Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/470

 450 LEO of 1049, at which celibacy of the clergy (down to the rank of subdeacon) was anew enjoined, and where he at least succeeded in making clear how strongly his own convictions went against every kind of simony. The greater part of the year that followed was occupied in one of those pro gresses through Italy, Germany, and France which form so marked a feature in Leo s pontificate. After presiding over a synod at Pavia, he joined the emperor Henry III. in Saxony, and accompanied him to Cologne and Aix-la- Chapelle ; to Rheims he also summoned a meeting of the higher clergy, which although there were many abstentions was largely attended, and by which several important reforming decrees were passed. At Mainz also he held a council, at which the Italian and French as well as the German clergy were represented, and ambassadors of the Greek emperor were present ; here too simony and the marriage of the clergy were the principal matters dealt with. After his return to Rome he held (April 29, 1050) another Easter synod, which was occupied largely with the controversy about the teachings of Berengarius of Tours ; in the same year he presided over provincial synods at Salerno, Siponto, and Vercelli, and in September revisited Germany, returning to Rome in time for a third Easter synod, at which the question of the reordination of those who had bean ordained by simonists was considered. He next joined the emperor at Pressburg, and vainly sought to secure the submission of the Hungarians ; at Ratisbon, Bamberg, and &quot;Worms the papal presence was marked by various ecclesiastical solemnities ; but at Mainz, in a dispute about the ordination of a deacon between the arch bishop and the pope, the latter had to give way. After a fourth Easter synod in 1053 Leo set out against the Nor mans in the south with an army of Italians and German volunteers, but the forces sustained a total defeat at Astag- num near Civitella (June 18, 1053) ; on going out, how ever, from the city to meet the enemy he was received with every token of submission, relief from the pressure of his ban was implored, and fidelity and homage were sworn. From June 1053 to March 1054 he was nevertheless detained at Benevento in honourable captivity ; he did not long survive his return to Rome, where he died on April 19, 1054. He was succeeded by Victor IL LEO X. (Giovanni de Medici, 1475-1523), the only pope who has bestowed his own name upon his age, and one of the few whose original extraction has corre sponded in some measure with the splendour of the pontifical dignity, was the second son of Lorenzo de Medici, called the Magnificent, and was born at Florence, December 11, 1475. Like his contemporary Henry VIII., he was from, the first destined for the ecclesiastical condition ; he received the tonsure at seven, held benefices at eight, and ere he was thirteen negotiations were in active progress for his elevation to the cardinalate. Innocent VIII., the reigning pope, was bound to Lorenzo by domestic ties and a common policy and interest ; in October 1488 Giovanni was created a cardinal under the condition that he should not be publicly recognized as such for three years. The interval was devoted to the study of theology and cation law, pursuits less congenial to the young prince of the church than the elegant literature for which he inherited his father s taste, and in which he had already made great progress under the tuition of Politian and Bibbiena. In March 1492 he was formally admitted into the sacred college, and took up his residence in Rome, receiving a letter of advice from his parent which ranks among the wisest and weightiest compositions of its class. Within a few months his prospects were clouded by the nearly simultaneous decease of his father and the pope, a double bereavement closing the era of peace which Lorenzo s prudent policy had given to Italy, and inaugurating a period of foreign invasion and domestic strife. One of the first consequences of the French irruption into Italy, which shortly ensued, was the expulsion of the Medici family from Florence (November 1494). After having resisted to the best of his ability, the Cardinal de Medici found a refuge at Bologna, and, seeing himself deprived for the time of political importance, and obnoxious to Innocent s successor, Alexander VI., undertook a journey in foreign countries with a party of friends. Upon his return he settled at Rome, withdrawing himself from notice as much as possible, and disarming the jealousy of Alexander by his unaffected devotion to literary pursuits. The accession of Julius II., and the death of his elder brother Piero in the battle of the Garigliano (December 1503), restored him to consequence; but little is recorded of him until 1511, when Julius appointed him legate at Bologna, an office which gave him the nominal direction of the combined Spanish and papal army then besieging that city. The siege failed, and two months afterwards the allies were totally defeated by the French under Gaston de Foix in the famous battle of Ravenna (April 11, 1512), and the Cardinal de Medici himself was taken prisoner. The French victory produced none of the anticipated results ; within a short time the conquerors were even obliged to evacuate Milan, carrying their captive with them. In the confusion of the retreat the cardinal effected his escape, and fled to Mantua, where he derived encourage ment from the prediction of a chiromancer, who promised him the papacy (Gauricus, Tractat. Astrol., fol. 20, a passage overlooked by Leo s biographers). Being reappointed to his legation, he took quiet possession of Bologna ; within a few months his family were restored to Florence by the Spanish and papal troops, and the death of Julius II., on February 21, 1513, raised him most unexpectedly to the papacy on March 11 following, at the age of only thirty- seven years. It seems difficult to assign any adequate reason for an election so contrary to traditional observance and the private interests of all the more conspicuous members of the conclave ; but it has never been attributed to simony. The new pope assumed the name of Leo X. Before his coronation, as first pointed out by Lord Acton, he was required to enter into certain engagements, from most of which he speedily absolved himself. Among these was a promise to issue no brief for collecting money for the repair of St Peter s. Had this pledge been observed, the Reformation might have been deferred for some time, and its course might have been materially different. At Leo s accession the probability of a religious revolu tion was contemplated by none. The attention of his immediate predecessors had long been engrossed by the temporal concerns of the papacy. These were apparently in a flourishing, but actually in a precarious condition. The guiding principle of Leo s policy was to preserve the conquests which he had inherited from Alexander VI. and Julius II. The establishment of his family in Florence diminished, although it did not remove, the temptation to j create a principality in their interest, as Alexander had I done, and his temper rather inclined him to aggrandize ! the papacy by diplomacy than to emulate the martial exploits of Julius. The preservation, however, of the acquisitions of these pontiffs required and taxed the abilities of a consummate statesman. These were not wanting to Leo, and it is to his credit that he seldom suffered the love of art and letters, which was his ruling passion, and which became his especial distinction among the princes of his age, to divert his attention from public affairs at a time of extraordinary anxiety and vicissitude. Scarcely had he ascended the pontifical throne when the storm burst in the shape of a determined effort of the French king to repossess himself of the duchy of Milan.