Pope Gregory VIII

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Adrian IV
Personal details
Born
Alberto di Morra

c. 1100/1105
Died(1187-12-17)17 December 1187
Pisa, Republic of Pisa
Other popes named Gregory
Gregory VIII on a 19th-century religious card

Pope Gregory VIII (

Latin: Gregorius VIII; c. 1100/1105 – 17 December 1187), born Alberto di Morra, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States for two months in 1187. Becoming Pope after a long diplomatic career as Apostolic Chancellor, he was notable in his brief reign for reconciling the Papacy with the estranged Holy Roman Empire
and for initiating the Third Crusade.

Early life

Alberto di Morra was born about 1105 in

Premonstratensian or Norbertine order, probably between the ages of 20–30. He was a canon at St. Martin's Abbey in Laon.[1] He later became a professor of canon law in Bologna
.

Cardinal

In 1156,

Archbishop of Trier he argued strongly in favor of setting aside both the pro-papal candidate Folmar of Karden and the pro-imperial Rudolf of Wied, and allowing the canons of Trier to hold a new election, but was overruled by Pope Urban III.[2] It was in this position that di Morra "...compiled a Forma Dicendi, a collection of official papal acts, and also completed a codification of the cursus, a compilation of the very stringent rules governing the euphonious arrangements of sentence endings and phrasing in papal acts. In his honor, the cursus was called stylus gregorianus."[3]
These two documents were very influential in shaping the rhetoric used in papal documents. Shortly before his election to the papacy, Alberto founded a monastery in his hometown of Benevento.

Papacy

On 21 October 1187, the day after the death of Urban III, Alberto di Morra, at that time

crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem at the Battle of Hattin, Gregory issued the papal bull Audita tremendi calling for the Third Crusade.[4] Gregory travelled to Pisa in order to end Pisan hostilities with Genoa so that both seaports and naval fleets could join together for the crusade. On the way to Pisa, he stopped at Lucca and ordered Antipope Victor IV
's body to be removed from his tomb and his remains thrown out of the church.,

Death

Gregory VIII is buried at Pisa Cathedral

Gregory died in Pisa on 17 December 1187 of a fever after holding the papacy for only 57 days. He was buried in the

Clement III. According to Joseph S. Brusher, "His pontificate though brief was glorious."[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Gregory, the eighth of that name...they declare from records of St. Martin of Laon to have once been a canon of that church..." Basil R. Reuss, "A Norbertine Pope?," rev. of Catholic University of America Press, The Catholic Historical Review July 1933: 200-03 <https://www.jstor.org/stable/25013158>.
  2. ^ Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit, Vol. VI, p. 130.
  3. ^ Philippe Levillain, ed. The Papacy: An Encyclopedia, New York: Routledge, 2002, 653.
  4. ^ J. N. Kelly, The Oxford Dictionary of Popes, New York: Oxford UP, 1986, 183.
  5. ^ Joseph S. Brusher, Popes through the Ages, 342.

Bibliography

  • Brusher, Joseph S. Popes through the Ages.
  • Delaney, John J., and James E. Tobin. Dictionary of Catholic Biography. New York, NY: Doubleday, 1961.
  • Falconieri, Tommaso di Carpegna (2000). "Gregorio VIII". (in Italian) Enciclopedia dei Papi (Treccani 2000).
  • Giesebrecht, Wilhelm von & Simson, Bernhard von (1895), Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit, vol. VI, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, available at the Internet Archive here: Volume VI. (in German)
  • Kelly, J. N. The Oxford Dictionary of Popes. New York: Oxford UP, 1986.
  • Levillain, Philippe, ed. The Papacy: An Encyclopedia. New York: Routledge, 2002.
  • Loughlin, James. "Pope Gregory VIII." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 7 December 2008.
  • "Premonstratenisans/Norbertines A Look at out Way of Life." The International Website for the Order of Premontre. The Order of Premontre. 7 December 2008.

External links

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
Urban III
Pope
1187
Succeeded by
Clement III