Editing Temporal power of the Holy See (section)

===Patrimony of Saint Peter===
The [[Lateran Palace]] was the first significant acquisition of the Holy See, most probably a gift from [[Constantine the Great]]. The example of Constantine was followed by wealthy families of the Roman nobility,<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14257a.htm Schnürer, Gustav. "States of the Church." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 29 December 2022 {{PD-notice}}</ref> and the residences and estates that were acquired in turn were designated the ''[[Patrimony of Saint Peter|Patrimonium Sancti Petri]].'' After the [[Deposition of Romulus Augustus|deposition]] of the last Roman emperor in the West in 476, the popes were subjects, first of Odoacer, then [[Arianism|Arian]] [[Ostrogoths|Ostrogothic]] kings, then of the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] emperors, who ruled their Italian territories via a governor called an ''[[Exarchate of Ravenna|exarch]],'' stationed in Ravenna''.''

[[Pope Gregory II]]'s defiance of the [[Byzantine Emperor]] [[Leo III the Isaurian]] as a result of the first [[iconoclastic controversy]] (726 AD) in the [[Byzantine Empire]], widened the growing divergence between the Byzantine and Carolingian traditions in what was still a unified European Church. This, combined with [[Kingdom of the Lombards|Lombard]] military pressure to which the embattled empire could not respond effectively, eventually led to the establishment of the temporal power of the popes. The [[Duchy of Rome]] was an imperial territory under the [[Exarchate of Ravenna]]. With the waning of Byzantine control in the Italian peninsula, more of the management of the area fell to the popes.