Pope Leo and Gregory the Great

we talked about Gregory the Great who became pope against his own will.

Gregory was only 50 years old but chronically ill.

when he heard that he had been elected to the papal office he hid in a forest but people find him and in the end he became pope.

Prior to become pope gregory was mayor of rome and then a Benedictine monk.

Like Augustine struggled with sexual sins Gregory struggled with the sin of pride.

Gregory was a a great missionary, sending monks throughout the barbarian world.He was also a great defender of orthodoxy.

An other character we talked about was Pope Leo III.

He was charged with the crimes of perjury and adultery.

Pope Leo appealed to the traditional protector of the papacy, the King of the Franks, Charles the Great(also known as Charlemagne)

The Pope Charlemagne as emperor of the Christian Roman Empire.

Charlemagne had expanded and united his kingdom through military victory and leadership.

After his death, a dominating personality, the empire was too vast and the nobility too powerful, for the empire to hold togehther.