LENTULUS LEO 345 mass and making a pottage of a chocolate col- or. In Egypt and Syria the parched seeds are exposed for sale in the shops, and they are es- teemed the best food to carry upon long jour- neys. On the continent of Europe its use is very common, especially by the Roman Catho- lics during Lent. The plant is slender and branching, with the leaves terminated by ten- drils; it grows only 12 or 18 in. high, and bears small pea-like flowers in pairs, which are succeeded by pods containing from one to four round, flattened, doubly convex seeds. There are some half dozen varieties, of which the large lentil is the most productive and the com- mon the best flavored. Considerable quanti- ties are imported into this country, .but their use is mainly confined to Europeans; lentil soup is a favorite dish with Germans. The cultivation of the lentil is very similar to that of the pea, requiring a dry, warm, sandy soil ; it is sown early in May, broadcast if intended merely for fodder, but in drills if the ripe seeds are desired ; as a green food for stock it is highly valued in Europe, but it has not ob- tained a place in our agriculture. Like other legumes, the lentil contains a great amount of nutriment, Einhoff finding in 100 parts 32'81 of starch and 37*32 of matter analogous to ani- mal matter. The preparation sold as a food for children under the names of revalenta and ervalenta Arabica consists of lentil meal fla- vored with sugar and salt. Lentils are regard- ed as a highly nutritious and easily digestible food, but they must be deprived of their skins either before or after cooking, as these are in- digestible and hurtful. LENTULUS, the name of a patrician family, long prominent in ancient Roman history. PUBLIUS LENTULUS SUKA, the chief associate of Catiline, was qusestor in 81 B. 0., prastor in 75, consul in 71, and in the following year was ejected from the senate for his infamous life. Joining the conspiracy of Catiline, he became praetor again in 63, was left in com- mand of the conspirators in the city when Catiline departed for Etruria, was detected and proved guilty by Cicero through the Allo- broges, and was strangled in the Capitoline prison, Dec. 5, 63 B. 0. LEffZ, Jakob Michael Reinhold, a German poet, born at Sesswegen, Livonia, Jan. 12, 1750, died in Moscow, May 24, 1792. He was the son of a clergyman, studied in Konigsberg, and as a tutor of Russian nobles went to Strasburg, where he was an unsuccessful lover of Goethe's Friederike of Sesenheim. In 1776 he associ- ated with Goethe, Herder, and Wieland at "Weimar ; but his aversion to the convention- alities of society put a speedy end to his resi- dence there. He became insane, and ended his life in great misery. His writings, chiefly dra- matic, edited by Tieck (3 vols., Berlin, 1828), reflect the "storm and pressure period" of German literature. LEO, the name of twelve popes, of whom the following are the most important. L Leo I., Saint, surnamed the Great, born of Tuscan parents in Rome about 390, died there in No- vember, 461. He was employed by Popes Zo- simus, Celestine I., and Sixtus III. on the most important missions. In 418 he was sent to the churches of northern Africa to unite the bish- ops against the spread of the Pelagian doc- trines; and he displayed great activity in combating the Nestorian heresy. When the dissensions between the imperial commanders in the West, Aetius and Albinus, left Gaul and Italy exposed to the attacks of the barbarians, Leo was sent by the emperor Valentinian III. to appease the quarrel, and had just succeeded in his mission when Sixtus III. died in the sum- mer of 440, and Leo was unanimously chosen his successor. His first efforts as pope were directed toward restoring harmony and disci- pline among the churches of Africa, annulling fraudulent episcopal elections in Gaul, enfor- cing celibacy among the clergy, and suppressing the immorality charged on the Manichseans of Italy. In 445 he held a council in Rome to judge the appeal of Celidonius, bishop of Be- san9on, who was declared innocent and re- stored to his see ; and St. Hilary, archbishop of Aries, who had deposed him, was for a time deprived of his metropolitan jurisdiction. In Spain he approved of the execution of Pris- cillian, convicted of magic and immorality, and put to death by the usurper Maximus, and he procured the condemnation of Priscillian- ism by a national council of Spanish bishops. Eutyches, condemned for heresy at Constan- tinople in November, 448, made an appeal to Leo which was supported by the emperor Theodosius II. This led to the convocation at Ephesus, in 449, of what is known as the " rob- ber synod," in which the partisans of Eutyches, protected by the imperial troops, excommuni- cated Leo, and caused or hastened the death of Flavian, patriarch of Constantinople. These violent proceedings were cancelled by the gen- eral council of Chalcedon in 451, over which Leo's legates presided, and in which his letter was accepted as the expression of orthodox doctrine. In 452, at the invasion of Italy by the Huns under Attila, the emperor Valen- tinian having taken refuge in Rome, and his general Aetius having abandoned Italy to her fate, Leo with two senators went to meet At- tila near Mantua, and persuaded him to ac- cept a pecuniary ransom from the Romans, and to retire beyond the Danube. In 455, Genseric and an army of Vandals having come to Rome at the invitation of the empress Eu- doxia, the mediation of Leo could only obtain a promise that the lives of the citizens should be spared, together with three churches, which served as an asylum while the rest of the city was sacked. All the treasures of Rome having been carried to Africa with her chief citizens, the pope devoted himself to redeeming the captives and relieving the manifold distress of his flock. He also used his influence with the court of Constantinople to quell the religious
