THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Bibliography: Sources are: Annates Romani, in MGH, Script., v US-MO, 46S-480; Landulfus, Historia Mediolansis, ib. xx (1S6S), 17-49; Eccehard, Chronicon, ib. vi. (1S44) 33-_,05; JaB6, Regesta, i. 821-822. Consult: J. Langen, G<.schichte der romischen Kirche, vol. iv., Bonn, 1893; F. Gregorovius, Hint, of the City of Rome, iv. 372- 374, 384-3S7, 394-396, London, 1896; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, v. 327 et passim.
Gregory VIII. (Albertus de Mora): Pope 1187 He was born in Benevento between 1105 and 1110, was a Benedictine and cardinal, and after the death of Urban III. was almost unanimously chosen pope on Oct. 21, 1187. He was imbued with the ideal of strict asceticism, which he sought to apply both in the curia and among the clergy. He had the plan of a crusade particularly at heart, and to this end he strove to reach an understanding with Emperor Frederick I., and attempted to mediate between the cities of Pisa and Genoa. In the midst of his projects he was suddenly overtaken by death, on Dec. 17. Carl Miebt.
Bibliography: Three of his Epistolce are in Bouquet, Recueil, xix. 330-331; twenty-seven Epistoloe et privilegia are in MPL, ccii. 1537-64. Consult: Jaffe\ Regesta, ii. 528-535, 770; J. M. Watterich, Pontificum Romanorum vitas, ii. 683-692, Leipsic, 1862; P. Nadig, Gregors VIII. 57-tagiges Pontifikat, Basel, 1890; J. Langen, Geschichte der romischen Kirche, iv. 570 sqq., Bonn, 1893; F. Gregorovius, Hist, of the City of Rome, iv. 614-615, London, 1896; Hauck, KD, pp. 912, 919; Bower, Popes, ii. 528-529; Milman, Latin Christianity, iv. 444-445.
Gregory IX. (Count Hugo — Ugolino — of Segni): Pope 1227-41. He was born at Anagni perhaps about 1145, and began his spiritual career under Innocent III., his uncle, who created him cardinal deacon and afterward appointed him cardinal bishop of Ostia. Honorius III. (1216-27) honored him with important commissions. His name is likewise intimately connected with the history of the rise of the Franciscan order, while Dominic, the founder of the Dominican order, likewise had his support. After the death of Honorius III., Cardinal Ugolino was elected as Pope Gregory IX.
Gregory quickly came into strained relations with Frederick II. of Germany, although they had previously been on good terms. The causes of estrangement lay in the general trend
Gregory of the imperial policy. At the Diet and Fred- of Frankfort, 1220, Frederick had had erick II. of his son Henry elected king of the Ro- Germany. mans; the administration of Sicily had been ceded to Frederick by Honorius III.; and, after putting affairs in order there, he had undertaken to win back the German imperial rights in northern Italy, where the Lombards had curtailed them. In this enlargement of the imperial power, Gregory perceived a danger for the Roman see. His distrust was enhanced by the fact that Frederick had postponed the fulfilment of his promise to proceed to the Holy Land. At the appointed term (Aug., 1227) he had indeed stationed himself at the head of the crusaders, assembled at Brindisi; but the epidemic which carried off thousands of pilgrims seized him as well, and compelled him to remain in Otranto. Gregory, not making a full examination of the circumstances, excommunicated the emperor (Sept. 27, 1227), and justified this condemnation in an encyclical. Frederick,
too, made public defense of himself, and in the following year actually began the crusade — against the pope's protest and under difficult conditions. Despite all this, he succeeded, by a treaty with the sultan Kamil of Egypt (Feb. 18, 1229), in achieving more than the other crusaders before him. The main gain was that Jerusalem was again turned over to the Christians, with the right of fortification. But the patriarch of Jerusalem, after Frederick had put on the crown of the kingdom of Jerusalem, covered the sacred sites with a sentence of interdict. In view of this hostility, and upon receipt of tidings of the pope's encroachment on Sicily, Frederick resolved on a speedy return. He soon succeeded in expelling the papal soldiers; and in the year following, by the Peace of Ceperano (Aug. 28, 1230), after great concessions he was released from the ban.
There now followed nine years of peace, but the fundamental conflict of papal and imperial interests continued, and finally led to another open rupture. Gregory allied himself with Frederick's adversaries, the Lombards, and on Mar. 20, 1239, put the emperor under the ban for the second time. Both pope and emperor vindicated their cause in public, but Gregory, not disposed to peace, formed the design, in 1241, of having Frederick sentenced in Rome by an ecumenical council. The plan failed, however, since the imperial and Pisan fleet defeated the Genoese fleet southeastward of Elba, and the extra-Italian prelates happened to be aboard the vanquished squadron. Gregory was not even turned from his bitter opposition to the emperor by the great surging of the Tatars toward Central Europe in 1241, until the battle near Liegnitz (Apr. 9, 1241) checked their progress.
Gregory's relations with other countries quite
receded into the background in contrast with his
struggle with Germany. Under his contemporary,
St. Louis of France (1226-70), that
Relations country was consolidated into a
with Other strong hereditary kingdom. In Eng-
Countries. land, the clergy vigorously reacted
Gregory's against the curia's practise of be-
Importance stowing the lucrative benefices upon
and foreigners. Gregory also gave atten-
Character. tion to crusading plans, and was
occupied with thoughts of missions.
His early relations with the mendicant orders proved
to their advantage, though the division among the
Franciscans began even in his time. His converting
the battle against heresy, on the conclusion of the
Albigensian wars, into a permanent institution of
the Church came to be of epoch-making significance
for the medieval Church, for the laws affecting
heresy, as developed in his time, maintained
themselves (see Inquisition). His importance for
medieval philosophy and theology was due to the
fact that he approved the study of Aristotle.
Finally, Gregory's pontificate was of the utmost
importance in the sphere of canon law, since
through his chaplain, Raymond of Pennaforte, he
had a collection of decretals compiled which gained
universal recognition as a codification of canon law
(see Canon Law, II.) and thus contributed to the
victory of the pope's legislative authority. Greg-