[Sidenote: Cf. Purg. xx. 53 and the Commentators.]

[Sidenote: 755 A.D.]

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
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
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
pa