CONSTANTINE II, Antipope. - On the death of Paul I (28 June 767), Toto, duke of Nepi, by force had his own brother C., still a simple layman, elected, and Bishop George of Palestrina was compelled to confer the orders on him and then, on 5 July, consecration, with the assistance of the bishops of Albano and of Porto.
But the primicerius Christopher, together with his brother Sergius, appealed to Desiderius, king of the Lombards, who gave him the priest Waldipert as a companion and sent instructions to the duke of Spoleto to assist him. In July 768 the Lombard soldiers, having entered Rome, killed Toto and took C. prisoner. Waldipert, having assembled some Romans favorable to the Lombards, had the priest Philip elected pope, who directed a monastery near the church of St. Vitus. However, when the primicerius Christopher arrived shortly afterward, Philip peacefully left the papal chair and returned to his monastery.
Christopher, now master of the situation, having assembled on 1 August the clergy, the people and the lay aristocracy, had Stephen, priest of the title of St. Cecilia, elected pope. On the unfortunate C. was inflicted the shame of an ignominious ride through the streets of Rome, then on 6 August, the vigil of the consecration of Stephen III, he was made to appear before an ecclesiastical tribunal. Having been deposed and imprisoned in the monastery of St. Saba, his eyes were torn out; then, summoned again before a council assembled after Easter of 769 in the basilica of the Lateran, although he begged for grace and mercy, he was slapped and driven out. The decree of his election was burned and all his acts were declared invalid. After that there is no further record of him.