1902 Encyclopedia > Pope Paul I

Pope Paul I
(757–767)




PAUL I., pope from 757 to 767, succeeded his brother Stephen III. on 29th May 757. His pontificate was chiefly remarkable for his close alliance with Pippin, king of France, to whom he made a present of books highly signi-ficant of the intellectual poverty of the times, and for his unsuccessful endeavours to effect a reconciliation with the iconoclastic emperor of the East, Constantine Copronymus. He died on 28th June 767, and received the honour of canonization, which he seems to have merited by his piety and virtues. His successor was Stephen IV.