Editing Pope Gregory VIII

{{Short description|Head of the Catholic Church in 1187}}
{{Distinguish|Antipope Gregory VIII}}
{{lead too short|date=June 2016}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| type=Pope
| honorific-prefix= [[List of popes|Pope]]
| name=Gregory VIII
| title=[[Bishop of Rome]]
| church= [[Catholic Church]]
| image=
| birth_name=Alberto di Morra
| term_start=21 October 1187
| term_end=17 December 1187
| predecessor=[[Urban III]]
| successor=[[Clement III]]
| consecration=25 October 1187
| cardinal=1156
| created_cardinal_by=[[Adrian IV]]
| birth_date=c. 1100/1105
| birth_place=[[Benevento]], [[Papal States]]
|death_date=17 December 1187
|death_place=[[Pisa]], [[Republic of Pisa]]
| other=Gregory}}
[[File:Gregorius_VIII._podoba.jpg|thumb|Gregory VIII on a 19th-century religious card]]
'''Pope Gregory VIII''' ({{langx|la|Gregorius VIII}}; c. 1100/1105&nbsp;– 17 December 1187), born '''Alberto di Morra''', was head of the [[Catholic Church]] and ruler of the [[Papal States]] for two months in 1187. Becoming Pope after a long diplomatic career as Apostolic Chancellor, he was notable in his brief reign for reconciling the Papacy with the estranged [[Holy Roman Empire]] and for initiating the Third Crusade.

==Early life==
Alberto di Morra was born about 1105 in [[Benevento]]. His father was the nobleman Sartorius di Morra. He became a monk early in life, either as a [[Cistercian]] in [[Laon]], or a [[Benedictine]] at [[Monte Cassino]]. Alberto later joined a new religious order, the [[Premonstratensian]] or Norbertine order, probably between the ages of 20–30. He was a canon at  St. Martin's Abbey in Laon.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Reuss |first=Basil R. |date=1933 |title=A Norbertine Pope? |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25013158 |journal=The Catholic Historical Review |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=200–202 |jstor=25013158 |issn=0008-8080}}</ref> He later became a professor of [[canon law]] in [[Bologna]].

==Cardinal==
In 1156, [[Pope Adrian IV]] made him [[cardinal-deacon]] of Sant'Adriano, and on 14 March 1158 he became [[cardinal-priest]] of [[San Lorenzo in Lucina]]. As a [[papal legate]] of [[Pope Alexander III]], he was sent to teach canon law throughout Europe in the 1160s, and was sent to [[Portugal]] to crown [[Afonso I]]. He also brought an offer of reconciliation in 1163 to [[Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Frederick I Barbarossa]], whom Pope Alexander III had excommunicated in 1160. Alexander also sent him to England to investigate the murder of [[Thomas Becket]], and he absolved [[Henry II of England|King Henry II]] of the murder during the [[Council of Avranches]]. From 1177 to 1179, Alberto also served as a legate in Italy and in February 1178 was named [[Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church]]. As Chancellor he   generally pursued a conciliatory line toward the Emperor; in the controversy over the disputed succession of the [[Archbishop of Trier]] he argued strongly in favor of setting aside both the pro-papal candidate [[Folmar of Karden]] and the pro-imperial [[Rudolf of Wied]], and allowing the canons of Trier to hold a new election, but was overruled by [[Pope Urban III]].<ref>''Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit'', Vol. VI, p. 130.</ref> It was in this position that di Morra "...compiled a ''Forma Dicendi'', a collection of official papal acts, and also completed a codification of the cursus, a compilation of the very stringent rules governing the euphonious arrangements of sentence endings and phrasing in papal acts. In his honor, the cursus was called ''stylus gregorianus''."<ref>Philippe Levillain, ed. The Papacy: An Encyclopedia, New York: Routledge, 2002, 653.</ref> These two documents were very influential in shaping the rhetoric used in papal documents. Shortly before his election to the papacy, Alberto founded a monastery in his hometown of Benevento.

==Papacy==
On 21 October 1187, the day after the death of Urban III, Alberto di Morra, at that time [[Protopriest]] of the [[College of Cardinals]], was [[October 1187 Papal election|elected pope]] (after [[Henry of Marcy]] had withdrawn his name from consideration), and took the name Gregory VIII in honour of [[Pope Gregory VII|Gregory VII]]. He was consecrated on 25 October. His previous dealings with Frederick Barbarossa put the church back in a friendly relationship with the Holy Roman Emperor. In response to the defeat of the [[crusade]]r [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]] at the [[Battle of Hattin]], Gregory issued the [[papal bull]] ''[[Audita tremendi]]'' calling for the [[Third Crusade]].<ref>J. N. Kelly, The Oxford Dictionary of Popes, New York: Oxford UP, 1986, 183.</ref> Gregory travelled to [[Pisa]] in order to end Pisan hostilities with [[Genoa]] so that both seaports and naval fleets could join for the crusade. On the way to Pisa, he stopped at [[Lucca]] and ordered [[Antipope Victor IV (1159–1164)|Antipope Victor IV]]'s body to be removed from his tomb and his remains thrown out of the church.

==Death==
[[File:Duomo di Pisa.jpg|thumb|Gregory VIII is buried at [[Pisa Cathedral]]]]
Gregory died in Pisa on 17 December 1187 of a fever after holding the papacy for only 57 days. He was buried in the [[Piazza dei Miracoli|Duomo in Pisa]]; the tomb and the papal remains were destroyed in the 1600 fire of the cathedral. He was succeeded by [[Clement III]]. According to Joseph S. Brusher, "His pontificate though brief was glorious."<ref>Joseph S. Brusher, ''Popes through the Ages'', 342.</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|Christianity|History}}
*[[List of popes]]
* [[October 1187 Papal election]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* Brusher, Joseph S. Popes through the Ages.
* Delaney, John J., and James E. Tobin. Dictionary of Catholic Biography. New York, NY: Doubleday, 1961.
* Falconieri, Tommaso di Carpegna (2000). [https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/gregorio-viii_%28Enciclopedia-dei-Papi%29/ "Gregorio VIII".] {{in lang|it}} ''Enciclopedia dei Papi'' (Treccani 2000).
* {{Citation| last1  = Giesebrecht| first1 = Wilhelm von| last2  = Simson| first2 = Bernhard von| name-list-style = amp| title     = Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit| publisher = Duncker & Humblot| place     = Leipzig| volume  = VI| year    = 1895}}, available at the [[Internet Archive]] here: [https://archive.org/details/geschichtederde03simsgoog Volume VI.] (in German)
* Kelly, J. N. The Oxford Dictionary of Popes. New York: Oxford UP, 1986.
* Levillain, Philippe, ed. The Papacy: An Encyclopedia. New York: Routledge, 2002.
* Loughlin, James. [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06795a.htm "Pope Gregory VIII."] The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 7 December 2008.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090106042233/http://www.premontre.org/Publica/Apostolates%20Page/Apost-Life.htm "Premonstratenisans/Norbertines A Look at out Way of Life."] The International Website for the Order of Premontre. The Order of Premontre. 7 December 2008.

==External links==
*{{commons category-inline|Gregorius VIII|Pope Gregory VIII}}
*{{wikisource author-inline}}
*{{wikiquote-inline}}

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{{Popes}}
{{Catholicism}}
{{History of the Catholic Church}}

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[[Category:Pope Gregory VIII| ]]
[[Category:1100s births]]
[[Category:1187 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Benevento]]
[[Category:Italian popes]]
[[Category:Christians of the Third Crusade]]
[[Category:Burials at Pisa Cathedral]]
[[Category:Premonstratensian popes]]
[[Category:Popes]]
[[Category:12th-century popes]]