Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/191

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

LIO


162


UBO


could among the Italianprinces, and, declaring war on the Normans, tried to effect a junction with the Greek general. But the Normans defeated first the Greeks and then the pope at Civitella (June, 1053). After the battle Leo ^ve himself up to his conauerors, who treated him with the utmost respect and considera- tion, and professed themselves his soldiers.

Though he gained more by defeat than he could have gained by victory, Leo betook himself to Benevento, a broken-hearted man. The slain at Civitella were ever before him, and he was profoundly troubled by the attitude of Michael Cflcrularius, Patriarch of Constan- tinople. That ambitious prelate was determinerl, if possible, to have no superior in either Church or State. As early as 1042, he had struck the pope's name off the sacred diptychs, and soon proceeded, first in private and then m public, to attack the Latin Church because it used unfermented bread (azymes) in the Sacrifice of the Mass. At length, and that, too, in a most barbarous manner, he closed the Latin churches in Constantinople. In reply to this violence, Leo ad- dressed a strong letter to Michael (Sept., 1053), and began to study Greek in order the better to under- Btajid the matters in dispute. However, if Michael had taken advantage of the pope's difficulties with the Normans to push his plans, the Greek Emperor, seeing that his hold on Southern Italy was endangered by the Norman success, put pressure on the patriarch to make him more respectful to the pope. To the con- ciliatory letters which Constantine and Cierularius now dispatched to Rome, Leo sent suitable replies (Jan., 1054), blaming the arrogance of the patriarch. His letters were conyej'ed by two distinguished car- dinals, Humbert and Frederick, but he had departed this life before the momentous issue of his embassy was known in Rome. On 16 July, 1054, the two cardinals excommunicated Ca>rularius, and the East was finally cut off from the body of the Church.

The annals of England show that Leo had many relations with that country, and its saintly King Edward. He dispensed the king from a vow which he had taken to malce a pilgrimage to Rome, on condition that he give alms to the poor, and endow a monas- tery in honour of St. Peter. Leo also authorized the translation of the See of Crediton to Exeter, and forbade the consecration of the unworthy Abbot of Abingdon (Spearhafoc) as Bishop of London. Throughout the troubles which Robert of Jumi^ges, Archbishop of Canterbury, had with the family of Earl Godwin, he received the support of the pope, who sent him the pallium and condemned Stigand, the usurper of his see (1053?). King Macbeth, the sup- posed murderer of Duncan, whom Shakespeare has mimortalized, is believed to have visited Rome during Leo's pontificate, and may be thouglit to have ex- posed the needs of his soul to that tender father. After the battle of Civitella Leo never recovered his spirits. Seized at length with a mortal illness, he caused himself to be carried to Rome (March, 1054). where he died a most edifying death. He was buried in St. Peter's, was a worker of miracles both in life and in death, and found a place in the Roman Martyrology.

WiBERT aiid other contemporary biographcri of the saint in Watferich, Pont. Horn. Viiae, I (Leipzig, 1862)- P. L.. CXLIII. etc.; AsBF.iM of Reims, ibid., CXLII; Libuin in Watterich and in P.L., C!XLIH; see also Bonizo ofSdtri, St. Peter Damian, Lanfranc, and other contemporaries of the saint. His letters are to be found in P. L., CXLlII; cf. Delarc, Un pape Ahacien (Paris, 1876) : Brucker, L'A laace et I'/vlise ou temps du pape S. Lion (Paris, 1889); Martin. S. Lfon IX (Paris, 1904); Br^iuer, Le Schisme Oriental du XI* Silcle (Paris, 1899); Fortescub. flu Orthodox Eastern Chureh (London, 1907), v; Mann, Lives of tfc«Pop««, VI (London. 1910). HoRACE K. MaNN.

Leo X, Pope (Giovanni de' Medici), b. at Florence, 11 December, 1475; d. at Rome, 1 December, 1521, was the second son of Lorenzo the Mapiiiicent (1409^ 1492) and Clarice Orsini, and from his earliest youth was destined for the Church. He received tonsure in


1482 and in 1483 was made Abbot of Font Douce in the French Diocese of Saintes and appointed Apostolic prothonotary by Sixtus IV. All the benefices which the Medici could obtain were at his disposal; he conse- quently became possessed of the rich Abbey of Pas- signano in 1484 and in 1486 of Monte Cassino. Owing to the constant pressure brought to b<^r by LoreiUBO and his envoys, Innocent VIII in 1489, created the thirteen ^^ear old child a cardinal, on condition that he should dispense with the insignia and the privileges of his office for three years. Meanwhile his education was completed by the most distinguished Humanists and scholars, Angelo Poliziano, Marsilio Ficino, and B<»mardo Dovizi (later Cardinal Bibbiena). From 1489 to 1491 Giovanni de' Medici studied theolo^ and canon law, at Pisa, under Filippo Decio and Barto- lomeo Sozzini. On 9 March, 1492, at Fiesole, he was invested with the insignia of a cardinal and on 22 March entered Rome. The next day the pope re- ceived him in consistory with the customaiy ceremo- nies. The Romans found the youthful cardinal more mature than his a^e might warrant them to expect. His father sent him an impressive letter of advice marked by good sense and knowledge of human na- ture, besiucs bearing witness to the high and virtuous sentiments to which the elder Lorenzo returned to- wards the end of his life. In this letter he enjoins upon his son certain rules of conduct, and admonishes him to be honourable, virtuous, and exemplary, the more so as the College of Cardinals at that time was deficient in these good qualities.

In the very next month Lorenzo's death recalled the cardinal to Florence. He returned once more to Rome for the papal election, which resulted, very much against his approval, in the elevation of the unworthy Alexander VI, after which Giovanni re- mained in Florence from August, 1492, until the ex- pulsion of the Medici in 1494, when he fied from his native city in the habit of a Franciscan monk. After several fruitless attempts to restore the supremacy of his family, he went on a Jong journey through Ger- many, Holland, and France, from which he returned to Rome in 15()0. There, in keeping with the habits of his family, he led the life of a literary and artistic amateur. Patronage, liberality, and poor financial administration frequently reduced him even then to distressing straits; indeed, he remained a bad manager to the last. But though his manner of life- was qmte worldly he excelled in dignity, propriety, and irre- proachable conduct most of the cardinals. Towards the end of the pontificate of Julius II (1603-1613^, for- tune once more smiled on Giovanni de* Medici. In August, 1511, the pone was dangerously ill and the Medici cardinal alreacly aspired to the succession. In October, 1511, he became legate; in Bologna and Ro- maf^na, and cherished the hope that his family would again rule in Florence. The Florentines had taken the part of the schismatic Pisans (see Julius II) for which reason the pope supported the Medici. Mean- while the cardinal suffered another reverse. The army, Spanish and papal, with which he was sojourn- ing, was defeated in 1512 at Ravenna by the French and he was taken prisoner. But it was a Pyrrhic vic- tory, for the French soon lost all their possessions in Italy, and the cardinal, who was to have oeen taken to France, succeeded in making his escape. The suprem- acy of the Medici in Florence was re-establisliod in September, 1512, and this unexpected change in the fortunes of his family was only the prelude to higher honours.

Julius II died on 21 February, 1513, and on 11 March Giovanni de' Medici, then but thirty-eight years old, was elected pope. In the first scrutiny he received only one vote. His adherents, the younger cardinals, held back his candidacy imtU the proper moment. The election met with approval even in France, although here and there a natural misgiving