Gregory II
669 — 731
Raised in the papal court from youth — serving as subdeacon, sacellarius, Vatican librarian, and secretary — Gregory II brought deep institutional knowledge to his papacy (715–731). He commissioned Boniface to evangelize the Germanic peoples, directed the organization of the Bavarian church, and squarely opposed Emperor Leo III's iconoclast decrees, asserting that the veneration of holy images lay beyond imperial reach.