Brandon Kalten TRS 324-01 Pope Gregory X Pope Gregory X, originally known as Teobaldo Visconti, was born sometime around 1210. Pope Gregory X was a member of the Secular Franciscan Order. He was not a cardinal or even a priest before his election as pope. He was pope from September 1, 1271 until he passed away on January 10, 1276. Pope Gregory X is important to the history of the papacy because he used all his power to protect the Holy Land, he convened the Second Council of Lyons, and he established many new regulations that lasted until altered by Pope Paul VI in the 20th century. Born as Teobaldo Visconti in Piacenza, Pope Gregory X was a member of the House of Visconti. Pope Gregory X’s papal conclave was the longest ever. The cardinals …show more content…
Before Gregory X was pope, he followed the Cardinal Giacomo de Pecorari because he was attracted by the Cardinal’s reputation of holiness. He was already Canon of the Basilica of S. Antonino and later became Canon of the Cathedral of Lyons. While Gregory IX was pope, the cardinals were often mistreated. Clearly the decision of the next pope was difficult to make. Eventually Pope Innocent IV offered the position to Gregory X, but he declined the position because he wished to continue to follow Cardinal Giacomo de Pecorari. Following Cardinal Giacomo de Pecorari’s death, Gregory X moved to Paris to study Theology. Although sometimes there were no results, Pope Gregory X was a great preacher. Even when he was not a priest, he made an effort to preach the crusade for the recovery of the Holy Land. After elected pope, Gregory X preached a sermon on the text from Psalm 136 (137). 5-6. “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.” (Riley-Smith). The cardinals hoped that pope Gregory X would do all in his power to save the Holy Land and immediately following his election, before even leaving Palestine to take up office, Gregory X preached this sermon to show his yearning to save the Holy Land. In a …show more content…
Gregory X, for the most part, wanted to save the Holy Land. He did a lot more that is highly respected, but the crusades and his yearning to save the Holy Land was most remembered. Author of this memoir, Bishop Bruno of Olmutz, wrote “it was just as important to defend the Church in Eastern Europe from attack by pagans and schismatics, as it was to recover the Holy Land; otherwise, wishing to avoid Charybdis, the Christians would fall prey to Scylla.” (Housley). The crusades definitely should’ve been preached to further Christian cause in Eastern Europe, but the Church was under much danger and needed to be defended too. Gregory X is important to the history of the papacy because not only of what he has done and accomplished, but what he has not done too. Every pope there was that goes back to when St. Peter was chosen, has been recorded and studied. There is evidence of every pope there was. The author of this memoir believes that Gregory X is important to the papacy because the Church must always be defended along with the Holy
Pope Urban II was sought by Alexius Comnenus, a Byzantine Emperor who wanted the papacy to help his army hold off the advancing Seljuk Turks in Asia Minor. The reason for Alexius Comnenus contacting the pope rather than another emperor or monarch wasn’t just the fact they were secular, but because the pope would have more power to persuade the people. The Gregorian movement in 1050-80 was ultimately was responsible for the new instilled power of the papacy’s position over nonreligious rulers. The pope agreed to aid the Byzantine emperor, but he also had his own agenda when it came to the military advances and the new power of his position. The papacy did not intend to only help the Byzantine Empire but to further save all of Christendom from being overrun.
Kings often struggled with the Church over power and land, both trying desperately to obtain them, both committing atrocities to hold onto them. Time and time again, the Popes of the postclassical period went to great extremes to secure the Church’s position in the world. Both the Crusades and the Inquisition are examples of this. D...
The Crusades were the first tactical mission by Western Christianity in order to recapture the Muslim conquered Holy Lands. Several people have been accredited with the launch of the crusades including Peter the Hermit however it is now understood that this responsibility rested primarily with Pope Urban II . The main goal of the Crusades was the results of an appeal from Alexius II, who had pleaded for Western Volunteers help with the prevention of any further invasions. The Pope’s actions are viewed as him answering the pleas of help of another in need, fulfilling his Christian right. However, from reading the documents it is apparent that Pope Urban had ulterior motives for encouraging engagement in the war against the Turks. The documents and supporting arguments now highlight that the Pope not only sought to recruit soldiers to help but also to challenge those who had harmed the Christians community and annihilate the Muslims. He put forth the idea that failure to recapture this lands would anger God and that by participating, God would redeem them of their previous sins.in a time of deep devoutness, it is clear this would have been a huge enticement for men to engage in the battle. Whether his motives were clear or not to his people, Pope Urban’s speeches claiming that “Deus vult!” (God wills it) encouraged many Christians to participate and take the cross.
The success and failures of the crusades “was closely related to the fortunes of the high-medieval papal monarchy” (454). The first crusade started when Pope Urban II called a plea of military aide to “free Jerusalem from Islamic control”. The first crusade was a “great early victory for the papal monarchy” (454-455). However, the crusades were not all victories for the papacy, the failures of the crusades ignited the decline of the papacy control. The crusades began when the Pope appealed to the people “to rescue the Holy Land from the infidels.”
The purpose of this question is to quench the personal interest that I have in Church history. As we began more dive more and more into Church history, my interest skyrocketed. I hope to learn more about the struggles that were overcome in Catholicism. The turmoil that stood as a result of the “church vs state” tension also gave me a purpose to learn more about how the present separation of Church and State began. Making the right decisions has not always been my best quality, and knowing that I am not alone, I evaluated Pope Clement X...
In the book The Rule of Benedict, written by Saint Benedict, he provided outlines of how things should go in the monastery, and day to day life for monks. Saint Benedict uses biblical references and also his own thoughts. Through his writings, he believes that there should be very strict guidelines to follow, in order to be a good monk and/or person. Although Saint Benedict means well when he gives his thoughts on how things should be gone about, he sometimes seems arrogant, by giving the abbot so much power. In addition to this, at some points, it seems as if the abbot has more control and power over the people, than God himself. Three things stuck out to me when reading Saint Benedict’s thoughts. First, his use of violence, when disciplining.
Pope Innocent the III reign from January 1198-July 1218 was an important time in history as many events occurred within his reign that no other popes before him could claim happened in there's. Pope Innocent was one of the most powerful and influential popes in Europe at the time as he stood at the center of all other kings and proclaimed his supremacy. Innocent the III was right in doing so as he was an integral part in supporting the Catholic Church reforms of ecclesiastical affairs through his letters and the Fourth Council of the Lateran. Throughout his tenor, Innocent the III had an excellent career as he refined canon law, organized the fourth crusade, among many other things.
Pope Gregory IX was born in 1170 as Ugolino di Conti. Pope Gregory IX was educated at the University of Paris and the University of Bologna. In 1198, Pope Gregory IX became Cardinal Deacon of the church of Sant'Eustachio by Pope Innocent III, his cousin. Eight years later in 1206 Pope Gregory IX was promoted to Cardinal Bishop of Ostia e Velletri. As Cardinal Bishop of Ostia e Velletri, Pope Gregory IX made many acquaintances including Isabella of Angoulême, the Queen of England. Pope Gregory IX then became the Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals in 1218. In 1220 Pope Honduras III appointed Pope Gregory IX the Cardinal Protector of the order of Franciscans, upon special request of Saint Francis.
During the Crusades, the Pope’s aspiration for power originated from political reasons. In 1095, there were many problems in the Christian land the Pope couldn’t do much about. For example, there was a great deal of fighting between knights and nobles, and the Pope had very little power (Visual, NA). When the Church tried to reform it by ordering a truce, it did not work. So when the Pope saw the holy land was controlled by Muslims that did not allow them to go there, he decided to use that as a way to restore order in the Church (Crusades, NA). He knew it would solve the problems he was faced with because it would send all the fighting knights away to war, and if they captured Jerusalem he would have control over the most sought out land, giving him power (Crusades, NA). He knew that many knights won’t want to leave the land when they can claim the land that another knight left when they went to war. So to ensure more knights’ participation, he promises remissions from all sins committed. However, the Pope knew he must convince more people than just knight to win Jerusalem and that reason is what Urban states in his speech. “Or rather the Lord, beseech you as Chris...
A very surprising fact is that it was under force from his father that Gregory became a priest. He did not feel that he was pure enough to be in such a sacred office, because he had not yet finished learning. Several times he took sanctuary in a monastery. He was eventually made into the Bishop of Nazianzus, but a larger position was offered to him as the Bishop of Constantinople. He accepted the role, but unfortunately could not keep it, since one cannot be Bishop of two places, and the original "bishopship" should be the position kept (Catholic Online).
The emperor of the Byzantine Emperor was upset with Turks encroaching on his empire. He went to the Pope Urban II and complained. He made up atrocities about the Turks. In 1096, The Pope Urban II promoted the Crusade to reclaim the Holy Land from the barbaric Turks. These crusades lasted till the 13th century. In the process, Jews were persecuted and lots of looting took place. Many countries took interest in the Crusades because they were ready for travel and adventure. They wanted to expand trade with the Middle and Far East and so the Crusades gave them a chance to open up trade routes with those countries. They used Christianity to justify the Crusades. In reality, they wanted to expand trade and gain more territorial land.
Pope Urban II, just like many popes before him, was a part of the Investiture Controversy, which stemmed from a dispute between King Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII. For the duration of the 11th and 12th centuries, religious leaders like Urban faced conflict with the ruling class of Europe, and this sense of contention impacted and fueled many of Urban’s decisions, including the choice he made to so strongly encourage the Crusades. Due to the fact that there were “political forces at work… since the Crusades were also tied to the Investiture Controversy” and because Urban attempted to and succeeded at “usurp[ing] the prerogative most secular rulers had claimed traditionally to declare an enemy and muster troops for battle,” it is undeniable that he was caught up in – and winning – a political battle, which means that he must have been acting with politics in the forefront of his mind (Crawford). Furthermore, Pope Urban II used the crusades as a way of undermining the king's authority while simultaneously increasing his own – now he was the one who was calling the shots and sending the European people off to war, when usually, that job belonged to the king. Although this may seem insignificant, the pope knew that if the king could not even control his own people, he would have no power left. The pope's decision to rally the people up for a crusade was a meticulously calculated one that effectively and purposefully resulted in him becoming the most politically powerful person in Europe, when previously almost all of his power stemmed from
The aristocracy of the period also led a very violent lifestyle: this crusade or ‘Holy War’ justified the use of violence as a means of abolishing the threat from Islam on the Christian World. Thirdly, the papacy was very keen on consolidating its political influence in Italy, France and Germany. The papacy wanted to keep the Christian parts of the world as large as possible and they also wanted to make sure that these areas would be completely Christian. Urban wished to expand the Church’s sphere of influence to those previously Christian parts of Europe and Northern Africa which had been overrun by the Islamic world..
Most scholars agree that one of the main reasons for the crusades was Pope Urban ii and a quest for political power. His presence as the Pope help cement the Crusading and set it on his path maybe not the path he intended but it was his presence and words that did it. according to P AUL E. C
In the western half of the once great Roman Empire, Rome, along with the surrounding territories, fell to barbarians. The barbarians, primarily from Germanic tribes, had no system of government by which the people should live. In other words, each village and people-group were left to fend for themselves in terms of both rule as well as protection; however, the church never faltered or fell away while the barbarians took control. In light of this fact, the church began to grow in power and stability. With people flocking to the churches and monasteries for help and protection, the power began being transferred to the bishop rather than to a king/political ruler. This bishop was the Archbishop of Rome.