Pope Gregory V
Pope|English name=Gregory V|image=
|birth_name=Bruno|term_start=
May 3,
996|term_end=
February 18,
999|predecessor=
John XV|successor=
Silvester II|birth_date=
ca. 972|birthplace=
Germany|dead=dead|death_date=
February 18,
999|deathplace=
Rome,
Italy|other=Gregory}}
Gregory V, né
Bruno (c.
972 –
February 18,
999),
Pope from
May 3,
996 to February 18, 999, son of the
Salian Otto I, Duke of Carinthia, who was a grandson of the Emperor
Otto I the Great (936–973). Gregory V succeeded
Pope John XV (985–996), when only twenty-four years of age. He was the chaplain of his cousin, Emperor
Otto III (983–1002), 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 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
May 21, 996. Together they held a synod a few days after Otto III's coronation, in which Arnulf was ordered to be restored to the See of Reims, and Gerbert, the future
Pope Silvester II (999–1003), was condemned as an intruder.
Robert II of France (996–1031), 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.
Until the council of
Pavia (
997) Gregory V had a rival in the person of the
antipope John XVI (997–998), whom
Crescentius II and the nobles of Rome had chosen, in revolt against the will of the youthful Emperor Otto III, the Pope's cousin. The revolt of Crescentius II was decisively suppressed by the Emperor, who marched upon Rome. John XVI fled, and Crescentius II shut himself up in the
Castel Sant'Angelo. The Emperor's troops pursued the antipope, captured him, cut off his nose and ears, cut out his tongue, blinded him, and publicly degraded him before Otto III and Gregory V. He was sent to the monastery of
Fulda, in Germany, where he lived until
1013. The Castel Sant'Angelo was besieged, and when it was taken, Crescentius II was hanged upon its walls (
998).
Gregory V died suddenly, and not without suspicion of foul play, on
February 18, 999. His successor was Gerbert, who took the name of
Silvester II.
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List of ages of popes
