From The Lives of the Popes from the Time of our Saviour Jesus Christ to the Accession of Gregory VII. Written Originally in Latin by B. Platina, Native of Cremona, and translated into English (from an anonymous translation, first printed in 1685 by Sir Paul Rycaut), Edited by William Benham, Volume I, London: Griffith, Farran, Okeden & Welsh, [1888, undated in text]; pp. 220-224.
The Lives of the Popes,
BY
B. Platina
Volume I.
LEO IV.
A.D. 847-855.
LEO the Fourth, a Roman, son of Radulphus, was in the year 847 by a general consent elected Pope, and very deservedly; for he was one that, whilst he lived a private life, was very eminent for religion, innocence, piety, good nature, liberality, and especially for ecclesiastical learning. He was a person of so much prudence and courage that, as the gospel directs, he could, when it was necessary, imitate either the wisdom of the serpent or the innocence of the dove. So general was the good report of him that Pope Sergius II. was persuaded to create this pattern of virtue a priest from a sub-deacon and to give him the title and church sanctorum quatuor coronatorum, from whence upon the death of Sergius 221 he was brought to the Lateran church and placed in St Peter’s chair, being universally saluted as Pope, all that were present, according to ancient custom, kissing his feet. There are some of opinion, that by the prayers of this good man it was that God was moved to repress the rage of the Saracens by drowning their fleet as they were returning home laden with spoil. For they having overcome Theodotius, admiral to the Emperor Michael, in a sea fight near Tarentum, ravaged far and near through Italy without opposition, and having taken and sacked Ancona and harassed the coast of Dalmatia, when they were returning triumphantly to their own country, it pleased God they were cast away at sea by storm. So that Leo, being free from his fear of the Saracens, betook himself to public works, and caused benches of marble to be placed in the entrance to the Lateran cloister and finished the gallery which Leo III. had begun. This good prelate ordained that yearly in the church of St Paul, on the birthday of that Apostle, vespers should be said by all the clergy. He prohibited all laymen entrance into the chancel during divine service. About this time at his command solemn supplications were made to avert God’s anger, which the frequent earthquakes seemed to threaten. He adorned, after an extraordinary manner, the cross which Charles the Emperor had given to the Basilica Constantiniana, which had been pilfered of the precious stones that belonged to it. It is sure he was a man of so great sanctity, that by his prayers he drove away out of an arch in St Lucie’s Church, a basilisk (called by the Latins Regulus) which with its breath and poison had killed many; and by the sign of the cross he stopped a great fire, which had burned down the quarter where the Saxons and Lombards lived, and reached very near St Peter’s Church. This happened the eighth day after the assumption of our Lady, which day was afterward kept as a festival without the walls not far from St Laurence’s Church, where stood a church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, to which this munificent Pope had made many donaries of gold and silver. Beside this he finished the mosaic work in the churches of St Martin and St Silvester in montibus, and the pargetting which Sergius had begun, as the inscription shows which is all that is left; the painting being long since perished either for want of care or by time and rottenness. He took care also that the cross of gold which is usually borne before the Pope, was decked with precious stones, 222 and neglected no manner of ornament that might contribute to the honour of the Christian name. He re-edified the city walls and gates that had suffered by age, and raised from the ground fifteen forts for the defence of the city; of which two were very necessary — one on the right, the other on the left hand of the Tiber below the hills Janiculus and Aventinus, to hinder the ships of any enemy from entering the town. He by his diligence found out the bodies of the sancti quatuor coronati, and built a church to them after a magnificent manner; and reposited their bodies under the altar, viz., Sempronianus, Claudius, Nicostratus, Castorius; to which he added those of Severus, Severianus, Carpophorus, Victorinus, Marius, Felicissimus, Agapetus, Hippolytus, Aquila, Priscus, Aquinus, Narcissus, Marcellinus, Felix, Apollos, Benedict, Venantius, Diogenes, Liberalis, Festus, Marcellus (the head of St Protus), Cecelia, Alexander, Sixtus, Sebastian, Praxedes. But while he was diligently intent upon these affairs, as became so holy a man, news was brought that the Saracens were coming with a huge fleet to sack the city, and that the Neapolitans, and the inhabitants upon that shore would come to his assistance; whereupon with what forces he could raise he marched to Ostia, and summoned thither the auxiliaries, designing upon the first opportunity to fight the enemy. But first this holy Pope exhorted his soldiers to receive the sacrament, which being devoutly performed, he prayed to God thus, “O God, whose right hand did support the blessed Peter when he walked upon the waves, and saved him from drowning, and delivered from the deep his fellow-apostle Paul when he was thrice shipwrecked, hear us mercifully and grant that for their merits, the hands of these Thy faithful ones fighting against the enemies of Thy holy Church, may by Thy almighty arm be confirmed and strengthened; that Thy holy name may appear glorious before all nations in the victory that shall be gained.” Having pronounced this, by making the sign of the cross he gave the signal for battle, and the onset was made by his soldiers with great briskness as if they had been sure of victory, which after a tedious dispute was theirs, the enemies being put to flight; many of them perished in the fight, but most were taken alive and brought to Rome; where the citizens would have some of them hanged without the city for a terror to the rest, very much against the mind of Leo, who was very remarkable for gentleness and clemency, 223 but it was not for him to oppose the rage of a multitude. Those that were taken alive Leo made use of in re-edifying those churches which the Saracens had heretofore ruined and burnt, and in building the wall about the Vatican, which from his own name he called Urbs Leonina. Thus he did lest the enemy should with one slight assault take and sack the church of St Peter, as heretofore they were wont. The gates also had his prayers, for upon that which leads to St Peregrin this was graven in marble, “O God, who by giving to Thy apostle St Peter the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven didst confer upon him the pontifical authority of binding and loosing, grant that by the help of his intercession we may be delivered from all mischievous attempts, and that this city be free for ever from thine anger, and may have many and great victories over those enemies against whom it is built.” And on the second gate near St Angelo that leads into the fields were these words, “O God, who from the beginning of the world didst vouchsafe to preserve and establish this holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of Rome, mercifully blot out the hand-writing of our iniquity, and grant that this city which we, assisted by the intercession of the apostles Peter and Paul, have newly dedicated to Thy holy name, may remain secure from the evil machinations of its enemies.” The third was on the front of the gate by which we go to the Saxon school, in these words, “Grant, we beseech thee, almighty and merciful God, that crying to Thee with our whole heart, and the blessed apostle Peter interceding for us, we may obtain Thy favour. We continually beg of Thy mercy, that the city which I, Thy servant Leo IV., Bishop of Rome, have dedicated anew and called Leonina from my own name, may continue safe and prosperous.” This city he began in the first year of his pontificate and finished in his sixth, and gave it to be a habitation for the men of Corsica, who had been driven out of that island by the Saracens, to each of whom also he assigned a piece of ground for his maintenance. But I wonder now that another inscription is to be read on these gates in dull hexameter verse, which I cannot by any means think to be Leo’s, though it go under his name. Of the spoils of the Saracens he made several donations of gold and silver to the churches of Rome. Some write that it was by his command that St Mary’s Church in the new street 224 and the tower in the Vatican next St Peter’s now to be seen, were built. Beside he restored the silver door of St Peter which had been pillaged by the Saracens. He held a synod of forty-seven bishops, wherein Anastasius, presbyter cardinal of St Marcellus, was by the papal canons convicted of several crimes, upon which he was condemned and excommunicated, the chief allegation being that for five years he had not resided in his parish. Moreover he brought colonies from Sardinia and Corsica (which now upon the repulse of the Saracens had some respite) and planted them in Ostia, which partly by reason of the unhealthiness of the air and partly by being so often plundered was left without inhabitants. Lastly, he fully satisfied Lotharius, who having been informed that Leo was upon a design of translating the empire to the Constantinopolitans, came himself to Rome. But the informers being caught in lies received condign punishment, and the friendship was on both sides renewed. It is said that Johannes Scotus, a learned divine, lived at this time, who coming into France, by the command of King Louis, translated St Dionysius’s book “de Hierarchia” out of Greek into Latin, but was soon after (as they say) stabbed with a bodkin by some of his scholars: but the occasion of this villainous act is not anywhere recorded. It is said too, that now Ethelwulf, King of England, out of devotion, made his country tributary to the Church of Rome, by charging a penny yearly upon every house. Our holy Pope Leo having deserved well of the Church of God, of the city of Rome, and of the whole Christian name for his wisdom, gravity, diligence, learning, and the magnificence of his works, died in the eighth year, third month, and sixth day of his pontificate, on the 17th day of July, and was buried in St Peter’s Church. The see was then void two months and fifteen days.
Previous Pope: 104. Sergius. 105. Leo IV. Next Pope: 106. John VIII.