To the Lord our most excellent son and
spiritual compater Pippin, king of the Franks and patrician of the
Romans [from] Pope Paul.
Because through the prevenient grace
of the Holy Spirit the heart of your benevolent excellence has been inflamed
with love of God, it is manifest, God-preserved and pre-eminent king, that you
are committed to the advance of piety. And because we see in you such a wealth
of grace, both we and all Christians have grounds for confidence in you that
you will achieve with total concentration of the will what concerns the worship
of God and the observance of the orthodox faith. (Codex Epistolaris
Carolinus: Letters from the Popes to the Frankish Rulers, 739-791 [trans.
Richard Price; Translated Texts for Historians 77; Liverpool: Liverpool
University Press, 2021], 265)