commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
in the
Marne Marne can refer to:
Places France
*Marne (river), a tributary of the Seine
*Marne (department), a département in northeastern France named after the river
* La Marne, a commune in western France
*Marne, a legislative constituency (France)
Nethe ...
department
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
in north-eastern
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
.
It is located southeast of
Châlons-en-Champagne
Châlons-en-Champagne () is a city in the Grand Est region of France. It is the capital of the department of Marne, despite being only a quarter the size of the city of Reims.
Formerly called Châlons-sur-Marne, the city was officially renam ...
.
History
Ponthion was a royal
pfalz
Pfalz, Pfälzer, or Pfälzisch are German words referring to Palatinate.
They may refer to:
Places
*Pfalz, the Palatinate (region) of Germany
**Nordpfalz, the North Palatinate
**Vorderpfalz, the Anterior Palatinate
**Südpfalz, the South P ...
(crown estate) under both the Merovingian (mainly Neustrian branch) and the Carolingian dynasties. In appears repeatedly in the Frankish royal and ecclesiastical history.
In 753, Pope Stephen II left Rome. Aistulf, when the Pope met him at
Pavia
Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the capit ...
, refused to enter into negotiations or to hear of a restoration of his conquests. Only with difficulty did Stephen finally prevail upon the Lombard king not to hinder him in his journey to the Frankish kingdom.
The Pope thereupon crossed the Great St. Bernard into the Frankish kingdom. the King
Pepin the Short
the Short (french: Pépin le Bref; – 24 September 768), also called the Younger (german: Pippin der Jüngere), was King of the Franks from 751 until his death in 768. He was the first Carolingian to become king.
The younger was the son of ...
received his guest for a conference at Ponthion in January 754. Stephen implored his assistance against his oppressor the Lombard King Aistulf, and begged Pepin for the same protection for the prerogatives of St. Peter which the
Byzantine exarch
An exarch (;
from Ancient Greek ἔξαρχος ''exarchos'', meaning “leader”) was the holder of any of various historical offices, some of them being political or military and others being ecclesiastical.
In the late Roman Empire and ea ...
s had extended to them. The king there promised him orally to do all in his power to recover the Exarchate of Ravenna and the other districts seized by Aistulf, and in the charter establishing the
States of the Church
The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...
, soon after given at
Quiercy
Quierzy (), also known as Quierzy-sur-Oise (; formerly in la, Cariciacum, ''Carisiacum'', ''Charisagum'', ''Karisiacum''), is a commune in the Aisne department in Hauts-de-France in northern France, straddling the Oise River between Noyon an ...
, promised to restore these prerogatives. The Frankish king received the title of the former representative of the Byzantine Empire in Italy, i.e. " Patricius", and was also assigned the duty of protecting the privileges of the Holy See.
The condemnation of future
Pope Formosus
Pope Formosus (896) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 6 October 891 until his death on 4 April 896. His reign as pope was troubled, marked by interventions in power struggles over the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the ...
and others was announced to the emperor and a Synod of Ponthion in July 872, early in the pontificate of John VIII.
After
Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald (french: Charles le Chauve; 13 June 823 – 6 October 877), also known as Charles II, was a 9th-century king of West Francia (843–877), king of Italy (875–877) and emperor of the Carolingian Empire (875–877). After a ser ...
's coronation in 875, the new emperor summoned a great synod at Ponthion, which met in June 876, and at which a
papal brief
A papal brief or breve is a formal document emanating from the Pope, in a somewhat simpler and more modern form than a papal bull.
History
The introduction of briefs, which occurred at the beginning of the pontificate of Pope Eugene IV (3 Marc ...
was read, appointing
Ansegis, Archbishop of Sens
Ansegisus (the Latinized form of Ansegis) was a Benedictine monk, Abbot of St. Michael's, at Beauvais, and in 871 became Archbishop of Sens.
After Charles the Bald was crowned Emperor by Pope John VIII, he asked the Pope to appoint Ansegisus pap ...
, as
Vicar Apostolic
A vicar (; Latin: ''vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pref ...
of Gaul and Germany. Hincmar, the recognized chief Metropolitan of the West Frankish kingdom (who wrote his treatise '' De jure metropolitanorum'' in defence of his rights as metropolitan), and nearly all the Frankish bishops made an energetic protest against what they considered an infringement on their rights, and refused to recognize the vicar, so that the latter could not exercise the rights which had been conferred upon him.
Sources
* ''passim''
*Westermann, ''Großer Atlas zur Weltgeschichte'' (in German)