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Gregory II began his pontificate; his conflict with Byzantine emperor Leo III eventually led to the establishment of the temporal power of the pope.

Pope Gregory II

Head of the Catholic Church from 715 to 731

Pope Gregory II was the bishop of Rome from 19 May 715 to his death on 11 February 731. His defiance of Emperor Leo III the Isaurian as a result of the iconoclastic controversy in the Eastern Empire prepared the way for a long series of revolts, schisms, and civil wars that…
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Pope

Head of the Catholic Church

The pope is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the pope was the sovereign or head of state of the Papal States, and since 1929 of…
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Leo III the Isaurian

Byzantine emperor from 717 to 741

Leo III the Isaurian, also known as the Syrian, was the first Byzantine emperor of the Isaurian dynasty from 717 until his death in 741. He put an end to the Twenty Years' Anarchy, a period of great instability in the Byzantine Empire between 695 and 717, marked by the rapid…
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Temporal power of the Holy See

Political and secular governmental activity of the popes of the Roman Catholic Church

The Holy See exercised temporal power, as distinguished from its spiritual and pastoral activity, while the pope ruled the Papal States in central Italy.
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