Pope Saint Gregory III (731–741)

A Syrian in Cosmopolitan 8th-Century Rome

Gregory III belongs to a long line of Eastern popes of the 7th and 8th centuries. Before him, Theodore I, John V, Sergius I, Sisinnius, and Constantine already had Eastern or Sicilian roots; after him, Zachary would be Greek.^[16] His immediate predecessor, Gregory II, is not among them: born in Rome in 669, he came from a noble Roman family.^[17] This presence is no coincidence: since the Persian invasions of the early 7th century, then the Muslim conquests in Syria (636–637), Palestine, Egypt, and North Africa, entire Christian communities took refuge in Rome.^[18] The city maintained Eastern monasteries, Greek-speaking communities, and a liturgy where Greek and Latin still coexisted.

The Liber Pontificalis names his father as John (Ioannes)—a name that says nothing more than it says: a Syrian Christian among others, with no attested link to an aristocratic family.^[19] Gregory III's date of birth is unknown^[20][21]: it is therefore in a Syria already under Umayyad rule that his childhood must be placed. If his family indeed belonged to this diaspora, as Delogu considers likely, he would be a child of that diaspora: a Syrian who knew only Umayyad Syria, no longer the Byzantine Syria of his grandparents.^[22]

The Last Pope to Await Byzantine Confirmation

After his popular election, Gregory III waits over a month before being consecrated. The Liber Pontificalis says nothing of any confirmation by the exarch in its entry (Duchesne, vol. I, pp. 415–421), and Treccani does not mention it: it is the Catholic Encyclopedia that infers from the delay that "it is presumed" he awaited confirmation from the Byzantine exarch of Ravenna, Eutychius.^[23] Only the New Catholic Encyclopedia states that he was the last pope to have sought this imperial confirmation.^[24] His successors—Zachary, Stephen II, Paul I—would no longer wait.

This final confirmation was not an empty ceremony. It signals what is changing: Gregory III governs at the exact moment Rome is shifting. He is still officially Byzantine. But by the end of his pontificate, he has written twice to Charles Martel seeking Frankish help, in terms that can no longer be confused with a letter to an imperial official. The papacy's geopolitical axis pivots beneath his feet, and he initiates the movement.

The Man of the 731 Synod

A third reason makes Gregory III a major pope: he is the one who gives a canonical answer to the Byzantine iconoclastic crisis. Gregory II had already resisted by sending two dogmatic letters to Leo III the Isaurian—whose authenticity is disputed by part of modern scholarship (see the companion article).^[25] Gregory III goes further: he convenes a synod at Saint Peter's on 1 November 731 and has inscribed in a formula of excommunication those guilty toward sacred images of deposition, destruction, profanation, or blasphemy—according to the only surviving witness of the formula, the Liber Pontificalis (Duchesne, vol. I, p. 416).^[26][27]

This decision precedes by more than half a century the Second Council of Nicaea (787), which would dogmatically define the veneration of images against Byzantine iconoclasm. Without Gregory III, the Roman position would have remained a series of papal letters. With him, it becomes a synodal canonical act.^[28]

From Umayyad Syria to Christian Rome

The Syria where Gregory III was most likely born—his exact date of birth is unknown—was no longer classical Christian Syria. Since the Arab conquest of 636–637, it lived under the Umayyad caliphate, whose capital was Damascus. The Melkite patriarchates of Antioch and Jerusalem survived, but under Muslim rule, subject to the dhimma and gradually cut off from Constantinople. Many Christian families chose to emigrate to Byzantium, to still-Byzantine Sicily, or to Rome.^[29][30]

The Liber Pontificalis tells nothing of his childhood. But Paolo Delogu, in the reference entry of the Enciclopedia dei Papi Treccani, considers it likely that Gregory III's family belonged to this Eastern Christian diaspora.^[31] The hypothesis is plausible but not certain: the article should not turn a historical likelihood into a fixed biography. What is certain is more modest, and more important: Rome welcomed, at the start of the 8th century, a Syrian cleric sufficiently educated to become a cardinal-priest, and sufficiently respected to be acclaimed pope by the Roman people upon his predecessor's death.

Cardinal-Priest of San Crisogono

The Liber Pontificalis says only of him that he "pervenit ad sacrum ordinem presbiterati"—that he attained the holy order of the priesthood.^[32] The hypothesis of a cardinalatial title at San Crisogono comes from Duchesne (vol. I, p. 421, n. 2), and Delogu takes it up with a "forse": Gregory would "probably" have received priestly ordination in Rome, "perhaps" with the title of San Crisogono, one of the ancient titular churches of Trastevere, dedicated to the Aquileian martyr Saint Chrysogonus.^[33] Neither the date nor the author of a possible cardinalatial creation is thus attested. Trastevere was then a popular and cosmopolitan district: sailors, merchants, and Eastern communities lived side by side—a pastoral post, not an honorary seat, if the hypothesis is correct. He then appears as the man of continuity with Gregory II (715–731).

The continuity with his predecessor was such that he would maintain the same policies on all major issues: resistance to iconoclasm, support for the Anglo-Saxon mission, defense of Rome against the Lombards, attention to papal patrimonies. Gregory III was not a servile disciple of Gregory II; he was a conscious heir, chosen by acclamation because Rome wanted precisely this continuity.

The Portrait in the Liber Pontificalis

The Liber Pontificalis opens the entry with the usual formula, then follows with an extensive moral and intellectual portrait—of which Duchesne notes that it is copied almost word for word from the entry on Leo II, itself borrowed from Gennadius (vol. I, p. 421, n. 1): an encomium largely formulaic, to be read with this caveat.

"Gregory, a Syrian by nation, son of John, sat ten years, eight months, and twenty-four days." — Liber Pontificalis, entry for Gregory III^[34]

The praise that follows lists gentleness and wisdom, knowledge of the Scriptures, memory of the psalms, Greek-Latin bilingualism, defense of orthodox faith, love of poverty, ransoming of captives, generous gifts to orphans and widows.^[35] One may nevertheless hear in it an echo of the pontificate's major issues: scriptural knowledge underpins the defense of images; bilingualism makes it possible to read Byzantine edicts and draft responses; love of poverty is seen in the restoration of Roman diaconies; the link with monks is evident in the German mission and the saints' oratory.

"A most gentle and most wise man, solidly instructed in the divine Scriptures, learned in Greek and Latin, retaining all the psalms in order by heart, a zealous and most firm defender of the orthodox faith, [...] a friend of poverty, [...] a redeemer of captives, giving generously to orphans and widows what they need." — Liber Pontificalis, moral portrait of Gregory III (translated from the Latin; omissions marked by [...])^[36]

Popular Acclamation During the Funeral Procession

Gregory II died on 11 February 731. The Liber Pontificalis recounts what follows without transition: while the clergy carried the body of the deceased pope in procession to Saint Peter's, the Roman people spontaneously acclaimed Gregory the Syrian as the new pope.^[37][38] The acclamation was unanimous. No rival candidate appears in the sources.

This swift election was not a coup. It was the expression of recognized continuity: Gregory was known to the Roman people, clergy, and monks. He bore the same name—a coincidence recalling Saint Gregory the Great (590–604), the tutelary figure of the Roman papacy. He represented stability at a time when the city needed it: iconoclastic crisis in Constantinople, Lombard pressure to the north, Byzantine unrest in central Italy.

Waiting for Ravenna

According to the law in force since the late 7th century, a newly elected pope could not be consecrated without confirmation from the Byzantine exarch of Ravenna, the emperor's representative in Italy—then Eutychius (727–751).^[39] The Liber Pontificalis yet mentions no intervention by Eutychius in its entry (Duchesne, vol. I, pp. 415–421), and Treccani does not speak of it. The Catholic Encyclopedia writes only that "it is presumed" Gregory III awaited this confirmation—an inference drawn from the month-long delay between acclamation and consecration.^[40] Only the New Catholic Encyclopedia states that he was the last pope to seek it.^[41]

The Consecration of 18 March 731

The episcopal consecration took place on 18 March 731, more than a month after the acclamation. Gregory III was probably consecrated by the bishops of Ostia, Porto, and Albano, according to the practice established since the 7th century. For the length of the pontificate, two counts coexist: the Liber Pontificalis attributes to him 10 years, 8 months, and 24 days—its own count—while the usual dates (consecration on 18 March 731, death on 28 November 741) give 10 years, 8 months, and 10 days. The very date of death is debated: Duchesne retains 10 December 741 (vol. I, p. CCLVIII), and the Catholic Encyclopedia gives it as uncertain.^[42][43][44]

A Defensive Council After the Iconoclastic Edict

Emperor Leo III the Isaurian (717–741) issued his iconoclastic edict around 730, ordering the destruction or removal of icons in churches and public buildings of the Empire.^[45] Opposition was fierce even in the East: Patriarch Germanus of Constantinople resigned, and the monk and theologian Saint John Damascene wrote his three Discourses on Images from Mar Saba, true theological summations in favor of veneration. In Rome, Gregory II responded with two dogmatic letters sent to Constantinople—whose authenticity is disputed by part of modern scholarship (see the companion article).^[46]

Gregory III inherited the issue upon his election. He sent to Constantinople a first letter of remonstrance, carried by the priest George; but George, out of fear, failed to deliver it and returned to Rome to confess. Upon George's return, a first Roman assembly examined his case: the synod's clergy dissuaded the pope from degrading the priest, who got off with a penance before being sent back to Constantinople. Sent back with new letters, he was arrested in Sicily: his letters were detained there and he himself was exiled for nearly a year.^[47][48] It is this first disciplinary synod that explains the Catholic Encyclopedia's count—"two synods in Rome (731)"^[49]: it precedes the great doctrinal synod of 1 November. The diplomatic channel was broken. Gregory III drew the consequences: he convened a general synod at Saint Peter's, to respond canonically, outside any dialogue with the iconoclastic emperor.

The 93 Bishops and Their Signatures

The synod met on 1 November 731 in the Vatican basilica of Saint Peter. The Liber Pontificalis gives the figure of 93 bishops—with a manuscript variant ("XCIII om. ACE") omitting it, a figure taken up by Delogu—accompanied by the Roman clergy, Roman nobility, Patriarch Antoninus of Grado, and Archbishop John of Ravenna.^[50][51] The presence of Grado and Ravenna is significant: it shows that Byzantine Italy itself sided with Rome against the imperial edict. This was a major political signal.

The acts of the synod are lost, as Duchesne writes (vol. I, p. 422, n. 6). Mansi gives what can be reconstructed of them in the Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, vol. XII, col. 299–302.^[52] The centerpiece, known through the sole witness of the Liber Pontificalis, is the formula of excommunication directed against those who attack sacred images.

The Canonical Formula of Excommunication

The sole witness of the formula is the Liber Pontificalis (Duchesne, vol. I, p. 416):

"…beatorum apostolorum et omnium sanctorum depositor atque destructor et profanator vel blasphemus extiterit, sit extorris a corpore et sanguine domini nostri Iesu Christi vel totius ecclesiae unitate atque conpage." — Liber Pontificalis, entry on Gregory III^[53]

That is: whoever shall have been guilty of deposition, destruction, profanation, or blasphemy toward the [images of the] blessed apostles and of all the saints, let him be cast out from the body and blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, as well as from the unity and fabric of the whole Church. The acts of the synod being lost, there is no other text: the formula targets, in four verbs—deposition, destruction, profanation, blasphemy—the images of Christ, the Virgin, the apostles, and of all the saints, with no expanded list of prophets, martyrs, and confessors.

The significance of the text is seen in three points. First, it targets the images of the apostles and of all the saints. Next, it pronounces an excommunication: cutting off from the body and blood of Christ and from the unity of the whole Church. Finally, it does not name the emperor, but does not spare him: any iconoclast who attacks images, even by imperial order, falls under the formula.

Why This Decision Is Doctrinally Decisive

The 731 synod does not dogmatically define the veneration of images; that definition would come with the Second Council of Nicaea (787), convened by Empress Irene and confirmed by Pope Adrian I. But the 731 synod does something Nicaea presupposes: it canonically establishes, nearly sixty years earlier, that the destruction of sacred images is an act that excludes one from the Church's communion.^[54]

Treccani highlights the legal novelty:

"For the first time, it seems, the orthodoxy and antiquity of the veneration of images of Christ, the Virgin, all the apostles and saints, is sanctioned canonically." — Paolo Delogu, GREGORIO III, santo, in Enciclopedia dei Papi, Treccani, 2000^[55]

Theologically, this decision presupposes a clear understanding of the distinction between adoration (latria) reserved for God alone, and veneration (proskynesis in Greek, dulia or veneratio in Latin) which may be given to saints and their images, because of the person represented. This distinction would be made explicit by John Damascene, then canonized by Nicaea II. Gregory III's synod is its anticipated canonical application.

The 732 Assembly for the Saints' Oratory

Another assembly, less well documented, was held in 732: the inscription commemorating it has lost its month ("mense… indictione XV"), and Duchesne places the dedication of the oratory within the first eight months of 732 (vol. I, p. 423, n. 13)—the precise date of 12 April can therefore not be retained. Marble plaques publicly displayed at Saint Peter's—an almost unique occurrence for early medieval Rome—preserve its memory.^[56] This second synod regulated the prayers and Masses to be celebrated in the new saints' oratory that Gregory III had built in Saint Peter's: an oratory dedicated, according to its 732 inscription, to the Savior, the Mother of God, the apostles, the martyrs, the confessors, and all the just (Duchesne, vol. I, pp. 422–423, n. 13).

Duchesne judges the link between this oratory and the iconoclastic crisis "quite probable," while noting that there is no mention of images, either in the synod or in the Liber Pontificalis (vol. I, p. 423, n. 14): the oratory may thus be read as the architectural and liturgical translation of the doctrinal synod—a probable interpretation, not an established fact.

The Embassy Intercepted in Sicily

The diplomatic path remained closed after the synod: the defensor Constantine, sent to carry the synodal decrees to Constantinople, was detained for nearly a year, and petitions from Italy were seized by Sergius, patrician and strategos of Sicily.^[57] Sicily remained under direct imperial control; the exarch of Ravenna had no authority over the island. Leo III isolated Rome by cutting off its lines of communication.

The Byzantine Fleet Lost in the Adriatic

The emperor went further: he armed a fleet tasked with subduing Italy—probably at the end of 732, under the strategos Manes—but it was destroyed by a storm in the Adriatic before reaching its goal. This is Theophanes' account: the Liber Pontificalis mentions no fleet (Duchesne, vol. I, n. 10).^[58] Roman tradition saw this as a sign of Providence; the material failure nonetheless speaks of an aggressive imperial policy, which failed by accident without abandoning its objectives.

Confiscation of the Sicilian and Calabrian Patrimonies

Deprived of military victory, Leo III struck the Roman Church financially. He confiscated the papal patrimonies of Sicily and Calabria, representing an annual income estimated at 350 pounds of gold—a figure Treccani draws from Theophanes, who also notes another possible reading (a revenue tax roughly double).^[59] These were the very revenues that fed the Roman diaconies, maintained the basilicas, paid the workers of the Lateran and Vatican, and financed public charity for the poor and pilgrims.

The blow was harsh, and the measure produced its effects: the Sicilian and Calabrian patrimonies would never again come under the direct administration of the Holy See.

Detachment of Illyricum, Calabria, and Sicily

Leo III added a jurisdictional blow. Around 732–733, he detached from the patriarchal authority of Rome three major territories: Eastern Illyricum (mainland Greece, Macedonia, Crete), Calabria, and Sicily. These areas were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople.^[60][61]

The consequence was long-lasting. For centuries, these regions would remain partly under Greek ecclesiastical influence; Byzantine rites would persist; and Rome would lose a missionary and liturgical presence it would only recover much later. This detachment, even more than the economic confiscation, pushed Rome to seek political support elsewhere. It is one of the underlying factors explaining the letters to Charles Martel.

A Jurisdictional Break with Lasting Effects

The whole reveals a coherent imperial policy: to break Roman authority economically, jurisdictionally, and militarily. Gregory III gave way on no doctrinal point. But he understood that Rome now had to prepare a different political architecture.

Elevation to the Archiepiscopate in 732

While the iconoclastic crisis raged, Gregory III did not neglect the mission. The Anglo-Saxon monk Wynfreth, renamed Boniface by decree of Gregory II in 719, had been evangelizing Hesse, Thuringia, and Frisia for over ten years. He had already felled Thor's sacred tree at Geismar and founded several monasteries. In 732, he informed the pope of his successes.

Gregory III replied in 732 with a now-famous letter—letter no. 28 of Tangl's edition of Boniface's Epistolae, dated to that year alone (1 December being the date of Gregory II's letters in 722, not of this one)—a letter in which the pope sent him the pallium—the white woolen band worn on the shoulders, insignia of archbishops—and elevated him to archiepiscopal dignity.^[62] The text specifies the strict use of the pallium: it could only be worn during the celebration of Mass and when consecrating bishops. The faithful English translation:

"Therefore we have sent you the sacred pallium as a gift, desiring by the authority of the Apostolic See that you accept and wear it; and our will is that you be recognized as one of the archbishops instituted by God. How to use it, you will learn from the instructions of the Apostolic See: namely, you shall wear it only during the celebration of Mass and when, in the exercise of your episcopal office, you consecrate a bishop." — Gregory III, letter to Boniface, 732, ep. 28 (ed. Tangl)^[63]

The canonical significance is considerable. By making Boniface an archbishop without a fixed see, Gregory III effectively created a mobile missionary structure, directly attached to the Holy See, autonomous from local Frankish bishops. There were precedents—Augustine of Canterbury (601), Willibrord (695, with the pallium)—but the formula of a missionary archbishop without a fixed see gave the Germanic mission its lasting framework.

Apostolic Legate in Germany (737–738)

In 737, Boniface made his third journey to Rome.^[64] Gregory III went further than the pallium: he appointed him apostolic legate in Germany—his personal representative, charged with acting in the pope's name—and entrusted him with reorganizing the episcopal sees of Bavaria, Hesse, and Thuringia.

This Roman stay strengthened the direct bond between Boniface and the Apostolic See, before later diplomatic contacts between Rome and the Carolingian dynasty. Delogu further suggests, with a "probably," that Boniface may have informed the pope of Charles Martel's interest in the missions—a plausible hypothesis, not an established certainty.^[65]

The Three Letters of 738

Upon his return, Gregory III gave Boniface letters for Germany: one to the dukes and people of Germany ordering them to obey Boniface as a papal envoy; one to the bishops of Alemannia and Bavaria confirming his status as apostolic vicar and instructing them to hold two synods a year—whether near the Danube, or at Augsburg, or elsewhere—under Boniface's authority; then, on 29 October 739, after the reorganization of 739, a letter to Boniface himself specifying the canonical rules applicable to the Bavarian dioceses.^[66] Gregory III personally consecrated at Rome Vivilo, the first bishop of Passau—"Nam Vivilo episcopus a nobis est ordinatus," with no date specified: neither "that same year" nor a Bavarian structure as early as 738 can therefore be asserted.^[67]

The episode is doctrinally important: Bavaria was not a wholly new Christian territory, but a land already partly evangelized by Irish and Frankish missionaries. Gregory III imposed a stable Roman canonical structure, ending the dispersion of jurisdictions and competition among bishoprics.

The Prohibition of Horse Meat

That same letter 28 contains a practical decision that has gone down in history. Gregory III forbade German Christians to eat horse meat, which he called "inmundum enim est atque exsecrabile" ("unclean and execrable").^[68]

This was not a whim. The ritual consumption of horse meat was associated with the pagan sacrificial feasts of the Germanic peoples, especially the cult of Odin (Wotan). By forbidding it, Gregory III protected the young Christian communities from a regression into paganism, breaking a culturally and symbolically charged custom.

Saint Willibald and Missionary Expansion

At Gregory III's command, the monk and great traveler Saint Willibald went to assist Boniface in his labors, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia.^[69]

England: Tatwine, Egbert of York, Nothelm

Gregory III did not neglect England, Christianized since Gregory the Great. Tatwine and then Nothelm of Canterbury successively received the pallium from him (731 and 736), according to the Catholic Encyclopedia.^[70] He also granted the pallium to Egbert of York—in 735 according to Bede's continuators—merely following the provisions of Gregory the Great, who had envisioned metropolitan rights for York in the North as for Canterbury in the South.^[71][72]

Thus, 8th-century Catholic England was, for the first time, equipped with a full double archiepiscopacy (Canterbury and York), a structure that would survive the Norman conquest and shape the English ecclesiastical geography until the Reformation.

The Lombard War and the Defense of Rome

The Lombard king Liutprand (712–744) was an ambitious ruler, at times a protector of Roman interests, at times an adversary. His Italian policy was to gradually unify the peninsula under Lombard authority, nibbling away at Byzantine territories. The main source is Paul the Deacon, Historia Langobardorum, book VI.^[73]

Around 737–738, Liutprand attacked the Exarchate of Ravenna, briefly taking the city. Patriarch Antoninus of Grado called for help: the Venetian fleet, mobilized at the pope's request, retook Ravenna. The episode shows that Gregory III intervened in the defense of Byzantine Italy, even while in jurisdictional conflict with Constantinople over iconoclasm. The logic is clear: Rome defended Christian Italy against Lombard domination, regardless of its disagreements with the emperor over images.

The Capture of the Four Fortresses (Amelia, Orte, Bomarzo, Blera)

In 739, the Lombard duke of Spoleto Transamund II rebelled against his king and took refuge in Rome. Liutprand demanded his surrender; Gregory III refused, together with Stephen, duke of Rome. Liutprand then besieged Rome and ravaged its surroundings. Unable to break the resistance, he lifted the siege in August 739—but, on his way back to his kingdom, he occupied the four fortresses of Amelia, Orte, Bomarzo (ancient Polimartium), and Blera, which controlled Rome's link with northern Italy, and left Lombard garrisons there.^[74][75]

The threat was both military and symbolic. Liutprand isolated Rome from Ravenna. Supplies became difficult. The city, which no longer had a worthy imperial army, was forced to defend its own walls.

The Purchase of Gallese from Transamund II

Earlier that year, Gregory III had achieved a diplomatic success: Transamund having seized the castle of Gallese (in Tuscia), on the borders of the Roman duchy, the pope persuaded him that this act harmed not only the Empire but the pope himself, and bought back the castle for money. Once obtained, he incorporated it anew into the "holy republic"—that is, into the Romano-Byzantine Empire—assigning it concretely to the army of Rome, which could own property as a juridical person.^[76] Gallese controlled the Via Amerina, a vital axis between Rome and Ravenna.

Delogu sees in this an institutional novelty: without attributing to the Roman Church the jurisdictional rights of the Empire, the pope gives a state institution such as the army original powers, accentuating its civic character and its projection into the regional territory.^[77]

The Aurelian Walls and Centumcellae

Gregory III did not stop at diplomatic strategy. He restored the Aurelian Walls of Rome, the enclosure built by Emperor Aurelian in the 3rd century, which still forms the city's historic perimeter today. He refortified Centumcellae (Civitavecchia), a strategic port on the Tyrrhenian coast, ensuring Rome's maritime supply against Saracen raids.^[78][79]

These works were largely financed from the Roman Church's own resources—already diminished by Byzantine confiscations. They manifested a new reality: the pope was becoming, in fact, the civic defender of Rome. He paid for the walls, negotiated with the Lombards, and sought outside help. The temporal power of the papacy was born of these concrete necessities, long before it was theorized.

The First Embassy and the Keys of Saint Peter

In mid-739, during Liutprand's siege of Rome, Gregory III made a momentous decision in papal history: he sent an embassy to Charles Martel, mayor of the palace of Neustria-Austrasia, victor over the Saracens at Poitiers (732), strongman of the Frankish kingdom. The embassy carried gifts of exceptional symbolic weight: the keys of Saint Peter's tomb and links from the apostle's chains, major relics of Roman Christianity—the actual letters of this embassy of the keys are lost (Duchesne, vol. I, n. 34).^[80][81]

These are the first preserved letters by which a pope requests military intervention from the Franks: Schaff recalls that Gregory III merely "renewed the negotiations with the Franks, begun by his predecessor."^[82] The act is politically significant: the pope addresses a prince outside the Byzantine Empire, calling him "subregulus" ("under-king")—the very address of the letter, and the title the Catholic Encyclopedia takes up to designate Charles ("viceroy (subregulus)")—to ask him to act as defender of the Holy See.^[83][84] The request thus crossed the mental boundary between the Byzantine world (to which Rome still officially belonged) and the Frankish world (which was gradually becoming its new ally).

The Frankish Context: Poitiers and the Umayyad Invasion

To understand Charles Martel's response, one must recall his context. In 732, Charles had won a decisive victory at Poitiers against the Umayyad forces of the wali of al-Andalus, Abd el-Rahman. The Muslim threat remained strong in southern Gaul. Charles was militarily occupied in Provence and Septimania between 736 and 739, fighting Saracen incursions. Charles also had alliances with the Lombards. Liutprand had helped him against the Saracens by sending Lombard troops to Gaul. The Lombard dynasty was familiar with the Frankish court; a son of Charles was even received by Liutprand. Asking Charles to fight Liutprand meant asking him to break a useful alliance against a common enemy.

Charles Martel's Refusal

Charles Martel received the papal embassy cordially, kept the relics, but refused military intervention: allied with Liutprand, with whom he had collaborated in several military enterprises, he could not open a second front.^[85][86] He nevertheless sent two Frankish abbots to Rome with gifts for Saint Peter—implicit support and a diplomatic sign—and probably asked Liutprand for explanations.^[87]

Charles's refusal was neither a betrayal nor disrespect. It was a realistic political calculation: in 739, he could not simultaneously wage war against the Saracens and the Lombards. But he accepted the relics. He received the embassy. He replied. The door was open.

The Second Letter (740): "The Church of Saint Peter Has Been Despoiled"

In 740 according to Delogu—the Fordham page reproducing the Thatcher-McNeal translation presents this letter under 739—Liutprand resumed his attacks and Gregory III wrote a second letter to Charles Martel (Codex epistolaris Carolinus, no. 2). The tone was more urgent:

"In our great affliction, we have judged it necessary to write to you a second time, persuaded that you are a loving son of Saint Peter, prince of the apostles, and of ourselves, and that, out of respect for him, you will obey our orders to defend the Church of God and his chosen people." — Gregory III, second letter to Charles Martel, Codex epistolaris Carolinus no. 2 (trans. Thatcher-McNeal, 1905)^[88][89]

The rest of the letter is even harsher:

"We can no longer bear the persecution of the Lombards, for they have taken from Saint Peter all his possessions, even those which were given him by you and your fathers. These Lombards hate and oppress us, because we have sought protection from you; for the same reason also the church of Saint Peter is despoiled and desolated by them." — Gregory III, second letter to Charles Martel, Codex epistolaris Carolinus no. 2 (trans. Thatcher-McNeal, 1905)^[90][91]

The rhetoric mobilizes three levers: the Frank's filial affection for Saint Peter, the concrete dispossession of the apostle's possessions, and the solemn opening of a request for defense. This letter, preserved in the unique 9th-century manuscript of the Codex Carolinus (Vienna, Austrian National Library, Cod. 449), would remain one of the founding documents of papal diplomacy.

The Distant Birth of the Papal States

Charles Martel, Leo III, and Gregory III all three died in 741. Within a few months, the three major actors of the decade disappeared. But the movement begun by Gregory III would find its fulfillment with his successors: Zachary would recognize Pepin the Short as king of the Franks in 751; Stephen II would go in person to France and receive the Donation of Pepin in 754, laying the legal foundations of the Papal States; Adrian I would seal the alliance with Charlemagne, who would be crowned emperor in 800 by Leo III—another pope, but the same axis.

Delogu judges "unlikely" the report of a few 8th-century Frankish chronicles, according to which Gregory III planned to free himself from the sovereignty of the Byzantine Empire by offering Charles Martel temporal lordship over Rome.^[92] But the political shift is historic. With Gregory III, the papacy began to look westward and to see itself as the civic authority of Rome, in fact.

The Saints' Oratory at Saint Peter's

Gregory III's most symbolically charged architectural project was the saints' oratory he built in Saint Peter's in the Vatican. This oratory was dedicated, according to its 732 inscription, to the Savior, the Mother of God, the apostles, the martyrs, the confessors, and all the just (Duchesne, vol. I, pp. 422–423, n. 13); the Liber Pontificalis associates with it relics of apostles, martyrs, confessors, and of all the just who have attained rest throughout the earth.^[93] Duchesne judges the link of this foundation with the iconoclastic crisis "quite probable"—Treccani likewise sees in it, with a "probably," a kind of sanctuary of the cult of the saints opposed to imperial impiety—while noting that there is no mention of images, either in the synod or in the Liber Pontificalis (vol. I, p. 423, n. 14), and Dell'Acqua and Gantner refuse to see in it exclusively a reaction to iconoclasm: the link is thus a probable interpretation, not an established fact.^[94][95]

The oratory became the pope's own burial place, according to several later witnesses (see below). This burial is doctrinally significant: Gregory III rests among the relics of the saints he defended against iconoclasm.

The Pergula of Eutychius

The Byzantine exarch Eutychius of Ravenna offered the pope six twisted onyx columns, which Gregory III placed before the confession of Saint Peter—"erga presbiterium, ante confessionem, tres a dextris et tres a sinistris, iuxta alias antiquas sex": three on the right and three on the left, beside six other ancient columns (Liber Pontificalis, Duchesne, vol. I, p. 417; n. 11).^[96] The exarch's gesture was important: despite the iconoclastic crisis with Constantinople, Eutychius personally supported the pope.

The saints' oratory, near the triumphal arch, had its own pergula (p. 417; nn. 12 and 15): Eutychius's six columns therefore did not separate the oratory from the nave.

The reference monographic study is the article by Francesca Dell'Acqua and Clemens Gantner, The pergula of Pope Gregory III (731–741) in the Basilica of Saint Peter. Rome and Ravenna at the Onset of the Image Controversy, published in the Römisches Jahrbuch der Bibliotheca Hertziana, vol. 48 (2025), p. 7 and following.^[97]

San Crisogono, Saints Marcellinus and Peter, the Pantheon

Beyond Saint Peter's, Gregory III restored or embellished several Roman basilicas, including San Crisogono in Trastevere—his putative presbyteral title, two groups of whose paintings (Saints Agapitus, Felicissimus, and Sixtus II) have been attributed to his restoration—the Saints Marcellinus and Peter near the Lateran, which he rebuilt from the foundations, and the Pantheon (Santa Maria ad Martyres), whose roof he restored.^[98][99] At Santa Maria Maggiore (Santa Maria ad Praesepe), he redid the roof and embellished the choir.

The detailed inventory in the Liber Pontificalis also mentions candelabra, sacred vessels of gold and silver, processional crosses, liturgical fabrics. The density of these gifts is exceptional for the period—the Roman Church thus recovered, within Rome, what the Byzantine Empire had confiscated from it in Sicily and Calabria.

The Diaconies and Monasteries

Gregory III enlarged the diaconia of Santa Maria in Aquiro, a hospice for pilgrims and the poor in the heart of Rome, and rebuilt the hospice of Saints Sergius and Bacchus.^[100] He entrusted the night and day office at Saint Peter's to three monasteries established beside the basilica of the apostle—Saints John and Paul, Saint Stephen the Greater, Saint Martin ("qui secus basilicam apostoli sunt constituta," 732 inscription, Duchesne, n. 13): they served Saint Peter's and its oratory, not all the great basilicas.^[101] The Lateran (Holy Savior) was entrusted to the restored monastery of Saint John and Saint Pancras, "iuxta instar officiorum ecclesie beati Petri"—on the model of the offices of the church of blessed Peter, which therefore already existed (Liber Pontificalis, Duchesne, vol. I, p. 419)—and San Crisogono received its own monastery (p. 418); Saint Paul's is a matter of an inscription (Duchesne, additions).^[102][103]

All Saints' Day in Germ

The question of Gregory III's role in the institution of All Saints' Day on 1 November is disputed among historians.

On one side, the Catholic Encyclopedia's "All Saints' Day" article (Mershman) states that Gregory III consecrated a chapel in Saint Peter's to all the saints and fixed its anniversary on 1 November, and that Gregory IV (827–844) then extended this celebration to the whole Church—Mann's entry on Gregory III himself says nothing of All Saints' Day or of the synod's canon.^[104][105]

On the other, De Rossi and Duchesne (vol. I, p. 423, n. 14) dispute this Roman filiation, and the All Saints article shows that the 1 November feast is attested in the British Isles around 800 (Alcuin's letter) before being extended to the whole Frankish Empire by Emperor Louis the Pious in 835, at Pope Gregory IV's request and with his bishops' agreement (Adon of Vienne's martyrology)—Rome itself subsequently adopting the Frankish date.

What is certain: Gregory III founded at Saint Peter's an oratory where all the saints are honored, with its own liturgy—the Liber Pontificalis gives its formula (Duchesne, vol. I, p. 417): "Quorum solemnitas hodie in conspectu tue maiestatis celebratur, domine Deus noster, toto in orbe terrarum"—valid for that oratory alone. Whether the Roman 1 November goes back to him remains a disputed question.^[106][107]

28 November 741: A Pontificate Closed Before the Frankish Break

Gregory III died in Rome in 741—on 28 November according to the traditionally accepted date (Duchesne retains 10 December 741, vol. I, p. CCLVIII; the Catholic Encyclopedia gives the date as uncertain)—after a pontificate of about ten years and eight months.^{[108][109][110]} Earlier that same year had died Leo III the Isaurian at Constantinople (18 June 741), then Charles Martel (22 October 741): Gregory III was the last of the three great actors of the decade to pass away.^[111][112]

Gregory III would not see the outcome of what he had begun. He would not see Zachary recognize Pepin as king of the Franks in 751. He would not see the Donation of Pepin in 754. He would not see Charlemagne. But without his letters of 739 and 740, without his refusal to yield to Liutprand, without his maintenance of the Anglo-Saxon mission, these later events would not have had the same coherence.

Burial in His Oratory

Gregory III was buried at Saint Peter's: the ending of the Liber Pontificalis (manuscripts B and D) says "sepultus est in ecclesia beati Petri apostoli, IIII kal. decemb." (Duchesne, vol. I, p. 421); burial in the oratory he had founded—the oratory of the Virgin built by his care—is attested by other witnesses: the fourth marble tablet, Mallius, Treccani, the Catholic Encyclopedia.^{[113][114][115]} Thus he rests among the relics he had gathered. The burial would be disturbed during the 16th-century reconstruction of the basilica.

The Cult of Saint Gregory III

The cult of Gregory III as a saint is ancient and popular: it predates by several centuries the formal canonization procedure instituted by Alexander III in 1170. As with most saints of the early Middle Ages, his sainthood is recognized by vox populi and by inscription in the martyrology. OrthodoxWiki lists him among the pre-schism Western saints, commemorated on 10 December.^[116]

Entry in the Roman Martyrology

The Martyrologium Romanum, in its revised 2001–2004 edition, lists him on 10 December—no longer on 28 November, the date retained by the old edition. This is an entry in the Roman Martyrology, not a feast on the general calendar. The entry, sober, states the essence of his work: care in having the Gospel preached to the Germans and, in the face of the iconoclasts, the adornment of the City's churches with holy images.^[117]

The Byzantine-Frankish Pivot

Gregory III is the man of the historic pivot between Byzantium and the Frankish world. He was still a subject of the emperor; he was already a potential partner of the Carolingians. Gregory II had already written to Charles Martel, but it is Gregory III's letters—the first preserved requesting military aid—that no subsequent pope could ignore. The political break with Byzantium was not a voluntary act by Gregory III: it was a consequence of Leo III's iconoclastic policy, economic confiscations, and jurisdictional detachment. But it was under Gregory III that the papacy began to seek another ally.

The Implicit Theologian of Image Veneration

Gregory III was not a systematic theologian like Saint John Damascene. He wrote no treatise. But his canonical formula of 731 is the Roman juridical act that would later give coherence to the position of the Second Council of Nicaea. Without the 731 synod, Roman resistance to iconoclasm would have been more scattered, and the Western legitimation of Nicaea II more difficult.

The saints' oratory at Saint Peter's, with its images and relics, may further be read as a visual catechesis—according to the probable interpretation recalled above: there is a real presence of the saints in the Church, and images are their legitimate sign.

The Quiet Master of Boniface

History often remembers Saint Boniface as the apostle of the Germans; it sometimes forgets that without Gregory III, Boniface would have received neither the pallium in 732, nor the apostolic legation in 737, nor the canonical structure for Bavaria in 738. The success of the German mission rested on a clear division: Boniface evangelized on the ground, Gregory III established canonicity from Rome. This articulation was an innovation that would serve as a model for later Christian missions: Cyril and Methodius in 9th-century Moravia, up to the great modern missions.

The Builder of a New Rome

On the material level, Gregory III left Rome a more beautiful city, better fortified, better endowed liturgically. Aurelian Walls restored, saints' oratory at Saint Peter's, basilicas embellished, diaconies enlarged, monasteries charged with the perpetual liturgical office. In a decade marked by the loss of Sicilian and Calabrian patrimonies, Lombard war, and the iconoclastic crisis, this architectural program manifested a Catholic vitality that was not merely defensive: it was creative.

"Did Gregory III Really 'Invent' All Saints' Day?"

Not exactly. Local feasts of saints have existed since the earliest centuries; collective commemoration of martyrs appeared as early as the 4th century in the East. Gregory III founded in Rome, around his saints' oratory, a celebration of all the saints; 1 November, attested in the British Isles around 800, was extended to the whole Frankish Empire by Louis the Pious in 835, at Gregory IV's request—Rome subsequently adopting the Frankish date. The paternity of the Roman 1 November thus remains disputed: supported by Mershman, contested by De Rossi and Duchesne.^[118][119]

"Why Did He Fail with Charles Martel?"

Charles Martel could not, in 739–740, simultaneously wage war against the Saracens in Provence and against the Lombards in Italy. He was bound by recent agreements with Liutprand, who had helped him against the Umayyad troops. He received the embassies cordially, kept the relics, sent an embassy in return. The apparent diplomatic "failure" prepared the historical success: the diplomatic channel between Rome and the house of Martel was opened. Eleven years later, it was Charles's son, Pepin the Short, who asked Pope Zachary for royal legitimacy.^[120]

"Does the 731 Synod Have Real Theological Weight?"

Yes. It did not define the dogma—that would belong to the Second Council of Nicaea in 787—but it canonically affirmed that the destruction of sacred images was an act excluding one from the Church's communion. It is what appears to be the first Roman canonical sanction of image veneration (Treccani: "sembra per la prima volta in modo canonico"), and it effectively articulated the Roman position throughout the Byzantine iconoclastic period (730–787, then 815–843). Nicaea II would implicitly rely on this Roman tradition, and Pope Adrian I would be decisive in its Western reception.^[121][122]

"Was He an Eastern Pope on the Roman See?"

Gregory III was Syrian by origin, but Roman by service. He belonged to a long line of Eastern popes of the 7th–8th centuries, in a Rome made cosmopolitan by the massive arrival of Christians fleeing the Arab conquests. His knowledge of Greek allowed him to handle the iconoclastic issue with Constantinople. His bilingualism was an asset, not a weakness. But his political decisions were unambiguously Roman: he restored the Aurelian Walls, bought back Gallese for the "holy republic," opened Frankish diplomacy, preserved Western patrimonies. He was a Syrian in the service of Rome, just as Leo the Great could be an Italian in the service of the universal.^[123][124]

• Pope Saint Gregory II — immediate predecessor, first papal resister to iconoclasm.
• Pope Saint Zachary — immediate successor, recognized Pepin as king of the Franks in 751.
• Saint Boniface — apostle of the Germans, archbishop then apostolic legate in Germany under Gregory III.
• Second Council of Nicaea (787) — dogmatic definition of image veneration, nearly sixty years after the Roman synod of 731.
• Pope Adrian I — pope of the Roman reception of Nicaea II and the alliance with Charlemagne.
• Saint John Damascene — Eastern theologian of image veneration, contemporary of Gregory III.
• Pope Saint Gregory the Great — papal model for the English mission, inspiration for Gregory III's missionary work.
• The Old Saint Peter's Basilica — setting for the saints' oratory, Eutychius's pergula, and the 731 synod.