sufficiently established: and therefore Baronius, as on the 28th of May ordained he had said Paul, dead said [him] on the 28th of June, and so inscribed in the Roman Martyrology on the same day; he was ascribed by Peter de Natalibus to January. thus perhaps wishing corrected the error in the name of the month in Peter. And it is probable that Peter himself, as he had a Life somewhat fuller, than is extant in the now known Anastasian copies; so there found the day of the first burial in the church of S. Paul, but June turned into January. And since the day of burial, there wont to be noted, he took for the day of death (contrary to which is to be done, I have elsewhere taught) he believed [him] dead on such a day; and so too scrupulous in taking a full month was Baronius, lest the 27th day of June he should define. I meanwhile the established and received, however it be, day of cult, to be held here have judged; until otherwise determine those, to whom hereafter perhaps the correcting of the Martyrology shall be committed.
[2] The Roman Presbyter, in the description of the old Vatican Basilica, in the time of Pope Eugenius III prepared, treating of the Oratory of S. Mary, The body translated from the Vatican elsewhere in the year 1516, by Paul the Pontiff there built; testifies, that in his time at his sepulchre still was read inscribed; Here rests Paul the Pope; nor furthermore do we know anything, of his body translated into another place. Yet to another place at some time it must have been translated; and indeed long before the year 1506. For in that year partly, partly a hundred years after, when Pope Julius II one, and then Paul V another part of the old Basilica leveled with the ground, guarding against imminent ruin, and that which is now had about to found; it pleased all the monuments of the ancient Pontiffs, because in 1635 it was not found there. above or below the old pavement existing, to remove, and into the crypts still surviving to transfer; as in a notable book about them, published about the year 1635, declared Francis Maria Torrigius; no mention anywhere being made of Paul; who would not have omitted him, if then had survived any memory of his that ought to have been transferred.
[3] We give the Life from the Pontifical of Anastasius the Librarian the book, into which such a one seems to be inserted, as written by a contemporary he found; The Life in Anastasius the Librarian which also of the other Lives of the Pontiffs flourishing in the 7th and 8th centuries, thinks John Ciampinus, in his Examination of that book a little before, on the Life of S. Leo II, cited, section 6. The same confirm the words, of the writer concerning Paul's assiduity in visiting the poor by night, number 3, As many testified; yet the first and last words are Anastasius's. From the Life thus written we have, that, the elder brother of Paul being dead, Stephen II (Baronius reckons III) and at S. Peter's buried on the 6th of the Kalends of May; immediately the same congregation of people and Clergy, which to Paul remaining with the dying Stephen and caring for the funeral had adhered in the Lateran Palace, written by a contemporary, the same immediately into the summit of the Pontificate elected; yet not before the 22nd of May ordained, and so there is had an interpontificium of one month, five days, which the better copies of Anastasius note: although Baronius, the day of death from the day of burial noted by Anastasius, not wont to distinguish, after an interpontificium of 32 days (according to another reading of the Anastasian codex) Paul's Pontificate begins on the 28th of May: Baronius's somewhat different reckoning. which in the year 757 having the Dominical letter B, was equally a Lord's day; as also in the year 767, having the Dominical letter D, the 28th day of June. But that Paul died not on a Friday or on a Saturday, but on a Lord's day, seems proved from Anastasius.
[4] For he narrates in the Life of his successor Stephen the Third, by Baronius the Fourth, that when Paul, set in sickness, had not yet breathed out his spirit; forthwith a certain Toto, Duke of the city of Nepi, an army being collected, entering the city, Constantine the Antipope. and setting him before his own house, he and his lay brothers, their likewise lay brother Constantine elected there suddenly, that is, as soon as it became known that Paul had died, and like robbers into the Lateran Patriarchium him introduced; and ascending with him into the Vicedominate, they compelled Bishop George summoned, that the prayer of Clericate to the same Constantine he should bestow … who on the next day dawning, on the second feria Monday, Subdeacon and Deacon, by the same Bishop in the oratory of S. Lawrence within the same Patriarchium, against the institutions of the holy Canons, was consecrated, and on the coming Lord's day Pontiff, with like violence. But who would believe that by those so sacrilegiously hastening the second feria was to be awaited, if on a Friday or on a Saturday, and not on a Lord's day Paul had died? Peter de Natalibus in book 3, chapter 30, of the Catalogue, having narrated his burial at S. Peter's, adds; Where also he shines with miracles.
[5] The body of S. Petronilla translated. But it seems that Peter, as I said, although nearly the same words as Anastasius using, had a Life somewhat more prolix, in which also these things were read: He constituted the divine Offices to be celebrated in Lent before the Sixth hour; which before namely were celebrated after None was chanted. He, the Priests and Clergy and People of the whole city being gathered, the body of B. Petronilla, from the place where it rested outside the gate on the Appian way, took away; together with the marble sarcophagus, the Apostolic Epistles, in which was read a title, with the proper hand of B. Peter the Apostle sculpted, To the golden Petronilla, his sweetest daughter, (namely spiritual from baptism, as was said on the 31st of May) which, placed on a wagon, within the city in the church of B. Peter he placed. More things, and more to the ecclesiastical history and the commonwealth pertaining Acts could be gathered, if there were extant the Register of his Epistles, which to the East against the Iconoclasts, or to the West against the Lombards, repeatedly treaty-breakers, and to the Romans grievous and harmful, he gave to the King of the Franks Pippin. Now of this kind only ten survive, full of Apostolic spirit, with the summaries of several others, in no order of time kept, collected, and in Baronius to be found at the year 797; from which nonetheless it pleases something to the Anastasian Acts to subjoin.
ACTA
From the Pontifical of Anastasius the Librarian.
Paulus I, Roman Pontiff (S.)
FROM ANASTASIUS.
[1] Paul, by nation a Roman, of his father Constantine, sat ten years, one month. He from his early age in the Lateran Patriarchium, with his own elder brother german Stephen, Educated in the Patriarchium, his predecessor Pontiff, for the instruction of Ecclesiastical discipline was delivered, in the times of Lord Gregory the Second, the Younger Pontiff: and afterward by Lord Zacharias the most blessed Pope, in the order of the Diaconate, together with his aforesaid german brother, was consecrated.
[2] While the same his german brother, and predecessor Pontiff was reaching the end of his life, forthwith also the people of this Roman City was divided; and some, holding with Theophylact the Archdeacon, He assists Pope Stephen his Brother as he dies: gathered in his house, sat: but others with the same most blessed Paul the Deacon agreed, the greater part of the Judges and people holding with him, than with the aforesaid Theophylact the Archdeacon. But he, the most holy man, by no means from the Lateran Palace withdrew; but with the other faithful, his sick german brother and predecessor Pontiff constantly served. But when from this life his aforesaid brother and predecessor had departed, and with honor in the basilica of B. Peter being buried, and as his successor is elected, immediately the same congregation of people, which with the often-mentioned most blessed Paul then held, since it was stronger and mightier, him into the summit of the Pontificate elected. After these things they, who with the aforesaid Archdeacon had been gathered, were dispersed: and so, God assenting, a most mild man the same most holy man into the Apostolic See of the most blessed Peter was consecrated Pontiff.
[3] But he was in the times of Constantine and Leo the Emperors. He was also mild and very merciful, to no one returning evil for evil: and if for a small matter anyone, by wicked attendants, he heard troubled; and exceedingly addicted to works of mercy, forthwith moved by piety, he expended on him the mercy of consolation. He, as many testified, by night by himself the cells of the poor sick lying about the city, and also of other needy, with his familiars, went around in the silence of the night, most amply ministering to them food, and bringing the help of support. But also the prisons and other enclosures through the same secrets of the nights he visited: and if any there he found thrust away, from the danger of death rescuing, free to go he released. But also several, who, bound by debts and afflicted, by their usurers were oppressed, the debt itself being paid, from the yoke of servitude he freed; to widows and orphans, and all the needy bringing help.
[4] A most strong defender also was he of the orthodox faith; whence very often his Envoys, with Apostolic and admonitory letters, to the aforesaid Constantine and Leo the Augusti he directed, an asserter of the sacred images, for restoring and confirming to the former state of veneration the most sacred images of the Lord God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of his holy Genetrix, and of the blessed Apostles, and of all the holy Prophets, Martyrs and Confessors. This most blessed Pontiff also, with all his spiritual zeal, a great care of solicitude toward the holy cemeteries unceasingly bore: whence seeing very many places of the same holy cemeteries neglected, and by the negligence of antiquity in the greatest demolition, He restores the sacred Cemeteries, and now placed near to ruin; forthwith the same bodies of the Saints from those ruined cemeteries he took away: which with hymns and spiritual canticles within this Roman city introducing, some of them through the Tituli and Diaconies or monasteries and the rest of the churches with fitting care he studied to repose with honor.
[5] He founds a monastery This most holy Prelate in his own house a monastery from the foundations in honor of holy Stephen, namely Martyr and Pontiff; and also of blessed Silvester, likewise Pontiff and Confessor of Christ, built: where also building an oratory in the upper walls of the same monastery, their bodies, with great veneration he reposited. But within the cloisters of that monastery, a church of wondrous beauty from the foundations newly he built: which with mosaic and marbles adorning, all ornament on it in gold and silver and various kinds he bestowed. and endows it. But also a ciborium there of silver of … pounds he made: and there of innumerable Saints the bodies, which from the aforesaid demolished cemeteries he took away, with the greatest affection of veneration he reposited. In the same monastery also very many estates he conferred, and possessions and suburban or rustic places, superfluously and abundantly enriching [it] with gold and silver and other kinds of things, and all useful things: For the Greeks where also a congregation of Monks building, a monastery of Greek modulation of psalmody he decreed it to be: and to our omnipotent God and to all the Saints there resting, under great interdictions, assiduously and unceasingly praises he established to be paid.
[6] He made newly a church, within this Roman city, on the Sacred Way beside the temple of Romulus, he founds the church of the Apostles on the Sacred Way. in honor of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul; where the most blessed Princes of the Apostles themselves, at the time when for the name of Christ they were crowned with martyrdom, while to our Redeemer they were pouring forth prayers, their own knees to bend were seen. In which place even to this day their knees, for a testimony to every coming generation hereafter, in a certain very hard flint, are known to be designated.
[7] For also within the church of B. Peter the Apostle, outside the walls of this Roman city, an oratory in honor of the holy Genetrix of God he built; beside the oratory of S. Leo the Pope, He adorns the Vatican: near the doors of the entrance of S. Petronilla and B. Andrew the Apostle, with mosaics and various metal adorning it: where also an effigy of the holy Genetrix of God, in a statue of gilded silver, which weighs a hundred pounds, he set up: in which oratory also a sepulchre for himself he built.
[8] He, while in the church of B. Paul the Apostle in the summer time, on account of the strong fervor of the heat, he tarried, at S. Paul's having died forestalled by a bodily sickness ended his life; where also he was buried; and there his bier for the space of months unburied remained, his funeral: but afterward all the Roman citizens and other nations being gathered, his body through the river Tiber in a little boat ferrying, to B. Peter with the honor of psalmody they carried, is translated to S. Peter's. and in the aforesaid oratory built by him him they buried.
[9] He made one Ordination in the month of December, Presbyters twelve, Deacons two, Bishops through various places to the number of three. And the Episcopate ceased for one year, and one month. His Ordinations.
NOTES D. P.
p Because to this writer it seems familiar to take full months; as he said Paul sat 10 years, 1 month, so here I have believed days omitted, and them as 16 I have noted. But if it should please to add to the Pontificate 5 or 6 days, and Paul to have died on the 27th or 28th day, but not been buried then; there could suffice for 1 year, 1 month, added 9 or 10 days, through which it would come to the 7th of August of the year 778 [768], in which I teach his successor Stephen the third, by Baronius the fourth, was ordained. The cause of the longer vacancy was the intrusion of the Pseudo-pope Constantine, who held the holy See meanwhile violently.
ANALECTA D. P.
Paulus I, Roman Pontiff (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
[10] Noteworthy to me here first comes the eximious modesty of Paul before the Pontificate; who did not care under his brother the Pope to ascend to a higher grade, but in his own order of the Diaconate constantly persevered, although applied to great matters and the chief affairs of the Church. Before the Pontificate wonderfully modest In Anastasius concerning Stephen it is read, that while a great persecution, by the King of the Lombards Aistulf, in this city Rome or the cities subject to it had arisen, and the vehement savagery of the same King was threatening; forthwith the same most blessed Pope, in the third month of his Apostolic Ordination, that is, in June of the year 752, disposing his german brother most holy, namely Paul the Deacon, and Ambrose the Primicerius, with very many gifts, is sent for peace to Aistulf King of the Lombards, to the same King of the Lombards Aistulf, for ordaining and confirming the treaties of peace, sent. Which aforesaid men coming to him, gifts being imparted, that the more easily for that matter with him they might obtain [it], for the space of forty years a treaty of peace with him they confirmed. But how the same King after nearly four months into the crime of perjury fell, and to subject the Roman People to tribute strove, through each head single gold solidi yearly exacting; which soon being broken by the same, the exarchate of Ravenna also to himself subjecting, and many other contumelies and injuries to the Church bringing, until, by Pippin King of the Franks's arms twice crushed, and compelled he was, the things taken away to restore. See Anastasius.
[11] At length died the unhappy and often-perjured Aistulf in the year 757, and to him Duke Desiderius, Pope Stephen favoring him, in the kingdom succeeded: who also to his Aistulf's brother Paul the promised faith for some time kept: Paul fearing similar things from King Desiderius yet the Pontiff prudently acting, and to the perfidious nation aspiring to the empire of all Italy, knowing that nothing should be trusted; the King of the Franks with continuous services he began to cultivate immediately from his election; thus writing; With grave groaning and immense sorrow of heart, we make known to thy by God protected Excellency, most powerful, victorious King, that by God's calling from this light to eternal rest was taken, the Lord of holy recollection and my german Pope Stephen, soon after his election, with Pippin, King of the Franks, at whose passing also the very stones, if it can be said, with us weeping shed tears. Into whose Apostolic order, by the whole multitude of the peoples, my unhappiness was chosen. And while these things were being done, there came to Rome Immo, the Envoy of thy most Christian Excellency; and speaking with him together with our Magnates, we judged it fitting him to be detained here, until by God's providence, with the sacred Apostolic blessing we had been illustrated, and then more fully satisfied, of our and the whole people's purity and love, which toward thy most kind Excellency, and the whole nation of the Franks we bear, him to you to return with our Apostolic Envoys we should direct. Since thou for certain mayest know, most excellent and by God protected, he renews the treaty of his predecessor; our after God helper and defender King, that firm and robust, even to the soul and the shedding of blood, in that faith and love and concord of charity and treaty of peace, which the aforesaid Lord of most blessed memory and my german most holy Pontiff with you confirmed, remaining, with our people we shall remain even to the end. Whence also unceasingly, with palms extended to heaven, for the welfare of the life of thy Excellency, and the safety of thy sweetest sons, and the most excellent Queen, of the Lord our God we entreat the clemency, that always thy help and most firm protection may be extended over us. Whole may the heavenly grace guard thy Excellency.
[12] In the same year 757 in very ancient Annals from the year 708 to 800 brought down, he receives his daughter for baptism, is noted the Nativity of Gislana, for whose baptizing, desired by Pippin, the new Pontiff seems godfather, and so made his spiritual co-father. To return grace for such an office the King sent to Rome Wulfard, Abbot of Marmoutier; who, as the Epistle in the volumes of the Councils the sixth, Paul writes back, brought a most precious gift of supernal grace, and gladly receives the cloth, with which she had been covered. namely a cloth, in which our, he says, most sweet and most loving spiritual daughter, in the most sacred font washed, was received: which also with great joy, a cohort of people being gathered, within the hall of the sacred body of your helper B. Petronilla, which for the praise of the eternal memory of your name is now recognized to be dedicated, celebrating the solemnities of the Masses, with great joy we received; and through the brought-forward same cloth, her as if presently we to have received we rejoice. The epistle is inscribed, and all the rest thereafter, To the most excellent son and spiritual co-father, Pippin King of the Franks and Patrician of the Romans. Only that one abstains from that title, by which to the same Pippin he grants the monastery of blessed Silvester the Confessor and Pontiff, situated on Mount Soracte, (which to Pope Zacharias by Carloman Pippin's brother had been given) with three monasteries subject to it: He grants him a monastery on Mount Soracte wherefore I fear, lest that Epistle rightly bid the concession be valid from the present fifteenth indiction, which would note the year of Christ 762; and I would prefer to read simply the tenth, that there might be had the year of Christ 757, but of the Pontificate the 1st: but this also from this becomes probable, that in this concession is not yet commemorated the protection and defense to Paul: bestowed by Pippin, which all the other epistles everywhere proclaim; and only this cause is added, that whatever the usefulness of the venerable places requires, to them it is believed ought to be committed to those persons, to whom the grace of divine illustration being diffused, those things which pertain to the praise of our Redeemer, and to the greatest state of reintegration of the holy places are known to pertain, with all efforts they strive to accomplish.
[13] However it be, the bond of the aforesaid co-paternity between the King and the Pontiff was doubled in the year 759, when was born the last son, and again he offers himself godfather to the born son: by his ancestral name to be called Pippin. For since Paul, by frequency of letters more and more to bind the most benevolent Prince, had written an Epistle, which in the Codex Carolinus is the 13th, an insertion of this kind he added, likewise by Bishop George into France to be carried. Most sublime of Kings, to our notice is brought, that a new King from your bowels for the exaltation of his holy Church omnipotent God has conferred, at whose nativity with greatest joy we are relieved; whence earnestly we ask thee, that from the most sacred font of baptism, the same your greatest son to receive we may merit: so that a double grace of the Holy Spirit in the midst of us, and of a twofold festivity to us may arise gladness. The King held grateful the office offered, and retaining those who that ceremony should perform with himself, the Apostolic Envoys, George aforesaid and Peter, and the gift sent back by him he sent to Rome most select men Andrew and Gunderic; at whose arrival and the royal letters refreshed the Pontiff, and remembering the sacred table, which his predecessor Stephen from Pippin had received, to be placed at the Confession of S. Peter; it, he says, with hymns and spiritual canticles, the litany praises solemnly rendering, within the hall of the Prince of the Apostles himself we introduced; and it your Envoys into the sacred Confession over the body of the very Doorkeeper of heaven from your person offered: he dedicates [it at the body of S. Peter.] which also with the Chrism of Unction sanctifying, and the sacred oblation upon it placing, the sacrifice of praise to God omnipotent, for the eternal remuneration of your soul and the stability of your kingdom we offered.
[14] That of these peculiar offices between Paul and Pippin the Author of the Life premised made no mention, I do not greatly wonder. But, if he is the one who the Life also of his predecessor Stephen had written, For the Life not given entire by Anastasius, as is probable, and in it so distinctly mentioned the things with Aistulf King of the Lombards transacted, and the help against him from Pippin asked and obtained; I am compelled to suspect, that the Life of Paul did not entire come to the hands of Anastasius; for how would he have passed over the things done with Desiderius, Aistulf's successor, by the authority of the same King Pippin mediating, there follow the epistles published by Gretser no less pertaining to the Pontifical history, than those? and the things which the same Pontiff, for the rights of the Church committed to him solicitous, did to forestall the attempts of the Greeks, threatening to recover the exarchate of Ravenna. Besides the few Epistles to be found in the Codex of the Councils there pertaining, the summaries of several others are extant in Baronius, lamenting that the Vatican codex itself, where those entire were had, has perished.
[15] To the grief came our Jacobus Gretser, when nearly all the same in the year 1613 he printed, from a Codex of the Imperial Library, into which in the year 791 all the epistles, which in the time of good memory of Charles his grandfather, and also of his glorious begetter Pippin and in his own times, from the supreme Apostolic See of the Prince of the Apostles, and others from the Codex Carolinus inserted into the Annals of le Cointe, or also from the Empire (which last, as sent by a Heretic, Gretser neglected) directed are known to have been; for that by too much age and through neglect now in part ruined and deleted he had beheld them, anew on memorable parchments, with the greatest contest to renew and rewrite he decreed, as the inscription of that Codex has; where however in another order all are reported, than that which the index of summaries in Baronius offers, yet so, that neither there is found preserved the order of times: to which I know not whether he was to reduce them, and whether several from elsewhere to add Andreas du Chesne, who promised to give all into the light in Ludovicus Jacob, in the Pontifical Library of the year 1643. I wonder meanwhile that these, thus existing, in the later prepared editions of the general Councils, were not reproduced. Which Baronius had been about to do, and the ecclesiastical history from them about to enrich, from which is had if published he could have seen them; did Charles le Cointe in the Annals Ecclesiastical of the Franks, from whose volume V, under the year 1673 published, I will not be loath to excerpt some history of S. Paul even in Anastasius neglected, concerning the Greeks and Lombards, troublesome to the Pontifical dominion and jurisdiction.
[16] There had succeeded, as I said above, to the tyrant Aistulf Desiderius, helped by the suffrage of Pope Stephen; and soon in the presence of Folrad the Abbot sent by Pippin under oath he promised, that, Desiderius deferring the promised restitution, that there should be restored to B. Peter the cities, taken away by Aistulf, Faenza, Imola, and Ferrara, with their bounds, and also Osimo, Ancona, and Humana; and afterward to be rendered he pledged the city of Bologna, with its bounds. But of all these only received Stephen, by Anastasius's testimony, Faenza with the castle of Tiberiacum, and the whole Duchy of Ferrara. The rest to render delayed Desiderius; and while meanwhile he desired peace with the Franks, for the fulfilling of the promises to King Pippin he had given hostages: Paul implored the help of Pippin, but, Stephen being dead, his successor Paul was compelled, in the same epistle in which he signified that he had received the cloth of his spiritual daughter sent by the King, to ask him, that the begun work of the redemption of God's Church and of the full justice of B. Peter he should bid to advance, the good work, making him certain, that the as-usual perfidious and malign ones, in great arrogance of heart remaining, by no means are inclined to restore the justice of B. Peter.
[17] But to such complaints to forbear for a while Paul had to, on account of the danger from the Greeks threatening; and peace with Desiderius, and soon also against the Greeks, as Pippin advised, of whatever kind, to be kept. For Constantine the Emperor, that Ravenna and the whole Exarchate to defection he might solicit, Leo the Imperial Envoy with letters thither directed. But a copy of that epistle Sergius Bishop of Ravenna, to the Roman Pontiff to be carried took care. Paul, having received it, transmitted [it] to Pippin with the letters of Sergius himself: and asked the same King, that Desiderius he should exhort to bring help to Ravenna and the maritime cities of the Exarchate, if anything against them the Greeks should attempt. It was agreed moreover, threatening Ravenna; says, in Epistle 28, Paul, that likewise we in the city of the Ravennese should strive to present ourselves, to accomplish certain useful things of our holy Church, and to treat concerning the malice of the Greeks, who daily threaten into that very Ravenna to enter the city. Yet nothing he the less did; but, as from Epistle 15 of the Codex Carolinus summarily reports le Cointe, with fire and sword he laid waste the province of the Pentapolis with the Duchy of Spoleto and Benevento. Albinus the Duke of Spoleto and some magnates, who had submitted themselves to B. Peter and King Pippin, with the gravest wounds he received, whom Desiderius was soliciting, and into chains thrust: but because the Duke of Benevento fled to Otranto, nor could he be induced by any arts, to set foot out of his own city, over the Beneventans he set Duke Arichis. Moreover George the Legate of Constantine, who before to France had been directed, he summoned to Naples: and counsel being communicated with him, the Emperor by letters he solicited, that against the Ravennese war by an army directed into Italy, against the Otrantans with a Sicilian fleet he should wage; and that auxiliary troops to each according to his strength he would send he pledged, only on this condition, that after Ravenna and Otranto into the power of Augustus had come, to him be delivered the Duke of Benevento, and his fosterer John, who, Benevento captured, had betaken themselves to Otranto.
[18] He knew indeed that these things were not hidden from the Pontiff: nonetheless to him at Rome he came; meanwhile feigning peace with the Church; and to him asking that he restore Imola, Bologna, Osimo, Ancona and the other cities, which in the presence of the Legates of France, Folrad the Abbot and Rodbert, he had promised to render, he by no means acquiesced: and a trick being found he feignedly answered, that he peace of his own accord would embrace with the Apostolic See, provided to him were sent back the hostages, whom to King Pippin he had delivered. The Pope, thinking the danger to be in delay, but Paul eludes the deceit, to Pippin wrote once and again: and fearing lest both letters might have come into the hands of the Lombards, a third he wrote, and transmitted through George the Bishop and Stephen the Presbyter, whom into France as Legates he was destining; and through Rodbert, King Pippin's Orator, who the things nefariously committed by Desiderius as an eyewitness had seen. But that more safely to Pippin they might be carried, these he adapted to the mind of Desiderius, for sending back the hostages; but another thing to be done by word to the legates he commanded; nay contrary to the former above-indicated letters he gave, by which help from Pippin he demanded to recover the cities, which the King of the Lombards to the Apostolic See had not yet restored.
[19] and he goes on to urge Pippin, In the Codex Carolinus many epistles of Pope Paul are read, which comprise the things done in the year 758. About the beginning the Pontiff, says the Annalist, Wlcharius the Bishop and Felix the Religious, who had come to Rome the previous year with Robert, and, he having returned to Pippin, had remained in the Roman city, sent back also into France, and a little after against the Greeks help demanded, an Epistle the 34th being written, because, as most fully your Excellency is satisfied, he says, for no other reason do those most nefarious Greeks persecute us, except on account of the holy and orthodox faith, and the pious tradition of the venerable Fathers, concerning the cult of images, which they desire to destroy and trample. Indeed, as observes le Cointe, This especially Paul intended, that against the Greeks the orthodox faith and his own principality he might protect; nor did anything seem to him to be about to act more opportunely, than if Pippin the King from the Emperor Constantine he should dissociate. To attain this he omitted nothing nor left untried: that against both he might bring help. singular love toward Pippin, vehement hatred against Constantine he signified; openly attesting that in Pippin after God all hope he had placed, that from Constantine alone fear and terror were struck into him. Not even letters from the Alexandrian Patriarch through the Monk Acosmas he received, without their copy to Pippin as to an Orthodox King and defender of the catholic faith transmitting.
[20] By these offices it was effected, that Desiderius through his Envoys Pippin did not cease to urge, Hence Desiderius is compelled to restore certain things, to bring help to the Pontiff and to do justice; by which that he might seem in some measure moved, in the Autumn time he approached the thresholds of the Apostles, a colloquy he had with the Roman Pontiff, and concerning restoring to the Church certain patrimonies in Tuscany and elsewhere he agreed. A little after Peter the Notary Regionary, and John the Mansionary of the Confession of the Basilica of S. Peter, whom the Pope into France had directed, returned to Rome with the royal Nuncios, Wlfrand already praised, and another whose name is kept silent. Then Paul from Pippin's letters learned, his Nuncios, who together with the Franks the previous year to Constantinople had gone, there both being detained; and soon to Pippin an epistle he sent, the twenty-sixth in the codex, whence the aforesaid all things diffusely can be had. About the beginning of the year 760 there came into Italy Remedius or Remigius Archbishop of Rouen, King Pippin's brother, and Autharius or Audegarius the Duke, of the same King Pippin the Orators; and to promise the rest to be restored. to whom Desiderius King of the Lombards pledged, that to Paul the Roman Pontiff all the patrimonies of B. Peter, the rights also, places, bounds, and territories of various cities most fully he would restore, in this very Indiction the 13th, in the month of April: and in fact a part he rendered, the other part promising himself a little after also to render. He asked moreover the Roman Pontiff, that he make Pippin more certain about those matters. Which indeed Paul is read to have done through Epistle 21, and Peter the Presbyter being sent into France; yet so that to the King of the Franks he supplicated, that he should not desist from soliciting Desiderius, until he had duly discharged all his promises.
[21] In the year 763 Haribert or Hasibert, the previous year made Abbot of Murbach, Then Legates were sent to and fro between Paul and Pippin and Dodo the Count, were directed to Rome, that Paul the Pope, who again feared for himself from the Lombards, they might make more certain of the firm purpose and great constancy, which Pippin in the Apostolic causes to accomplish, and in discharging promises, bore: and a little after they returned into France with the Legates of the Pontiff, John the Subdeacon and Abbot, and Peter the first Defender, and with congratulatory letters to Pippin, for his sincere and constant toward the Apostolic See zeal: of which things the proof is made by Paul's own Epistle 18 in the often already cited Codex Carolinus. But that his zeal that more daily and more he might attest, and from this one also to Constantinople: in the year 764 Anthimus the Spatharius and Synesius the Eunuch, of Constantine Augustus the Orators, neither to see nor to hear he wished except with the Apostolic Legates present, the disputations he attended, which both entered between themselves, on the observance of the orthodox faith, and the pious tradition of the Fathers. But afterward with Anthimus, who to Constantinople was returning, his own also Orators he sent, through whom the Emperor of all matters he made more certain. But to Rome he directed Flavinus the Chaplain, together with the Apostolic Legates, John the Subdeacon and Abbot, and Pamphilus the Defender Regionary; through whom he took care to be carried to the Pope, not letters only, which the whole series of the transacted business comprised; but also a copy of those very things which he had received from Constantine, or to the same Emperor had written back. Paul rendered most ample thanks, a Legate being sent forthwith with letters, which hold the place 20 in the Codex, and without which we should know nothing of these things.
[21] In the year 765 Pope Paul being made more certain, that six Patricians with three hundred ships from Constantinople had set sail, with whom, since nothing was being accomplished, and, augmented by a Sicilian fleet, to Rome to hasten, then into France to advance had decreed; the letters themselves which from his friends he had received about that matter, to Pippin he transmitted, with the Epistle 24, through Conibert a Frankish man, who was then at Rome. Moreover at least three Orators into Italy to be sent he asked, who Desiderius at Ticinum Pavia might meet, and thence to Rome two should set out, from Ticinum the third into France should return, to bring to Pippin the answer of Desiderius: for he had restored nothing of those things, which in the presence of the Frankish Legates so often he had promised to render; nay he had written letters filled with threats, which Paul likewise to Pippin to be carried took care… But before these letters came into the hands of Pippin, to him had written Desiderius, again Paul complains of the Lombards, that nothing by the Lombards had been attempted against the Roman Pontiff. Which when Paul through Andrew and Gunderic most skillful men, by Pippin to Rome directed, learned, them with Desiderius's Legates before himself called into colloquy: and the whole business being made open, as soon as possible into France he sent back with other letters (Epistle 14 these make) by which with Pippin of the lie of Desiderius gravely complaining, help he sought, because the Lombards Senogallia with iron and fire had laid waste, the inhabitants slain and the booty driven off: nor with lesser slaughter Castrum-Valentis in Campania had they already struck.
[23] In the year 766 Paul from Pippin two received Epistles; one through Peter the first Defender, and their legates being heard whom into France as Legate before he had sent; the other through Widmar and Gerbert the Abbots, and Hugbald the illustrious man, whom Pippin to Rome as Orators directed. And these indeed with the Legates of King Desiderius, and also of the Pentapolitan and the individual cities which were of the Pontifical dominion, before the Pope himself held a meeting; and it was established concerning certain peculiar estates between both parties restored: but as to the bounds of the Pontifical cities and the patrimonies of B. Peter, so far is it from anything having been decreed, that even the Lombards what before to the Church they had rendered, these anew invaded: he fears worse things, yet it was agreed, that the Legates of France and of the Pontifical cities should approach Desiderius. But Paul thought nothing thence to be hoped; nay rather he began to fear, lest the Lombards should lie in wait for the rest of the Church's goods: wherefore help he earnestly demanded, an Epistle the 17th being sent to Pippin.
[24] And these nearly are the things which for the commonwealth of the Church Paul did against the Greeks and Lombards, from his surviving letters Charles le Cointe could gather, copied by us, which also followed, the Pope and King being dead. lest, if the very words of the Epistles after our manner we had wished to exhibit, we should be doing what is already done. That more should not be had, was caused by the death of the Pontiff in the year 767, and to Pippin staying at Bourges announced. Then Constantine invading the Apostolic See, and Pippin on the 24th of September of the year 768 to receive the rewards of his faithful help being called away, it was allowed to Desiderius the Church with his usual arts to mock, under Pope Stephen III, the lawful successor of Paul, unequal to crushing his powers: until under Pope Hadrian, descending into Italy, Charles the Great, in the year 774, to Desiderius repaid whatever against the Romans he had sinned, and for it, Desiderius into France with wife and children being deported, the crown of the Lombard Kingdom he took, called thenceforth King of the Franks and of the Lombards and Patrician of the Romans. Nor long thereafter time passed, but that of his crimes and violated Religion the penalties also paid the impious Constantine Copronymus, the other adversary of Pope Paul, in the year next following 775 on the day 14th of September, by a double death of body and soul extinguished and to the lower regions snatched.