Scott Shafer
CHIS 400C
12/5/14
Pope Leo IX
The papacy of the Catholic church spans almost two thousand years and currently includes 266 popes. Over the course of all that time there have some popes that have done great things, others that have damaged the faith and the world and yet more that have simply been forgotten by time. Pope Leo IX is one of those that left a lasting impression by events he set into motion. He is considered one of the most historically significant Popes of the Middle Ages. This report will go into detail about the man known as Pope Leo the 9th.
Pope Leo IX was born in 1002 on the June the 21st as Bruno, Count von Egisheim und Dagsburg son of Count Hugh who was a cousin of Emperor Conrad II. Being from a well off family…show more content… Pope Leo had tried to ally with the eastern churches during his time of captivity and bring them inline with northern rule. Leader of the Constantinople church, Michael Cerularius, considered this an affront to his authority over the eastern churches. Up to this time the eastern churches had become lax with their communication with the Pope and northern churches. They still considered themselves part of the Holy Roman Catholic church but had a centralized eastern leader that ran most of the workings of the eastern churches. Michael Cerularius had been named patriarch in 1043 by the Byzantine emperor Constantine IX who was ruler in Sicily. Cerularius belief in the autonomy of the Eastern Church, led him to stop Constantine IX’s attempts to ally the Byzantine and Roman empires in defense against the Normans. Leo IX sent a letter containing portions of the Donation of Constantine which was a forged letter (believed at the time of Leo IX to be real) that stated emporer Constantine I had given authority to the church and as Leo IX was leader of the church he believed he had leadership over all catholic churches including those in the…show more content… Pope Leo with his delegates on their way to the east passed away and one of his delegates, the French cardinal Humbert, took advantage of the papal vacancy to retaliate against Cerularius. Humbert entered Constantinople’s cathedral, Hagia Sophia, on July 16, 1054 and excommunicated Cerularius and his clergy. In response, Cerularius convened a Holy Synod and excommunicated all the delegates. With the stubbornness of both sides reaching the tipping point the schism between the northern church and Constantinople was