Pope Gelasius II

Pope from 1118 to 1119

  • Fame57.5
  • Momentum1.4
  • Wikipedia3K
Source-basedStable
Lived 1060–1119, aged 59Italy
  • Wikipedia
    67 languages
    Cross-language footprint
  • Era
    1060–1119
    Aged 59
Summary
Updated 2026-06-08

He held the papacy for exactly one year, most of it spent fleeing the emperor who wanted to control him. The struggle over who appointed bishops—Rome or the crown—turned his entire reign into a chase across medieval Europe.

Biography

About

Giovanni Caetani was a monk at Monte Cassino and served as chancellor under Pope Paschal II before the cardinals unanimously elected him in January 1118. The timing was grim: he inherited an empire-sized problem the moment he took the name Gelasius II. Emperor Henry V wanted the power to appoint bishops, and the new pope refused to bend. What followed was less a papacy than a long escape, with Gelasius spending much of his single year in office on the run. He died in exile on 29 January 1119, a year and five days after his election, the investiture conflict still burning.

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By the numbers

Score breakdown

The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.

Fame
Stable
57.5
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Momentum1.4
Historical22.1
Now attention7.7
Source confidence60.0
Completeness70.0
Global rank
Country rank
Category rank
Receipts

Sources

  • Wikipedia
    wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
    High confidence
  • Wikidata
    wikidata · wikidata.org
    High confidence
  • Pantheon 2.0
    database · pantheon.world
    High confidence