Gregorius

Written around 1190 in rhyming couplets, it tells the story of a child born of the incestuous union of a brother and sister, who is brought up in a monastery, ignorant of his origins, marries his mother, repents of his sins and becomes pope.

Gregorius' parents are aged approximately 11 when he is born and are the orphaned children of a wealthy duke, and his father dies after being sent on a pilgrimage from Europe to Jerusalem to repent of their sins by a wise old man.

Aged six, Gregorius begins his education under the abbot's guidance, and as he grows, quickly becomes very clever, strong, and handsome, revealing to all that he cannot merely be the son of a poor fisherman.

They marry, and one day as he is out hunting, a maid shows his wife to the room where he has kept the tablet, and from which he always emerges terribly sadly with eyes red from crying.

Seventeen years later, God tells two elderly clergymen in Rome that the next pope is to be found repenting a grave sin upon a rock in Aquitania.