THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
the pope's demand for the annulment of all ordinations of simonists on the ground of its practical inexpediency. A law was also passed Leo's concerning compulsory celibacy in the
Reforms, priesthood, which involved little substantially new but proved of great consequence as it initiated the reformed papacy's warfare against the marriage of priests. Soon afterward, Leo started on a journey to Germany, overtaking the emperor in Saxony, and attending him by way of Cologne to Aix-la-Chapelle. At Reims, Oct . 3-6, he held the great synod which has peculiar interest both by reason of the preceding situation and of its enactments. There was but small attendance from France, and Leo exercised great reserve. The celibacy question did not at this time come up for discussion at all, and the examination of charges in case of the bishops under suspicion of simony was conducted in a lukewarm way. Leo also forbore to press his rigorous conviction in respect to simoniacal consecrations. On the other hand, he pursued all the more energetically his aim of bringing out in clearly expressed terms the authoritative position of the papacy. The archbishop of Santiago in Galicia, northern Spain, had assumed the title Apostolicus, and was therefore excommunicated. Many French bishops and abbots who had stayed away from the synod were likewise sentenced with the ban, while others were summoned to Rome. At the close of the synod the first investiture law by the reformed papacy was promulgated (see Investiture). Two weeks later, about Oct. 19, Leo opened, in presence of Emperor Henry III., a brilliant synod at Mainz, which likewise took measures against simony and the marriage of priests. He then returned to Italy.
In the spring of 1050 Leo was in southern Italy, where he convened a synod at Salerno and at Siponto, southward of Monte Gargano. The Roman synod which met under his presidency on Apr. 29 continued the activity for reform. A few weeks later, however, he was again in southern Italy, where the advance of the Normans was inaugurating new political combinations. The synod at Vercelli then recalled him to the north. This belongs to the conventions under Leo IX. which are of great moment in the history of dogma, for here Berengar of Tours (q.v.) was condemned anew. Here again the difficult question came up as to what course should be observed in the matter of ordinations by simonists, but once again the pope failed to have his policy adopted; namely, that the actual proof of a simoniacal ordination required the revocation of the sacrament thereof. In the autumn Leo journeyed across the Alps once more to France.
Early in 1051 he was present in Germany, and had interviews of political importance with Henry III. at Cologne, Treves, and Augsburg. On returning to Rome, Leo finally resigned his bishopric of Toul. The third of the Roman synods convened by him sat in April, after Easter. Once again the administration of the sacraments by simonists was discussed without any understanding being reached . During the following months all the pope's energy
was called forth in southern Italy, where the issue
was to meet the dangers of the Norman invasion.
Leo first attempted, by alliance with
The Nor- Prince Weimar of Salerno and Count
man In- Drogo, chief of the Apulian Normans, vasion. to secure the acquisition of Benevento by pacific means, but did not succeed. Claims on Benevento could be made effectual by force alone, and to this end the pope sought help from King Henry I. of France and Emperor Henry III. of Germany. Later, in the early summer of 1052, Leo attempted to lead the conflict with the Normans in person, but was unable to keep his army together. In this difficult situation he desired a personal understanding with the German emperor, and being appealed to at this very time by King Andrew of Hungary as mediator in the war with Henry III., he hastened to the imperial camp at Pressburg. Although his intervention brought no advantage to the German empire, and though the Hungarian expedition issued unfavorably, the good understanding between Henry and Leo was not impaired and they returned together to Germany. While pope and emperor were celebrating the Christmas festival together at Worms, they came to the important agreement that Henry ceded Benevento and other imperial tenure in southern Italy to the pope, in return for which Leo renounced the rights of the Roman Church to a number of foundations and cloisters in Germany (the bishopric of Bamberg, abbey of Fulda, etc.). The value of this bargain for Leo, however, depended on whether the German emperor would also vouchsafe him the help of the empire to maintain these territories against the Normans. At the outset Henry intended this, but Bishop Gebhard of Eichstadt brought it about that the army, already started on its march to Italy, was recalled. Nevertheless a good many German troops, especially from Swabia, were in the pope's train when he returned to Italy in Feb., 1053.
Leo's time of successes was past. When he convened the Lombard episcopate, which had proved far from responsive to his reforming efforts, in synod at Mantua on Feb. 24, 1053, turbulent scenes ensued rendering all business impossible and even menacing the pope's life. After the (fourth) Roman Easter synod, in April, Leo made preparation for a decisive blow at the Normans. The battle at Civitate in Norman Apulia, June 18, brought the decision— the papal army was almost annihilated, and Leo himself fell into the hands of the enemy. He was detained nearly nine months at Benevento as captive of war, but without being subjected to restrictions of open communication. Unbroken by his misfortune he urged the Eastern Empire and Germany to a great action against the Normans, but did not achieve his object. Upon his falling: dangerously ill, he was allowed to return to Rome. He left Benevento on Mar. 12, and died at Rome on Apr. 19, 1054.
The pontificate of Leo IX. covers few years, but in this brief span of time he managed to win a position of commanding respect for the Roman primate in western Christendom, indicated new and universal tasks for the same, and by adoption of the