Having appealed to no avail to the Emperor in Byzantium, Pope Stephen II secretly sent a message by way of a pilgrim to Pepin the Short, King of the Franks.

Shortly before his departure for Pavia, Duke Autchar and Chrodegang, Bishop of Metz, arrived with an invitation for Stephen to visit Francia.

[2] Pope Stephen II left Rome in mid- October 753 accompanied by some clerics, nobles, the Emperor's envoy, and the Frankish delegation.

In mid-November the Pope crossed the Great St Bernard Pass arriving at the Abbey of Saint-Maurice d'Agaune, where he was met by Pepin's archchaplain Fulrad, Abbot of Saint-Denis.

After Charles the Bald's coronation in 875, the new emperor summoned a great synod at Ponthion, which met in June 876, and at which a papal brief was read, appointing Ansegis, Archbishop of Sens, as Vicar Apostolic of Gaul and Germany.