GREGORY, ANTIPOPE. — Elected by the faction of the Crescentii at the death of Sergius IV (d. 12 May 1012) in opposition to Theophylactus of the counts of Tusculum, the candidate of the Tusculan faction, who, elected by the majority, took the name of Benedict VIII. After some skirmishes, G., driven out of Rome, went to King Henry II, with whom he met at Pöhlde in Saxony on Christmas Day. The king treated him with deference and promised to decide the matter, “secundum morem romanum,” as Thietmar writes in his chronicle, on his next journey to Rome. Meanwhile, G. was urged to lay down his pontifical insignia, after which all trace of him is lost.
BIBL.: Thietmarus, Chronicon, VI, 61, ed. J. M. Lappenberg, in MGH, Scriptores, III, p. 835; Lib. Pont., II, p. 268; L. Duchesne, Les premiers temps de l'Etat pontifical, 3rd ed., Paris 1911, pp. 371–72; E. Amann, L'Eglise au pouvoir des laïques, in A. Fliche–V. MARTINO G, Hist. de l'Eglise, VII, Paris 1940, pp. 80–81.