LBO XI. (OF ROME) 



LEOPOLD L (OP GERMANY). 



wit and humour, not alwa\s refined, and wliich at time* ilepenoratod 

 into buffoonery : this was indeed one of bii principal faults. His 

 tat policy waa like that of bia contemporaries in general, and Dot ao 

 bail as that of some of them. He contrived however to keep Rome 

 and the Papal territory, aa well aa Florence, in profound peace during 

 hia nine year*' pontificate no tiiflinir boon, whilst all the north of 

 Italy wa ravaged by French and QermoDa and Spaniards, who 

 oou.uiitted all kiuda of atrocities. He wa* by no means neglectful of 

 bia temporal duties, although he waa fond of conviviality and ease, 

 and oven his enemies have not autwtantiated any charge against bia 

 morale. He did not, and perhaps could not, enforce a strict discipline 

 among the clergy or the people of Rome, wbere profligacy and licen- 

 tiousness had reigned almost uncontrolled ever since the pontificate of 

 Alexander VI. 



The services which Leo rendered to literature are many. He 

 encouraged the study of Greek, founded a Greek college at Rome, 

 established a Urerk prees, and gave the direction of it to John Lascaris ; 

 be restored the Roman University, and filled its numerous chairs with 

 professors; he directed the collecting of manuscripts of the classics, 

 and also of Oriental writers, as well as the searching after antiquities ; 

 and by his example encouraged others, and among them the wealthy 

 merchant Cbigi, to do the same. He patronised men of talent, of 

 whom a galaxy Fathered round him at Rome, He employed Michel 

 Angela at Florence and Raffaelle at Rome in the Vatican. He corre- 

 sponded with Erasmus, Mschiavelli, Ariosto, and other great men of 

 hU time. He restored the celebrated library of liis family, which on 

 the expulsion of the Medici bad ben plundered and dispersed, and 

 which is now known by the name of the Biblioteca Laureuziana at 

 Florence. In short, Leo X., if not the most exemplary among popes, 

 was certainly one of the most illustrious and meritorious of the 

 Italian princes. 



(Guicciardiui, Storia d Italia ; Roscoe, Life and Pontificate of 

 Leo X. ; the same in Italian, translated by Bossi, with numerous and 

 valuable notes and additions. For the bulls and speeches of Pope 

 Leo X. fee Fnbricins, ' Bibliotbeca Latina Media; et Infirmee ./Etatis.') 



LEO XI., CARDINAL ALESSANURO DE' MEDICI, had been sent by his 

 predecessor, Clement VIII., legate to France, to receive Henri IV. 

 into the bosom of the Roman Catholic Church. He was very old 

 when elected, on the 1st of April 1605, and he died on the 27th of the 

 same month, it is said from the fatigue attending the ceremony of 

 taking possession of the Patriarchal church of St. John in Lnterauo. 



LKO XII., CARDINAL ANNIBALE BELLA GENOA, born in 1700, of a 

 noble family of the Romagna, was employed as nuncio to Germany 

 anil France, by Pius VII., who made him a cardinal in 1816. On the 

 death of Pius VII. ho was elected pope, in September 1823. He was 

 well acquainted with diplomacy and foreign politics, and in the exer- 

 cise of bis authority, and in asserting the claims of his see he 

 assumed a more imperious tone than bis meek and benevolent pre- 

 decessor. He re-established the right of asylum for criminals in the 

 churches, and enforced the strict observance of meagre days. He 

 was a declared enemy of the Carbonari and other secret societii-s. 

 He proclaimed a jubilee for the year 1825; and in his circular letter 

 accompanying the bull, addressed to the patriarchs, primates, arch- 

 bishops, and bishops, he made a violent attack on the Bible Societies, 

 aa acting in opposition to the decree of the Council of Trent, 

 session iv., concerning the publication and use of the Sacred Books. 

 Leo also entered into nesociatious with the new states of South 

 America, for the sake of filling up the vacant tecs. He gave a new 

 organisation to the university of the Sapienza at Rome, which con- 

 sists of five colleges or faculties, namely, theology, law, medicine, 

 philosophy, and philology ; and he increased the number of the pro- 

 fessors, and raised their emoluments. He published in October 1824, 

 a Moto Proprio, or decree, reforming the administration of the Papal 

 State, and also the administration of justice, or Procedura Civile, ami 

 he fixed the fees to be paid by the litigant parties. He corrected 

 several abuses, and studied to maintain order and a good police in his 

 territories. He died in February 1829, and was succeeded by 

 Pius V1IL 



LEO ALLATIUS. [ALLATIUS.] 

 LEO, JOHN, was a Moor of Granada, who, retiring into Africa, 

 when his native place was taken in 1492, received the surname ol 

 AymcAM s. After travelling a considerable time in Europe, Asia, 

 and Africa, he was taken at sea by pirates, and subsequently abjured 

 the Mohammedan religion under Pope Leo X. He is believed to 

 have died about 1526. His 'Description of Africa' was first written 

 in Arabic, and afterwards translated by its author into Italian, It 

 was translated into Latin by John Florian, 8vo, Antw., 1556; 24mo, 

 Lugd. Bat., Elzev., 1632 ; and into French by Jean Temporal, 2 torn, 

 foL, Lvou, 1556. Marmol the Spaniard appropriated to himself the 

 greater part of the text of this work without acknowledging it Leo 

 Africaniis wrote also the ' Lives of the Arabian Philosophers,' printec 

 by Hot linger, in Latin, at Zurich, fol., 1664 ; they were again pub 

 lisbed, from a different manuscript, in the 13th volume of Fabricius's 

 BiUiothecn.' 



LKO, LEONARDO, a celebrated composer, who flourished during 

 the early half of the last century, was born at Naples in 1694, anc" 

 received his musical education under Alessandro Scarlatti, having foi 

 his fellow-disciples Durante, Vinci, Porpora, &c. He soon dis- 



tinguUhed himself by his Italian operas, which gained for him a high 



reputation, and are mentioned by musical critics in strong terms of 



jraUe, But out of the many operas produced by Leo not one 



unrives; and bad he not dedicated a portion of his time to the 



hurch, his name would now have, been utterly forgotten. His 



I >ixit Dominu*,' his ' Miserere,' masse*, and other sacred music, will 



always be esteemed for the grandeur of their style, their deep feeling, 



be sensible manner in which the words are net, and for greatness ot 



fleet produced by comparatively simple means. He will be remem- 



>ered too in musical history as the master of Piccini, Jomelli, and 



ither able composers. He died at Naples in 1756. 



LEONARDO OF PISA, or LEONARDO BONACCI, an Italian 

 mathematician who lived at the commencement of the 13th century, 

 was the first person who brought to Europe the knowledge of 

 Algebra. His work was never printed, but is preserved at Rome, and 

 s described in Cossali's ' History of Algebra.' From Italy the know- 

 edge of Algebra was long afterwards communicated to the r 

 Surope. He was author of a treatise preserved in the Magliabccchi 

 .library at Florence, entitled ' Practica Geographia.' 



LEO'NIDAS, King of Sparta, commanded the Grecian troops sent 

 o maintain the pass of Thermopylae against the invading army of the 

 'ersiaus under Xerxes, B.C. 480. The force under his cotniuund 

 amounted to 4200 men, besides the Opuutian Locri and 1000 Phocians. 

 With these, during two days' fight, he defended the narrow defile 

 which was the usual passage from Thessaly to the southern parts of 

 Jreece ; and probably he would have frustrated the utmost efforts of 

 .he invader but for the discovery, by some renegades, of a circuitous 

 mil unfrequented pass by which a body of the invaders crossed Mount 

 Eta. On receiving intelligence that his position was thus turned, 

 t'ouidas dismissed all his soldiers except 300 Spartans ; the Thcbans, 

 whose fidelity to the common cause was suspected ; and the Thespians, 

 700 in number, who resolved to share the fate and the glory of the 

 Spartans, for the laws of Sparta forbade her citizens to turn their 

 jacks upon any odds ; and in this great emergency, when many states 

 seemed inclined to yield to Persia, Leonidaa probably thought that 

 .he effect to be produced by a great example of self-devotion and 

 obedience was of more importance to the cause of Greece than the 

 ireservauou of a certain number of her best soldiers. Being sur- 

 ounded and attacked in front and rear, the Spartans and Thespians 

 ell to a man after making vast slaughter : the Thebans asked and 

 received quarter. The corpse of Leonidaa was mutilated and exposed 

 on a cross by Xerxes. A stone lion was afterwards raised ne;ir the 

 spot where he felL The slain were buried where they fell, and their 

 memory was honoured by monumental pillars. Two of the inscriptions 

 ran thus : " Here 4000 men from Peloponnesus once fought three 

 millions : " " Stranger, tell the Lacedaemonians that we lie here, 

 obeying their laws." This self-devotion of Leouidas, the beginning of 

 the grandest war related in history, has ever been held to be among 

 the noblest recorded instances of heroism and patriotism. 



We have followed the account of Herodotus (vil, 202, &c.). 

 Diodorus and Plutarch relate it somewhat differently. 



LEOPOLD I., emperor of Germany, of the house of Austria, son of 

 Ferdinand III. and of Mary Anne of Spain, was born in 164U ; pro- 

 claimed king of Hungary in 1655: king of Bohemia in 1657; and, 

 lastly, was chosen emperor in 1659, after a contested election between 

 him and Louis XIV. of France, who had gained four of the electors 

 over to his side. The long reign of Leopold, which lasted nearly half 

 a century, was an eventful time for Germany and Europe, not through 

 any striking qualities of the emperor, but in consequence of the many 

 important wars in which he was concerned. On assuming the govern- 

 ment of the hereditary states of the house of Austria in 1657, he found 

 himself at war with the Turks, who were overrunning Hungary and 

 had entered Moravia. His able general Montecucculi, an Italian by 

 birth, defeated them completely at the battle of St. Gothard, mar 

 Neuliausul, after which a truce was concluded. Many of the Hungarian 

 nobles however, rather than remain the subjects of a foreign power, 

 preferred joining the Turks. The Roman Catholic intolerance of the 

 Austrian court of that age contributed to irritate the Hungarians, 

 among whom were many Protestants and other scceders from the 

 Church of Rome. Their plot was discovered before it was quite ripe, 

 and the leaders, Counts Sdrini, Nadasti, Frangipani, and Tekeli, v. . r 

 convicted and beheaded. The malcontents now broke out into open 

 insurrection, and chose for their leader Eineric Tekeli (son of him of 

 the same name who had been executed). In 1682 Tekeli was acknow- 

 ledged by the Porte as prince of Hungary tributary to the sultan, 

 whose grand vizier Kara Mustapha entered the field with 150,000 

 men. Tekeli had with him between 30,000 and 40,000 Hungarians. 

 The combined forces, having defeated the Imperial troops near li^th, 

 advanced to Vienna. It was afterwards ascertained that Louis X I V . 

 was one of the secret movers of this Turkish invasion, aa his prede- 

 cessor Francis I. had excited Solyman to a similar expedition against 

 the capital of Austria. Meantime Louis's diplomatic agent at Cracow 

 had hatched a plot with several disaffected Polish nobles to dethrone 

 Sobieski, who had engaged to assist Leopold. A letter of the French 

 ambassador to his master, being intercepted, discovered to Sobieeki 

 the whole plot. With his usual decision and magnanimity of 

 character he repaired to the Diet, read the correspondence, which 

 implicated not a few who were present, expressing at the same time 



