[Footnote 1:  Diaconus. v. 6; cf.  Hodgkin, op. cit. vi. 272.  Paulus adds that the prophecy was fulfilled when adulterous and vile priests were ordained in the church at Monza and the Lombards fell before Pepin.]

That prophecy contained the fundamental truth that since the Lombards were Catholic it was not possible to turn them out of Italy.  But Constans heeded it not.  He marched on, besieged Beneventum, was not successful, and went on to Rome, and himself spoiled the City.  From Rome he returned southward to Naples and Sicily, where in 668 he died.

All that time Gregory was exarch.  He had succeeded Theodore Calliopas in 664, and he ruled till 677.  We know little of him save that he appears to have attempted to confirm Maurus, archbishop of Ravenna, in his “independence” of the Papal See.[1] This Maurus was undoubtedly a schismatic and Agnellus tells us that he had many troubles with the Holy See and many altercations.  Indeed the position of the archbishop of Ravenna can never have been a very enviable one and especially at this time when the breach between pope and emperor, papacy and empire, was continually widening.  Always the archbishop of Ravenna, as the bishop of the imperial citadel in Italy, must have been tempted to follow the emperor rather than the pope, and more especially since, personally, he might expect to gain both in power and wealth that way.

[Footnote 1:  That was the “Privilegium,” whatever it was worth and whatever exactly it meant, conferred by Constans II.  Constantine Pogonatus, the successor of Constans, is still to be seen in S. Apollinare in Classe the “Privilegium” in his hands in mosaic.  See infra, p. 208.]

The exarch Gregory was succeeded apparently by a certain Theodore whose contemporary archbishop in Ravenna was also a Theodore.  He ruled it seems for ten years, 677-687, and built near his palace an oratory, or a monastery, not far from the church of S. Martin (S.  Apollinare Nuovo), and was, according to Agnellus, a pious man, presenting three golden chalices to the church in Ravenna and composing the differences of his namesake the archbishop and his clergy.

Theodore in his turn was succeeded by Joannes Platyn (687-701).  Two years before his appointment in 685 Justinian II. (685-695) had succeeded to the imperial throne, and in that same year pope Benedict II. died.  John V. succeeded him and reigned for a few months, when there followed two disputed elections, those of Conon and of Sergius.  In the latter Joannes Platyn the exarch played a miserable and disastrous part.  For he suddenly appeared in Rome as the partisan of Paschal, the rival of Sergius, who had obtained his support by a promise of one hundred pounds of gold if he would help him to the papal throne.  On his advent in Rome, however, the exarch found that he must abandon Paschal and consent to the election of Sergius, in which all concurred.  He refused, however, to abandon his bribe which he now demanded of the new pope.  Sergius replied that he had never promised anything to the exarch and that he could not pay the sum demanded.  And he brought forth in the sight of the people the holy vessels of S. Peter, saying these were all he had.  As the pope doubtless intended, the Romans were enraged against the exarch, the money was scraped together, and the holy vessels rescued.