Pope Gregory VIII

Head of the Catholic Church in 1187

Not to be confused with Antipope Gregory VIII.

This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. (June 2016)

|

Pope

Gregory VIII

Bishop of Rome
Church| Catholic Church
Papacy began| 21 October 1187
Papacy ended| 17 December 1187
Predecessor| Urban III
Successor| Clement III
Orders
Consecration| 25 October 1187
Created cardinal| 1156
by Adrian IV
Personal details
Born|

Alberto di Morra

c. 1100/1105

Benevento, Papal States

Died| 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

[edit]

Alberto di Morra was born about 1105 in Benevento. His father was the nobleman Sartorius di Morra. He became a monk early in life, either as a Cistercian in Laon, or a Benedictine at Monte Cassino. Alberto later joined a new religious order, the 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

[edit]

In 1156, Pope Adrian IV made him cardinal-deacon of Sant'Adriano, and on 14 March 1158 he became cardinal-priest of San Lorenzo in Lucina. As a papal legate of Pope Alexander III, he was sent to teach canon law throughout Europe in the 1160s, and was sent to Portugal to crown Afonso I. He also brought an offer of reconciliation in 1163 to Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, whom Pope Alexander III had excommunicated in 1160. Alexander also sent him to England to investigate the murder of Thomas Becket, and he absolved King Henry II of the murder during the Council of Avranches. From 1177 to 1179, Alberto also served as a legate in Italy and in February 1178 was named Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church. As Chancellor he generally pursued a conciliatory line toward the Emperor; in the controversy over the disputed succession of the 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

[edit]

On 21 October 1187, the day after the death of Urban III, Alberto di Morra, at that time Protopriest of the College of Cardinals, was elected pope (after Henry of Marcy had withdrawn his name from consideration), and took the name Gregory VIII in honour of Gregory VII. He was consecrated on 25 October. 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 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 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

[edit]

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 Duomo in Pisa; the tomb and the papal remains were destroyed in the 1600 fire of the cathedral. He was succeeded by Clement III. According to Joseph S. Brusher, "His pontificate though brief was glorious."[5]

## See also

[edit]

* Biography portal
* Christianity portal
* History portal

* List of popes
* October 1187 Papal election

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Reuss, Basil R. (1933). "A Norbertine Pope?". The Catholic Historical Review. 19 (2): 200–202\. ISSN 0008-8080. JSTOR 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

[edit]

* 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

[edit]

* Media related to Pope Gregory VIII at Wikimedia Commons
* Works by or about Gregory VIII at Wikisource
* Quotations related to Pope Gregory VIII at Wikiquote

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