But Pippin had a taste for theater and a nose for holy oil. So three years after the ceremony at Soissons, he went even further. By this time Pope Zachary was dead, but his replacement, Stephen II, was similarly pliable. Over the winter of 753–54 the new pope traversed the Alps, and at Epiphany (January 6) he appeared in solemn splendor at the Frankish palace at Ponthion, to ask for military assistance,
