LEO
159
LIO
Cto called) and other Chronicles, in Mon. Oerm.: Script. ^ I;
Carmen de Carolo Maano, in P. L., XCVIII. Cf. Bbtce, The
Holy Roman Empire (London, 1889); Klkinclaugus, L'Emtnre
CaroHngicn (Palis, 1902); Hodqkin, Italy and her Invader;
VIII (Oxford, 1899); Bohmer, Regesta Imperii, ed. MChl-
BACHER. I (Innsbruck, 1908); Mann, The Lives of the Popes in
the Early Middle Ages, II (London, 1906), 1 sqq.
Horace K. Mann.
Leo IV, Saint, Pope (847-55), a Roman and the son of Radoald, was unanimously elected to succeed Serpius IT, and as the alarming attack of the Saracens on Rome in 846 caused the people to fear for the safety of the city, he was consecrated (10 April, 847) without the consent of the emperor. Leo received his early education at Rome in the monastery of St. Mar- tin, near St. Peter's. His pious behaviour attracted the notice of Gregory IV, who made him a subdeacon; and he was created Cardinal-Priest of the church of the Quatuor Coronati by Sergius II. As soon as Leo, much a^inst his will, became pope, he began to take precautions against a repetition of the Saracen raid of 846. He put the walls of the city into a thorough state of repair, entirely rebuilding fifteen of the great towers. He was the first to enclose the Vatican hill by a wall. To do this, he received money from the emperor, and help from all the cities and agricultural colonies (domus cultce) of the Duchy of Rome. The work took him four years to accomplish, and the newly fortified portion was called the Leonine City, after him. In 852 the fortifications were completed, and were blessed by the pope with great solemnity.
Whilst the work of refortifying the city was in prog- ress, a great fleet of the Saracens sailed for Rome, seemingly from Sardinia, but it was completely de- stroyed off Ostia by the allied fleets of Rome, >faples, Amalfi, and Gaeta, and by a tempest (849). When the rebuilding of the walls of Rome was accomplished, Leo rebuflt Portus, and handed it over to a,numbcr of Corsican exiles, whom the ravages of the Saracens had driven from their homes. Other cities too in the Roman duchy were fortified, either by the pope him- self or in consequence of his exhortations. Leo also endeavoured to make good the damage which the Saracen raid of 846 had done to the diff'erent churches. St. Peter's had suffered very severely, and though as a whole it never again reached its former magnificence, Leo managed to make it in parts at least more beauti- ful than it had been before. St. Martin's, where he had been educated, the Quatuor Coronati, of which he had been the priest, the Lateran Palace, the Anglo- Saxon Borgo, Subiaco, and many other places both in Rome and out of it were renovated by the energetic Leo. It was by this pope that the church of S. Maria Nova was built, to replace S. Maria Antiqua. which the decaying Palace of the Caesars threatened to en- gulf^ and of which the ruins have recently been brought to h^ht. In 850 Leo associated with Lothair in the empire his son Louis, by imposing on him the imperial crown. Three years later "he hallowed the child Alfred to king [says an old English historian] by anointing; and, receiving him for his own child by adoption, gave him confirmation, and sent him bacK [to England] with the bessing of St. Peter the Apostle."
The same year (853) he held an important synod in Rome, in which various decrees were passed for the furtherance of ecclesiastical discipline and learning, and for the condemnation of the refractory Anastasius, Cardinal of St. Marcellus, and sometime librarian of the Roman Church. Equally rebelHous conduct on the part of John, Archbishop of Ravenna, forced Leo to undertake a journey to that city to inspire John and his accomplices with a respect for the law. It was while engaged in endeavouring to inspire another archbishop, Hincmar of Reims, with this same rever- ence, that Leo died. Another man who, till his death (851), defied the authority of the pope was Nomeno^, Duke of Brittany. Anxious to be inde- pendent of the imperial authority Nomeno^, in defi-
ance both of Leo and Charles the Bald, not only de«
posed a number of bishops, but made new ones, and
subjected them to a metropolitan see (Dol) of his own
creation. It was not till the thirteenth century that
the Archbishop of Tours recovered his jurisdiction
over the Breton bishops. For consecrating a bishop
outside hb own diocese, St. Methodius, Patriarcn
of Constantinople, had suspended Gregory Asbestas,
Bishop of Syracuse. St. Ignatius, who succeeded St.
Methodius, in consequence forbade Gregory to be
E resent at his consecration. This led Gregory to reak all bounds. St. Ignatius accordingly caused him to be deposed, and begged the pope to confirm the deposition. This, however, Leo would not do, be- cause, as he said, Ignatius had assembled bishops and deposed others without his knowledge, whereas he ought not to have done so "in the absence of our legates or of letters from us ". Despite the fact that Leo was then in opposition to the Patriarch of Con- stantinople, one of his dependents, Daniel, a magister milUum, accused him to the Prankish Emperor Louis of wishing to overthrow the domination of the Franks by a Greek alliance. Leo had, however, no difficulty in convincing Louis that the chaige was absolutely groundless. Daniel was condemned to death and only escaped it by the intercession of the emperor. Shortly after this Leo died, and was buried in St. Peter's (17 July, 855). He is credited with being a worker of miracles both by his biographer and by the Patriarch Photius. His name is found in the Roman Martyrology.
Liber PorUrficalis, ed. DucnESNE, II, 106 sq.: his letters in P. L., CXV, CXXIX; the letters of Hincmar in P. L., CXXVI; the annals of Hincmar etc. Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script., I; Life oj St. Ignatius and other documents in Labbe, Concilia, VIII; cI. Lanciani, The Destruction of Ancient Rome (London, 1901), 132 sq.; Thurston, The Roman Sacring of King Alfred in The Month (Oct., 1901); Fortescde, The Orthodox Eastern Church (London, 1907), 136 sq.; de Brolo, Storia della Chiesa in Sicilia (Palermo, 1884), II, 265 sq.; Mann, Lives of the Popes, II (Lon- don, 1902), 258 sciq.
Horace K. Mann.
Leo V, Pope. — ^Very little is known of him. We have no certainty either as to when he was elected or as to exactly how long he reigned. It is highly prob- able that he was pope during August, 903. He was a native of Priapi, a small place in the district of Ardea. When chasen he was not one of the cardinal-priests of Rome, but was attached to some church outside the City. Hence, in contemporary catalogues of the popes he is called a presbiter forensic. Auxilius, a writer of the time, says that he held " the rudder of the Holy Roman Church" for thirty days, and that "he was a man of God and of praiseworthy life and holi- ness. " Except that he issued a Bull exempting the canons of Bologna from the payment of taxes, we know of nothing that he did as pope. The circum- stances of his death are as obscure as those of his life. Afiter a pontificate of somewhat over a month he was seized by Christopher, Cardinal-Priest of St. Damasus, and cast into prison. The intruder promptly seated himself in the chair of Peter, but was soon after dis- placed by Sergius III. According to one authority, Sergius took pity" on the two imprisoned pontiffs, ancTcaused them both to be put to death. However, it seems more likely that Leo died a natural death in
prison or in a monastery.
Liber Pontificalis, ed. Duchesne, II (Paris, 1892), 234; jArrfe, Reg. Pontif., II (Leipzig, 1888), 746. Cf. Mann, Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages, IV (London. 1906), 111
sqq. Horace K. Mann.
Leo VI, Pope. — ^The exact dates of the election and death of Leo VI are uncertain, but it is clear that he was pope during the latter half of 928. If, as some suppose, he was elected in June, 928, then he died in Feoruary, 929, as he reigned seven months and five days. Others, however, believe he became pope be- fore the month of June. He was a Roman, the son of the primiceriua, Christopher, who bad been prime
