Apostolic succession
The Lombardic donations of the first castles in the 8th century, including Sutri, formally intended "for the Apostles Peter and Paul", took place in recognition of the consolidated political role of the Church, which the Lombard kings saw as a power in the political equilibrium of the Italian peninsula. That belief was strengthened by the traditions of Papal primacy and Apostolic succession—the Papacy's moral authority had come to be recognized even by the Germanic peoples: the Franks, the Visigoths of Spain, the Burgundians, the Anglo-Saxons of England, and the Lombards themselves.