The Jewish sect known as the Karaites,…
770 CE
The Jewish sect known as the Karaites, biblical literalists who reject the Talmud, appears in Babylonia around 770.
The movement began in eighth-century Persia.
In dismissing the Talmud as manmade law substituted for the God-given Torah, Karaism sets itself in direct opposition to rabbinic Judaism.
The Karaites consider themselves mourners of Zion, abstaining from wine and meat, spending much of their time in fasting and prayer, and signing all letters “mourner” (avilai tzion).
Asceticism becomes so severe that adherents are not only forbidden to kindle a fire on the sabbath but even to warm themselves or use the light from a fire lit on Friday.
The festival of Hanukkah is suppressed, and great rigor is applied to dietary laws, ritual purity, fasting, clothing and marriage (adherents are forbidden to marry outside the sect).
An uncompromising monotheism leads to the exclusion of traditional Jewish ritual objects such as phylacteries and mezuzahs.
Initially, supporters of the movement are called Ananites, after Anan ben David, the first literary figure of the group, who works out a code of life independent of the Talmud.
The sect will spread to Egypt and Syria and later into Europe by way of Spain and Constantinople, though its members will never be numerous.
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Empress Shotoku dies in 770, and Dokyo, whose claimed oracular prediction that he should be emperor meets strong opposition from government officials, many of whom are Fujiwaras, is banished from the capital.
The Japanese, who in the seventh century had finally acquired the art of making paper (kept secret by the Chinese for five hundred years) produce the first mass publication, a block-printed Buddhist prayer paper, of which a million copies are printed in 770.
Dharmapala succeeds his father Gopala in about 770 to the throne of the Bengal kingdom, ruled by the Pala dynasty since 750.
Dharmapala has inherited a deadly power struggle with the Gurjara Pratiharas of Malwa and Rajputana as well as the Rashtrakutas of the Deccan, both of whom desire to establish their own hegemony over northern India.
Stephen is asked in 770 to confirm the election of Michael, a layperson, as Archbishop of Ravenna.
However, Michael, in league with the Lombard king Desiderius, and the Duke of Rimini have imprisoned Leo, who had been elected first.
Stephen refuses to confirm Michael’s election; citing the conventions of the Lateran council, he sends letters and envoys to Michael, demanding that he stand down.
Michael refuses, and the standoff will continue for over a year, until the arrival of the Frankish ambassador in Ravenna along with the Papal legates encourages Michael’s opponents to overthrow him, and send him to Rome in chains.
Leo follows soon after, when Stephen consecrates him as Archbishop of Ravenna.
Throughout his pontificate, Stephen is apprehensive about the expansionist plans of the Lombards.
Placing his hope in the Franks, he had attempted to mediate in the quarrels between Charlemagne and Carloman, which are only helping the Lombard’s cause in Italy.
He had helped them reconcile in 769, and pressured them to support the still infant Papal States, by reminding them of the support which their father had given the Papacy in the past.
He had also begged them to intercede on his behalf by entering into discussions with the Lombards.
Consequently, an embassy is sent to the Lombard king, Desiderius, in 770, which includes Charlemagne’s mother, Bertrada of Laon.
Their intervention achieves a result favorable to the Papacy by restoring to the pope the parts of Benevento that the popes claim.
To Stephen’s consternation however, Desiderius and Bertrada enter into discussions about a possible marriage between Desiderius’ daughter, Desiderata, and one Bertrada’s sons.
It is also possible that discussions took place around the marriage of Charlemagne’s sister, Gisela to Desiderius’ son, Adalgis.
Stephen therefore writes to both Charlemagne and Carloman, protesting about the proposed alliance.
Apart from noting that both men ware already married, he reminds them of their promises to previous popes, that they would consider the pope’s enemies as their enemies, and that they had promised to Saint Peter to resist the Lombards and restore the rights of the Church.
His pleas fell on deaf ears, and Charlemagne marries Desiderata in 770, temporarily cementing a familial alliance with the Lombards.
The Marriage of Desiderata (Ermengarda) and Charlemagne (770)
In 770, Desiderata (also known as Ermengarda), one of the four daughters of Desiderius, King of the Lombards, and Queen Ansa, is married to Charlemagne, King of the Franks. This union is likely intended to form a political alliancebetween Francia and Lombardy, two states with a history of rivalry and conflict.
By marrying Desiderius’s daughter, Charlemagne seeks to neutralize hostilities with the Lombards, who had long been a dominant force in northern Italy. At the same time, Desiderius gains prestige by securing a marriage alliance with the rising Carolingian dynasty, which had only recently replaced the Merovingians.
However, despite its political significance, this marriage is short-lived. Charlemagne repudiates Desiderata after only a year, in 771, and sends her back to Lombardy—a move that reignites tensions between the two kingdoms. This broken alliance will later contribute to Charlemagne’s invasion of Lombardy in 773, leading to the fall of the Lombard Kingdom and Charlemagne’s eventual coronation as King of the Lombards.
Bird Jaguar, ruler of Yaxchilan, dies in about 770.
The Moorish occupation of Narbonne had ended in 759 after four decades, during which time the Jewish population had greatly increased.
Jews play a pivotal role in the formal occupation of the city by Charlemagne, who grants them a third of the town under their own ruler (nasi).
Pope Stephen III complains to the Bishops of Narbonne and Septimania about the Frankish kings allowing Jews to own land.
Stephen had continued throughout 769 and 770 to rely on the support and advice of Christophorus and Sergius who had placed him on the papal throne.
Their antipathy towards the Lombards and general pro-Frankish stance causes King Desiderius to engineer their downfall.
He bribed the Papal Chamberlain, Paulus Afiarta, and other members of the papal court to spread rumors about them to the pope.
When Desiderius attempts to enter Rome in 771 with an army, claiming to be on a pilgrimage to pray at the shrine of St. Peter, Christophorus and Sergius shut the gates of the city against them.
Arriving at the gates and seeing armed troops manning the walls, the Lombard king asks to speak to the Pope, who comes out to him.
During Stephen’s absence, Afiarta and his supporters seek to stir up a mob to overthrow Christophorus and Sergius, but the Primicerius and his son gain the upper hand, and force Afiarta and his colleagues to flee to the Lateran Palace.
Stephen had by this stage returned to the Lateran, and he is confronted in the Basilica of St. Theodore by the fleeing Afiarta and his co-conspirators being chased by Christophorus and his supporters.
Apparently at this point, a suspicious Christophorus, believing that Stephen had entered into some agreement with Desiderius, forces Stephen into taking an oath that he will not turn Christophorus or his son over to the Lombards.
After this, a furious Stephen berates Christophorus, demands he stop harassing Afiarta, and orders him and his followers to withdraw, to which Christophorus complies.
Stephen flees the next day to St. Peter’s Basilica to seek the protection of Desiderius.
The Lombard king, shutting Stephen up in his suites in the Basilica, makes it clear to the Pope that the price for his help is to be the handing over of Christophorus and Sergius.
The Pope sends two bishops to negotiate with Christophorus and Sergius, telling them that they must either retire to a monastery or come out to him at St. Peter’s.
A message is sent at the same time from Desiderius to the people of the city, declaring that Pope Stephen has bid them to expel Christophorus from the city and save themselves from harm.
This message from the Lombard king has the desired effect; Christophorus and Sergius begin to suspect their associates, who in turn rapidly abandon them.
Both are reluctant to leave the city, but eventually both make their way to the Pope during the night.
The next day, Stephen is allowed to return to the city, while Christophorus and Sergius are left in Lombard hands.
Negotiations to secure their release are unsuccessful, and before the day was out, Afiarta arrives with his partisans.
After discussing the situation with Desiderius, they have both men blinded.
Christophorus dies after three days, while Sergius is kept in a cell in the Lateran.
Desiderius, in an attempt to forestall the potential intervention of Charlemagne has Stephen write a letter to the Frankish king, wherein he declares that Christophorus and Sergius had been involved in a plot with an envoy of Charlemagne’s brother, Carloman, to kill the Pope.
Further, that Stephen had fled to Desiderius for protection, and that eventually Christophorus and Sergius were brought out against their will.
While Stephen managed to save their lives, later a group of men had them blinded, but not on Stephen’s orders.
He then concludes that if it wasn’t for “his most excellent son Desiderius”, he would have been in fatal danger, and that Desiderius had reached an agreement with him to restore to the Church all the lands which she had claims on that were still in Lombard hands.
That such a letter was a fiction is demonstrated very soon after; when Stephen asks Desiderius to fulfill the promises he had made over the body of Saint Peter, the Lombard king responds:
”Be content that I removed Christophorus and Sergius, who were ruling you, out of your way, and ask not for rights. Besides, if I do not continue to help you, great trouble will befall you. For Carloman, king of the Franks, is the friend of Christophorus and Sergius, and will be wishful to come to Rome and seize you.”
Desiderius continues to stir trouble in Italy; in 771, he manages to persuade the bishops of Istria to reject the authority of the Patriarch of Grado, and to have them place themselves under the Patriarch of Aquileia, which is directly under Lombard control.
Stephen writes to the rebellious bishops, suspending them and ordering them to place themselves once again under the authority of Grado, or face excommunication.
The people of the area around modern-day Hastings have, from the sixth century until 771, identified the territory as that of the Haestingas tribe and a kingdom separate from the surrounding kingdoms of Suth Saxe ("South Saxons", i.e., Sussex) and Kent.
It will work to retain its separate cultural identity until the eleventh century.
The kingdom is probably a subkingdom, the object of a disputed overlordship by the two powerful neighboring kingdoms: when King Wihtred of Kent settled a dispute with King Ine of Sussex and Wessex in 694, it is probable that he seceded the overlordship of Haestingas to Ine as part of the treaty.
King Offa of Mercia invades southern England in 771, and over the next decade will gradually seize control of Sussex and Kent.
Symeon of Durham records a battle fought at an unidentified location near Hastings in 771, at which Offa defeats the Haestingas tribe, effectively ending its existence as a separate kingdom.
Carloman dies on December 4, 771, at the villa of Samoussy, and Charles seizes his late brother’s territories.
Carloman’s heirs, including his widow, Gerberga, his widow, take refuge among the Lombards, sheltered by Desiderius, who then asserts independence for Lombardy, currently a vassal of both the papacy and the Frankish kingdom.
An angered Charles divorces his Lombard queen and consolidates control of the territories wrested from his late brother’s family.
She has no known children and her ultimate fate is unknown.
A 1.2% growth of carbon-14 concentration recorded in tree rings suggests that a very strong radiation burst may have hit the earth in either 774 or 775.