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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Pope Gregory X</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06798a.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="Biographical article on this thirteenth-century pope. 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Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p>Born 1210; died 10 January, 1276. The death of <a href="../cathen/04019a.htm">Pope Clement IV</a> (29 November, 1268) left the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a> vacant for almost three years. The <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinals</a> assembled at <a href="../cathen/15487a.htm">Viterbo</a> were divided into two camps, the one French and the other Italian. Neither of these parties could poll the two-thirds majority vote, nor was either willing to give way to the other for the election of a candidate to the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">papacy</a>. In the summer of 1270 the head and burgesses of the town of <a href="../cathen/15487a.htm">Viterbo</a>, hoping to force a vote, resorted to the expedient of confining the <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinals</a> within the episcopal palace, where even their daily allowance of food was later on curtailed. A compromise was finally arrived at through the combined efforts of the French and <a href="../cathen/13772a.htm">Sicilian</a> kings. The <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm#x">Sacred College</a>, which then consisted of fifteen <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinals</a>, designated six of their body to agree upon and cast a final vote in the matter. These six delegates met, and on 1 September, 1271, united their ballots in choice of Teobaldo Visconti, <a href="../cathen/01693a.htm">archdeacon</a> of <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a>, who, however, was not a <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinal</a> himself nor even a <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a>. The new pontiff was a native of <a href="../cathen/12069a.htm">Piacenza</a> and had been at one time in the service of Cardinal Jacopo of <a href="../cathen/11421a.htm">Palestrina</a>, had become <a href="../cathen/01693a.htm">archdeacon</a> of <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a>, and accompanied Cardinal Ottoboni on his mission to <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>, and at the time of his election happened to be in Ptolemais (Acre), with Prince Edward of <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>, on a <a href="../cathen/12085a.htm">pilgrimage</a> to the Holy Land. Receiving a summons from the <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinals</a> to return immediately, he began his homeward journey on 19 November, 1271, and arrived at <a href="../cathen/15487a.htm">Viterbo</a> on 12 February, 1272. He declared his acceptance of the dignity and took the name of Gregory X. On 13 March he made his entry into <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, where on the nineteenth of the same month he was <a href="../cathen/11279a.htm">ordained</a> to the <a href="../cathen/12409a.htm">priesthood</a>. His <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecration</a> as <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> took place on 27 March. He plunged at once with all his energies into the task of solving the weighty problems which then required his attention: the restoration of peace between <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> nations and princes, the settlement of affairs in the German empire, the amendment of the mode of life among <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> and people, the union of the <a href="../cathen/06752a.htm">Greek Church</a> with <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, the deliverance of <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a> and the Holy Land. As early as the fourth day after his <a href="../cathen/04380a.htm">coronation</a> he summoned a <a href="../cathen/04423f.htm">general council</a>, which was to open at <a href="../cathen/09472a.htm">Lyons</a> on 1 May, 1274 (see <a href="../cathen/09476a.htm">COUNCILS OF LYONS</a>). In <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a> the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> sought to make peace between the <a href="../cathen/07056c.htm">Guelphs and Ghibellines</a>, whose factional <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> raged chiefly in <a href="../cathen/15103b.htm">Tuscany</a> and <a href="../cathen/09336b.htm">Lombardy</a>. Against the city of Florence, the burgesses of which resisted these efforts to bring about a reconciliation, he issued a <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> of <a href="../cathen/05678a.htm">excommunication</a>.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>After the death of <a href="../cathen/13045a.htm">Richard of Cornwall</a> (1272) Gregory advised the German princes to select a new sovereign and refused the demand of Alfonso of Castile, rival of Richard, for recognition as emperor. Rudolf of Hapsburg having been elected on 29 September, 1273, Gregory X immediately recognized him and invited him to <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> to receive the imperial crown. The <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> and the emperor met at <a href="../cathen/09040a.htm">Lausanne</a> in October of 1273. Gregory was then returning from the Council of Lyons. Rudolf took here the customary <a href="../cathen/11176a.htm">oaths</a> for the defence of the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Roman Church</a>, took the cross, and postponed until the following year his journey to <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>. The <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> obtained from Alfonso of Castile the renunciation of his claims to the German crown.</p> <p>From the very beginning of his pontificate Gregory sought to promote the interests of the Holy Land. Large sums were collected in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> and <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> for this <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm">crusade</a>. A resolutions adopted at the Council of Lyons, which opened on 7 May, 1274, provided that one-tenth of all <a href="../cathen/02473c.htm">benefices</a> accruing to all churches in the course of six years should be set aside for the benefit of the Holy Land, the object being to secure the means of carrying on the <a href="../cathen/07386a.htm">holy</a> <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a>. This <a href="../cathen/14741b.htm">tithe</a> was successfully raised, and preparations were at once made in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> and <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> for the expedition, which unfortunately was not carried out. The ambassadors of the Grecian emperor, having arrived in Lyons on 24 June, <a href="../cathen/11176a.htm">swore</a>, at the fourth sitting of the council (July 6) that the emperor had renounced the <a href="../cathen/13529a.htm">schism</a>, and had returned to the allegiance due the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a>. But this union, entered into by Michael Palaeologus for purely political reasons, was in no sense destined to endure. At the close of this council, over which Gregory had presided in person, he travelled by way of <a href="../cathen/09040a.htm">Lausanne</a>, <a href="../cathen/10298a.htm">Milan</a>, and Florence, as far as Arezzo, where he died on 10 January, 1276. Though his pontificate <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proved</a> so short, the results which he achieved were of far-reaching consequence, and he succeeded in maintaining unimpaired peace and harmony. On account of his unusual virtues he is revered as a saint in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> and in a number of <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">dioceses</a> (Arezzo, Placenza, Lausanne), his <a href="../cathen/06021b.htm">feast</a> being 16 February.</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes">GUIRAUD, Les Registres de Gregoire X, Recueil des bulles de ce Pape in Bibliotheque des Ecoles francaises de Rome et d"Athenes (Paris, 1892--); POTTHAST, Regesta Romanorum Pontificum, II (Berlin, 1875), 1651 sq.; Vitae Gregorii X, ed. MURATORI in Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, III, i, 597 sq., 599 sq.; III, ii, 424 sq.; Bibliotheca hagiographica latina, I (Brussels, 1898-99), 545 sq.; BONUCCI, Istoria del pontefice Gregorio X (Rome, 1711); PIACENZA, Compendio della storia del b. Gregorio X papa (Piacenza, 1876); LOSERTH, Akten uber die Wahl Gregors X, in Neues Archiv (1895), XXI, 309 sq.; ZISTERER, Gregor X. und Rudolf von Habsburg in ihren gegenseitigen Bezichungen (Freiburg im Br., 1891); WALTER, Die Politik der Kurie unter Gregor X. (Berlin, 1894); OTTO, Die Beziehungen Rudolfs von Habsburg zu Papst Gregor X. (Innsbruck, 1895); VON HIRSCH-GEREUTH, Studien zur Geschichte der Kreuzzuge, I: Die Kreuzzugpolitik Gregors X. (Munich, 1896); PICHLER, Geschichte der kirchlichen Trennung zwischen Orient und Occident, I (Munich, 1864), 342 sq.; DRABEKE, Der Kircheneinigungsversuch des Kaisers Michael VIII, Paloeologus in Zeitschrift fur wissenschaftl. Theol. (1891), XXXIV, 325 sq.; HEFELE, Konziliengeschichte, VI, 119 sq.</p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Kirsch, J.P.</span> <span id="apayear">(1909).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Pope Gregory X.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06798a.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Kirsch, Johann Peter.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Pope Gregory X."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 6.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1909.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06798a.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Janet van Heyst.</span> <span id="dedication"></span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> September 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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