Leo Viii

LEO VIII., pope from 963 to 965, a Roman by birth, held the lay office of protoscrinius when he was elected to the papal chair at the instance of Otto the Great by the Roman synod which deposed John XII. in December 963. In February 964, the em peror having withdrawn from the city, Leo fled, and was deposed by a synod presided over by John XII. On the sudden death of John, the people chose Benedict V. as his successor; but Otto laid siege to the city and compelled their acceptance of Leo. It is usually stated that, at the synod which deposed Benedict, Leo conceded to the emperor and his successors as sovereign of Italy full rights of investiture, but the genuineness of the document is more than doubtful. Leo VIII. was succeeded by John XIII. LEO IX., saint, pope from 1049 to 1054, a native of Upper Alsace, was born on June 21, 1002. His name was Bruno; through his father he was related to the emperor Conrad II. He was edu cated at Toul, where he successively became canon and (1026) bishop; he rendered political services to Conrad II., and after wards to Henry III., and zealously promoted the rule of the order of Cluny. On the death of Damasus II., Bruno was in December 1048, with the concurrence of the emperor and of the Roman delegates, selected pope by an assembly at Worms; he stipulated, however, that he should first proceed to Rome and be canonically elected by the voice of clergy and people. On his way to Rome he met abbot Hugo of Cluny at Besancon, where he was joined by the young monk Hildebrand, afterwards Pope Gregory VII. He arrived in pilgrim garb at Rome, and at his consecration assumed the name of Leo IX. One of his first public acts was to hold the well-known Easter synod of 1049, at which celibacy of the clergy (down to the rank of subdeacon) was anew enjoined, and where he pronounced against every kind of simony. The greater part of 1050 was spent in a progress through Italy, Germany and France. After presiding over a synod at Pavia, he joined the emperor Henry III. in Saxony, and accompanied him to Cologne and Aix la-Chapelle; at Reims he summoned a meeting of the higher clergy, by which reforming decrees were passed. At Mainz he held a council, at which the Italian, French and German clergy were represented, and ambassadors of the Greek emperor were present ; here simony and the marriage of the clergy were the principal matters dealt with. After a fourth Easter synod in 1053

Leo set out against the Normans in the south with an army of Italians and German volunteers, but his forces were defeated at Astagnum near Civitella (June 18, 1053). He died on April 19, 1054. He was succeeded by Victor II.

See E. Martin, Saint Leon IX. (1904) ; J. H. Stein, Der deutsche Heilige im Petersdom, Papst Leo IX. (1925).

LEO X.

[Giovanni de' Medici] pope March I 1, 1513 to Dec. 1, 1521, was the second son of Lorenzo de' Medici, called the Magnificent, and was born at Florence on Dec. II, He received the tonsure at the age of seven and was soon loaded with rich benefices and preferments. Innocent VIII. named him cardinal-deacon of Sta. Maria in Dominica in March 1489. He received a careful education at Lorenzo's court under Angelo Poliziano, Pico della Mirandola, Marsilio Ficino, and Bibbiena. From 1489 to 1491 he studied theology and canon law at Pisa. In 1492 he was formally admitted into the sacred college and settled in Rome. The death of Lorenzo called the seventeen-year old cardinal to Florence. He participated in the conclave on the death of Innocent VIII. in July 1492, and opposed the election of Cardinal Borgia. He lived with his elder brother Piero at Florence throughout the agitation of Savonarola and the invasion of Charles VIII. of France, until the Medici were expelled in November Giovanni then travelled in Germany, in the Netherlands and in France. In May 1500 he returned to Rome, where he devoted himself to art and literature. When the death of Piero de' Medici took place in 1503 Giovanni became head of his family. On Oct. 1, 1511, he was appointed papal legate of Bologna and the Romagna, and when the Florentine republic declared in favour of the schismatic Pisans Julius II. sent him against Florence at the head of the papal army. A bloodless revolution permitted the return of the Medici on Sept. 14, 1512. Giovanni's younger brother Giuliano became the nominal head of the republic, but the cardinal was the real ruler. Julius II. died in Feb. 1513, and the conclave, after a stormy seven days' session, united on Cardinal de' Medici as the candidate of the younger cardinals. He was ordained to the priesthood on March 15, consecrated bishop on the 17th, and enthroned with the name Leo X. on the 19th.