Pope Gregory V

Pope Gregory V, né Bruno of Carinthia (Latin: Gregorius V; c. 972 – 18 February 999) was Pope from 3 May 996 to his death in 999.

He was a son of the Salian Otto I, Duke of Carinthia, who was a grandson of Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor. Gregory V succeeded Pope John XV when only twenty-four years of age. He was the chaplain of his cousin Emperor Otto III, who presented him as candidate.

Gregory V was the first German Pope. Sometimes Pope Boniface II (530–532) is considered the first German Pope, although he was in fact an Ostrogoth.

Politically, Gregory V acted consistently as the Emperor's representative in Rome and granted many exceptional privileges to monasteries within the Holy Roman Empire. One of his first acts was to crown Otto III Emperor on 21 May 996. Together, they held a synod a few days after the coronation in which Arnulf, Archbishop of Reims, was ordered to be restored to his See of Reims, and Gerbert of Aurillac, the future Pope Sylvester II, was condemned as an intruder. Robert II of France, who had been insisting on his right to appoint bishops, was ultimately forced to back down, and ultimately also to put aside his wife Bertha, by the rigorous enforcement of a sentence of excommunication on the kingdom.

Pope Gregory

Gregory has been the name of sixteen Roman Catholic Popes and two Antipopes. The Latin name is Gregorius.