Leo IV

Pope, was a native of Rome, and succeeded Sergius II in 847. He was hastily elected, and consecrated without waiting for the consent of the emperor Lotharius, because Rome was then threatened by the Saracens, who occupied part of the duchy of Benevento, and who a short time before had landed on the banks of the Tiber, and plundered the basilica of St. Peter's on the Vatican, which was outside of the walls. Leo's consecration, however, was undertaken with the express reservation of the emperor's rights, and when, in order to prevent a recurrence of the violence of the Saracens, Leo undertook to surround the basilica and the suburb about it with walls, the emperor sent money to assist in the work. The building of this Roman suburb occupied four years, and it was named after its founder, Civitas Leonina. Leo also restored the town of Porta, on the Tiber, near its mouth, settling there some thousands of Corsicans, who had run away from their country on account of the Saracens. Towers were built on both banks of the river, and iron chains drawn across to prevent the vessels of the Saracens from ascending to Rome. The port and town of Centum Cellhe being forsaken on account of the Saracens, Leo built a new town on the coast, about twelve miles distant from the other, which was called Leopolis; but no traces of it remain now, as the modern Civita Vecchia is built on or near the site of old Centum Cellae. Leo IV held a council at Rome in 853, in which Anastasius, cardinal of St. Marcel, was deposed for having remained five years absent from Rome, notwithstanding the orders of the pope. Leo died in July, 855, and fifteen days after his death Benedict III was elected in his place, according to the most authentic text of Anastasius, who was a contemporary; but later writers introduce between Leo IV and Benedict III the fabulous pope Joan (q.v.). Leo has left us two entire epistles, as also fragments of several others, and a good homily, which are contained in Labbe's Cone. See Baronius, Annal. 14:340; Ciaconius, 1:614; Gfrörer, Kirchengeschichte, 3:1, 2; Baxmann, Politik d. Papste, 1:281, 352; Lea, Studies in Ch. History, p. 61, 91; Riddle, Hist. of Papacy, 1:336 sq.; Reichel, See of Rome in the Middle Ages, p. 96; Labbe, Concil. 9:995; Gieseler, Eccles. Hist. 2:220 sq.; Herzog, Real-Encyklop. 8:312; Mosheim, Eccl. Hist. 2:77; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Gener. 30:711; English Cyclopaedia, s.v.