CONSTANTINE II, ANTIPOPE. — At the death of Paul I (28 June 767), Toto, duke of Nepi, forcibly had his brother C., still a simple layman, elected; Bishop George of Palestrina was compelled to confer orders upon him and then, on 5 July, to consecrate him with the assistance of the bishops of Albano and Porto.
But the primicerius Christopher, together with his brother Sergius, appealed to Desiderius, king of the Lombards, who provided them with the priest Waldiperto as an ally and sent instructions to the duke of Spoleto to lend his aid. In July 768, Lombard soldiers entered Rome, killed Toto, and took C. prisoner. Waldiperto, having gathered some Romans favourable to the Lombards, had the priest Philip elected pope; Philip was the superior of a monastery near the church of St. Vitus. However, when the primicerius Christopher arrived shortly afterwards, Philip peacefully relinquished the papal chair and returned to his monastery.
Christopher, now master of the situation, on 1 August assembled the clergy, the people, and the lay aristocracy, and had Stephen elected pope; Stephen was a priest of the title of St. Cecilia. The unfortunate C. was subjected to the indignity of a humiliating ride through the streets of Rome; then, on 6 August, the eve of the consecration of Stephen III, he was brought before an ecclesiastical tribunal. Deprived of his sight in the monastery of St. Sabas, he was later summoned before a council convened after Easter 769 in the basilica of the Lateran, where, despite his pleas for mercy, he was struck and driven out. The decree of his election was burned and all his acts declared invalid. No further trace of him is found.