LEO 
ratter. Being fummoned to the papal court, he at nrl! 
declined compliance, and fent his ton to apologize for 
him. Leo, however, found means to decoy him by a 
iafe-condutt, which he made no fcruple of violating as 
foon as he got him into his power ; and, after forcing him 
by torture to confefs the enormities of which he had been 
guilty, he put him to death, and feized his dominion. 
Again!! Frederic, a commander who occupied the city of 
Fermo, he fent a body of troops, who killed him as he 
was making his efcape, and took poffeffion of the place. 
Others who held towns or fortrefl'es in the Marche oi An¬ 
cona, terrified by thefe examples, either fled, or repaired 
to Rome in order to juftify themfelves, and folicit Leo’s 
clemency 5 but of the latter, feveral were imprifoned and 
put to death. The more juftifiable policy of expelling 
the French from Italy was never out of Leo’s mind, 
notwithftanding his temporary alliances with that court; 
and, in 1521, he formed a treaty with the emperor for 
the re-eftablifliment of the family of Sforza in the duchy 
of Milan. He hired a large body of Swifs mercenaries, 
which, by means of a fittitious negociation with Francis 
for an invafion of the Neapolitan territories, was fufFered 
to march acrofs’ the Milanel'e into Romagna. When it 
was time to take off the mafk, the papal troops, in con¬ 
junction with the Spanifli and German auxiliaries, took 
pofl'effion of Parma, which, together with Piacenza, was 
to be united to the domain of the church. The Swifs in 
the fervice of France having been prevailed upon to de- 
fert, the allies eroded the Adda, and were received with¬ 
out oppofition into Milan. They next entered the terri¬ 
tories of the duke of Ferrara, who had joined the French, 
and again!! whom the pope had already launched the 
thunders of the church. Several of his ftrong places 
were taken, and the fiege of his capital was impending, 
when an event took place which fuddenly changed the 
date of affairs in Italy. Leo, who was at one of his villas 
when the tidings of thefe fucceffes arrived, repaired to 
Rome for the purpofe of being prefent at the public re¬ 
joicings, which were ordered for three fucceflive days. 
An indifpofition apparently flight, attributed to cold, 
confined him to his chamber from the day of his return ; 
and fo rapid was its progrefs, that after a week’s illnefs he 
expired on December 1, 1521, in the forty-fixth year of 
his age, and the ninth of his pontificate. Although the 
account of his diforder is obfeure, there feems no reafon 
to give credit to the fufpicion of poifon, which was cur¬ 
rent among his attendants, but was fupported by no evi¬ 
dence. A grofs and morbid habit of body made him lia¬ 
ble to fink fpeedily under occafional difeafe. The people 
of Rome, who had felt the benefits of his fplendour and 
munificence, expreffed great concern at his death ; but 
the public honours paid to his memory were not fuch as 
might have been expected. An exhaufted treafury was 
made the pretext of an economical funeral; and, amid!! 
all the eminent fcholars of his court, an illiterate cham¬ 
berlain was appointed to pronounce Iris panegyric. The 
college Della Sapienza, however, made amends, by infti- 
tuting an annual oration to his praife. 
The Lite of Leo the Tenth has been written in mafterly 
manner by Mr. Rofcoe. The fervices of Leo in the pro¬ 
motion of literature and the reftoration of the arts, had 
never before been fufficiently appreciated, or colletted 
into one point of view. The Life by Paulus Jovius was 
Ihort; and that by Fabroni gave but a concife account of 
the progrefs which was made, in Leo’s pontificate, in the 
department of fcience, of literature, or of art; or of thofe 
diftinguiflied men to whofe writings and labours the reign 
of that pontiff is indebted for its principal luftre. To 
what was given in thefe hiftories, Mr. Rofcoe has added 
all that was material to his purpofe from the literary his¬ 
torians of Italy, with the ftill-more ufeful addition of ori¬ 
ginal letters and documents, not only from the public and 
private libraries of his own country, but from the library 
at Paris, the Palazzo Vecchio at Florence, the Vatican, 
and the library of St. Mark at Venice. To that excellent 
491 
work we muff therefore refer the reader for a full and 
complete delineation of the moral and political charatter 
of this celebrated pontiff, about which mankind have been 
fo much divided. It may however be fairly afferted, that 
he claims the gratitude of pofterity for the ample encou¬ 
ragement which he afforded to men of fcience and lite¬ 
rature, and the eagernefs with which he promoted the 
Itudy of the fine arts ; qualities fufficient to veil all the 
failings or faults which can juftly be charged to his ac¬ 
count. This charatter of Leo has been finely celebrated 
by Pope in the following lines : 
But fee! each jnufe, in Leo’s golden days, 
Starts from her trance, and trims'her wither’d bays 5 
Rome’s ancient Genius, o’er its ruins fpread, 
Shakes off the duff, and rears his rev’rend head. 
Then'Sculpture and her fifter arts revive : 
Stones leap to form, and rocks begin to live; 
With fweeter notes each rifing temple rung ; 
A Raphael painted, and a Vida lung. 
LEO XI. (Pope), whofe former name was Alexander , 
was the fon of Ottavian de Medici, coufin of Cofmo, great 
duke of Tufcany, and born in the year 1535. He was 
made archbifhop of Florence, and filled the poft of ain- 
baffador from Francis, the great duke, at the court of 
Rome, By Gregory XIII. he was created cardinal, under 
the title of St. John and St. Paul ; and by Clement VIII. 
he was fent legate to Henry IV. king of France. At 
Paris, his talents were fuccefsfully employed in adjufting 
the terms of peace between Philip II. king of Spain, and 
the French monarch ; and for his good offices he received 
from the latter a noble prefent. On the death of pope 
Clement VIII. in the year 1605, the conclave for the 
choice of a fucceffor was divided into French, Spanifli, 
and Italian, parties, who carried on their intrigues in fa¬ 
vour of their refpettive candidates with all the art and 
addrefs ufually prattifed on fuch occafions. At one time 
the votes were fo numerous for the famous cardinal Ba- 
ronius, that he would have been eletted, had not the 
Spanifh party oppofed him, out of refentment for what 
he had written, in the eleventh volume of his Ecclefiafti- 
cal Annals, again!! the king of Spain’s title to the king¬ 
dom of Sicily. At length, the French and Icalian parties 
having united, cardinal Joyeufe nominated Alexander de 
Medici; who was no fooner propofed, than he obtained 
the unanimous fuffrages of the conclave, and took the 
name of Leo XI. The intelligence of his elettion gave 
very general fatisfattion, particularly to the Romans and 
Florentines, who were acquainted with his talents and 
virtues, and knew that to his zeal for the interefts of the 
church, he united a liberal fpirit, a love of learning and 
learned men, and an hereditary tafte for the polite arts. 
This fatisfattion, however, was but of very Ihort conti¬ 
nuance; for the pope, fatigued with the length of the ce¬ 
remonies of inauguration, and overheated by the weather, 
and the weight of his robes, caught a violent cold, which 
brought on a fever, and proved fatal to him on the twenty- 
fifth day after his elettion, when he was in the feventieth 
year of his age. Rycaut's Cont. of Platina. 
LE'O, the name of fix Emperors of the Eaft; for the 
connetted hiftory of whofe reign, fee the article Rome. 
In this place we have only to notice a few particulars of 
LEO VI. furnained the Philofopher, the fon of Ba- 
fil I. who had caufed him to be crowned as his partner in 
the empire in 870. The treachery of a monk, whofe great 
fway at court the young prince had endeavoured to over¬ 
throw, produced his imprifonment, on the charge of a de- 
fign again!! the life of his father; and he would have loft 
his eyes and his inheritance, had not his friends zealoufly 
exerted themfelves to procure his releafe and reftoration to 
favour. At the death of Bafii in 886, Leo fucceeded to 
the imperial throne; having a nominal partner in his bro¬ 
ther Alexander, but himfelf polfefling all the fovereign 
power. Fie began his reign by puniftiing the monk who 
had caufed his difgrace, and banilhing the patriarch Pho- 
