Of the bishops who occupied the See of Assisi during the fifth and sixth centuries, Aventius interceded (545) with Totila in behalf of the Assisians, and saved the city from the the Ostrogothic army on its way to Rome. In succeeding centuries mention is made of several Bishops of Assisi who were present at general councils of the Church. Thus, in 659, Aquilinus was summoned by Pope Martin I to be present at the Lateran Council, convened for the purpose of formulating decrees against the Monothelites.
In the seventh and eighth centuries Assisi fell under the power of the Lombard dukes, and in 773 was razed to the ground by Charlemagne for its determined resistance to him. He restored it, however, and at the same time all traces of Arian belief and Lombard sympathies disappeared. About the same time the great castle, or Rocca d'Assisi, was built, which stronghold made the town thenceforth a great power in the political life of central Italy.
Bishop Hugo, whose episcopate lasted from 1036 to 1050, transferred the episcopal chair to the cathedral of San Rufino, which he himself raised over the little oratory beheath which the Saint's bones had rested for eight centuries. From Sts. Rufinus to Ambrose Luddi, O. P., the bishops numbered some ninety-two; but of these some are little known, and the existence of others is more or less problematical.[2]
