GREGORY II., by birth a Roman, was'elected bishop of that see in 715. His pontifi cate is specially noticeable as forming an epoch in the progress of the territorial pre eminence of the Roman see in Italy. The Eastern emperors having almost utterly abandoned the government, and, still more, the defense of Italy, and the aggressions of the Lombards becoming every year more formidable, the imperial authority in the west sunk into little more than a name; and the tyrannical and barbarous measures by which the emperor Leo, the Isauriau, attempted to enforce his degrees against image-worship, still more the tie which bound Italy to the eastern emperors. The natural result of the diminution of the imperial authority in Italy was the growth of that of the pope, to whom the deserted Italian provinces looked, partly as their spiritual counselor and head, partly as their mediator with the barbarous enemy, partly as the center of the political federation for self-defense which their very isolation necessitated. Gregory convened a council in Rome on the subject of the honor due to images, and addressed a very energetic letter to the emperor, protesting against the sacrilegous outrages of which he had been guilty, explaining and defending the Catholic doctrine on image-worship, and warning the emperor that the feelings of his subjects were so completely alienated by his conduct, that it was only the pope's influence which prevented them from throwing off all allegiance. Gregory has been accused of himself fomenting this dis
affection. The contrary, however, is attested, not only by Gregory's own letters, but also by Paul the deacon, in his History of the Lombards (book vi. c. 39); and it is quite certain that the circumstances themselves, and the well-known character of the emperor, would sufficiently explain any degree of discontent in Italy. At all events, the result of the contest was a most notable aggrandizement of the political authority and influence of the popes in Italy. Gregory II. died iu 731.