All the lands of the West have their eyes directed toward our humility; by them we are considered as a God upon earth.
89th Pope of the Catholic Church (from 715 to 731)
He drew a line against an emperor's demand to destroy religious images — a refusal that cracked open the relationship between Rome and Constantinople and set the papacy on a path toward independent political power.
Gregory II became bishop of Rome on 19 May 715, inheriting a church still tethered to the Eastern Empire. When Emperor Leo III the Isaurian launched the iconoclastic controversy — ordering the destruction of religious images — Gregory refused. His defiance wasn't just theological stubbornness; it was a fracture point. The standoff triggered revolts, schisms, and civil wars that rippled through the decades, gradually loosening the papacy from imperial control. By the time Gregory died on 11 February 731, he'd prepared the ground for something new: popes who answered to no emperor, who held temp…
Sourced, dated quotes from Pope Gregory II
All the lands of the West have their eyes directed toward our humility; by them we are considered as a God upon earth.
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