LEO. 
Marcellus in Rome, for abfenting himfelf five years from 
his benefice. In the fame year the famous Alfred, fon of 
JiBtheiwulph king of the Weft Saxons, was fent by his fa¬ 
ther to Rome, to be educated under the care and direction 
of the pope. In the year 854, finding that the Saracens 
ftill continued to infeft the coaft, notwithftanding their 
late difafter, Leo fortified the city of Porto, at a great ex- 
penfe, and planted in it a colony of Corficans, whom he 
fupplied with cattle and tools of agriculture, and arms for 
their defence. He alfo fortified many other cities on the 
coaft; and, finding that the inhabitants of Centumcellae 
had abandoned their city, and chofe rather to live in the 
■woods than on a fpot where they were expofed to conti¬ 
nual vifits from the Saracens, he determined to build them 
a new city. This place he called Leopolis-, but, in procefs 
of time, the inhabitants, difliking its fituation, abandoned 
it and returned to Centumcellae, giving the latter place 
the name of Civita Vtcchia , or the Old City, which it bears 
to this day. Leo died in 855, after a pontificate of eight 
years, and rather more than three months. According to 
Anaftafius, he pojfejfcdall the moral andChrijlian virtues, zoith- 
cut the alloy of one Jingle vice or dcfeEl. Two Letters, and a 
difcourfe deiigned for the inftruftion of the clergy in the 
duties of their office, which have been commonly afcribed 
to this pope, are inferted in the eighth volume of the Col- 
left. Concil. 
LEO V. (Pope), was a native of Ardea, and chofen 
fuccelfor to Benedift IV. in the year 903. He had not 
filled the pontifical throne much more than one month, 
before he was depofed by one of his own priefts named 
Chriftopher, and thrown into prifon; where he died of 
grief. 
LEO VI. (Pope), was a Roman by birth, and elefted 
to the papal dignity on the death of John X. in the year 
928. Platina fpeaks highly of his charafter, and of his 
intentions for reforming the corruptions of the age, and 
fecuring the peace of Rome and Italy ; but he died before 
he had time to carry them into execution, and when he 
had pofleffed the popedom only fix months and fifteen 
days. 
LEO VII. (Pope), was born at Rome, and raifed to the 
papacy by the unanimous vote of the clergy and people, 
on the death of John XI. in the year 936. He is highly 
commended for his perfonal virtues, and for his zealous 
endeavours to reftore ecclefiaftical discipline, to reform the 
tnonaftic orders, and to correft the abufes which prevailed 
in the Roman and other churches. He died in 939, after 
he had held the Roman fee three years, fix months, and 
fome days. Three of his Letters are in the ninth volume 
of the Colleft. Concil. 
LEO VIII. (Pope), or, according to fome writers, an¬ 
tipope, was a native of Rome, and fon of John, chief fe- 
cretary of the Roman church; in which office he fucceeded 
his father. Upon the depofition of John XII. in the year 
963, the excellent charafter of Leo recommended him to 
the Roman people and clergy, who, with the approbation 
of the emperor Otho, who was then at Rome, elefted him 
to the pontifical dignity. In our life of John XII. (vol. 
xi. p. 212.) we have feen that the Romans were foon af¬ 
terwards inftigated by him to rebel, and to compel Leo 
to fly for protection to the emperor. When John had 
fallen a facrifice to his vices, his partifans elevated Bene¬ 
dift V. to the papal throne, binding themfelves by an 
oath not to fubmit to Leo, whom they called the emperor's 
pope. That prince, however, marching at the head of his 
army to Rome, inverted it fo clofely, that the inhabitants 
were, in a very fhort time, obliged to furrender at difcre- 
tion ; and Benedift was taken prifoner, diverted of the pon¬ 
tifical dignity and of the priefthood, and condemned to 
baniffiment. Leo did not long furvive his relloration, for 
he died in 965, after a pontificate of one year and three 
months. 
LE'O IX. (Pope), and a faint in the Roman calendar, 
originally called Bruno, was the fon of Hugh, a near rela¬ 
tion of the emperor Conrad, and born at Toul, in Lor¬ 
raine, in the year 2002. Having been educated for the 
l 
487 
church, he was ordained deacon in 1025, and promoted 
to the bifhopric of Toul in the following year. By his 
conduft in this fee he acquired fo high a reputation for 
learning, prudence, and piety, that on the death of pope 
Damafus II. in the year 104.8, he was confidered to be 
the perfon molt worthy of being chofen his fuccelfor. He 
was nominated to that dignity by the unanimous voice of 
an affembly of the chief lords and bilhops of Germany, 
convened at Worms by the emperor Henry III. This 
nomination was for fome time refitted, with great apparent 
fincerity, by Bruno himfelf, who was at length compelled 
to yield to the preffing inltances of the whole aflem- 
bly and of the emperor; but only upon the condition 
that the Roman people and clergy approved of and con¬ 
firmed his eleftion. He went from Toul to Rome in the 
habit of a pilgrim, and was received by the Romans, who 
had been informed of what had palled in the affembly at 
Worms, with fongs of joy and loud acclamations. Im¬ 
mediately a meeting of the people and clergy was held, at 
which he informed them of his having been nominated 
to the apoftolic fee by the emperor; but that, in confor¬ 
mity to the canons, he did not confider iny eleftion of a 
bilhop to be valid, unlefs made by them; that, therefore, 
they were at full liberty to choofe or rejeft him; and that, 
if he were not unanimoully chofen by them, he would re¬ 
turn to his bilhopric as willingly as he had left it unwil¬ 
lingly. This addrefs was received with the greateft de- 
monltrations of fatisfaftion by the whole affembly, which 
unanimoully concurred in proclaiming Bruno lovereign 
pontiff, who at his ordination took the name of Leo IX. 
In the year 104.9, l ie affembled a council at Rome, which 
was attended by all the Italian, and the greater part of the 
Gallican„ bilhops. By this council all limoniacal bar¬ 
gains were forbidden, on pain of excommunication and 
depofition ; fome bilhops convifted of fimony were de¬ 
pofed ; and feveral canons were iffued, calculated to cor¬ 
reft and reform the licentious lives of the laity as well as 
clergy. Soon after his council broke up, Leo took a 
journey into Saxony, to vifit the emperor, with whom he 
celebrated the feftival of St. Peter and St. Paul at Cologne; 
and, having fummoned the Gallican bilhops and abbots 
to meet him at Rheims, he opened a council there 
on the firit of Oftober. By this council fome bilhops 
and abbots were depofed, for fimony, incontinence, or 
other fcandalous crimes; and canons were enafted to 
banilh fimony out of the church ; to reftrain the clergy 
from bearing arms or ferving in war; to prevent marri¬ 
ages within the forbidden degrees; and to reftore to the 
people and clergy the right of chooiing their own pallors. 
From Rheims, Leo proceeded to Mentz, where he held 
another council of German prelates, at which the emperor 
himfelf, and the chief lords and princes of Germany, af- 
fiited. Of the proceedings of this affembly we have no 
other information, than that all fimoniacal contrafts were 
forbidden in it, on pain of excommunication ; and that 
the marriages of priefts were not only prohibited, but de¬ 
clared null. 
Leo returned to Rome towards the clofe of the year 
104.9; and in the early part of the following year he vi- 
fited feveral Italian cities, reftoring every-where the de¬ 
cayed difcipline, and particularly inquiring himfelf, upon 
the fpot, relpefting the conduft and manners of the 
clergy. At Sipontum, a city no longer in exiitence, he 
held a council, by which two archbifhops, who were con¬ 
vifted of fimony, were depofed ; and foon afterwards he 
held another council at Rome, which is chiefly memora¬ 
ble for the unjuft fentence of condemnation which it palled 
upon the celebrated Berenger, without hearing him in his 
own defence, or lb much as fummoning him to attend- 
See vol. ii. p. 902. In 1051, Leo paid a fecond vifit to Ger¬ 
many, where he kept the fealt of the purification at Augf- 
burg, with the emperor; and, returning thence to Rome, 
he held a council, in which the canons which had been 
iffued by other councils againft the incontinence of the 
clergy were confirmed, and fome new ones were added to 
them; and, in order more effeftually to check the lean. 
dalcus 
