Pepin, less enterprising than his father, but judicious, persevering,
and capable of discerning what was at the same time necessary and
possible, was well fitted to continue and consolidate what he would,
probably, never have begun and created. Like his father, he, on arriving
at power, showed pretensions to moderation or, it might be said,
modesty. He did not take the title of king; and, in concert with his
brother Carloman, he went to seek, heaven knows in what obscure asylum,
a forgotten Merovingian, son of Childeric II, the last but one of the
sluggard kings, and made him king, the last of his line, with the title
of Childeric III, himself, as well as his brother, taking only the style
of mayor of the palace. But at the end of ten years, and when he saw
himself alone at the head of the Frankish dominion, Pepin considered the
moment arrived for putting an end to this fiction. In 751 he sent to
Pope Zachary at Rome Burchard, bishop of Wuerzburg, and Fulrad, abbot of
St. Denis, "to consult the pontiff," says Eginhard, "on the subject of
the kings then existing among the Franks, and who bore only the name of
king without enjoying a tittle of royal authority.
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