The Lombards were a Germanic people emigrating from Northern Europe to Italy. They briefly settled on the Elbe River, where they were first touched by Arian Christianity. When they finally came to Italy, some of them were still adherents to the old Germanic religion, while others were already Christians. In Italy more of the Lombards became Catholics, which in the following time led to religious conflicts in the Lombard Kingdom. King Perctarit (671-688), the issuer of this tremissis, was a strenuous missionary for Catholicism. Appropriately, the reverse of this coin shows a cross potent.