The fall of Toto's faction and the overthrow of the Lombard party left Christophorus and Sergius the most influential men in Rome. They had headed the counter-revolution, had been the means of creating a new Pope, and, belonging as they did to a patrician family, they commanded a great number of adherents both in the city and the surrounding districts.

They stood, however, in the way alike of Stephen and of Desiderius. The Pope, whose election had pledged him to many concessions in their favour, they wished to rule. Desiderius they had irritated by their desertion of his cause, their successful repression of the Lombard faction, by the favour they had shown the Frankish party, and the alliance into which they had entered with Carloman. Demanding lands and revenues from the Lombard King, they, on their part, delayed to fulfil the obligations due to him for his aid in the overthrow of Toto and Constantine. Even Stephen himself recognised that the protective attitude assumed by the Franks towards Rome had been weakened by Pipin's death, and Charles and Carloman, being at open variance with each other, gave Rome cause to dread the evils of a divided kingdom. The Pope's position was consequently one of no little difficulty.