Pope Gregory III
Pope Gregory III (Latin: Gregorius III; died 28 November 741) was Pope from 11 February 731 to his death in 741. His pontificate, like that of his predecessor, was disturbed by the iconoclastic controversy in the Byzantine Empire, and by the ongoing advance of the Lombards, in which he invoked the intervention of Charles Martel, although ultimately in vain. He was the last Pope born outside of Europe until the election of Pope Francis in 2013, which was 1,272 years later.
Iconoclasm and internal church issues
Gregory was the son of a Syrian named John. He was elected pope by popular acclamation on 11 February 731, but was not formally consecrated as Bishop of Rome until 18 March, after having received the approval of the Byzantine exarch in Ravenna. He was the last pope to seek the exarch’s ratification of a papal election.
Upon his accession as pope, Gregory immediately appealed to the Byzantine Emperor Leo III to moderate his position on the iconoclastic controversy. When Gregory's representative was arrested on the orders of the emperor, Gregory called a synod in November 731, which condemned iconoclasm outright. Leo responded by trying to bring the Pope under control, although the fleet he sent to enforce the imperial will was shipwrecked in the Adriatic Sea. He then proceeded to appropriate papal territories in Sicily and Calabria, and transferred ecclesiastical jurisdictions in the former Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum to the Patriarch of Constantinople. However, his attempt to force the Duke of Naples to enforce an imperial decree to confiscate papal territory in the duchy failed, as the duke was supportive of the pope’s stand.
