Pope Gregory X

Born Teobaldo Visconti around 1210, he was a Franciscan tertiary who entered a church paralyzed by deadlock: the 1268–1271 election stretched so long it became its own crisis. Elected in September 1271, Gregory X moved fast. He convened the Second Council of Lyon and drafted strict new regulations for papal conclaves, designed to prevent the chaos that had nearly broken the institution. Adrian V and John XXI briefly scrapped his rules, but they snapped back into place and held as standard practice into the 20th century, suspended only in extraordinary moments — French occupation in 1798, feare…