Gregory III

Pope Gregory III (d. 741) was the Bishop of Rome from 731 to 741, the last pope of Syrian origin and the last to seek the approval of the Byzantine exarch for his election. His pontificate was defined by two great struggles: the defense of sacred images against Byzantine iconoclasm and the defense of Rome against the expanding Lombard kingdom. Gregory convened a synod in Rome in 731 that excommunicated anyone who destroyed sacred images — a direct repudiation of Emperor Leo III's iconoclast policy. The emperor retaliated by confiscating papal properties in southern Italy and transferring the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Illyricum, Sicily, and Calabria from Rome to Constantinople. Facing Lombard military threats and unable to rely on Byzantine protection, Gregory took the momentous step of appealing to Charles Martel, the Frankish mayor of the palace, for military assistance — the first time a pope had looked to the Franks rather than the Byzantine Empire for protection. Though Charles Martel did not respond to this initial appeal, the precedent Gregory established would be fulfilled by Charles's son Pepin the Short and grandson Charlemagne, fundamentally reshaping the political landscape of medieval Europe.