Pope Leo IV

Saint Leo IV
150px
Birth name	???
Papacy began	April 10, 847
Papacy ended	July 17, 855
Predecessor	Sergius II
Successor	Benedict III
Born	??? Rome, Italy
Died	July 17 855 ???
Other popes named Leo

Pope Saint Leo IV was pope from April 10, 847 to July 17, 855. A Roman by birth, Leo had been a Benedictine monk and served in the papal curia under Pope Gregory IV. He was later appointed a cardinal by Pope Sergius II. Upon Sergius' death, Leo was unanimously chosen to succeed him on April 10, 847.

His pontificate was chiefly distinguished by his efforts to repair the damage done by the Saracens, who had attacked Rome during the reign of his predecessor. Leo supervised the fortification the city to protect it against future attacks from the Muslim enemy and several important churches of the city, especially those of St Peter and St Paul, were rebuilt under his direction.

When the Muslims fleet again threatened, he summoned the leaders of the mariner cities of Italy—Naples, Gaeta and Amalfi—to form a league. The subsequent Battle of Ostia was one of the most famous in the his of the papacy during the Middle Ages. It was celebrated in a famous fresco by Raphael and his pupils in his rooms of the Vatican Palace. Another episode of Leo's life celebrated by the Urbinate in his series of frescoes painter is the Incendio di Borgo: it depicts the great burning of the Anglo-Saxon district of Rome (the "Borgo") which, according to the legend, was stopped by Leo simply making the sign of the cross.

Leo held three synods, one of them in 850, distinguished by the Leo's crowning of the holy Roman emperor Louis II. He also censured the Archbishop Hincmar of Reims for excommunicating an imperial vassal, and he excommunicated Cardinal Anastasius of San Marcello (later Antipope Anastasius Bibliothecarius) for disobediance.

Leo IV died on July 17, 855 and was buried in St. Peter's and was succeeded by Benedict III. A medieval tradition claimed that a woman, Pope Joan, succeeded him, disguising herself as a man. However, the supposed Pope Joan is generally believed to be fictitious.

Biography

The Battle of Ostia in an 1829 engraving

The son of a Roman named Radoald, Leo received his early education at Rome in the monastery of Saint Martin, near St. Peter's. His reputation for piety and competence attracted the notice of Gregory IV, who made him a subdeacon. Later, he was created cardinal priest of the church of the Quatuor Coronati by Sergius II.

Leo was unanimously elected to succeed Sergius II after the alarming attack of the Saracens on Rome in 846. He was consecrated April 10, 847 but without the consent of the emperor. As soon as he became pope, Leo began to take precautions against a repetition of the Saracen raid. He entirely rebuilt 15 of the great towers of the city walls, putting these key defensive installations of the city into a thorough state of repair. He also enclose the Vatican hill by a wall, which had not been done previously. To do this, he received money from the emperor, as well as aid from the cities and agricultural colonies of the Duchy of Rome. The work took him four years to accomplish, and the newly fortified portion was called the "Leonine City," after him. In 852 the fortifications were completed, and were blessed by the pope with great solemnity.

While the work of refortifying the city was in progress, a great fleet of the Saracens sailed for Rome from Sardinia. Leo succeeded in facilitating a coalition of Greek-Italian maritime city-states, including Rome, Naples, Amalfi, and Gaeta, to oppose the Muslim advance. The coalition, aided by a providential tempest in 849, completely destroyed the Muslim fleet off Ostia.

When the rebuilding of the walls of Rome was accomplished, Leo rebuilt Portus, the ancient harbor town on the right bank of the mouth of the Tiber, south of Rome. Its governance was given to a number of Corsican exiles, who had driven from their homes during the previous assaults of the Saracens. Other cities under the control of the Roman duchy were also fortified, either by the pope's own efforts or as a result of his encouragement.

Leo also labored to restore the damage which the Saracen raid of 846 had done to the various churches in Rome. Saint Peter's itself had suffered very severely. The old church were never reach its former magnificence until it was entirely rebuilt during the Renaissance, but Leo managed to make parts of it more beautiful than it had been before. He also restored Martin's, where he had been educated, and the Quatuor Coronati, of which he had been the priest. Other church buildings whose restoration he supported included the Lateran Palace, the Anglo-Saxon Borgo, Subiaco, and many other places both inside and outside of Rome. Leo also built the church of Santa Maria Nova to replace the decaying Santa Maria Antiqua.

In 850, Leo associated with Lothair in the empire his son Louis, by imposing on him the imperial crown. Three years later "he hallowed the child Alfred to king [says an old English historian] by anointing; and receiving him for his own child by adoption, gave him confirmation, and sent him back [to England] with the blessing of St. Peter the Apostle."

The same year (853) he held an important synod in Rome, in which various decrees were passed for the furtherance of ecclesiastical discipline and learning, and for the condemnation of the refractory Anastasius, Cardinal of St. Marcellus, and sometime librarian of the Roman Church. Equally rebellious conduct on the part of John, Archbishop of Ravenna, forced Leo to undertake a journey to that city to inspire John and his accomplices with respect for the law. It was while engaged in endeavouring to inspire another archbishop, Hincmar of Reims, with this same reverence, that Leo died. Another man who, till his death (851), defied the authority of the pope was Nomenoe, Duke of Brittany. Anxious to be independent of the imperial authority Nomenoe, in defiance both of Leo and Charles the Bald, not only deposed a number of bishops, but made new ones, and subjected them to a metropolitan see (Dol) of his own creation. It was not till the thirteenth century that the Archbishop of Tours recovered his jurisdiction over the Breton bishops. For consecrating a bishop outside his own diocese, St. Methodius, Patriarch of Constantinople, had suspended Gregory Asbestas, Bishop of Syracuse. St. Ignatius, who succeeded St. Methodius, in consequence forbade Gregory to be present at his consecration. This led Gregory to break all bounds. St. Ignatius accordingly caused him to be deposed, and begged the pope to confirm the deposition. This, however, Leo would not do, because, as he said, Ignatius had assembled bishops and deposed others without his knowledge, whereas he ought not to have done so "in the absence of our legates or of letters from us". Despite the fact that Leo was then in opposition to the Patriarch of Constantinople, one of his dependents, Daniel, a magister militum, accused him to the Frankish Emperor Louis of wishing to overthrow the domination of the Franks by a Greek alliance. Leo had, however, no difficulty in convincing Louis that the charge was absolutely groundless. Daniel was condemned to death and only escaped it by the intercession of the emperor. Shortly after this Leo died, and was buried in St. Peter's (17 July, 855). He is credited with being a worker of miracles both by his biographer and by the Patriarch Photius. His name is found in the Roman Martyrology.

Legacy

In order to definitively counter the Saracen menace, Leo ordered a new line of walls encompassing the suburb on the right bank of the Tiber to be built, including the till now undefended St. Peter's Basilica. The district enclosed by the walls is still known as the Civitas Leonina, namely the City of Leo. He also embellished the damaged churches of St. Paul and St. Peter's: the latter's altar received again (after the former had been stolen) his gold covering, which weighed 206 lb. and was studded with precious gems.

The command of the unified fleet was given to Cesarius, son of Duke Sergius I of Naples. In 854 Leo fortified Civitavecchia, Italy, a popular Saracen target. Thereafter, the town was named Leopoli in his honour.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Cheetham, Nicolas, Keepers of the Keys, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1983. ISBN 0-684-1863-X

External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia: Pope St. Leo IV
• Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Latina with analytical indexes

Roman Catholic Popes
Preceded by: Sergius II	Pope 847–855	Succeeded by: Benedict III

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Pope Leo IV  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Pope Leo IV"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.