Pope Gregory II (; 669 – 11 February 731) was the bishop of Rome from 19 May 715 to his death. 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 eventually led to the establishment of the temporal power of the popes. Early life Born into a noble Roman family in the year 669, Gregory was the son of Marcellus and Honesta. Gregory II was an alleged collateral ancestor to the Roman Savelli family, according to a 15th-century chronicler, but this is unattested in contemporary documents and very likely unreliable. The same was said of the seventh-century Pope Benedict II, but nothing certain is known about a kinship between the two of them. As a young man, he was placed in the papal court, and was made a subdeacon and sacellarius of the Roman See during the pontificate of Sergius I (687–701). Later he was made a deacon and placed in charge of the Vatican Library. During Constantine's pontificate, Gregory was made a papal secretary, and accompanied the pope to Constantinople in 711 to deal with the issues raised by Rome’s rejection of the canons of the Quinisext Council. The actual negotiations on the contentious articles were handled by Gregory, with the result that Emperor Justinian II agreed that the papacy could disregard whichever of the council’s decisions it wished to. After Constantine’s death on 9 April 715, Gregory was elected pope, and was consecrated as bishop of Rome on 19 May 715. First years and expanding missionary activity Almost immediately, Gregory began the task of repairing Rome's Aurelian Walls, beginning at the Porta Tiburtina. Work on this task was delayed in October 716 when the river Tiber burst its banks and flooded Rome, causing immense damage and only receding after eight days. Gregory ordered a number of litanies to be said to stem the floods, which spread over the Campus Martius and the so-called Plains of Nero, reaching the foot of the Capitoline Hill. The first year of his pontificate also saw a letter arrive from Patriarch John VI of Constantinople, who attempted to justify his support of Monothelitism, while at the same time seeking sympathy from the pope over the position he was in, with respect to the emperor. Gregory responded by sending a