GREGORIO VIII, ANTIPOPE. – Maurizio Burdino (a nickname meaning donkey), originally from southern France, was first a monk at Limoges; having gone to Spain in 1095, he was shortly afterward raised to the episcopal see of Coimbra, and in 1098 succeeded s. Giraldo in the archbishopric of Braga. In Rome, he obtained from Pasquale II the pallium and appointment as his legate to negotiate peace with Enrico V. When Gelasio II was elected, Enrico V entered Rome, while the new Pontiff fled to Gaeta.
Invited by Enrico to return, with the threat of electing an antipope if he did not obey, Gelasio, rejecting the ultimatum, proposed a council to settle the disputes between Church and Empire. Enrico then had Burdino elected antipope, having already been crowned emperor by him. Having reached Capua, on 7 April Gelasio excommunicated the Emperor and the antipope, sending Conone, bishop of Preneste, to publish the sentence in Germany. Enrico was therefore forced to return to Germany, for fear of losing control of it, and on 5 July 1118 Gelasio returned to Rome. Because of a revolt, Gelasio had to leave again and set out for France, where he died at Cluny on 29 January 1119. After Callisto II was elected, at the end of the year the Emperor and the antipope were again excommunicated, and in June 1120 Callisto entered Rome. In 1121 he sent Cardinal Giovanni di Crema against G. VIII, who had taken refuge at Sutri. He was brought back to Rome, seated derisively backwards on a camel. Thus the schism ended: the antipope was sent to the monastery of Cava, then to Rocca Iemola, near Montecassino, and in 1125 to Castel Fumone; in 1137 he was still alive at Cava.