Editing Pope Leo IX (section)

==Papacy==
On the death of [[Pope Damasus II]] in 1048, Bruno was selected as his successor by an assembly at [[Worms, Germany|Worms]] in December. Both the emperor and the Roman delegates concurred. However, Bruno apparently favoured a [[canon law|canonical]] election and stipulated as a condition of his acceptance that he should first proceed to Rome and be freely elected by the voice of the clergy and people of Rome. Setting out shortly after Christmas, he met with abbot [[Hugh of Cluny]] at [[Besançon]], where he was joined by the young monk Hildebrand, who afterwards became [[Pope Gregory VII]]; arriving in pilgrim garb at Rome in the following February, he was received with much cordiality, and at his consecration assumed the name Leo IX.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Leo IX (Bruno von Egisheim und Dagsburg), Pope {{!}} Saints Resource|url=http://saintsresource.com/leo-ix-pope|access-date=2020-07-07|website=saintsresource.com}}</ref>

===Theology===
[[File:Pope Leo IX, Charter, 1051.jpg|thumb|upright|left|1051 charter of Leo IX]]
Leo IX favoured celibacy for the clergy in his reformation of the Catholic Church. One of his first public acts was to hold the well-known Easter synod of 1049, at which celibacy of the clergy (down to the rank of [[subdeacon]]) was required anew. Also, the Easter synod was where the pope at least succeeded in making clear his own convictions against every kind of [[simony]]. The greater part of the year that followed was occupied by one of those progresses through Italy, Germany and France which form a marked feature in Leo IX's pontificate. After presiding over a synod at [[Pavia]], he joined Henry III in Saxony and accompanied him to [[Cologne]] and [[Aachen]]. He also summoned a meeting of the higher clergy in [[Reims]] in which several important reforming decrees were passed. At [[Mainz]] he held a council at which the Italian and French as well as the German clergy were represented, and ambassadors of the Byzantine emperor were present. Here too, simony and the marriage of the clergy were the principal matters dealt with.{{cn|date=June 2022}}

After his return to Rome, Leo held another [[Easter]] synod on 29 April 1050. It was occupied largely with the controversy about the teachings of [[Berengar of Tours]]. In the same year he presided over provincial synods at [[Salerno]], [[Siponto]] and [[Vercelli]], and in September revisited his native Germany, returning to Rome in time for a third Easter synod at which the question of the [[reordination]] of those who had been ordained by simonists was considered. In 1052 he joined the emperor at [[Pressburg]] and vainly sought to secure the submission of the [[Hungarians]]. At [[Regensburg]], [[Bamberg]] and [[Worms, Germany|Worms]], the papal presence was celebrated with various ecclesiastical solemnities. In early 1053, Leo arbitrated a dispute between the [[Archdiocese of Carthage|archbishop of Carthage]] and the bishop of [[Gummi in Byzacena|Gummi]] over ecclesiastical precedence.{{sfn|Lower|2014|p=614}}

===Relations with Constantinople===
Patriarch [[Michael I Cerularius]] of Constantinople, through [[Leo of Ohrid]], Archbishop of Bulgaria, wrote to the pope denouncing the use of unleavened bread and fasting days in the Latin Church. Leo IX sent a letter to Michael I in 1054, citing a large portion of the [[Donation of Constantine]], believing it was genuine.<ref>Migne's ''Patrologia Latina'', Vol. 143 (cxliii), Col. 744–769. Also Mansi, ''Sacrorum Conciliorum Nova Amplissima Collectio'', Vol. 19 (xix) Col. 635–656.</ref> 

Leo assured Michael that the donation was completely genuine, not a fable, so only the apostolic successor to Peter possessed that primacy and was the rightful head of all the Church. Before his death, Leo IX had sent a legatine mission under Cardinal [[Humbert of Silva Candida]] to Constantinople to negotiate with Patriarch Michael Cerularius in response to his actions concerning the Church in Constantinople.<ref>Brett Edward Whalen, ''Dominion of God: Christendom and Apocalypse in the Middle Ages'' (Harvard University Press, 2009), p. 24.</ref> Humbert quickly disposed of negotiations by delivering a bull excommunicating the Patriarch.<ref name="Ginther"/> This act, although legally invalid due to the pope's death at the time, was answered by the patriarch's own bull of excommunication against Humbert and his associates and is popularly considered the official split between the Eastern and Western Churches. Afterwards, he closed down the [[Latin Church|Latin]] churches of Constantinople, stopped remembrance for the pope in the diptychs, and wrote letters to the other patriarchs against the pope. The patriarch of Antioch, Peter III, rejected most of Michael's accusations against Rome and urged him to compromise.<ref>[https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/1054peter-of-antioch-to-michael-kerularious1.asp ''Patriarch Peter of Antioch: Letter to Patriarch Michael Kerularios'']</ref> Despite this, the break began the Great [[East–West Schism]].

===Conflict with the Normans===
In constant fear of attack from the [[Normans]] in the south of Italy, the [[Byzantine]]s turned in desperation to the Normans' own spiritual chief, Pope Leo IX, and, according to [[William of Apulia]], begged him "to liberate Italy that now lacks its freedom and to force that wicked people, who are pressing [[Apulia]] under their yoke, to leave". After a fourth Easter synod in 1053, Leo IX set out against the [[Norman conquest of southern Italy|Norman in the south]] with an army of Italians and [[Swabia]]n [[mercenaries]]. "As fervent Christians the Normans were reluctant to fight their spiritual leader and tried to sue for peace but the Swabians mocked them—battle was inevitable."<ref>Robert Bartlett, ''The Normans of the South'', BBC TV</ref> Leo IX led the army himself, but his forces suffered total defeat at the [[Battle of Civitate]] on 15 June 1053.{{sfn|Theotokis|2014|p=133}} Nonetheless, on going out from the city to meet the victorious enemy he was received with every token of submission, pleas for forgiveness and oaths of fidelity and homage. From June 1053 to March 1054 the pope was nevertheless held hostage at [[Benevento]], in honourable captivity, until he acknowledged the Norman conquests in [[Calabria]] and Apulia. He did not long survive his return to Rome, where he died on 19 April 1054.{{cn|date=June 2022}}