Stephen II, d. 757, pope (752–57), successor of Pope St. Zacharias Zacharias or Zachary, Saint (zăkərī`əs, zăk`ərē)
..... Click the link for more information. . When Rome was threatened by the Lombard king Aistulf, Stephen went to Gaul and appealed to Pepin the Short Pepin the Short (Pepin III), c.714–768, first Carolingian king of the Franks (751–68), son of Charles Martel and father of Charlemagne . Succeeding his father as mayor of the palace (741), he ruled Neustria, Burgundy, and Provence, while his brother
..... Click the link for more information. for help. He became the first pope to cross the Alps. Pepin responded and defeated (754 and 756) Aistulf and restored the lost papal territories. Pepin rejected the demands of the Byzantine emperor for the return of the exarchate Ravenna Ravenna (rävĕn`nä), city (1991 pop. 135,844), capital of Ravenna prov.
..... Click the link for more information. , which claimed temporal sovereignty over Rome. Instead, Pepin, in the so-called Act of Donation, ceded all the territories of the duchy of Rome to the papacy, thus laying the basis for the Papal States. In 755, Stephen renewed the coronation of Pepin and gave him and his two sons the title Patrician of the Romans (Patricius Romanorum). He was succeeded by Paul I Paul I, 1754–1801, czar of Russia (1796–1801), son and successor of Catherine II. His mother disliked him intensely and sought on several occasions to change the succession to his disadvantage.
..... Click the link for more information. . Another Stephen II, elected pope in 752 but who died before his coronation, was officially dropped from the list of popes in 1959.

Stephen II

(born , Rome—died April 26, 757, Rome) Pope (752–757). He freed the papacy from Byzantium and allied it with the Franks against the Lombards, who were threatening Rome. In Gaul he anointed Pippin III, Charlemagne, and Carloman as kings of the Romans, and in return Pippin led his army against the Lombardic king Aistulf (754, 756). The victorious Franks granted the pope territory in Ravenna, Rome, Venetia, and Istria, thus establishing the Papal States under Stephen's rule. (See Donation of Pippin)