Background
He was born Bruno of Egisheim-Dagsburg, the son of Count Hugh of Egisheim (Colmar) in 1002 in Alsace (now France) and a relative of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry III. His family was of noble rank.
He was born Bruno of Egisheim-Dagsburg, the son of Count Hugh of Egisheim (Colmar) in 1002 in Alsace (now France) and a relative of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry III. His family was of noble rank.
Bruno received a first-class education.
He entered the sacerdotal hierarchy, and became bishop of Toul. The emperor recognized his abilities and appointed him pope on Feb. 12, 1049, after the sudden death of Damasus II.
With Leo IX - Bruno took the name because of his ideological kinship with Leo I, "the Great" - begins the steep ascent to temporal power of the medieval papacy. It was in the nature of a gesture that he insisted upon being elected by the Roman clergy and people after his arrival in Rome, a gesture that was to indicate that imperial nomination alone was not a sufficient title-deed for the exercise of papal functions. The principle of canonical election of the pope was here asserted and applied in an unmistakable manner. Almost at once Leo broadened the basis of the papal government by summoning from across the Alps such highly capable men as Humbert (later cardinal-bishop of Silva Candida), one of the most fiery papal counselors; Frederick of Lorraine (later Pope Stephen IX) who became chancellor; and Hildebrand (later Gregory VII) whom Leo appointed treasurer of the Roman Church.
The papal chancery as the nerve-center of Western Christendom had not yet assumed the importance it was shortly afterwards to have, and Leo had therefore no other choice but to make personal contacts in order to broadcast papal principles. He traveled extensively through Italy, France, and Germany, summoning numerous synods which put the papal principles into decrees, above all exemplified by the prohibition of simony and concubinage. Leo's personal suggestion to re-establish the virtually extinct monastery at Hirsau in Swabia as a center of reform activity - similar to that of Cluny -shows the foresight of this pope. Hirsau became one of the most influential centers two decades afterwards and a stronghold of Gregorian policy. There was no friction between pope and emperor, and this can be explained by the latter's having pursued very similar aims in regard to the improvement of clerical morals and standards. The significance of the fact, however, that these measures were now papally demanded and enforced and that eventually they were certain to redound to the imperial government's grave disadvantage escaped the emperor: his son (Henry IV), who succeeded him on the throne, was to experience their true character at the hands of Pope Gregory VII.
During Leo's pontificate the break with Constantinople became final (1054). The patriarch Michael Cerularius had begun a virulent anti-Roman campaign. The papal legation led by Humbert insisted on absolute submission by the patriarch, and when these efforts were unavailing, Humbert excommunicated the patriarch and his followers in a somewhat dramatic and theatrical manner on July 16, 1054. The schism between East and West that had been smouldering under the surface for so long, had now become formally recognized. Leo himself had died a few months earlier, on Apr. 19, 1054, having only just been released from a nine-months' captivity at the hands of the Normans. He had been anxious to extend the boundaries of the papal state southwards, but in so doing clashed with the Norman forces who crushed the papal army near Civitate in Apulia in June 1053 and took the Pope prisoner. One month after his release he was dead.
Leo was emphatic in his insistence on the disciplinary and jurisdictional authority of the Roman Church - which meant in practice opposition to clerical marriages, simony, and imperial investitures (appointments) of bishops.
