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Bible Encyclopedias
Leo III
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or Pope, who brought about the elevation of the Frankish king to the position of emperor of the West, and thus relieved the Recman pontificate of further subjection to the Greek emperors, was a native of the Eternal City, and was elected after the death of Adrian 1, Dec. 25, 795, Immediately after his election be communicated the intelligence to Charlemagne, and, like his predecessors acknowledged allegiance. Charlemagne replied by a letter of congratulation, which he entrusted to the abbot Angilbertus, whom he commissioned to confer with the new pontiff respecting the relations between the see of Rome and the "Patrician of the Romans," for this was the title which Charlemagne had assumed. In 796 Leo sent to Charlemagne the keys of St. Peter and the standard of the city of Rome, requesting the king to send some of his nobles to administer the oath of allegiance to the people of Rome, and thus the dominion of Charlemagne was extended over the city and duchy of Rome. In the year 799, an atrocious assault, the motive of which is not clearly ascertained, was committed on the person of the pope. While Leo was riding on horseback, followed by the clergy, and chanting the liturgy, a canon by the name of Paschal and a sacristan called Campulus. accompanied by many armed ruffians, fell upon him, threw him from his horse, and dragged him into the convent of St. Sylvester, when they stabbed him in many places, endeavoring to put out his eyes and cut out his tongue.
Leo, however, was delivered by his friends from the hands of the assassins, and taken to Spoleti under the protection of the duke of Spoleti, where he soon after recovered; thence he traveled as far as Paderborn in Germany, where Charlemagne then was, by whom the pope was received with the greatest honors. Charlemagne sent him back to Rome with a numerous escort of bishops and counts, and also of armed men. The pope was met outside of the city gates by the clergy, senate, and people, and accompanied in triumph to the Lateran palace. A court composed of the bishops and counts proceeded to the trial of the conspirators who had attempted the life of the pope, and the two chiefs, Paschal and Campulus, were exiled to France. From this very lenient sentence and other concomitant circumstances, it appears that Charlemagne had greatly at heart the conciliation of the Romans in general, in order to deter them from betaking themselves again to the protection of the Greek emperors. In 800 Charlemagne himself visited Italy, and was met at Nomentum, outside of Rome, by the pope, and the next day he repaired to the Basilica of the Vatican, escorted by the soldiers and the people. After a few days Charlemagne convoked a numerous assembly of prelates, abbots, and other persons of distinction, Franks as well as Romans, to examine certain charges brought against the pope by the partisans of Paschal and Campulus, but no proofs were elicited, and Leo himself, taking the book of gospels in his hand, declared himself innocent. On Christmas- day of that year the pontiff officiated in the Basilica of the Vatican, in presence of Charlemagne and his numerous retinue. As Charlemagne was preparing to leave the church, the pontiff stopped him, and placed a rich crown upon his head, while the clergy and the people, at the same moment, cried out "Carolo piissimo," "Augusto magno imperatori," with other expressions and acclamations which were wont to be used in proclaiming Roman emperors.
Three times the acclamations were repeated, after which the pope was the first to pay homage to the new emperor. From that time Charlemagne left off the titles of king and patrician, and styled himself Augustus and emperor of the Romans, and he addressed the emperor of Constantinople by the name of brother. Thus was the Western empire revived 325 years after Odoacer had deposed Romulus Augustulus, the last nominal successor of the Caesars on the throne of the West. From that time all claim of the Eastern emperors to the supreme dominion over the duchy of Rome was at an end, and the popes from the same date assumed the temporal authority over the city and duchy, in subordination, however, to Charlemagne and his successors; they began, also, to coin money, with the pontiff's name on one side and that of the emperor on the other. In 804 the pope, during Christmas, visited Charlemagne at his court at Aquisgrana (Aix-la-Chapelle). In the division which Charlemagne made by will of his dominions among his sons, the city of Rome was declared to belong to him who should bear the title of emperor. Louis le Debonnaire was afterwards invested with that title by Charlemagne himself, and we find him accordingly, after the death of his father, assuming the supreme jurisdiction over that city on the occasion of a fresh conspiracy which broke out against Leo, the heads of which were convicted by the ordinary courts of Rome, and put to death.
Louis found fault with the rigor of the sentence and the haste of its execution, and he ordered his nephew, Bernard, king of Italy, to proceed to Rome and investigate the whole affair. Leo, who seems to have been alarmed at this proceeding, sent messengers to the court of Louis to justify himself. Meanwhile he fell seriously ill, and the people of Rome broke out into insurrection, and pulled down some buildings he had begun to construct on the confiscated property of the conspirators. The duke of Spoleti was sent for with a body of troops to suppress the tumult, when Leo suddenly died in 816, and Stephen IV was elected in his place. Leo is praised by Anastasius, a biographer of the same century, for the many structures, especially churches, which he raised or repaired, and the valuable gifts with which he enriched them. In his temporal policy he appears to have been more moderate and prudent than his predecessor, Adrian I, who was perpetually soliciting Charlemagne in his letters for fresh grants of territory to his see. Thirteen letters of Leo are published in Labbe's Concilia, 7:1111-1127. He is also considered the author of the Epistole ad Carolum Magnum imp., ex editlone et cum notis Hermanni Conringii (Helmst. 1647, 4to). The Enchiridion Leonis papae, containing seven penitential psalms and some prayers, has been erroneously attributed to him. See Ph. Jaffi, Reg. Pontific. (Berlin, 1851,4to), p. 215; F. Pagi, Breviarium historico chronologico-criticum illustriora pontif. (4to), 2:1; J. G. Faber, Lissertatio de Leone III, papa Romanii (Tubing. 1748, 4to); Milman, Hist. Latin Christianity, 2:454 sq.; Ranke, Hist. of Papacy, 1:24 sq.; Baxmann, Politik der Papste, 1:304; Neander, Ch. Hist. 2 (see Index); Riddle, Hist. of Papacy, 1:326; Bower, Hist. Popes, 4:142 sq.; Schrockh, Kirchengesch. 19:600 sq.; 20:510; 22:37 sq.; Reichel, See of Rome in the Middle Ages, p. 72 sq.; Lea, Studies in Church Hist. p. 34 sq., 38, 58, 88 note, 179; Encyl. Cyclop.; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, 30:710; Gfr rer, Kirchengesch. 3:1, 2.
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Leo III'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/l/leo-iii.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
