Pope Gregory VIII

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Pope Gregory VIII

Not to be confused with the earlier Antipope Gregory VIII
Antipope Gregory VIII

Gregory VIII was antipope from March 10, 1118 to April 22, 1121....

Pope Gregory VIII (c. 1100/1105, Benevento

Benevento

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
–December 17, 1187, Pisa

Pisa

Pisa is a city in Tuscany, central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the Arno River on the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa....
, Italy

Italy

Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and head of state of Vatican City. The current pope is Pope Benedict XVI, who was elected April 19, 2005 in Papal conclave, 2005....
from October 25, 1187 until his death.

rto di Morra was born about 1110 in Benevento

Benevento

Benevento is a town and comune of Campania, Italy, capital of the province of Benevento, 50 km northeast of Naples. It is situated on a hill 130 m above sea-level at the confluence of the Calore Irpino and Sabato....
, Italy. His father was the nobleman Sartorius di Morra. He became a monk early in life, either as a Cistercian in Laon

Laon

Laon is a city in Picardie in northern France, capital of the Aisne Departments of France....
, or a Benedictine

Benedictine

Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy....
at Monte Cassino

Monte Cassino

Monte Cassino is a rocky hill about 130 km southeast of Rome, Italy, c. 2 km to the west of the town of Cassino, Italy and 520 m altitude....
.

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Not to be confused with the earlier Antipope Gregory VIII
Antipope Gregory VIII

Gregory VIII was antipope from March 10, 1118 to April 22, 1121....

Pope Gregory VIII (c. 1100/1105, Benevento

Benevento

Italy

Pisa

Pisa is a city in Tuscany, central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the Arno River on the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa....
, Italy

Italy

Pope

Early life

Alberto di Morra was born about 1110 in Benevento

Benevento

Laon

Laon is a city in Picardie in northern France, capital of the Aisne Departments of France....
, or a Benedictine

Benedictine

Monte Cassino

Monte Cassino is a rocky hill about 130 km southeast of Rome, Italy, c. 2 km to the west of the town of Cassino, Italy and 520 m altitude....
. Alberto later joined a new religious order, the Premonstratensian

Premonstratensian

The Norbertines, also known as the Premonstratensians and in United Kingdom and Ireland as the White Canons , are a Catholic religious order of canons regular founded at Pr?montr? near Laon in 1120 by Saint Norbert of Xanten, who later became Archbishop of Magdeburg....
or Norbertine order, probably between the ages of 20-30. He was a canon at St. Martin's Abbey in Laon. He later became a professor of canon law

Canon law

Canon law is internal ecclesiastical law governing the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church churches, and the Anglicanism of churches....
in Bologna

Bologna

Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy, in the Po Valley , between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, exactly between the Reno River and the S?vena River....
.

Cardinal

In 1156, Pope Adrian IV

Pope Adrian IV

Pope Adrian IV , born Nicholas Breakspear or Breakspeare, was Pope from 1154 to 1159.Adrian IV is the only England who has occupied the papal chair....
made him cardinal-deacon of Sant'adriano, and on on March 14, 1158 he became cardinal-priest of San Lorenzo in Lucina

San Lorenzo in Lucina

San Lorenzo in Lucina is a churches of Rome Rome, dating back to the 4th century, and dedicated to Saint Lawrence, Roman deacon and martyr.The name Lucina comes from the Roman matron owner of the house on which the church was built....
. As a papal legate

Papal legate

A Papal Legate ? from the Latin, authentic Roman title Legatus ? is a personal representative of the Pope to Foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic Church....
of Pope Alexander III

Pope Alexander III

Pope Alexander III , born Rolando of Siena, was Pope from 1159 to 1181....
, he was sent to teach canon law throughout Europe in the 1160s, and was sent to Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Located in southwestern Europe, Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east....
to crown Alfonso II

Alfonso II

Alfonso II may refer to:*Alfonso II of Asturias *Alfonso II of Aragon *Afonso II of Portugal , "the Fat"*Alfonso, Count of Poitou , jure uxoris Alfonso II, Count of Toulouse...
. He also brought an offer of reconciliation in 1163 to Holy Roman Emperor

Holy Roman Emperor

Image:HRR 14Jh.jpgThe Roman of the Emperor's title was a reflection of the translatio imperii principle that regarded the Holy Roman Emperors as the inheritors of the title of Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, a title left unclaimed in the West after the death of Julius Nepos in 480....
Frederick Barbarossa, whom Pope Alexander III had excommunicated in 1160. Alexander also sent him to England to investigate the murder of Thomas Becket

Thomas Becket

Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 to his death. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion....
, and he absolved King Henry II

Henry II of England

Henry II, called Curtmantle ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France....
of the murder during the Council of Avranches. From 1177-1179, Alberto also served as a legate in Italy and in February 1178 he was named Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church. It was in this position that he "...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." These two documents were very influential in shaping the rhetoric used in papal documents. Shortly before his election into the papacy, Alberto founded a monastery in his hometown of Benevento.

Pope

On October 21, 1187, the day after the death of Pope Urban III

Pope Urban III

Pope Urban III , born Uberto Crivelli, was Pope from 1185 to 1187. He was made Catholic Cardinal and archbishop of Milan by Pope Lucius III, whom he succeeded on November 25, 1185....
, Alberto di Morra was elected Pope and took the name Gregory VIII, in honor of Pope Gregory VII

Pope Gregory VII

Pope Saint Gregory VII , born Hildebrand of Soana , was papacy from April 22, 1073, until his death. One of the great reforming popes, he is perhaps best known for the part he played in the Investiture Controversy, his dispute with Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor affirming the primacy of the papal authority and the new canon law governing...
. He was consecrated on October 25. His previous dealings with Frederick Barbarossa put the church back in a friendly relationship with the Holy Roman Emperor. In response to the defeat of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem

Kingdom of Jerusalem

The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Christianity kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. It lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, Israel, was destroyed by the Mamluks....
at the Battle of Hattin

Battle of Hattin

The Battle of Hattin took place on Saturday, July 4, 1187, between the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and the forces of the Ayyubid dynasty.The Muslim armies under Saladin captured or killed the vast majority of the Crusader forces, removing their capability to wage war....
, Gregory issued the papal bull

Papal bull

A Papal bull is a particular type of letters patent or charter issued by a pope. It is named after the bulla that was appended to the end to authenticate it....
Audita tremendi
Audita tremendi

Audita tremendi was a papal bull issued by Pope Gregory VIII on October 29, 1187, calling for the Third Crusade.It was issued just days after Gregory had succeeded Pope Urban III as pope, in response to the defeat of the Kingdom of Jerusalem at the Battle of Hattin on July 4 of 1187....
, calling for the Third Crusade

Third Crusade

The Third Crusade , also known as the Kings' Crusade, was an attempt by European leaders to reconquer the Holy Land from Saladin .After the failure of the Second Crusade, the Zengid dynasty controlled a unified Syria and engaged in a conflict with the Fatimid dynasty rulers of Egypt, which ultimately resulted in the unification of Egy...
. Gregory travelled to Pisa

Pisa

Pisa is a city in Tuscany, central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the Arno River on the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa....
in order to end Pisan hostilities with Genoa

Genoa

Genoa is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria. The city has a population of about 610,000 and the urban area has a population of about 900,000....
so that both seaports and naval fleets could join together for the crusade. On the way to Pisa, he stopped at Lucca

Lucca

Lucca is a city in Tuscany, northern central Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca....
and ordered Antipope Victor IV

Antipope Victor IV (1159-1164)

Victor IV was the Cardinal Cardinal Priest of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere before he was elected as a Guelphs and Ghibellines antipope in 1159, following the death of Pope Adrian IV and the election of Pope Alexander III....
's body to be removed from his tomb and his remains thrown out of the church.

Death

Gregory died in Pisa on December 17, 1187 of a fever. after holding the papacy for only 57 days. He was buried in the Duomo in Pisa. He was succeeded by Pope Clement III

Pope Clement III

Pope Clement III , born Paulino Scolari, was elected Pope on December 19, 1187 and reigned until his death.A Roman by birth, he was made by Pope Alexander III successively archpriest of the patriarchal Liberian Basilica , cardinal-deacon of Sergio e Bacco , and finally cardinal bishop of Palestrina in December 1180....
. According to Joseph S. Brusher, "His pontificate though brief was glorious."

Bibliography

Brusher, Joseph S. Popes through the Ages.
Delaney, John J., and James E. Tobin. Dictionary of Catholic Biography. New York, NY: Doubleday, 1961.
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 Dec. 2008 .
"Premonstratenisans/Norbertines A Look at out Way of Life." The International Website for the Order of Premontre. The Order of Premontre. 7 Dec. 2008 .

Pope Gregory VIII

Early life

Cardinal

Pope

Death

Bibliography

See also