Pope Gregory II
Pope from 715 to 731 who backed Boniface and resisted Emperor Leo III's iconoclasm.
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via Wikipedia: Pope Gregory II · see source
Pope Gregory II was bishop of Rome from 19 May 715 until his death on 11 February 731. Born in 669 to a noble Roman family, he spent his career in the papal court before his election. His papacy is remembered for three strands: sponsoring missions in Germany and Bavaria, handling a delicate balance with the Lombards, and standing up to Emperor Leo III the Isaurian during the iconoclastic controversy. That defiance set off a long sequence of revolts, schisms and civil wars which eventually led to the popes gaining temporal power of their own.
Lore & Background
Gregory was the son of Marcellus and Honesta. Under Sergius I he became a subdeacon and sacellarius of the Roman See, and later a deacon in charge of the church's library.
As papal secretary he travelled with Pope Constantine to Constantinople in 711 and handled the talks over Rome's rejection of the Quinisext Council, persuading Emperor Justinian II to let the papacy ignore whichever canons it chose. After Constantine died on 9 April 715, Gregory was elected and consecrated. He soon began repairing Rome's Aurelian Walls, work delayed in October 716 when the Tiber flooded the city for eight days.
Reader's Guide
Gregory commissioned the Anglo-Saxon missionary Winfrid, renamed Boniface, to preach in Germany in May 719 and made him a bishop in November 722. He guided church organisation in Bavaria after a visit from Duke Theodo, restored Monte Cassino in 718, and received the abdicated King Ine of Wessex in 726. With the Lombards he mixed diplomacy and pressure; in 729 he met King Liutprand at Sutri, where the Donation of Sutri gave the papacy its first lands beyond the Duchy of Rome.
Did You Know?
- Boniface told Gregory he found the pope's Latin hard to follow.
- Gregory ordered fasting on Thursdays in Lent, a practice earlier popes had discouraged.
- He turned his family mansion into the monastery of St. Agatha in Suburra.
- In around 721 he asked Charles Martel to act against the Lombards, but got no reply.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the Donation of Sutri?
A 729 agreement with the Lombard king Liutprand that handed Sutri and some hill towns in Latium to the papacy.
Why did Gregory II clash with Leo III?
Leo tried to raise taxes on papal lands in Italy and to impose iconoclast decrees, which Gregory resisted.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Pope Gregory II (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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