Pope Gregory X

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Gregory X

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Birth name

Tebaldo Visconti

Papacy began

Papacy ended

Predecessor

Successor

Born

ca. 1210
Piacenza, Italy

Died

January 10 1276
Arezzo, Italy

Other popes named Gregory

Styles of Pope Gregory X
Image:Emblem of the Papacy SE.svg
Reference style	His Holiness
Spoken style	Your Holiness
Religious style	Holy Father
Posthumous style	Blessed

Pope Gregory X (c. 1210 – January 10, 1276), born Tebaldo Visconti, was Pope from 1271 to 1276.

1 Biography
2 Diplomatic communications with Mongols
3 See also
4 Notes

Biography

Born in Piacenza, he spent most of his ecclesiastical career in the north, in the Low Countries. The Visconti Coat of Arms is the image of a large snake devouring a male child feet first. (Source: New Catholic Dictionary).

He succeeded Pope Clement IV (1265–68) after the papal chair had been vacant for three years (1268–71) due to divisions among the cardinals; the equally split French and Italian cardinals wanted a Pope from their country due to the ongoing political situation with Charles of Anjou. The deadlock was finally broken when the citizens of Viterbo, where the cardinals were assembled, removed the roof from the building where the cardinals were meeting and locked them in, only allowing them bread and water; three days later, Pope Gregory X was elected by the papal election, 1268–1271, the longest papal election in the history of the Roman Catholic church. Gregory X was considered a strong choice because although he was Italian, he had spent most of his career north of the Alps and thus had not been embroiled in recent Italian political controversies.

His election came as a complete surprise to him, occurring while he was engaged in the Ninth Crusade to Acre with Edward I of England (1239 - 1307) in Palestine. Not wanting to leave his mission, his first action as Pope was to send out appeals for aid to the Crusaders, and at his final sermon at Acre just before leaving to sail for Italy he famously said "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning."

On his arrival at Rome his first act was to summon the council which met at the Second Council of Lyons in 1274 for the purpose of considering the East-West Schism, the condition of the Holy Land, and the abuses of the Roman Catholic Church. It was while returning from that council that he died at Arezzo, where he is still buried inside the Cathedral Church, on January 10, 1276. To him is due the bull which, subsequently incorporated into the code of canon law, regulated all conclaves for papal elections until the reforms of Pope Paul VI (1963–78).

He was succeeded by Pope Innocent V.

Diplomatic communications with Mongols

Main article: Franco-Mongol alliance

Image:NoccoloAndMaffeoPoloWithGregoryX.JPG

Niccolo and Maffeo Polo remitting a letter from Kubilai to Pope Gregory X in 1271.

As soon as he was elected in 1271, Pope Gregory received a letter from the Mongol Khan Kubilai, remitted by Niccolo and Maffeo Polo following their travels to his court in Mongolia. Kubilai was asking for the dispatch of a hundred missionaries, and some oil from the lamp of the Holy Sepulcher. The new Pope could spare only two friars and some lamp oil. The friars turned back soon after the party left for Mongolia. The two Polos (this time accompanied by the young Marco Polo) returned to Mongolia, and remitted the oil from the Pope to Kubilai in 1275.^[1]

Image:PoloBrotherAndKubilai.JPG

The Polos returned to Kubilai (seated, right) in 1275 with a letter and presents from Pope Gregory X.^[2]

The Mongol Ilkhanate leader Abaqa sent a delegation with over a dozen members to the 1274 Council of Lyon, where plans were made for possible military cooperation between the Mongols and the Europeans. After the Council, Abaqa sent another embassy, led by the Georgian Vassali brothers, to further notify Western leaders of military preparations. Gregory answered that his legates would accompany the Crusade, and that they would be in charge of coordinating military operations with the Il-Khan.^[3] However, these projects of a major new Crusade essentially came to a halt with the death of Gregory X on January 10, 1276. The money which had been saved to finance the expedition was instead distributed in Italy.^[4]