CONSTANTINE

born 8th century died , Rome? antipope from 767 to 768. He was a soldier andthrough the support of his brother Toto, duke of the bishopric of Nepi near Romewas elected pope on July 5, 767, to succeed St. Paul I. Constantine's opponents, led by Christopher, the powerful chief of the notaries, fled to the Lombards. Constantine, failing to win support from the Carolingian king Pippin III the Short or from the Franks, was deposed the next year by a Lombard army. His deposition was canonically ratified by a council of Italian and Frankish bishops. After 769 no more was heard of him. His brief reign revealed how the Holy See was then coveted by temporal rulers.