LEO. 
488 
dalous irregularities of the Roman clergy in particular, it 
was decreed, that all women, who fhould for the future 
proftitute themfelves to priefts within the walls of Rome, 
fhould be condemned to ferve as Haves in the Lateran 
palace. As foon as this council had broken up, the pope 
took a third journey into Germany, to mediate a peace 
between the emperor and Andrew king of Hungary, who 
had refufed the tribute which his anceftors had annually 
paid as an acknowledgment of their fubje<Stion to the 
empire; and in the year 1052 we find him ftill in that 
country, where he celebrated the Chriftmas feftival with 
the emperor at Worms, and negociated the exchange of 
the bifhopric of Bamberg, the monaftery of Fulda, and 
fome other places, for the city of Beneventum in Apulia. 
On his return to Rome in the beginning of the following 
year, he afi'embled a council at Mantua, with the inten¬ 
tion of inquiring into the conduct and lives of the bi- 
fhops and clergy in the northern parts of Italy; but thefe 
ecclefialtics, who were confcious that they merited the 
fevered cenfures, by mitigating their domellics to quarrel 
with thole of the pope’s retinue, produced fuch diftur- 
bances and tumults, that the pope was expofed to per- 
fonal danger, and found himfelf under the neceffity of 
fpeedily difiniffing the affembly. 
In the year 1053, the pope being then at Beneventum, 
received a refpeftful letter from the emperor Conftantine 
Monomachus, in which he expreffed a great defire to fee 
the ancient union reftored between the fees of Conftan- 
tinople and Rome, and offered to contribute whatever lay 
in his power towards fo good a work. Leo immediately 
difpatched three legates into the eafl, who were received 
by the emperor at Conftantinople with extraordinary 
marks of diltinfition, and were promifed every affiftance 
in furthering the defign of their milfion. The patriarch, 
however, could by no means be prevailed upon to confer 
with them, or even to fee them. Notwithdanding all the 
perfuafions, the threatenings, and the promifes, of the em¬ 
peror, he would confent to no propofals for altering any 
of the praflices in which the Greek church differed from 
the Roman ; nor would he fubfcribe to any declaration, 
which implied the fubjeftion of the Conftantinopolitan fee 
to that of Rome. The legates, therefore, finding that he 
was unalterable, and well knowing that the imperial power 
was too weak to contend againlt his influence over the 
clergy and people of Conftantinople, repaired to the 
church of St. Sophia; and, after complaining of the ob- 
ftinacy of the patriarch in the prefence of the multitude 
affembled to aflift at divine fervice, laid the fentence of 
excommunication againft him in writing upon the high 
altar, and took their departure homewards. On leaving 
the city, they alfo pronounced a fentence of excommuni¬ 
cation againft all who fhould from that time receive the 
facrament adminiftered by any Greek who found fault 
with the mafs of the Latins. In the mean time pope Leo 
was feized with an illnefs at Beneventum, which appear¬ 
ing of a threatening nature, he was removed by conveni¬ 
ent ftages to Rome; where he died in the year 1034, about 
the age of fifty-two, after having governed the Roman 
church five years and rather more than two months. We 
have already feen how zealous he was to correct many of 
the icandalous abufes in the difcipline of the church, 
which had been tolerated and encouraged by his prede- 
ceflbrs. He is commended for his prudence, his genero- 
fity to the poor, and his ardent piety. In private life he 
pratlifed all the aufterities of the cloifter. In his endea¬ 
vours, however, to aggrandize his fee, he followed the ex¬ 
ample of his moll ambitious predecelfors; on which ac¬ 
count he has been honoured with a place in the Roman 
calendar. He was the firlt pope who made ufe of the 
Chriftian era in the date of his bulls, his predeceffors hav¬ 
ing followed that of the indictions. Nineteen of his Letters 
are preferved in the ninth volume of the Collect. Concil. 
and ftveral of his Homilies, or Sermons, were publifhed 
at Louvain in 1565, and afterwards at other places. 
LEO X. (Pope), born at Florence in December 1475, 
was the fecond fon of Lorenzo de Medici the Magnificent, 
and bore the baptifmal name of Giovanni, (John.) Origi¬ 
nally deftined by his father for the church, he received 
the tonfure at feven years of age. Being then declared 
capable of ecclefiaftical preferment, Lorenzo by his inte- 
reft with the French king Louis XI. and with the pope 
Sixtus IV. obtained for him two rich abbacies; and the 
lift given of the preferments accumulated upon him at an 
early age, amounts to the number of twenty-nine; a proof 
both of the great intereft of the Medici family, and of the 
fcandalous corruption of the church ! As it was a main 
objefl of the father’s ambition to decorate his houfe with 
the popedom, the early acquifition of the cardinalate for his 
fon was a point which he purfued with unremitting affi- 
duity; and theacceflion of Innocent VIII. to the pontifi¬ 
cate was fo favourable to his willies, that, in 1488, Gio¬ 
vanni, then thirteen years of age, was nominated to that 
high dignity. Whatever cenfure Lorenzo may deferve for 
urging a meafure fo derogatory to the credit of the catholic 
church, it mull be admitted that he was not wanting in ef¬ 
forts to make his fon worthy of his premature advancement. 
His early education was entrufted to that eminent fcholar 
Angelo Poliziano; and other learned men who frequented 
the Medici palace were called upon to aflift in his ftudies. 
His own difpofition, which was grave and folid beyond 
his years, contributed to the fuccefs of his inltruflors. 
When he was nominated to the cardinalate, it was made 
a condition that he Ihould fpend three years at the uni- 
verfity of Pifa in profeflional ftudies, before his formal 
inveftment with the purple. In 1492 this folemn afl 
took place; and he immediately went to refide at Rome, 
as one of the facred college. His father foon after died, 
and was fucceeded in his honours in the Florentine re¬ 
public by his eldeft fon Piero. 
The young cardinal’s oppofition to the eleftion of pope 
Alexander VI. rendered it expedient for him to withdraw 
to Florence, where he acquired much perfonal refpefl; 
but, the events attending the invafion of Italy by the 
French king Charles VIII. having brought on a ltorm of 
civil odium againft his brother Piero, he was involved in 
the expulfion of his family, and obliged to take refuge at 
Bologna. After the failure of feveral attempts made by 
his brothers to recover their ftation in Florence, the car¬ 
dinal, accompanied by his coufin Giulio de Medici, with 
a fmall party of friends, in 1499, made a tour through 
the ftates of Venice, Germany, and France, returning by 
Genoa. In that city he abode for fome time, and then 
fixed his refidence in Rome, where his prudent condudl 
enabled him to live in refpeft and fafety during the re¬ 
mainder of Alexander’s pontificate. During the early 
part of that of Julius II. he continued at Rome, culti¬ 
vating polite literature and the pleafures of elegant fo- 
ciety, and indulging his tafte for the fine arts, for mufic, 
and the chafe, to which latter amufement he was paf- 
fionately addifted. The depreflion of his houfe occa- 
fioned frequent embarralfment in his finances, which were 
inadequate to the liberal mode of living that his inclina¬ 
tion and early habits led him to adopt; but his cheerful 
temper fupported him under his difficulties, and he extri¬ 
cated himfelf without lofs of honour. 
It was not till his thirtieth year, A. D. 1505, that he 
began to take an aftive part in public affairs ; when Jitr 
lius, who had commenced his vigorous career with the 
feizure of Perugia, appointed the cardinal de Medici to 
its government. By his firm adherence to the intereft of 
the pope, the cardinal acquired his confidence to l'uch a 
degree, as to be entrufted with the fupreme direction of 
the papal army in the holy league againft the French, in 
1511, with the title of legate of Bologna. In this office 
he retained the enfigns of an eccleliaftic and a man of 
peace, and found his opinion treated with little deference 
by the Spanilh general of the allied army; but, though 
unable to direct the military operations, he ufefully ex¬ 
erted himfelf in maintaining good order in the camp. 
At the bloody battle of Ravenna, in 1512, he was made 
prifoner* 
