GREGORY
796
GREGORY
of the papacy turned to aslies in his hands. Re-
peatedly excommunicated and finally delivered as a
prisoner into the hands of Callistus II, lie was
detained in several monasteries until his death about
1137. Thus ended the career of a prelate "whom",
says William of Malmesbury (Gesta Regum Angl., V,
434), "everyone would have been obliged to venerate
and all but adore on account of his prodigious indus-
try, had he not preferred to seek glory by so notorious
a crime ". One of the canons of the Ninth General
Council, 1123, declares all ordinations made by him
after his condemnation, or by any bishop by him con-
secrated, to be irritce.
Jatfe, Regesta RR. PP., 2d ed., I, 821-22; II, 715.
James F. Loughlin.
Gregory IX (Ugolino, Count of Segni), Pope; b. about 1145, at Anagni in the Campagna; d. 22 Au- gust, 1241, at Rome. He received his education at the Universities of Paris and Bologna. After the accession of Innocent III to the papal throne, Ugo- lino, who was a nephew of Innocent III, was succes- sively appointed papal chaplain, Archpriest of St. Peter's, and Cardinal-Deacon of Sant' Eustachio in 119S. In May, 1206, he succeeded Octavian as Car- dinal-Bishop of Ostia and Velletri. A year later he and Cardinal Brancaleone were sent as papal legates to Ger- many to mediate between Philip of Swabia and Otto of Brunswick, both of whom laid claim to the German throne subsequent to the death of Henry VI. By order of the pope the legates freed Philip from the ban which he had incurred under Pope Celestine III on account of invading the Pontifical States. Though the legates were unable to induce Otto of Brunswick to give up his claims to the throne, they succeeded in effecting a truce between the two claimants and re- turned to Rome in 1208 to treat with the pope con- cerning their future procedure. On their way back to Germany early in June, 1208, they were apprised at Verona that Philip had been murdered, and again returned to Rome. Early in January, 1209, they again proceeded to Germany with instructions to in- duce the princes to acknowledge Otto of Brunswick as king. They were successful in their mission and re- turned to Rome in June of the same year. After the death of Pope Innocent III, 16 July, 1216, Ugolino was instrumental in the election of Pope Honorius III on IS July. In order to hasten the choice the College of Cardinals had agreed to an election by compromise and empowered Cardinals Ugolino and Guido of Pre- neste to appoint the new pope.
In January, 1217, Honorius III made Ugolino pleni- potentiary legate for Lorabardy and Tuscia, and entrusted him with preaching the crusade in those ter- ritories. In this capacity he became a successful media- tor between Pisa and Genoa, in 1217, between Milan and Cremona in 1218, and between Bologna and Pis- toia in 1219. At the coronation of Frederick II in Rome, 22 November, 1220, the emperor took the cross from Ugolino and made the vow to embark for the Holy Land in August, 1221. On 14 March, 1221, Pope Honorius commissioned Ugolino to preach the crusade also in Central and Upper Italy. After the death of Pope Honorius III (18 Jlarch, 1227), the cardinals again agreed upon an election bycompromise and empowered three of their number, among w'hom were Ugolino and Conrad of Urach, to elect the new pope. At first Conrad of Urach was elected, but he refused the tiara lest it might appear that he had elected himself. Hereupon the cardinals unani- mously elect cm I l'i;()!in(ion 19 March, 1227, and he re- luctantly accepted the high honour, taking the name of Gregory IX. Though he was already far advanced in age (being more than eighty years old), he was still full of energy.
The important diplomatic positions which Gregory
IX had held before he became pope had acquainted
him thoroughly with the political situation of Europe,
and especially with the guileful and dishonest tactics
of Emperor Frederick II. Three days after his in-
stallation he sternly ordered the emperor at last to
fulfil his long delayed vow to embark for the Holy
Land. Apparently obedient to the papal mandate,
Frederick II set sail from Brindisi on 8 September,
1227, but returned three days later under the plea that the Landgrave of Thuringia, who was accompanying him, was on the point of death, and that he himself was seriously ill. Gregory IX, knowing that Fred- erick II had on eight or nine previous occasions post- poned his departure for the East, distrusted the em- peror's sincerity, and on 29 September, 1227, placed him under the ban of the Church. He tried to justify his severe measures towards the emperor in a Brief to the Christian princes, while, on the other hand, the emperor addressed a manifesto to the princes in which he condemns the action of the pope in very bitter terms. The imperial manifesto was read publicly on the steps of the Capitol in Rome, whereupon the im- perial party in Rome, under the leadership of the Frangipani, stirred up an insurrection, so that when the pope published the emperor's excommunication in the basilica of St. Peter, 23 March, 1228, he was openly insulted and threatened by a Ghibelline mob, and fled first to Viterbo, and then to Perugia.
In order to prove to the Christian world that the pope was too hasty in placing him under the ban, the emperor resolved to proceed to the Holy Land and embarked from Brindisi with a small army on 28 June,
1228, having previously asked the blessing of Gregory IX upon his enterprise. The pope, however, denying that an excommunicated emperor had a right to un- dertake a holy war, not only refused his blessing, but put him under the ban a second time and released the crusaflers from their oath of allegiance to him. While in the Holy Land the emperor, seeing that he could accomplish nothing as long as he was under the ban, changed his tactics towards the pope. He now ac- knowledged the justice of his excommunication and began to take steps towards a reconciliation. Greg- ory IX distrusted the advances of the emperor, espe- cially since Rainald, the imperial Governor of Spoleto, had invaded the Pontifical States during the emper- or's absence. But the papal anathema did not have the effect which Gregory IX had hoped for. In Ger- many only one bishop, Bert hold of Strasburg, pub- lished the Bull of excommunication, and nearly all the princes and bishops remained faithful to the emperor. Cardinal Otto of San Nicolo, whom Gregory IX had sent to Germany to publish the emperor's excommimi- cation, was entirely unsuccessful, because Frederick's son Henry, his representative in Germany, forbade the bishops and abbots to appear at the synods which the cardinal attempted to convene. Equally futile were Gregory's efforts to put Duke Otto of Brunswick on the German throne. In June, 1229, Frederick II re- turned from the Holy Land, routed the papal army which Gregory IX had sent to invade Sicily, and made new overtures of peace to the pope. Gregory IX, who had been a fugitive at Perugia since 1228, re- turned to Rome in February, 1230, upon the urgent request of the Romans, who connected an overwhelm- ing flood of the Tiber with their harsh treatment of the pontiff. He now opened negotiations with Her- mann of Salza (q. v.), the Grand Master of the Teu- tonic Order, whom the emperor had sent as his repre- sentative. On 20 July, 1230, a treaty was concluded at San Gerniano between the pope and the emperor, by force of which that part of the Poiitilical States which was occupied by imperial troops and the papal possessions in Sicily were restored to tlie jiope. After the bun was removed from the eTii])eri>r by Cardinals John of Sabina and Thomas of Capua in the imperial camp near Ceperano on 28 August, 1230, pope and
