POPE GREGORY II

'Pope Gregory II', pope from 715 or 716 to February 11, 731, succeeded Pope Constantine, his election being variously dated May 19, 715. Having, it is said, bought off the Lombards for thirty pounds of gold, he used the tranquillity thus obtained for vigorous missionary efforts in Germany, and for strengthening the papal authority in the churches of England and Ireland. By excommunicating the Byzantine emperor Leo III the Isaurian, he prepared the way for a long series of revolts and civil wars, which tended greatly to the establishment of the temporal power of the popes. He died in 731, and subsequently attained the honour of canonization, February 13th being the day consecrated to his memory in the ''Martyrology''.

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''from the 9th edition (1880) of an unnamed encyclopedia''