Pope Gregory, recognized as the legitimate pope by the church, became a bishop and retired.
Pope Gregory XII - who reigned from 1406 to 1415 - did so to end what was called the Western Schism.
Some of Pope Gregory's contemporaries were put out because the new calculations were inspired by the accurate planetary readings of Arab astronomers.
Pope Gregory VII may have humiliated the Emperor Henry IV, as Innocent III later humiliated Philip Augustus of France and King John of England.
In 1582, in Italy and Spain, this day became the first day of the Gregorian Calendar after it was adopted by Pope Gregory XIII.
But resignation is extremely rare: the last pontiff to step aside was Pope Gregory XII, who resigned in 1415 amid a schism within the Church.
The son of a mechanic, he studied philosophy and wrote his thesis on Pope Gregory I at Bologna University, according to his campaign website.
ROME Whatever challenges the Roman Catholic Church faces in 2013, they pale compare to those that prompted the resignation 598 years ago of Pope Gregory XII.
The last pope to resign was Pope Gregory XII, who stepped down in 1415 in a deal to end the Great Western Schism among competing papal claimants.
There were three rival claimants to the papal throne at that time - the Roman Pope Gregory XII, the Avignon Pope Benedict XIII, and the Antipope John XXIII.
The so-called Meridian Hall, created to verify the accuracy of the calendar Pope Gregory XIII promulgated in 1582, is in the Vatican Secret Archives, which hold some 10m documents stored by the papacy over the past 1, 200 years.
Before the Revolution, Russia had not yet adopted the Gregorian calendar, introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 to mitigate the errors of the Julian calendar, which owes its name to the Roman emperor who had chosen it 46 years before the birth of Jesus Christ.
The last pope to resign was Gregory XII in 1415.
CNN: Pope Benedict to resign at the end of the month, Vatican says
Putting up the money for the fresco restoration in the Vatican coupled with other donations prompted Pope Benedict XVI to make him a Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Gregory in 2005.
The last Pope to resign willingly was Celestine V, who stepped down in 1294, while Gregory XII reluctantly abdicated in 1415.
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