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A source which can be dated to c.730 has never been discussed as evidence of an early reception of Byzantine iconoclasm in Italy. Now lost, this was an inscription put up to celebrate the foundation of a church in the newly established royal residence of the Lombard king Liutprand (712-744) in the countryside of Pavia along the river Olona, known as Corteolona. The inscription tells us that in the time in which ›Caesar Leo fell into the pit of schism from the summit of righteousness persuaded by a miserable scholar‹, Liutprand dedicated a church to Saint Anastasius the Persian. Therefore, the inscription makes use of the perceived heterodoxy of the Byzantine ruler – his attitude towards sacred images – as a chronological and negative cultural reference. In the inscription, Liutprand is cast as a champion of the Catholic Church as opposed to the heterodox Leo III (717-741). This claim naturally had wider political implications: Liutprand wanted to be seen as the supreme ruler on the Italian peninsula. The inscription from Corteolona, with others from Pavia and its surroundings, was transcribed in the late eighth century and thus transmitted to posterity. Having often escaped the attention of those interested in the echoes of Byzantine iconoclasm outside Byzantium, its text is an important document since it suggests that in early eighth-century Lombard Italy, at least in some circles, it was believed that Emperor Leo III was acting against orthodoxy, and that this could potentially lead to a schism within the Catholic Church. In the same years, the early 730s, the papacy too reacted to rumours of heterodoxy in the east, specifically in Constantinople: both a letter by Pope Gregory III (731-741) and the Roman Liber Pontificalis attest to this.

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Das Papsttum war im achten und neunten Jahrhundert mit einer Vielzahl von Fremden, insbesondere mit vielen fremden Völkern konfrontiert. Die Päpste waren in ihrer Interaktion mit den Anderen mitten im politischen Geschehen der Apenninenhalbinsel. Als Quellen für die Untersuchung wurden die für das jeweilige Zeitfenster vorhandenen Papstbriefe und der römische Liber Pontificalis herangezogen. Die Arbeit beschäftigt sich zunächst mit den Beziehungen der Päpste zum („oströmischen“) Kaiserreich. Für die Päpste handelte es sich hier um die komplizierteste Kommunikation mit Anderen, da Rom bis ca. 776 noch Teil des Kaiserreichs war und sich das Papsttum auch als Teil des Reiches verstand. Doch ab der Mitte des achten Jahrhunderts begannen die Päpste, ziemlich konsequentes Othering gegen den Kaiser und den Kern des Reiches im Osten zu betreiben. Als zweites Beispiel dienen die wechselhaften Beziehungen der Päpste zu den Langobarden. Im Gegensatz zu den Greci war es für die Päpste nie schwierig, die Langobarden als Fremde einzustufen. Und doch lagen mit den Langobarden, die unmittelbare Nachbarn des römischen Dukats waren, Kooperation und Konflikt näher, als uns die gängige Historiographie glauben macht. Das letzte Beispiel widmet sich dem Konflikt der Päpste mit den Sarazenen, der besonders intensiv wurde nachdem eine sarazenische Gruppe im Jahr 846 Rom angegriffen und unter anderem die wichtigsten vor der Mauer gelegenen Basiliken geplündert hatte. Dieser Schock hatte auch auf die päpstliche Selbstwahrnehmung und auf die päpstliche religiöse Position zu kriegerischen Auseinandersetzungen Einfluss., In the course of the eighth and ninth centuries, the papacy had to deal with a multitude of Others, especially with other peoples. The popes were right in the middle of the political events on the Apennine peninsula. The dissertation makes use of the extant papal letters of the period and of the Roman Liber Pontificalis. Three cases have been chosen for the thesis, each of them representing a relationship that in one way or another has had a special impact on the papacy of our period. The first case deals with the papal relations to the empire in the eighth century. This is maybe the most complex case, because Rome was still part of that empire until c. 776. Only from the 750ies onwards, the popes began to implement quite consequent Othering against the empire in the east, which they mainly achieved by labeling those Others as Greci. The second case-study examines the case of the Lombards. As opposed to the Greci, it was never difficult for the papacy to portray the Lombards as Others. However, cooperation and conflict took turns in this relationship more frequently than modern historiography normally has us believe. The last part is dedicated to the conflict with the Saracens, which had a great impact on the papacy in the ninth century. In 846, Saracens attacked Rome and plundered the city outside of the walls. This shocking event led to a fundamental change of the papal self-perception and of the papal theological position on warfare.