Stephen

Stephen, the name of ten popes of the Roman Catholic Church. STEPHEN I. was the successor of Lucius III., and his pontificate (254-257) is memorable only for his hotly maintaining against Cyprian that heretics baptised by heretics need not be rebaptised on admission into the orthodox church. A martyr according to tradition, he was canonised, his day falling on August 2.—STEPHEN II. died two days after his election (March 27, 752), hence he is often omitted from the list of popes.—His successor, STEPHEN III., was a native of Rome. When Astolphus, king of the Lombards, threatened Rome, and the Byzantine emperor, Constantine Copronymos, left unheeded his appeals for succour, Stephen turned to Pepin, king of the Franks, who forced Astolphus to withdraw, and gave the pope the exarchate of Ravenna, the real foundation of the temporal power of the papacy. Stephen died in 757.—STEPHEN VII., elected in 896, is infamous from his disintermingling the corpse of his penultimate predecessor, Formosus, and throwing it into the Tiber. The year after he himself was strangled in prison.—STEPHEN X. was elected in 1057, under the influence of the celebrated Hildebrand, but died after eight months' rule.