Gregory II
Born c. 669, Pope/St. Gregory II was the scion of a noble Roman family. Under Sergius I, Gregory was the librarian and the keeper of the purse; he accompanied Pope Constantine when the pope traveled to Constantinople to protest the anti-western canons of the Second Trullan (or Quintisext) Council (692). Successful, the two returned to Rome in 711. Gregory was elected to the papacy in 715 and resisted the iconoclasm of Emperor Leo III the Isaurian. He also resisted taxes the Emperor imposed, and the emperor plotted to kill the pope. In 716, Gregory peacefully regained papal territory from the Lombards, and when King Liutprand of the Lombard s threatened to invade Rome in 729, Gregory disuaded him. Gregory sponsored the missionary activities of St. Boniface in Germany, and, like Gregory I, Gregory II converted his family mansion into a monastery. Gregory died of natural causes in 731.
Karen Rae Keck
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