§ 12.—How Telofre [Astolf], king of the Lombards, persecuted Holy Church, and how King Pepin at the summons of Pope Stephen came from France and defeated him, and took him prisoner.
After King Rachis there succeeded to the realm of Lombardy, and to that of Apulia, Astolf, called in Latin Telofre, brother of the said Rachis. He was a lord of great power, and cruel, and an enemy of Holy Church and of the Romans; and by the counsel of evil and rebellious Romans, he took Tuscany and the valley of Spoleto, and devastated them, and claimed tribute on every man's head; and made a conspiracy with Leo, and Constantine, his son, emperors of Constantinople, and at his request they came to Rome, and together with Telofre they took it, and sacked it, and burnt the churches and holy places, and carried to Constantinople the riches of Rome, and all the images from the churches in Rome, and in contempt of the Pope and of the Church and to the shame of the Christians he burnt them all with fire, and many faithful Christians they destroyed and consumed in Rome and in all Italy. For which thing Pope Stephen II. excommunicated them, and as a punishment for the misdeed took away from the emperor the kingdom of Apulia and of Sicily, and established by a decree that it should pertain to Holy Church for ever. And afterwards, not being able to resist the force of the said tyrants and so much affliction, he went in person into France to Pepin, prince and governor of the French, to require and pray him to come into Italy to defend Holy Church against Telofre, king of the Lombards, and he gave to the said Pepin many privileges and graces, and made and confirmed him king of France, and deposed Childeric, the king which was of the first race, forasmuch as he was a man of no account, and he became a monk. Which Pepin, a Cf. Purg. xx. 53 and the Commentators. faithful and loving son of Holy Church, received him with great honour, and afterwards with all his forces with the said Pope Stephen came into Italy, in the year of Christ 755, and fought great battles 755 a.d. with the said Telofre, king of the Lombards. In the end, by force of arms and of his folk, the said Telofre was overcome and defeated by the good King Pepin, and he obeyed the command of the Pope and of Holy Church, and made all amends, just as he and his cardinals chose to devise; and he left to the Church by compact and privilege the realm of Apulia and of Sicily, and the patrimony of S. Peter. And when the said Pepin was come to Rome with the said Pope, they were received with great honour by the Romans; and the said Pepin was made patrician, that is, vicar of Rome, and father of the Roman Republic. And when Rome and Holy Church were restored to their liberty and good estate, he returned into France, and ended his life with great honour, and Charles the Great, his son, succeeded him as king of France.
§ 13.—How Desiderius, son of Telofre, began war again with Holy Church, for the which thing Charles the Great passed into Italy, and defeated him, and took away and destroyed the lordship of the Lombards.
When King Pepin was departed from Italy and was returned to France, the Church of Rome and the country was in repose and tranquillity for a time, by reason of the covenant which Pepin had made with Telofre, king of Lombardy, and the victory which he had gained over him; but when Telofre was dead, Desiderius, his son, succeeded to him, which was a worse enemy and persecutor of Holy Church than his father, and broke the peace, and leagued himself with Constantine, which was the son of Leo, the emperor of Constantinople, and with his forces began to make war in Apulia, and Desiderius on his side in Tuscany more than ever his father had done at the first. For the which thing Pope De Mon. iii. (11) 1-6. Adrian, which was then governing Holy Church, sent into France for Charles the Great, son of Pepin, to come into Italy to defend the Church from the said Desiderius and from his following, the which Charles, king of France, passed into Lombardy in the year of Christ 775, and after many battles and victories gained against Desiderius, 775 a.d. he besieged him in the city of Pavia, and when he had won the city by siege, he took the said Desiderius captive, and his wife and his sons; save that the eldest son, which was called Algise [Adelchis], fled into Constantinople to the Emperor Constantine, and continued the war. After he had taken Desiderius and his wife and his sons, Charles the Great caused him to swear fealty to Holy Church, and did the like to all the barons and cities of Italy; and when this was done, he sent the said Desiderius and his wife and his sons prisoners into France, and there they all died in prison. And thus was destroyed, by the power of the Franks and of the good Charles the Great, the sovereignty Par. vi. 94-96. of the kings of the Lombards, formerly called Longobards, which had endured two hundred and five years in Italy; for never afterwards was there a king in Lombardy. Of a truth there remained the families of the lords and barons and great citizens descended from the Lombards, Ep. v. (4). both in Lombardy and in Apulia; and still to-day there are certain gentlemen of ancient lineage whom in common speech we call Lombard Cattani, descended from the said Lombards which had been lords of Italy. Charles the Great, after the said victory, came to Rome, and by the said Adrian and by the Romans was received with great triumph and honour; and as Charles the Great drew nigh to Rome, and beheld the holy city from Montemalo, he alighted from his horse, and reverently Cf. Par. xv. 110, 111. entered Rome on foot; and when he came thither, he kissed the gates of the city and of all the churches, and gave rich offerings to every Church. And when he came to Rome he was made patrician of Rome, and he restored the affairs of Holy Church, and of the Romans, and of all Italy, and he restored them to privileges and liberty, having subdued in all parts the forces of the emperor of Constantinople, and of the king of the Lombards, and of their followers, and confirmed the Church in the donation which Pepin, his father, had given to her, and beyond that he endowed the Church with the duchy of Spoleto and of Benevento. And in the kingdom of Apulia he fought many battles against the Lombards and the rebels against Holy Church, and besieged and destroyed the city of Lacedonia, which is in Abruzzi between Aquila and Sermona, and besieged and conquered Tuliverno, the strong fortress at the entrance of Terra di Lavoro. And many other cities of the Kingdom [Apulia] which were held by the rebels against Holy Church, he entirely subdued to his governance. And when he had done this, leaving Rome and all Italy in peaceful condition under his lordship, in happy hour he was minded to attack the Saracens which had taken possession of Provence, and of Navarre, and of Spain, and with the troops of his twelve barons and peers of France, called Paladins, he entirely conquered and destroyed them; and he passed beyond seas at the request of the Emperor Michael of Constantinople and of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and conquered the Holy Land and Jerusalem, which were De Mon. iii. 11: 6. Par. xviii. 43. occupied by the Saracens, and gained for the emperor of Constantinople all the empire of the East which had been occupied by the Saracens and the Turks. And when he returned to Constantinople, albeit the Emperor Michael desired to give him many very great treasures, yet would he take nothing, save the wood of the holy cross and the nail of Christ, which he brought back into France, and which is in Paris to this day. And when he had returned to France, he ruled by his prowess and virtue not only over the realm of France, but all Germany, Provence, Navarre, and Spain, and all Italy.
§ 14.—Of the progeny of Charles the Great, and of his successors.
§ 15.—How Charles the Great, king of France, was made Emperor of Rome.
When Charles the Great had returned from over seas into France, as we have said, and had subdued Germany, Italy, and Spain, and Provence, the wicked Romans, with the powerful Lombards and Tuscans, rebelled against the Church, and seized Pope Leo III., which was then reigning, at Rome, as he was going to the procession of the Litanies (S. Mark's Day, April 25th), and put out his eyes and slit his tongue, and drave him out of Rome. And as it pleased God, by divine miracle, and because he was innocent and holy, he recovered the sight of his eyes and the power of speech, and went into France to Charles the Great, praying him to come to Rome to restore the Church to her liberty; which Charles, at the request of the said Pope Leo, came together with him to Rome and restored the Pope and the Church to their state and liberty, and took great vengeance against all the rebels and enemies of Holy Church throughout all Italy. For the which thing the said Pope Leo, with his cardinals and general council, with the consent of the Romans, by reason of the virtuous and holy deeds done by the said Par. vi. 94. De Monarchia iii. 11. Charles the Great on behalf of Holy Church and of all Christendom, took away the Roman Empire from the Greeks by a decree, and elected the said Charles the Great Emperor of the Romans, as being most worthy of the Empire; and by the said Pope Leo he was consecrated and crowned in Rome, in the year of Christ 801, with great solemnity and honour, 801 a.d. on Easter Day.
The said Charles reigned with great good fortune fourteen years one month and four days, ruling over all the empire of the West, and the provinces afore named, and also the emperor of Constantinople was under his obedience; and he caused as many abbeys to be built as there are letters in the alphabet, and the name of each one began with a different letter. And he caused his son Louis to be crowned lord over the Empire and the kingdom of France, giving all his treasure to the poor in God's name after this manner; for he left the third part of his treasure (which was infinite) to all the poor Christians seeking alms, and the other two parts he left to all his archbishops of his empire and realm, that they might distribute them amongst their bishops and all the churches and monasteries and hospitals.
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814 a.d.