capacity that when Charles attempted the celebrated "arrest of the five members" on the 4th of January, 1642, and asked Lenthall whether he saw any of them in the house, the speaker falling on his knees, replied—"May it please your majesty, I have neither eyes to see, nor tongue to speak in this place, but as the house is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here, and humbly beg your majesty's pardon that I cannot give any other answer than this to what your majesty is pleased to demand of me." The commons were so well satisfied with his services that one of their first acts, as soon as they had a great seal of their own, was to appoint Lenthall master of the rolls; and when difficulties broke out between the two houses as to the choice of commissioners of the great seal, it was committed to the two speakers, and remained with them for a year and a half. In all the events which led to the execution of Charles, Lenthall participated, and after the king's death his position was one of no small dignity. It was at his house that was held, after the battle of Worcester, the conference between Cromwell and the officers of the army on the one hand, and leading members of parliament on the other, for the "settlement of the nation." In Cromwell's coup d'état, the expulsion of the Rump, Lenthall as speaker was involved.—(See Harrison, Thomas.) He then fell back on the rolls, and did not figure in public life until the convocation of the protector's second parliament, September, 1654, in which he sat as member for Oxfordshire, and of which he was elected speaker. When, in the following April, Cromwell proposed to the commissioners of the great seal and the master of the rolls a new ordinance for the reform of the court of chancery, Lenthall protested that "he would be hanged before the rolls' gate before he would execute it;" but on the dismissal of the two opposing commissioners he wheeled round and gave in his adhesion to the measure. He sat, but not as speaker, in Cromwell's parliament of 1656. He was prominent in the movement to induce the protector to assume the title of king, and was afterwards included in Cromwell's house of peers. He took his seat in Richard Cromwell's house of peers; and when the Long parliament was resuscitated he figured once more as its speaker, and twice for a few days had the custody of the great seal intrusted to him. At the Restoration he lost all his employments, although he offered £3000 to be retained as master of the rolls. With some difficulty he escaped other pains and penalties, and retired, possessed of considerable wealth, to Burford priory in Oxfordshire, which he had purchased from Lord Falkland. On his death-bed he made to Bredock, afterwards bishop of Chichester, an abject recantation of his early antiroyalist errors, and died on the 3rd of September, 1662, leaving with men of all parties the reputation of a cunning and time-serving self-seeker. Several of his official letters are in the collection of King's Pamphlets in the British museum.—F. E
LENTULUS, the surname of a branch of the Cornelian family, which produced several great men:—
Lentulus, Publius Cornelius, surnamed Sura, famous as one of the principal coadjutors of Catiline. Many scattered details respecting him may be found in Sallust, Cicero, and Plutarch. In 81 b.c. he was quæstor to Sylla, in which capacity Verres had to give account to him and L. Triarius for money received in Gallia Cisalpina. Soon after he had himself to render a similar account, and obtained his acquittal. In 75 b.c. he was prætor; in 71 consul; in 70 he was expelled from the senate, and joined the party of Catiline. He was again prætor in 63 b.c., and the same year was discovered to be a chief conspirator with Catiline, and was in consequence seized, degraded, condemned, and strangled.
Lentulus, Cneius Cornelius Gætulicus, born about 20 b.c., was consul in a.d. 26, and afterwards commanded troops in Germany. The favour in which he was held by the soldiers appears to have saved his life on the fall of Sejanus. Caligula had him put to death in a.d. 39. His historical works mentioned by Suetonius are lost, and almost all his poetical productions.—B. H. C.
LEO I., surnamed the Great, Emperor of Constantinople, was born about 400, of obscure parents. At the death of the Emperor Marcianus in 457, he held the office of military tribune, and commanded a body of troops at Selymbria. Aspar, a powerful Gothic chief and captain of the guards, might have obtained the crown but for his heretical opinions; and on his recommendation Leo was appointed to the vacant throne. His nomination was ratified by the senate, and Leo was crowned by the Patriarch Anatolius; the first example, it is said, of an emperor receiving the imperial crown from the hands of a prelate. The new emperor followed the policy of his predecessor in persecuting the Eutychians. He appointed Anthemius emperor of the west, defeated the Huns who had invaded the province of Dacia, and, in concert with Anthemius, sent an immense fleet with a powerful army on board to expel the Vandals from Africa. But owing to the supineness and mismanagement of the commander Basilicus, Leo's brother-in-law, the expedition was unsuccessful, and many of the ships were destroyed. Dissatisfied with the exorbitant authority of Aspar, he gradually undermined his authority, and afterwards perfidiously put that chief and his sons to death on a charge of conspiracy—a step that led to a revolt of the Goths, which was with difficulty suppressed. Leo died in 474, and the succession devolved on the son of his daughter Ariadne—
LEO II., who was only four years of age when he was proclaimed emperor. His father, Zeno, was soon after associated with him in the throne, and was suspected of having procured the death of the child, after he had nominally worn the crown for two months.—J. T.
LEO III., surnamed the Isaurian, from the place of his birth, was of humble origin but by his valour and military skill rose to the supreme command of the troops in Asia. He was raised to the throne in 718, and died in 741, after a reign of twenty-four years, and was succeeded by his son Constantine, named Copronymus. The principal event which marked his reign was the decree issued by him against the use of images in churches, which originated the schism of the iconoclasts, or "image-breakers," brought great calamities on the empire, and contributed to the loss of Italy.—J. T.
LEO IV., son of Constantine Copronymus, born 25th January, 750, succeeded his father in 775. He was of a feeble constitution, both of mind and body; but he adhered zealously to his father's iconoclastic opinions, and banished many of the party that opposed them. He died in 780, and was succeeded by his son Constantine VI., a boy of ten years of age, under the regency of the Empress Irene, an able but ambitious woman.—J. T.
LEO V., surnamed the Armenian, was the son of the celebrated Bardas, who was from that country. His great reputation for courage and ability gained him the confidence of Nicephorus I.; but being accused of treason, he was sent into exile. He was recalled and restored to his rank by Michael Rhangabe in 811. He was ungrateful to his benefactor, however, and excited the army to mutiny against him. Michael offered no resistance, and on the approach of the rebels to the capital he sent the imperial insignia to Leo, and retired into a convent. The successful rebel entered Constantinople in July, 813, and was crowned by the patriarch Nicephorus. He was ignorant both of laws and letters, and wielded the sceptre with great cruelty. Like his predecessors he was an iconoclast, exiled the patriarch who opposed his measures, and even put to death many of the image-worshippers. Discontent in consequence arose, and plots were formed against him; and in December, 820 he was murdered at the altar by a band of conspirators disguised as priests.—J. T.
LEO VI., named the Philosopher, born in 865, was the son of the Emperor Basilius, the Macedonian, whom he succeeded in 886, along with his brother Alexander. His surname was derived from his writings; but his character was soft and indolent, his intellect debased by puerile superstitions, and his life disgraced by vicious indulgences. He quarreled with the patriarch, Nicholas, and drove him into exile because, in accordance with the law of the church, he refused to sanction the fourth nuptials of the emperor. The capital was disturbed by the intrigues and excesses of the courtiers, as well as by the irregularities of Leo himself, while both the Saracens and the Bulgarians defeated the imperial armies and laid waste the provinces with fire and sword. The indolence and inefficiency of Leo caused great disaffection; a conspiracy was formed against him, and in 902 he was attacked and wounded by an assassin at the entrance of the church of St. Maur, but recovered from his wound. Two years later the Saracens inflicted great calamities on the country, took and plundered Thessalonica, the second city of the empire, and carried away its inhabitants into slavery. Leo died in 911 at the age of forty-six, and was succeeded by his son Constantine Porphyrogennitus, the offspring of his fourth marriage. Leo was the author of a treatise on tactics; a collection of oracles or
