848 



LEO II. (OP TURKEY). 



LEO I. (OF ROME). 



850 



whom be made patrician and captain of his guards, in order to balanc* 

 the power of Aspar, whose fidelity he had reason to suspect, am 

 whom he afterwards caused to be put to death as a conspirator. The 

 auxiliary Goths rose to avenge Aspar's death, and it was with difficulty 

 that Leo overpowered them. Leo died in January 474, bequeathing 

 the throne to his grandson Leo, the child of Zeno and Ariadne. 



LEO II. was four years of age when he was proclaimed, and the 

 people seemed to approve of the choice ; but Ariadne and her mother 

 the empress Verina, having determined to place Zeno on the throne 

 induced the child one day while in public to place a crown on his 

 father's head and call him his colleague. Young Leo died after a 

 nominal reign of ten months, and Zeno himself was suspected o 

 having procured the death of his own child. 



LEO III., called Isauricus, from the country of his birth, was ol 

 humble parentage, and served in the army under Justinian II. Under 

 the reign of Auastasius II. he received the supreme command of the 

 troops of Asia. Aftr Anastasius was deposed and Theodosius III. 

 proclaimed in his stead in 716, Leo would not acknowledge the latter, 

 but marched to Constantinople, when Theodosius resigned the crown 

 to him in March 717. The Saracens soon after, coming in large num- 

 bers by sea and by land, laid siege to Constantinople, when the new 

 emperor came out of the harbour with some fire-ships, which, being 

 impelled by a fair wind among the enemy's fleet, threw it into con- 

 fusion and destroyed many of their ships. The severe winter which 

 followed killed most of the horses and camels of the Saracens, and in 

 the course of the next summer Leo, having defeated them by land, 

 obliged them to raise the siege. It was during this long siege that 

 Sen; i UK, governor of Sicily, thinking the empire at an eud, made him- 

 self independent; but Leo sent a new governor to assert his authority, 

 and the rebels were punished. In 719 Ana-ta.siu", having attempted 

 to resume the crown, was beheaded. Thus far Leo had shown himself 

 to be a brave and able sovereign, but unfortunately, like many of his 

 predecessors, when he began to mix in religious controversy he became 

 tyrannical and cruel The new religion of the Koran abhorred the 

 worship or even the use of images ; the Jewish law likewise strictly 

 forbade it as leading to idolatry ; and this principle thus asserted by 

 these creeds found its way among the Christians of the east, and was 

 adopted by Leo, who, now believing that the use of images in the 

 churches was contrary to religion, issued an edict, ordering their 

 immediate removal. The Patriarch of Constantinople and most of 

 the Greek clergy remonstrated against this measure, and the pope, 

 Gregory II., condemned the edict of Leo as heretical. This was the 

 beginning of the schism of the Iconoclasts, or ' innate-breakers,' which 

 caused great calamities to the empire, and contributed to its losing 

 Italy, as the Italians, supported by the pontiff, refused to obey the 

 edict, while Leo resorted to violence, which irritated the people still 

 more. It was asserted that a conspiracy against the life of the pope 

 was hatched nt Home by the Greek officers there, and supported by 

 the Exarch of Ravenna ; but the people of Rome rose and killed some 

 of the Greeks, and a general insurrection took place over Italy against 

 tho emperor, of which the Longobards availed themselves to extend 

 their dominions, and occupied the port of Classe near Ravenna. Even 

 in the east Leo found the greatest opposition among his subjects, who 

 were much attached to the images. The islands of the Archipelago 

 revolted, and even sent a fleet to threaten the capital, but the Greek 

 fire dispersed it. Great tumults broke out at Constantinople on 

 account of the removal of the images according to the order of the 

 emperor; several persons were killed in the confusion, and others 

 were sentenced to death for having excited the mutiny ; the patriarch 

 Oermanus was deposed, and another prelate favourable to the Icono- 

 clasts was put in his place. Gregory II. having died in 731, Ms suc- 

 cessor, Gregory III., assembled a council at Rome in the following 

 year, in which the Iconoclasts were condemned. A messenger who 

 was despatched to the emperor with the decree of the council was 

 detained in Sicily and not allowed to proceed. Leo, in his wrath 

 against the pontiff, detached from the Roman patriarchate the sees of 

 Illyricum, of Calabria, and Sicily, and placed them under the Patriarch 

 of Constantinople. Meantime the .Saracens were making great progress 

 in Alia Minor, and they conquered the whole of Faphlagonia. In the 

 midst of his unsuccessful struggle both against the Saracens of Asia 

 and against the Italians and the pope, Leo died of the dropsy in the 

 year 741, and was succeeded by his son Constantino, called Copro- 

 nymua, also a zealous Iconoclast, who had married Irene, the daughter 

 of a prince of the Gazari, a Turkish tribe. 



LEO IV., son of Constantino Copronymus, born at Constantinople 

 in 751, succeeded his father in 775. His disposition was milder than 

 that of his father, but like him he was a decided adherent of the 

 Iconoclastic tenets; and he banished many of the old, or, as they 

 called themselves, the orthodox party, whence much odium has been 

 heaped upon his memory. He died in 780, and was succeeded by his 

 gon Constantino VI., under the regency of the Empress Irene. 



LtO V., called the Armenian, because his father was from that 

 country, held a command in the army under the reign of Nicephorus, 

 but being accused of treason he was confined in a convent. Michael 

 Rangabd, on ascending the throne in 811, gave him his pardon and 

 restored him to his rank. Leo however was too ambitious to be 

 grateful. After obtaining some success against the Saracens, he accom- 

 panied Michael on an expedition against the Bulgarians, in which he 



I1IOO. D1V. VOL. III. 



is charged by the historians with betraying his master, and causing 

 tSe loss of the battle near Adrianople. Being left by Michael in 

 charge of the remains of the army, he urged them to rebel, and being 

 proclaimed emperor by them he marched to Constantinople. Michael 

 made no resistance, but sent to his successor the crown, sceptre, and 

 other imperial insignia, and retired into a convent. Leo entered the 

 capital in July 813, and was crowned at St. Sophia by the patriarch 

 Nicephorus. The Bulgarians having invaded the empire and threatened 

 Constantinople, Leo took the field, defeated them at Messembria in 

 814, and in the next year he obliged them to sue for peace. Leo, 

 like his predecessors, was an Iconoclastic, but such was the fanaticism 

 of the people in favour of their images, that they willingly exposed 

 their lives for them. It is a remarkable fact, that about the same 

 time the abuse of the images attracted the attention of the Western 

 Church. An assembly of western bishops took place at Paris in the 

 year 824 to examine the subject of the worship of images, to which 

 the opinion of those prelates was not altogether favourable. Leo 

 however, like his Iconoclastic predecessors, went to the extreme, 

 fancying that the only means of correcting the abuse was by destroy- 

 ing the images altogether : he exiled the patriarch Nicephorus, who 

 would not consent to an Iconoclastic proscription, and he put to death 

 many who were on the same side, which was that of the mass of 

 the people and clergy, and especially the monks, who had great 

 influence in the eastern empire. Persecution and discontent prepared 

 the way for conspiracies. Michael, surnamed the Stammerer, who 

 had contributed to Leo's elevation, and had been consequently made 

 a patrician, raised his thoughts towards the empire. He was arrested, 

 convicted of treason, and condemned to death; but his friends, having 

 disguised themselves as priests, introduced themselves into the chapel 

 of the palace, where Leo used to attend matins, and on a given signal, 

 as the emperor began chanting a new psalm, they fell upon him and 

 killed him, in spite of his desperate resistance, iu 820. On learning 

 this catastrophe in the place of his exile, the patriarch Nicephorus 

 exclaimed, " The Church is freed from an enemy, but the state has 

 lost an able prince." Michael the Stammerer succeeded to the 

 throne. 



LEO VI., styled the Philosopher, probably on account of his 

 writings, for his conduct gave him no claims to the appellation, was 

 the son of the Emperor Basilius the Macedonian, whom he succeeded 

 in 886. His brother Alexander was his nominal colleague, but through 

 indolence left the government entirely to Leo. The reign of Leo, 

 which lasted twenty-five year?, was not a prosperous or glorious one 

 for the empire, for while the armies were beaten both by the Saracens 

 and Bulgarians, the capital and the palace were disturbed by the 

 intrigues and excesses of the courtiers, and by tho emperorV own 

 irregularities. He again exiled the turbulent Photius, whom his father 

 had reinstated in his see. In the year 904 the Saracens took and 

 plundered Thessalouica, one of the principal cities of the empire, and 

 carried away its inhabitants into slavery. Leo died in 911, at forty-six 

 years of age, leaving the crown to his sou Constantino Porphyrogen- 

 nitus, whom he had by his fourth wife Zoo. Although not a deserving 

 sovereign, Leo ought to be remembered as an author; he completed 

 and published the Basilica, or Greek compilation of the laws of the 

 empire, undertaken by his father, and extracted it in great measure 

 from the Justinian body of laws. It does not seem to be ascertained 

 however whether the work has descended to us as it was completed 

 by Leo, or as it was afterwards reformed by his son Constantiue. 

 Leo wrote also a treatise on Tactics, which has been published by 

 Meursius ; and a collection of Oracles or Prophecies (for he laid claim 

 io an insight into futurity), which has also been published ; a poem 

 on the calamities of Greece, other verses, moral orations, &c. 



LEO I. was only a deacon when he was chosen by the clergy and 

 Deople of Rome to be their bishop, after the death ot Sixtus III., 440, 

 inder the reign of Valentiuianus III., emperor of the West, and 

 Theodosius II., emperor of the East He was a man of learning, and 

 well acquainted with the world and with state affairs, having been 

 employed on several missions by the imperial court. In his youth 

 ie had been acquainted with St. Augustine, and had profited by his 

 nstruction and example. Soon after his exaltation he had a contro- 

 versy with Hilarius, bishop of Arelate (Aries) in Gaul, who had 

 deposed Celidouius, bishop of Vesontio (Besancon), because he hud 

 married a widow, which was forbidden by the canons. Celidonius 

 lowever appealed to Leo, who reinstated him in his see. Hilarius 

 was summoned to Home upon several charges brought against him 

 >y other bishops of Gaul, to whom his severity was obnoxious ; and 

 jeo obtained a rescript from the emperor Valentiuian III., suspending 

 Jilarius from his episcopal office. This suspension however does not 

 appear to have been lasting, although the fact has been taken hold of 

 >y controversial writers as a stretch of jurisdiction in the see of 

 lome. Quesnel published a dissertation upou this controversy in 

 lis edition of the works of Leo, Paris, 1675. Leo also induced the 

 emperor to issue, in the year 445, several laws against the Mauiclueans 

 and other heretics, depriving them of the right of citizenship and of 

 nheritance, and excluding them from the military service. He 

 assembled a council at Rome iu 449, in which he annulled the acts 

 of the council of Ephesus, which had absolved Eutyches. [EUTYCHES.] 

 Soon afterwards the ClOcumcnic council of Chalcedon, 451, in which 

 legates presided, condemned the doctrine of Eutyches, and 



3 I 



