Pope Saint Gregory II. Confessor. Reigned From 715 AD - 731 A.D. (Part One).

Pope Saint Gregory II.

This File: 4 December 2006.

User: Nico86

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Pope Gregory II (Latin: Gregorius II; 669 A.D. – 11 February 731 A.D.) was the Bishop of Rome from 19 May 715 A.D. to his death.[1]

His defiance of The Roman Emperor, Leo III the Isaurian, as a result of the iconoclastic controversy in the Eastern Empire, prepared the way for a long series of revolts, schisms, and civil wars that eventually led to the establishment of the temporal power of the Popes.

Born into a noble Roman family in the year 669 A.D.,[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 7th-Century A.D. 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 Sub-Deacon and Sacellarius of The Roman See during the Pontificate of Pope Sergius I (687 A.D.–701 A.D.).

Later he was made a Deacon and placed in charge of the Vatican Library.[5] During Pope Constantine’s Pontificate, Gregory was made a Papal Secretary, and accompanied the Pope to Constantinople in 711 A.D. to deal with the issues raised by Rome’s rejection of the Canons of The Quinisext Council.[6]

The actual negotiations on the contentious articles were handled by Gregory, with the result that Emperor Justinian II agreed that the Papacy could disregard whichever of the Council’s decisions it wished to.[7]

After Pope Constantine’s death on 9 April 715 A.D., Gregory was elected Pope, and was Consecrated as Bishop of Rome on 19 May 715 A.D.[5]

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 A.D. when The River Tiber burst its banks and flooded Rome, causing immense damage and only receding after eight days.[5]

PART TWO FOLLOWS.