Pope Saint Gregory II (715-731)

The Pope Who Said No to the Iconoclast Emperor

The most famous image of Gregory II remains that of the pope who refused the iconoclastic edict of the Byzantine emperor Leo III the Isaurian. Beginning in 726, the emperor undertook to remove, break, or veil the holy images of Byzantine worship. He claimed to impose his reform on the entire Church, even reaching Rome. Gregory II’s response — as transmitted by the second letter preserved under his name — was brief but firm: the dogmas of the Church are not the emperor’s business, but that of the bishops (paraphrase; see below).^[11][12][13]

This firmness was not a mere diplomatic incident. It marked the boundary between two theologies of power: one, Byzantine, which made the emperor a quasi-pontiff authorized to decide on dogmatic matters; the other, Roman, which reminded that no basileus could impose on the Church what the councils had not accepted. On this point, Gregory II extended the resistance of Saint Martin I against Monothelitism and that of Saint Agatho against Eastern Caesaropapism.^[14][15]

The Pope Who Consecrated Saint Boniface

The second image of Gregory II is that of a missionary pope. When the Anglo-Saxon monk Winfrid came to Rome in 718-719 to offer the pope his evangelizing talents, Gregory II received him, changed his name to Boniface, gave him a solemn commission dated May 15, 719, and sent him to convert the Hessians, Frisians, and Thuringians. Upon Boniface’s return to Rome in 722, the pope consecrated him bishop of the Germanic peoples on November 30, 722, the feast of Saint Andrew, at Saint Peter’s.^[16][17][18]

This was the founding act of the Germanic Christendom. The episcopal oath that Boniface swore before Gregory II—modeled on that of the suburban bishops but where the pledge of loyalty to the emperor was replaced by fidelity to the Holy See—historians see in it the prototype of the medieval episcopal oath. The bishopric of Mainz, the foundation of Fulda, and the organization of Carolingian Christendom under the authority of Peter belong to the trajectory opened by this founding act.^[19][20]

The Pope Who Received Sutri and Opened the Patrimony of Peter

The third image is that of a reluctant territorial pope. When the Lombard king Liutprand, after capturing the strategic fortress of Sutri on the road to Rome, finally returned it around 728-729 “as a gift to the blessed apostles Peter and Paul,” it was, for the first time in history, an Italian city offered directly to the Roman See, and no longer just to the Byzantine emperor.^[21][22]

Historians debate whether Sutri already constitutes the birth of the Papal States or only a legal precedent awaiting development. But no one disputes that Gregory II opened a new logic: to defend the Catholic faith against the iconoclast emperors, the pope would gradually have to take, reluctantly, temporal governance of Rome and its hinterland.^[23][24]

The Pope Who Restored Monte Cassino

Finally, Gregory II is the pope who reopened Monte Cassino. Destroyed by the Lombards in the late 6th century (around 577-581), the abbey founded by Saint Benedict remained in ruins for nearly a century and a half. In 717, a monk from Brescia named Petronax came on pilgrimage to the patriarch’s tomb: Gregory II encouraged him to restore the community, sent him brothers, and effectively appointed him the new abbot.^[25][26][27]

The stakes went far beyond the reconstruction of a monastery. Renewed Monte Cassino would, in the following century, form Carloman son of Charles Martel, Ratchis king of the Lombards, and Paul the Deacon himself. Carolingian civilization drew its spiritual roots from this Benedictine revival initiated by Gregory II.^[28]

Table of Witnesses

The Central Role of the Liber Pontificalis

The Liber Pontificalis — the official collection of biographies of the bishops of Rome — devotes notice 91 to Gregory II, written by a Roman cleric probably a direct witness of the pontificate. It is the fundamental document for reconstructing his actions. Every researcher working on Gregory II begins with the passage edited by Louis Duchesne in volume I of his 1886 edition, then with the critical version by Theodor Mommsen in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica (1898).^[29][30][31]

The Liber provides precise figures for his pontificate: five major priestly ordinations, 35 priests ordained, 4 deacons, and a staggering total of 149 bishops consecrated “per diversa loca” — that is, for very diverse local churches, including Germanic ones. This last figure alone testifies to the episcopal influence of his pontificate.^[32]

“Hic fecit ordinationes V, presbiteros XXXV, diaconos IIII, episcopos per diversa loca numero CXLVIIII.” “He made five ordinations: 35 priests, 4 deacons, and 149 bishops for various places.” — Liber Pontificalis, Vita Gregorii II, conclusion^[33]

A Roman Family

Gregory II was born in Rome into a Roman family. The Liber Pontificalis names his father as Marcellus; the Catholic Encyclopedia adds the name of his mother, Honesta.^[34][35]

The family was close enough to ecclesiastical power that the young Gregory was entrusted very early to the patriarchium Lateranense, the residence of the popes and a major administrative and cultural center of Christian Latium. According to Treccani, he received his education there and was formed in ecclesiastical matters.^[36]

Subdeacon, Sacellarius, Librarian

The future pope first entered the schola cantorum, where singers and young clerics were trained. There he received the subdiaconate from Pope Sergius I (687-701). He then became sacellarius — that is, treasurer and almoner of the Roman Church — and then librarian: according to Mann, the first treasurer (sacellarius) and librarian of the Roman See whose name has come down to us, which speaks volumes about the real importance of the papal library in the governance of the Church at the end of the 7th century.^[37][38]

This dual role — financial management and manuscript custody — was exceptional. It prepared a man both experienced in practical administration, written diplomacy, and theological culture. Gregory II would later deploy this profile of canonist-financier-scholar with remarkable effectiveness.

The Diplomatic Mission to Constantinople (710-711)

The turning point came in 710. Pope Constantine I (708-715) had to travel to Constantinople to discuss with Emperor Justinian II the questionable canons of the Council in Trullo (Quinisext, 692). The young deacon Gregory was part of the papal embassy. He returned in 711 with a reputation that would mark him forever: according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, it was he who, by admirable responses, dispelled difficulties with the Byzantine emperor.^[39][40][41]

This experience was decisive. Gregory II would not be a theoretical pope of resistance to Byzantium: he knew the imperial court, its arguments, its traps, its language. When, twenty years later, he would write to Leo III, he would write as a man who knew exactly to whom he was speaking.

Pope Constantine I died on April 9, 715. Forty days later, on May 19, 715, the clergy, senate, and people of Rome elected and consecrated the deacon Gregory. According to Treccani, he was “consecrated forty days after the death of his predecessor” — the standard canonical delay at that time.^[42]

Rome in 715 was still Byzantine by law, but already autonomous in fact. The emperor ruled from Constantinople; the exarch, his representative, resided in Ravenna; the duke of Rome was formally dependent on the exarchate; but it was the pope who effectively ensured civil life, defense, charity, liturgy, ecclesiastical justice, and urban unity. The pope had become, without title, the real leader of the Roman city. Gregory II, aware of this situation, immediately took two concrete decisions.

First, he undertook the restoration of the walls of Rome, beginning at the portico of Saint Lawrence, that is, the Saint Lawrence Gate (Porta Tiburtina). The Lombards under Liutprand were already at the gates; the Byzantine emperors would no longer send funds; the old walls were collapsing in places. As the Catholic Encyclopedia notes: “One of the first things which Gregory took in hand when he became pope (19 May, 715) was to put in repair the walls of Rome.”^[43][44]

Then, around October 716, a catastrophic flood of the Tiber inundated the city. The water held Rome submerged for seven days — the river only returning to its bed on the eighth day —, passing through the Flaminian Gate, Saint Mark’s and the Via Lata, then from the Saint Peter’s Gate to the Milvian Bridge. Gregory ordered repeated litanies, organized relief efforts, and temporarily halted the defense works to aid the inhabitants. This episode, recounted by the Liber Pontificalis, sets the tone of a pope who did not shy away from practical matters.^[45]

Winfrid Arrives in Rome (719)

In the spring of 719, an Anglo-Saxon monk about forty years old presented himself at the Lateran. His name was Winfrid, originally from Wessex, trained at the abbey of Nursling, and he had just failed in an initial mission attempt among the pagan Frisians. He asked Gregory II for a universal missionary commission to evangelize the Germanic peoples.^[46][47]

The pope saw in him what no other observer had seen: the spiritual stature of an apostle. He made three immediate decisions. First, he changed his name to Boniface — “he who does good” — referring to a famous Roman martyr, thus placing the mission under Roman patronage. Then, on May 15, 719, he gave him a solemn letter of mission (Epistola XII in the Tangl collection) which constituted the broadest apostolic mandate ever given to a missionary monk. Finally, he asked him to report regularly to Rome on the progress of the evangelization.^[48][49]

“We solemnly establish the pious devotion of your humility on a firm foundation, and decree that, by the word of the grace of God... you shall go, under His guidance, to the peoples still bound by infidelity.” — Gregory II, missionary commission letter to Boniface, May 15, 719^[50]

The Episcopal Oath of November 30, 722

Boniface set out. For two years, he preached in Hesse and Thuringia, on the lands of Charles Martel. He converted thousands of pagans. In 722, Gregory II recalled him to Rome — “propter quaedam consilia”, for certain consultations. On this second journey, the pope made a major decision: he would consecrate Boniface bishop of the Germanic nations.^[51][52]

On November 30, 722, the feast of Saint Andrew, in the Vatican basilica, Gregory II laid hands on Boniface and conferred the episcopate. Before the consecration, Boniface took a solemn oath — preserved in the epistolary (Epistola XVI ed. Tangl) — modeled on the oath of the Roman suburban bishops. But one difference changed everything: the sworn fidelity to the Byzantine emperor was replaced by fidelity to the pope.^[53][54]

“I, Boniface, by the grace of God bishop, promise to you, blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, and to your vicar the blessed pope Gregory and to his successors, by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, inseparable Trinity, and by your most holy body, to keep all faith and purity of the holy Catholic faith, and to persevere, with God’s help, in the unity of this same faith... I will consent to nothing that opposes the unity of the universal Church... This text of my oath, I Boniface, humble bishop, have written with my own hand.” — Saint Boniface, Promissio pronounced before Gregory II, November 30, 722^[55]

This oath has immense legal significance. Historians see in it the prototype of medieval and Carolingian episcopal oaths, where each consecrated bishop swore not to the civil power, but to the successor of Peter. It practically founded the ecclesiological structure of medieval Western Christendom: a Catholic bishop is first and foremost in communion with Rome, not delegated by the emperor.^[56][57]

The Oak of Geismar and the First Fruits

Armed with a letter of recommendation from Gregory II to Charles Martel — “by sacred letters, the pope placed the new bishop under the protection of the glorious leader Charles,” writes Willibald — Boniface returns to Germania. There, around 723-724, he commits the most famous symbolic act of the Germanic mission: the felling of the Oak of Geismar, a sacred tree dedicated to the god Donar (Thor). The axe blow topples the oak; no lightning strikes; the Hessians convert en masse.^[58][59]

On December 4, 724, Gregory II responds to a report from Boniface: the ministry of the word takes fire and pagans convert in number (paraphrase). Correspondence continues until November 726: Gregory answers the missionary bishop’s canonical questions — questions about degrees of kinship, baptism, liturgical practices, and the discipline of converted pagans. No Catholic mission of the Middle Ages was so closely supervised by Rome.^[60][61]

The Founding Model

When Gregory II dies in 731, the Germanic mission has already established bishoprics in Hesse and Thuringia. Boniface will only receive the pallium and the dignity of Archbishop of Mainz in 732, under his successor Gregory III, but the model is set: a pope who sends, a missionary who consults, nascent local Churches directly dependent on the Apostolic See. Without Gregory II, the Germanic mission would have remained scattered and without Roman coordination: it is his model — a pope who sends, a missionary who consults — that gives the nascent Carolingian Christendom its Roman anchoring.^[62][63]

Leo III’s Edict (726)

Emperor Leo III the Isaurian (717-741) was an effective general who saved Constantinople from the Arab siege of 717-718. But he was also steeped, since his youth in Syria, in anti-icon theological influences: Muslim, Jewish, and Manichaean currents that saw Christian images as pagan survivals. From 726, after a volcanic eruption interpreted as a sign of divine anger, Leo III ordered the removal of the icon of Christ Antiphonetes placed above the Porta Chalkè, the main gate of the Imperial Palace.^[64][65]

This first act turned into a massacre: the enraged crowd of Constantinople killed the officer in charge of the operation. Leo III hardened his stance. Between 726 and 730, he issued successive edicts that progressively forbade, then destroyed, the veneration of holy images. In January 730, Patriarch Germanus I of Constantinople, a defender of icons, was forced to abdicate. Leo III replaced him with Anastasius, a supporter of imperial policy. The second, more radical edict was promulgated shortly thereafter.^[66][67]

The Roman Refusal

As early as 726, Gregory II received notification of the edict. He refused. The Liber Pontificalis summarizes his reaction in one sentence:

“Iussionibus itaque postmodum missis decreverat imperator ut nulla imago cuiuslibet sancti aut martyris aut angeli haberetur : maledicta enim omnia asserebat.” “The emperor had decreed by subsequent orders that no image of any saint, martyr, or angel should be kept: he declared all these things accursed.” — Liber Pontificalis, Vita Gregorii II, paragraph on iconoclasm^[68]

Gregory II is said to have convened in 727 a Roman synod reaffirming the Catholic doctrine of the veneration of images: according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, he there “proclaimed the true doctrine on the question of the veneration of images” — but no distinct acts of this assembly have come down to us, and it is Hefele who, by conjecture, places it in 727.^[69][70] This distinction was taken up and clarified thirty years later by the Second Council of Nicaea II (787) under Pope Adrian I: images are not adored (latreia), but venerated (proskynesis / douleia) because of the person represented — Christ, the Virgin, saints.^[71][72]

The Famous Letters to Leo III

Two letters survive, in Greek, attributed to Gregory II and addressed to Leo III. They were included in the acts of the Second Council of Nicaea (787): rediscovered by the Jesuit Fronton du Duc in a manuscript of Saint-Remi of Reims, they entered the printed conciliar collections of the 17th century. They are edited in Mansi, Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, volume XII (columns 959-982). In substance, one reads, among other passages (English paraphrase, without an appointed translator — only the Greek text is authoritative):

Images — stones, walls, or boards — are not worshipped for themselves; they serve as memory and encouragement, lifting our heavy spirits toward things above. — Substance of the first letter attributed to Gregory II to Leo III (Greek text: Mansi XII, col. 959-982)^[73]

And further on, with the same reservation:

The dogmas of the Church are not the emperor’s business, but the bishops’. — Substance of the second letter attributed to Gregory II to Leo III^[74]

The authenticity of these two letters is disputed. Part of modern scholarship, notably Erich Caspar (Geschichte des Papsttums II, 1933), Jean Gouillard (Travaux et Mémoires, 1960s-1970s), and Leslie Brubaker & John Haldon (Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era, Cambridge 2011), lean toward a Byzantine composition from the 9th century during the second iconoclasm. Treccani summarizes: “la critica è oggi orientata a considerare le due lettere come un prodotto confezionato a Bisanzio nei primi decenni del IX secolo” (“criticism today tends to consider the two letters as a product crafted in Byzantium in the early decades of the 9th century”).^[75][76][77] However, several elements call for an opposite caution. First, these letters are not malicious forgeries: they are included in the official acts of the Second Council of Nicaea (787), that is, barely fifty years after the death of Gregory II, under Pope Adrian I, in an ecumenical council accepted by the entire Church. Second, Caspar and Brubaker reason from modern philological assumptions—supposed excessive vehemence of tone, paraphrases close to later authors—which are never direct proof of fabrication. Finally, as L. Guérard already noted in the Mélanges de l'École française de Rome in 1890, “no one, except Semler and Rosier, doubted their authenticity” before the 19th century.^[78]

The cautious position, defended by the Catholic Encyclopedia, is to say: the substance of the positions expressed in these letters corresponds exactly to the Roman doctrine attested by all other sources (Liber Pontificalis, letters of Boniface, synod of 727, acts of Nicaea II); the textual wording may have been edited by Byzantine copyists; but the content is neither invention nor falsification. A Catholic article in hermeneutics of continuity therefore retains these formulas as faithful witnesses to the teaching of Gregory II — not as certain words of the pope —, while honestly noting the critical discussion.^[79]

The Uprising of the Exarchate and the Pentapolis

Gregory II’s firmness triggered a considerable political reaction in Italy. The Liber Pontificalis reports that in 727, the armies of the Exarchate of Ravenna and the Duchy of the Pentapolis revolted against the emperor. The exarch Paul, loyal to Leo III, was killed in a riot: “inter eos contentione mota, Paulum patricium occiderunt”.^[80]

The armies of Italy wanted to elect an anti-emperor to march on Constantinople. Gregory II dissuaded them. As Treccani points out: “the pope brought them back to imperial obedience, refusing to turn a doctrinal issue into political secession.” This was an exemplary decision: Gregory fought the imperial heresy without declaring political rupture with the Empire. He separated what concerned faith (where loyalty to Peter prevails) from what concerned civil government (where limited obedience to the emperor remained).^[81][82]

Another episode confirms this stance. When the usurper Tiberius Petasius proclaimed himself emperor in Tuscany in 730, Gregory II supported the exarch Eutychius sent by Leo III to suppress the revolt. The pope who resisted the emperor on images helped the same emperor preserve the political unity of Italy. “Gregory provided steady support to Exarch Eutychius, who defeated him,” summarizes Wikipedia, paraphrasing the Liber Pontificalis.^[83]

Assassination Attempts

Leo III, for his part, did not bother with such distinctions. During the pontificate, the Liber Pontificalis records at least three assassination attempts against Gregory II:

1. Around 725, a conspiracy involving imperial officials Marinus, Duke Basil, the chartularius Jordanes, and the subdeacon Laurion. Discovered; the conspirators were arrested and executed by the Romans.^[84]
2. Around 726-727, under the new exarch Paul, an emissary was sent to kill the pope and the Roman nobles. The Liber Pontificalis is explicit:

   “Cumque mitteret hominem proprium Romam cum scriptis suis in quibus continebatur ut pontifex occideretur cum optimatibus Romae.” “And while he sent his own man to Rome with his writings in which it was ordered that the pontiff be killed along with the nobles of Rome.”^[85]

3. Under exarch Eutychius, an order was sent to assassinate “the pontiff with the nobles of Rome.” The plot was uncovered, the emissary arrested.^[86]

Each time, the Roman population rallied behind their bishop and prevented the assassination. This was the moment when the pope became, in Roman civil consciousness, “father of the city” before being “subject of the emperor.”

Refusal of the Tribute

Leo III simultaneously attempted to increase taxes on the pontifical patrimonies in Italy. According to Wikipedia, “by refusing these additional taxes, Gregory encouraged the Roman population to expel the imperial governor.” The financial break was consummated around 727-728. Rome effectively ceased paying the imperial tribute, while continuing—and this is the nuance—to officially date its acts according to the reign of the basileus, maintaining a formal loyalty to the very end.^[87][88]

This was, in fact, the beginning of the Italian autonomy of the Holy See. Not yet a pontifical state, but already fiscal, military, and doctrinal independence.

The Lombard Context

To the southeast and north, the Lombard kingdom, a century and a half old, reached its military peak under Liutprand (712–744). Liutprand was a Catholic king—no longer Arian like his predecessors of the 6th–7th centuries—who dreamed of unifying Italy under his scepter. His relationship with Gregory II oscillated between cooperation and confrontation, never escalating into full conflict. Treccani speaks of initial “buoni rapporti” with the Lombard kingdom.^[89]

Several episodes punctuate this diplomacy:

• April 716: Gregory obtains from Liutprand that he not seize the Cottian Alps, which Aripert II had ceded to the Holy See.
• 717: The Lombard duke Romuald II of Benevento takes Cumae; Gregory finances the Duke John I of Naples for its reconquest, for 70 pounds of gold.^[90][91]
• 717: The duke Faroald II of Spoleto takes Classis, the port of Ravenna; Gregory obtains from Liutprand that it be returned.
• 723: Liutprand promulgates a law on illicit marriages whose prologue mentions it was issued “at the request of a letter from the pope of the city of Rome”—a valuable testimony of canonical-legislative cooperation.^[92]
• 725: Liutprand takes Narni.
• 727: Taking advantage of the iconoclastic crisis, the Lombards seize and destroy Classis and invade the Pentapolis.

The Donation of Sutri and the Meeting of 729

The climax occurred around 728–729. Liutprand took the strategic fortress of Sutri, a key town on the Via Cassia, 50 km north of Rome. The position commanded the route between Rome and Tuscany. Its loss would cut Rome off from its northern hinterland supplies.

For one hundred and forty days — “per CXL diebus” according to the Liber Pontificalis — Sutri remained in Lombard hands. Gregory II multiplied embassies, letters, and gifts — “continuis scriptis atque commonitionibus... multis datis muneribus” — and obtained restitution, not to the Byzantine Empire, but directly to the apostles Peter and Paul:

“Donationem beatissimis apostolis Petro et Paulo antefatus emittens Langobardorum rex, restituit atque donavit.” “The aforementioned king of the Lombards, by an act of donation to the most blessed apostles Peter and Paul, restored and gave these possessions.” — Liber Pontificalis, Vita Gregorii II, on the donation of Sutri (second recension)^[93]

The following year, in 729, Liutprand marched south against Spoleto and Benevento, then camped with his army before the walls of Rome, at the Field of Nero. Gregory II went out in person to meet him. The interview became famous. The Liber Pontificalis preserves a striking memory:

“Ad quem egressus pontifex eique praesentatus potuit regis mollire animos commonitione pia, ita ut se prosterneret eius pedibus et promitteret nulli inferre lesionem.” “The pontiff, having gone out to meet him and presented to him, was able to soften the king’s heart by pious admonitions, so that he prostrated himself at his feet and promised to harm no one.” — Liber Pontificalis, Vita Gregorii II, on the 729 meeting with Liutprand (second recension)^[94]

It was a spectacular reversal. The king who had come in arms knelt and laid his royal insignia on the tomb of the apostle Peter.

The Historical Significance of Sutri

The event was legally novel. Before Sutri, the Roman See’s landholdings were patrimonia Petri—rural properties managed by the papal administration but legally integrated into the Byzantine system. With Sutri, for the first time, an independent king ceded an entire city directly to the pope, bypassing the emperor, and in the name of the apostles rather than the state.^[95][96]

Historians debate the meaning of this gesture. Gustav Schnürer and Thomas Noble (The Republic of St. Peter, 1984) emphasize that the popes still formally recognized imperial authority: Sutri was not the official foundation of the Papal States. But Treccani and the great Catholic tradition recognize in the donation of Sutri the first legal seed of the future Papal State, which would be consecrated by the Donation of Pepin (754–756) and then by the Donation of Charlemagne (774).^[97][98]

Practically, Gregory II left his successor Gregory III with a new kind of problem: the pope was no longer only the guardian of souls; he was also, whether he wished it or not, responsible for a territory. The logic of defending the faith led to a territorial logic that would unfold for more than a thousand years, until 1870.

The Unsuccessful Appeal to Charles Martel

According to an uncorroborated modern synthesis, Gregory II is said to have attempted, around 721, a diplomatic move: sending a letter to Charles Martel, mayor of the palace of the Franks, inviting him to intervene militarily in Italy against the Lombards. Charles, then engaged in his wars against the Frisians and Saxons, is said not to have followed up.^[99]

The episode went unnoticed at the time. Yet it was prophetic. The same request, reformulated thirty-three years later by Pope Stephen II to Charles Martel’s son—Pepin the Short—would succeed in 754. Gregory II’s diplomacy thus inaugurated a trajectory: seeking temporal support outside Byzantium, in the Frankish Christendom, which Rome now needed.^[100][101]

The Abbey in Ruins Since the Late 6th Century

The abbey founded by Saint Benedict on Mount Cassino around 529 had been destroyed by the Lombards in the late 6th century (around 577-581). For nearly a century and a half, the site remained abandoned; the surviving monks had taken refuge at the Lateran in Rome, carrying with them the autograph Benedictine Rule entrusted to the papal curia. The patriarch’s tomb, however, remained at the summit of mons Casinus, guarded by a few hermits and local memory.^[102][103]

Petronax and the Pilgrimage of 717

In 717 or 718, a nobleman from Brescia named Petronax undertook a votive pilgrimage to the tomb of Saint Benedict. There, he encountered a few isolated hermits. Upon his return to Rome, he spoke of this to Gregory II. The pope, aware of the significance—restoring on-site the cradle of Western monasticism—encouraged Petronax to settle at Cassino with some monks from the Lateran. The Liber Pontificalis records the papal concern; Paul the Deacon, himself a monk of Monte Cassino half a century later, provides more details in the Historia Langobardorum VI.^[104][105]

Immediate Influence

Under Petronax’s leadership and with Rome’s constant support, the abbey quickly reformed. It became, in less than a generation, the great monastic center of Italy. In the following decades, it would welcome:

• Carloman, eldest son of Charles Martel, who abdicated his mayoralty of Austrasia in 747 to spend his final days as a monk at Cassino;
• Ratchis, deposed king of the Lombards in 749, who followed the same path;
• Paul the Deacon himself, who wrote the Historia Langobardorum there—one of the finest historical works of the early Middle Ages—and preserved the memory of the Lombards and Italy.^[106]

Without Gregory II’s decision in 717, these major monastic conversions and this historical memory would have been unthinkable. Renewed Monte Cassino would spiritually shape Carolingian Christendom, which Saint Boniface’s mission had already begun to evangelize. The two narratives are interconnected.

The Visit of Duke Theodon (716)

As early as 716, the Duke Theodon of Bavaria also undertook a pilgrimage to Rome. There he met Gregory II and requested instructions to organize the Bavarian Church under the authority of an archbishop. Gregory prepared regulations and outlined the foundations of an episcopal hierarchy, but Theodon died before implementation. The project was later resumed by Boniface and only completed under Pope Saint Zacharias in the 740s.^[107]

Saint Corbinian and Freising

In the same context is the episode of Saint Corbinian, a Frankish monk who came on pilgrimage to Rome. Gregory II encouraged him to evangelize Bavaria and, according to a contested but ancient tradition, compelled him to receive episcopal consecration at Freising around 724–726. Wikipedia, paraphrasing the old lives of Corbinian, speaks of a consecration imposed “against the saint’s resistance.”^[108]

The famous legend of the bear—Corbinian seeing his pack horse devoured by a bear and forcing the bear to carry his baggage to Rome—has become the spiritual emblem of Freising, adopted in the coat of arms of Benedict XVI, former Archbishop of Munich-Freising. Beyond folklore, the episode attests to a reality: Gregory II sent evangelizers as far as the Eastern Alps, awaiting Boniface’s own work there.^[109]

Composition and Authority

On April 5, 721, in the Vatican Basilica, Gregory II presided over a Roman synod gathering nineteen Italian bishops and three prelates from farther afield: Sindered of Toledo (Visigothic Spain), Sedulius of Britannia (Brittany or Wales), and Fergustus Pictus (a Pict from Scotland). This was one of the first times in a long while that a Roman council brought together bishops from Spain, Great Britain, and Scotland — evidence of the already international influence of the Roman See in the first half of the 8th century.^[110][111]

The Seventeen Canons

The council promulgated seventeen disciplinary canons, mainly devoted to regulating illicit marriages:

• Prohibition of marriage with widows of priests, deaconesses, and consecrated nuns.
• Prohibition of marriage with godmothers or godfathers — a ritual kinship that creates a canonical impediment.
• Prohibition of marriages within certain degrees of forbidden consanguinity.
• A nominal anathema pronounced against a certain Hadrian and a deaconess named Epiphania for unauthorized marriage — a public assertion of the pope’s canonical jurisdiction over matrimonial discipline.
• Condemnation of superstitious practices regarded as remnants of paganism (charms, spells).
• Clerical discipline (short hair for clerics, observance of the canonical hours).^[112][113]

The council is published in Mansi, Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, volume XII, columns 261–266; it is classically commented on by Hefele-Clark in A History of the Councils of the Church, 1896. It attests to a genuine Roman canonical authority already recognized in Western Europe in the first half of the 8th century.^[114]

Conversion of the Family Home into a Monastery

Upon the death of his mother, Honesta, Gregory II converted the paternal house into a monastery. The act was morally and symbolically significant: the pope transformed his private inheritance into a place of communal prayer. The Catholic Encyclopedia notes: “On the death of his mother, he converted his parental mansion into a monastery.”^[115]

Foundation of a Gero-comium near Saint Mary Major

The Liber Pontificalis also mentions Gregory II’s creation of a gerocomium — a house-hospice for the elderly — near Saint Mary Major (then known as ecclesia ad Praesepe):

“Instituit pariter gerocomium quod iuxta ecclesiam sanctae Dei genetricis ad Praesepe situm est.”
“He likewise established a hospice for the elderly, situated near the church of the Holy Mother of God ad Praesepe.”
— Liber Pontificalis, Vita Gregorii II^[116]

This is one of the earliest attestations of a geriatric social institution in Christian Rome.

Restoration of the Basilicas

Gregory II restored the roofs of the great Roman basilicas: Saint Paul Outside the Walls, Saint Lawrence Outside the Walls, and Holy Cross in Jerusalem. Treccani specifies: “Rinnovò i tetti di S. Paolo, di S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura e di S. Croce in Gerusalemme.” He also financed, by perpetual donation, the upkeep of the votive lamps burning around Saint Peter’s tomb.^[117][118]

The Thursday Mass during Lent

Liturgically, Gregory II left a lasting mark: he instituted the Thursday Mass of Lent. Thursday had remained until then without its own office during Lent; by endowing this day with a stational liturgy, the pope completed the provision of each day of the Lenten week with its celebration. Treccani sums up: “istituendo tra l'altro la messa del giovedì di Quaresima.”^[119]

Additions to the Gregorian Sacramentary

Several additions or revisions to the Gregorian Sacramentary are traditionally attributed to his pontificate. Liturgists — notably Cyrille Vogel in his Introduction aux sources de l'histoire du culte chrétien au Moyen Âge — have long debated the precise attribution, as some additions may date to Gregory III or later copyists. However, the Roman liturgical memory, as it appears from the 9th century onward, identifies Gregory II as a pope attentive to editing Roman liturgical books.^[120]

February 11, 731

Gregory II died on February 11, 731, in Rome, after fifteen years, eight months, and twenty-four days of pontificate — a reign almost twice as long as the average for popes of the 7th century. The Liber Pontificalis records the date precisely: “sub die XI mens. febr., indictione XIIII.”^[121]

Burial at Saint Peter's

He was buried in the Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican: “sepultus est in basilica beati Petri apostoli,” according to the Liber Pontificalis. With the reconstructions of the Vatican basilica under Julius II and his successors (16th–17th centuries), the exact location of the tomb has been lost. Yet the memory of Gregory II remains attached to Saint Peter’s, as with all the great popes of the early Middle Ages.^[122]

The Calculation of Ordinations

The end of the Vita Gregorii II gives, as for every pope, the statistics of ordinations conferred:

“Hic fecit ordinationes V, presbiteros XXXV, diaconos IIII, episcopos per diversa loca numero CXLVIIII. Et cessavit episcopatus dies XXXV.” “He made five ordinations: 35 priests, 4 deacons, and 149 bishops for various places. And the see remained vacant for 35 days.” — Liber Pontificalis, Vita Gregorii II^[123]

The figure of 149 bishops consecrated — including for the emerging Germanic Christianities — is a quantitative measure of the reach of his pontificate.

Cult and Liturgical Memory

Gregory II has been honored as a saint since the 8th century, by immemorial cult. He is listed in the Roman Martyrology (typical edition 2004) on February 11; the former Martyrology commemorated him on February 13 — the probable day of the deposition of his body at the Vatican, according to Butler.^{[124][125][126]} His figure never received great popular hagiographic development — overshadowed by Gregory the Great, his distant predecessor; by Saint Boniface, his protégé; and by Leo III, his iconoclastic adversary — but he has remained constantly present in the canonical memory of the Roman Church.^[127]

The Pope Who Distinguishes Civil Obedience from Dogmatic Obedience

Gregory II offers contemporary Catholic conscience a precise model: he does not rebel in principle against civil authority; he carefully distinguishes what falls under temporal jurisdiction (taxes, public order, political loyalty) from what belongs to the faith received from the apostles (dogmas, sacraments, holy images). Where the emperor oversteps, he says no. Where the emperor remains within his domain, he maintains obedience, even dating his letters according to the reign of the basileus.^[128][129]

This stance — non-revolutionary but inflexible on the creed — is exactly what Vatican II recalled in Dignitatis humanae: the Church is neither seditious nor servile; it distinguishes orders but refuses any confusion that would make the prince a pontiff.

The Pope Who Defends Images Against Iconoclasm

Byzantine iconoclasm is not dead. In other forms — destruction of religious artworks during the Calvinist Reformation of the 16th century, modern deconstructions, contemporary ideological iconoclasm — the temptation is always to remove from the human flesh its capacity to be a place of epiphany of the divine. Gregory II permanently formulated the Catholic position: the image is not the saint, but it leads to him; it is not adored, but venerated because of the prototype.^[130][131]

This is exactly the doctrine that Nicaea II (787) would reprise fifty-six years after him, and which would be confirmed again at the Council of Trent (1545–1563, session XXV) against Protestant iconoclasts. Gregory II is, on this precise point, a precursor of the Catholic sacramentality of flesh and matter.

The Missionary Pope Who Speaks to the Nations

Finally, Gregory II is the pope who does not wait for nations to come to Rome: he sends his best servants to them. Boniface was not a mere wandering monk — he was a mandated bishop, endowed with jurisdiction, financed, recommended, and accompanied by letters. At a time when the Church rediscovers the missionary urgency for the post-Christian peoples of Europe, the pontifical model of Gregory II remains highly relevant: no serious evangelization without explicit sending, without communion with Peter, without organized material and juridical support.^[132][133]

Gregory II does not receive, in popular Catholic memory, the same prominence as Gregory the Great or Saint Leo the Great. Yet, his pontificate marks a turning point comparable in significance to that of Leo the Great (440-461) or Gregory the Great (590-604).

Before Gregory II, Rome was still legally a Byzantine city; after him, it became, without solemn declaration, the independent spiritual capital of Christian Occident. Before Gregory II, the evangelization of Germania was scattered, fragmentary, and lacked Roman coordination; after him, it was organized from Peter. Before Gregory II, iconoclasm threatened to fragment the universal Church; after him, the Catholic line was established, and the Second Council of Nicaea would only solemnize it.

The Liber Pontificalis had already intuited this at the time of writing his notice: “defensor ecclesiasticarum rerum” — defender of ecclesiastical matters. Three words that summarize, better than any modern commentary, what a Catholic pope is called to be when the empire falters and the apostles remain.^[134]

• Pope Constantine (708-715) — immediate predecessor; embassy to Constantinople 710-711 in which Gregory participated.
• Pope Saint Gregory III (731-741) — immediate successor; continued resistance to iconoclasm and the Germanic mission.
• Saint Boniface, Apostle of the Germans — consecrated bishop by Gregory II on November 30, 722.
• The Abbey of Monte Cassino — restored under Gregory II by Petronax in 717-718.
• Second Council of Nicaea (787) — solemnly affirmed against iconoclasm the doctrine defended by Gregory II.
• The Iconoclast Controversy and Byzantine Iconoclasm.
• The Papal States — distant origin in the Donation of Sutri.
• Pope Saint Leo III (795-816) — crowned Charlemagne on Christmas Day 800, the culmination of the trajectory begun by Gregory II.