Donation of Sutri

The Donation of Sutri was an agreement reached at Sutri by Liutprand, King of the Lombards and Pope Gregory II in 728. At Sutri, the two reached an agreement by which the city and some hill towns in Latium (like Vetralla) were given to the Papacy, "as a gift to the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul" according to the Liber Pontificalis. The pact formed the first extension of papal territory beyond the confines of the Duchy of Rome and was the first of two land transfers from Liutprand to the Church of Rome. History The Lombard peoples had long been adherents to the Christian sect of Arianism, but they had converted to Catholicism over time. After his election as King of the Lombards in 712, Liutprand faced a series of challenges from the strength of aristocratic families and the threat of secession from the grand duchies in his domain. The duchies of Spoleto and Benevento in Langobardia Minor were particularly autonomous from Liutprand's central power and were separated from the rest of the kingdom by the informal division of the that ran through the center of Italy, from Rome to north of Ravenna. Liutprand began to centralize the power of his kingdom. Meanwhile, he found support from Rome and the Papal State once disputes over iconoclasm turned them against the Byzantine Empire, which had attempted to conquer the territory that divided it into two parts. Liutprand seized the moment when the Italian territories governed by the Byzantines rejected the emperor Leo III the Isaurian's support of iconoclasm. Liutprand's military campaign began with his goal to take the territory that divided Langobardia in two—the duchy of Rome and the Byzantine Corridor.