in princely fashion the discoverers of remains of antiquity; and Raffaelle, who had painted for him, as Cardinal de' Medici, the Transfiguration, executed for him, as Pope, the famous cartoons now at Hampton court. With the restoration of peace to Italy the splendour and profusion of the pope increased; and the single enterprise of completing the immense structure of St. Peter's, begun by Julius II., might alone have embarrassed his finances. It was to raise money for this last object that Leo was tempted to have recourse to the sale of indulgences, and thus produced the cardinal event of his pontificate, which throws all others into the shade—the birth of the Reformation. Luther's protests and resistance were treated at first by Leo with mildness, and even with an unaffected indifference. Severity in ecclesiastical matters was foreign to Leo's nature, and to the last he seems to have little suspected the importance of the Saxon monk whose indignation had been roused by the sale of indulgences. Leo's first overt act of interference in the controversy between Luther and the defenders of indulgences, was to write to the vicar-general of the Augustines, and recommend him to win back the indignant monk by letters of admonition and persuasion. His next step, 7th August, 1518, was to cite Luther to appear at Rome and defend himself from the charges brought against him; and it was only when Maximilian claimed the Pope's stringent interference that Leo ordered his legate at the imperial court to call Luther before him, and detain him until further orders if he should persist in his opinions. When Luther met with defiance Leo's bull of the 9th November, 1518, declaring the lawfulness and efficiency of indulgences, and a belief in both to be an article of faith, the pope sent a secular envoy, Militz, to the court of Luther's patron the Elector Frederick of Saxony, on a mission more of mediation than of menace. And even after the publication of Luther's plain-spoken letter to the pope (16th April, 1520), prefixed to his treatise on Christian Liberty, denouncing Rome as Babylon, it required the remonstrances and incitements of prelates and universities to determine Leo to convoke the conference of cardinals and theologians, by whom was drawn up the famous bull of the 15th June, 1520, publicly burnt by Luther at Wittemberg on the 10th of December following. Meanwhile, Leo had on hand other and what he doubtless considered more important matters. More alarmed by the growth of the Turkish power than by the opposition of Luther to the indulgences, in 1518 he called together his cardinals; proclaimed a general truce in Europe for five years, with the penalty of excommunicating any prince or state infringing it; and thought to organize a great European league to enter on a new crusade, of which the capture of Constantinople and the complete destruction of the Turkish power should be the object. Baffled in this object by the langour of the sovereigns to whom he appealed, and who consented to form a defensive, but not an offensive league against the Turks, Leo resumed the execution of his own schemes of private and family aggrandizement. His nephew Lorenzo, on whom he had conferred the duchy of Urbino, died in the April of 1519, and Leo reorganized the government of Florence, annexing Urbino with Pesaro and Sinigaglia to the states of the church. In 1521 he seized and annexed Perugia. In the same year, he abandoned the French alliance, and concluded a treaty with the Emperor Charles V., 8th May, 1521, for the expulsion of the French from Italy; one of Leo's rewards to be the reacquisition of Parma and Piacenza. On the 19th of November, 1521, Milan surrendered to the allies; the rule of Sforza replaced that of the French in the capital of Lombardy; and Parma and Piacenza were once more the pope's. Soon after the arrival of the welcome news, Leo was taken ill, and after an illness of a few days he died at Rome on the 1st December, 1521; nor were wanting strong suspicions that he had been poisoned. When Leo died, Luther was in the castle of Wartburg, and one of the Pope's last public acts was to confer on Henry VIII., for his Vindication of the Seven Sacraments against Luther, the title of Defender of the Faith, still born by the sovereigns of England. As a politician Leo was astute and energetic, and if unscrupulous, not more so than the other Italian rulers of his age,—the age of Machiavelli. As a pope, says the Roman catholic writer. Father Paul, "Leo X. displayed a singular proficiency in polite literature, wonderful humanity, benevolence and mildness, the greatest liberality, and an extensive inclination to favour excellent and learned men; insomuch that for a long course of years no one had sat on the pontifical throne that could in any degree be compared to him." "He would indeed," adds the historian of the council of Trent, "have been a perfect pontiff, if to these accomplishments he had united some knowledge in matters of religion, and a greater inclination to piety, to neither of which he appeared to pay any great attention." "Leo X.," according to his diligent biographer, Mr. Roscoe, "was in stature much above the common standard. His person was well formed, his habit rather full than corpulent, but his limbs appeared somewhat too slender in proportion to his body. Although the size of his head and the amplitude of his features approached to an extreme, yet they exhibited a certain degree of dignity, which commanded respect. His complexion was florid; his eyes were large, round, and prominent; his voice remarkable for softness and flexibility."—F. E.
LEO XI. (Alessandro Ottaviano de' Medici) was the son of Ottaviano de' Medici and of Francesca Salviati, niece of Leo X. He was born at Florence in 1535. For several years he resided at the papal court as representative of Tuscany; he then became bishop of Pistoja, and in 1574 archbishop of Florence. Gregory XIII. made him a cardinal in 1583, and Clement VIII. in 1596 sent him as legate to Henry IV. of France, to receive that prince into the bosom of the Roman catholic church. Cardinal Alexander remained two years at the French court, where his presence was specially acceptable to the king. On the death of Clement in 1605, the conclave became divided into three parties, French, Spanish, and Italian, each of which had its candidate, whom the other two parties strenuously opposed. Cardinal Baronius at one time had so large a number of votes, that he would have been elected but for the determined opposition of the Spanish party, who could not forgive the historian his argument against the king of Spain's title to the kingdom of Sicily. Ultimately the French and Italian parties came to an understanding, and Cardinal Joyeuce proposed Alexander de' Medici, in whose favour the suffrages of the conclave were unanimously recorded. On the first April, Alexander assumed the tiara, taking the title of Leo XI. Twenty-six days afterwards the papal throne was again vacant. On the day of procession to St. John de Lateran, Leo exhausted by the tedious ceremonial, and overheated by his cumbrous robes, went back to his palace to die of fever, 1605. He was succeeded by Paul V.
LEO XII. (Annibale Della Genga), born at the Castle Della Genga, in the territory of Spoleto, on the 2d August, 1760; died at Rome 10th February, 1829. Pius VII. employed him as nuncio at various German courts, and intrusted him with a special mission to Louis XVIII. of France. On his return to Rome, he became successively bishop of Sinigaglia, cardinal, and vicar-general. He succeeded Pius in the papal chair on the 27th September, 1823. Though his pontificate was not marked by any extraordinary events, some interest attaches to it as a period of social progress. Leo exerted himself to suppress brigandage and mendicity, and was a declared enemy of the Carbonari and other secret societies. He was a liberal patron of letters, and he was anxious to increase the number and efficiency of public schools. His attitude as a temporal prince was firm, even to defiance, and in consequence he had some difficulties with Austria and France in 1824. In this year he proclaimed the jubilee of 1825. He was succeeded by Pius VIII.
LEO, a philosopher and politician who took a leading part in the defence of Byzantium against Philip of Macedon, 340 b.c. A catalogue of his works is given by Suidas and Eudocia, but its accuracy is doubtful. Nothing is known of him except a few anecdotes illustrating his ready wit.—D. W. R.
LEO or LEONTIUS PILATUS, appointed professor of Greek at Florence in 1361, was one of the first who taught that language in Italy. Amongst his scholars was Boccaccio, for whose use he made a prose translation of Homer.—D. W. R.
LEO ALLATIUS. See Allatius.
LEO DIACONUS, or the Deacon, a Byzantine historian of the tenth century, but of whom very little is known beyond what may be gathered from his principal work. While young he went to study at Constantinople, having been, it would seem, in Lydia. The last event he records occurred in 993, and he therefore belongs to the second half of the tenth century. He wrote a history in twenty books, commencing with the Cretan expedition of Nicephorus Phocas in 959, and ending with the death of John Zimisces in 975. There are many defects in this work, which first appeared complete, edited by C. B. Hase, in 1819; but it is nevertheless of real utility. It was republished at Bonn in 1828.—B. H. C.
