Pope Gregory II
Eastern Roman Empire | |
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Sainthood | |
Feast day | 11 February |
Venerated in | Catholic Church |
Attributes |
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Other popes named Gregory |
Pope Gregory II (
Early life
Born into a noble Roman family in the year 669,[2] Gregory was the son of Marcellus and Honesta.[3] Gregory II was an alleged collateral ancestor to the Roman Savelli family,[4] according to a 15th-century chronicler, but this is unattested in contemporary documents and very likely unreliable. The same was said of the seventh-century Pope Benedict II, but nothing certain is known about a kinship between the two of them.
As a young man, he was placed in the papal court, and was made a
After Constantine’s death on 9 April 715, Gregory was elected
First years and expanding missionary activity
Almost immediately, Gregory began the task of repairing Rome's Aurelian Walls, beginning at the Porta Tiburtina.[5] Work on this task was delayed in October 716 when the river Tiber burst its banks and flooded Rome, causing immense damage and only receding after eight days.[5] Gregory ordered a number of litanies to be said to stem the floods, which spread over the Campus Martius and the so-called Plains of Nero, reaching the foot of the Capitoline Hill.[8] The first year of his pontificate also saw a letter arrive from Patriarch John VI of Constantinople, who attempted to justify his support of Monothelitism, while at the same time seeking sympathy from the pope over the position he was in, with respect to the emperor. Gregory responded by sending a letter outlining the traditional Roman position against Monothelitism.[9]
Then in 716, Gregory received an official visit from Duke
Gregory next turned his attention to Germany. In 718, he was approached by an
Gregory also strengthened papal authority in the churches of
Local church activities
Gregory also concerned himself with establishing or restoring monasteries. He turned his family mansion in Rome into a monastery, St. Agatha in Suburra, endowing it with expensive and precious vessels for use at the altar,[17] and also established a new church, dedicated to Sant'Eustachio.[18] In 718 he restored Monte Cassino, which had not recovered from an attack by the Lombards in 584, and he intervened in a dispute at the Monastery of St. Vincent on the Volturno over the deposition of the abbot.[19]
In 721, Gregory held a
Gregory also mandated a number of practices within the Church. He decreed that in
Relations with the Lombards
Gregory attempted to remain on good diplomatic terms with the Lombards, and especially with their king, Liutprand. In April 716 he managed to get Liutprand to agree not to retake the Cottian Alps, which had been granted to the Roman Church in the reign of Aripert II.[26] However, the semi-independent Lombard Duchy of Benevento, under the expansionist duke Romuald II, resumed hostilities by capturing Cumae in 717, cutting Rome off from Naples.[27] Neither threats of divine retribution nor outright bribery made an impression on Romuald, and so Gregory appealed to Duke John I of Naples, funding his campaign to successfully retake Cumae.[28]
That same year saw the Lombard duke
Conflict with Emperor Leo III
Tensions between Gregory and the imperial court began around 722 when emperor
However, in 725, possibly at the emperor’s request, Marinus, who had been sent from Constantinople to govern the Duchy of Rome, encouraged a conspiracy to murder the pope. Involving a duke named Basil, the Chartoularios Jordanes, and a subdeacon named Laurion, the departure of Marinus paused the plot, only to see it resume with the arrival of the new exarch, Paul. However, the plot was uncovered, and the conspirators were put to death.[37]
Then in 726, Leo issued an iconoclast edict, condemning possession of any icon of the saints.[38] Although Leo made no move to enforce this edict in the west beyond having it read in Rome and Ravenna, Gregory immediately rejected the edict.[39] Upon hearing this, the Exarchate of Ravenna rose in revolt against the imperial imposition of iconoclasm. The armies of Ravenna and the Duchy of the Pentapolis mutinied, denouncing both Exarch Paul and Leo III, and overthrew those officers who remained loyal. Paul rallied the loyalist forces and attempted to restore order, but was killed. The armies discussed electing their own emperor and marching on Constantinople, but were dissuaded by Pope Gregory from acting against Leo.[40] At the same time, the self-described “duke” Exhilaratus and his son Hadrian rebelled in Naples, sided with the emperor and marched on Rome in order to kill Gregory, but were overthrown by the people and killed.[41]
In 727, Gregory summoned a synod to condemn iconoclasm.
"You say: ‘We worship stones and walls and boards.’ But it is not so, O Emperor; but they serve us for remembrance and encouragement, lifting our slow spirits upwards, by those whose names the pictures bear and whose representations they are. And we worship them not as God, as you maintain, God forbid!... Even the little children mock at you. Go into one of their schools, say that you are the enemy of images, and straightway they will throw their little tablets at your head, and what you have failed to learn from the wise you may pick up from the foolish... In virtue of the power which has come down to us from St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, we might inflict punishment upon you, but since you have invoked one on yourself, have that, you and the counselors you have chosen... though you have so excellent a high priest, our brother Germanus, whom you ought to have taken into your counsels as father and teacher. . . . The dogmas of the Church are not a matter for the emperor, but for the bishops."[44]
Gregory's letters to Leo have been accused of being apocryphal,[45] and may not accurately reflect the real content of Gregory's correspondence with Leo.
In 728, Leo sent to Italy a new exarch,
In 729, Eutychius finally managed to bring about an alliance with the Lombard king, Liutprand, and both agreed to help the other deal with their rebellious subjects. After they had subjugated the dukes of Spoleto and Benevento, bringing them under Liutprand’s authority, they turned to Rome with the intent of bringing Gregory to heel.[49] However, outside Rome, Gregory managed to break up the alliance against him, with Liutprand returning to Pavia. After this, Eutychius reached an uneasy truce with Gregory, and the pope in return forged a temporary truce between the Lombards and the Byzantines.[50] Regardless, Gregory was still a devoted and vigorous defender of the empire. This was demonstrated in 730 when there arose another usurper, Tiberius Petasius, who raised a revolt in Tuscany. He was defeated by the exarch Eutychius, who received steady support from Pope Gregory.[51]
Gregory died on 11 February 731, and was buried in
Miracle at the Battle of Toulouse (721)
A miracle concerning Gregory II is linked to the
References
- ^ a b c Mann, Horace. "Pope St. Gregory II." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 18 September 2017
- ^ Levillain, pg. 642
- ^ Mann, pg. 144
- ^ Williams, George L., Papal Genealogy: The Families And Descendants Of The Popes (2004), pg. 37
- ^ a b c d Mann, pg. 145
- ^ Ekonomou, pg. 272; Mann, pg. 133
- ^ Treadgold, pg. 342
- ^ Mann, pgs. 146–147
- ^ Mann, pgs. 147–148
- ^ Mann, pg. 151
- ^ Mann, pgs. 153–154
- ^ Levillain, pg. 643
- ^ Mann, pgs. 157–158
- ^ Mann, pg. 158
- ^ Mann, pgs. 161–162
- ^ Mann, pg. 150
- ^ Mann, pgs. 144–145
- ^ Ekonomou, pg. 299
- ^ Mann, pgs. 163–164
- ^ Ekonomou, pg. 245
- ^ Mann, pgs. 166–167
- ^ Mann, pgs. 167–168
- ^ Mann, pg. 168
- ^ Mann, pgs. 201–202
- ^ Mann, pg. 202
- ^ Mann, pg. 169
- ^ Mann, pgs. 169–170
- ^ Mann, pg. 170
- ^ Mann, pg. 171
- ^ Mann, pgs. 171–172
- ^ Bluhme ed. pp. 123-24
- ^ Mann, pg. 187
- ^ Ekonomou, pg. 299; Mann, pgs. 197–198
- ^ Bury, pg. 444
- ^ Treadgold, pg. 350; Ekonomou, pg. 275
- ^ Treadgold, pg. 350; Bury, pgs. 440–441; Mann, pg. 185
- ^ Levillain, pg. 642; Mann, pg. 184
- ^ Treadgold, pg. 352
- ^ Treadgold, pg. 352; Mann, pg. 186
- ^ Treadgold, pg. 352; Mann, pg. 186; Bury, pg. 441
- ^ Mann, pg. 186
- ^ Mann, pg. 188
- ^ Mann, pgs. 199–200
- ^ Mann, pgs. 191–192
- JSTOR 44170426– via JSTOR.
- ^ Treadgold, pg. 353
- ^ Mann, pgs. 194–195
- ^ Treadgold, pgs. 353–354; Levillain, pg. 643
- ^ Bury, pgs. 444–445; Mann, pgs. 197–198
- ^ Mann, pg. 198; Bury, pg. 445
- ^ Mann, pg. 198
- ^ Mann, pgs. 200–202
- ^ Mann, pgs. 165–166
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pope St. Gregory II". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Literature
- Ekonomou, Andrew J., Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes: Eastern Influences on Rome and the Papacy from Gregory the Great to Zacharias, A.D. 590–752 (2007)
- Levillain, Philippe, The Papacy: Gaius-Proxies, Routledge (2002)
- Treadgold, Warren, A History of the Byzantine State and Society (1997)
- Mann, Horace K., The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages, Vol. I: The Popes Under the Lombard Rule, Part 2, 657–795 (1903)
- Bluhme, Friedrich, Liutprandi Leges de Anno XI In: Edictus Langobardorum (1868)
- Bury, John Bagnall, A History of the Later Roman Empire From Arcadius to Irene, Vol. II (1889)
- Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. .
- Paolo Delogu: Gregorio II, santo. In: Massimo Bray (ed.): Enciclopedia dei Papi. Volume 1: Pietro, santo. Anastasio bibliotecario, antipapa. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2000, pp. 647–651 (treccani.it).
- Annette Grabowsky: Gregor II. In: De GruyterOnline verfügbarer Artikel mit umfassenden Quellen- und Literaturangaben) 2014.
- ISBN 3-7608-8904-2.
External links
- Media related to Pope Gregory II at Wikimedia Commons