When Leo the Isaurian promulgated his Iconoclast law, the Duke of Naples, Exhilaratus, tried to enforce it in his city. He also made plans to have Pope Gregory II murdered. But the Neapolitans revolted against the edict, and it was Exhilaratus himself who was murdered (728). Then the Patriarch of Constantinople, Anastasios (730-754), offered to make the Bishop of Naples, Sergius (715-c. 744), an Archbishop. He accepted the title; but when the Pope (Gregory III) reproached him for this, he laid it down again and begged pardon.[1] In 763 Pope Paul I (757-767) himself ordained a certain deacon, Paul, to be Bishop of Naples. For fear of the persecution of the Government, Paul had to enter his city secretly at night.[2] When Paul died, the Duke Stephen was elected bishop, with Pope Stephen III's consent, who himself ordained him. Stephen ruled the Church of Naples nearly thirty-three years (767-799). He was a zealous propagator of Latinism.[3] From his time Naples, both in Church and in political matters, remained steadfastly Latin; though the city was always full of Greek strangers.
There were other places, too, where the Byzantine propaganda had no success. We have seen that in 743 a considerable number of bishops from Calabria and Apulia attend a Roman provincial Synod (p. 78). During the reign of Pope Stephen V (885-891) there was an agitation at Tarentum because the Byzantine governor (the "Patritius") tried to prevent the lawfully elected bishop from going to Rome to be ordained, and to force on the people a Byzantine priest, who should be ordained bishop at Constantinople.[4] When Nikephoros Phokas
- ↑ "Gesta Eppor. Neapol.," i, § 36 ("Mon. Germ. Hist." Script. rerum Langob. et Ital., Hanover, 1878, p. 422). See also L. A. Muratori's note on this text, "Rerum Ital. Script.," tom. i, pt. ii (Milan, 1725), p. 307; Ughelli, "Italia sacra," 2nd edition, vol. vi, 59-60; Assemani, "Italicæ hist. script." (Rome, 1751-1753), i, 243-244.
- ↑ "Gesta Episcoporum Neapol.," op. cit., pp. 422-424.
- ↑ This is Stephen II, Bishop and Duke of Naples. When he became bishop he secured for his sons, Gregory and Cesar, the rank of duke. When Cesar died, Stephen composed an epitaph, which expresses well the attitude of Naples, now practically an independent state, towards the Lombards and the Empire: "Sic blandus Bardis eras ut fœdera Graiis seruares." "Bardi" for Langobardi. J. Gay, "L'Italie mérid.," pp. 18-20. Ughelli quotes the lines in the form: "Sic blandus Bardis erat, ut sua fœdera gratis seruaret sapiens inuiolata tamen" ("Italia sacra," 2nd edition, vi, col. 63; see cols. 62-66 for an account of this Stephen II of Naples).
- ↑ Jaffé, "Regesta Pont. Rom." (ed. II, Leipzig, 1885-1888), nos. 3436-3437, vol. i, p. 431.
