The New International Encyclopædia/Donation of Pepin

​DONATION OF PEPIN. The gift of temporal sovereignty over the Exarchate of Ravenna, the Pentapolis, and the territory of Bologna and Ferrara bestowed upon the Pope by Pepin the Short, King of the Franks, in 755. In the preceding year Pope Stephen III. had summoned the Frankish King to aid him against Aistulf, King of the Lombards. Pepin crossed the Alps and defeated Aistulf, but as the latter still continued hostile to the Pope, Pepin invaded Italy a second time in 755, reduced the Lombards to subjection, and took from them twenty-two cities, the keys of which he presented to Saint Peter’s. In 774 Charles the Great confirmed the Papacy in possession of the territories granted by Pepin, and enlarged to a considerable extent the boundaries of the earlier grant. The donations of Pepin and Charles the Great laid the foundation of the temporal power of the Pope. Consult Abel, Jahrbücher des fränkischen Reichs unter Karl dem Grossen (Leipzig, 1883). See Papal States.

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