Pope Stephen IX, and Hugh of Remiremont. Joining
the men of the north would be such Italian church-
men as Peter Damian and Hildebrand, the future Pope
Gregory VII, to become the nucleus of what became
the college of cardinals. Aided by the efforts of these
and other reforming churchmen, the new pope sought
through the holding of numerous regional synods in
Italy, Germany, and the kingdom of the French to
curb the problems of simony, nicolaitism (opposition
to celibacy), and violence against churchmen and the
poor and to deal with numerous other problems facing
the church in this period. Pope Leo presided over these
gatherings and exhibited the presence of the papacy to
a substantial portion of Western Christendom, quite
unlike that of his predecessors. He extended papal
protection to monasteries in a series of charters and in
1050 issued a canonical collection that drew on earlier
rulings to support his papal activities. His aggressive
attempt to deal with the problems faced by the church
is also apparent in his personally leading an army into
southern Italy in 1053, with the approval of Henry III,
to oppose the Normans, a major preoccupation in the
latter part of his papacy, because they were such a threat
to the ecclesiastical and papal political holdings in the
region. The Normans defeated the army of the pope in
June of that year and held Leo captive. Incensed by this
invasion into a region where the Byzantines had claims,
Patriarch Michael Cerularius of Constantinople closed
the Latin churches in his city. Humbert was dispatched
from Rome to lead a papal embassy to try to solve the
problem. The result was not the desired rapprochement
but a mutual excommunication by Humbert and the pa-
triarch and the beginning, in July of 1054, of the great
schism between Rome and Constantinople, between the
Western Church and the Eastern Church that continues
to the present. Pope Leo, however, was not alive to wit-
ness the separation. He died in April of that year in Rome
shortly after his release from Norman captivity.
John of Fécamp called Pope Leo “the marvelous
pope” (papa mirabilis), a title that in many ways he
well deserved. His papacy marks an important moment
in the history of the church. His achievements provided
the foundation for the Gregorian reform and the future
papal monarchy. He brought the presence of the bishop
of Rome to many parts of Western Christendom, in a
manner comparable to the papal global travels in the late
twentieth century. At the Council of Rheims, he used the
title of universal to emphasize the scope of the power
of the vicar of Peter. His very name demonstrates his
awareness of the singular importance of his position,
so clearly delineated in the Petrine doctrine of Leo the
Great. But he also utilized the Donation of Constantine
to justify his actions in southern Italy where he aggres-
sively displayed his leadership in a new papal militarism
that looked forward to the summons of the First Crusade
by Urban II in 1095. This aggressive leadership, how-
ever, also led to the great schism of 1054, a separation
that has had a profound importance in the history of
the church and of Europe as a whole. Few papacies, if
any, have marked such a major change in the direction
of the church.
See also Conrad II; Gregory VII, Pope; Henry III;
Damian, Peter; Urban II, PopeFurther Reading
Analecta Bollandiana 25 (1906): 258–297 [Brussels, 1892ff.;
continues Acta Sanctorum].
Brucker, P. P. L’Alsace et l’Eglise au temps du pape saint Léon
IX (Bruno d’Egisheim) 1002–1054, 2 vols. Strasbourg: F. X.
Le Roux, 1889.
Fliche, A. La réforme grégorienne, vol. 1 Louvain: Spicilegium
sacrum louvaniense, 1924.
Leo IX, in Acta Sanctorum. London: Snowden, 164lff. April 11,
pp. 641–673 [lives of saints by calendar].
Migne, Jaques-Paul, ed. Patrologia Latina, vol. 143. Paris: Migne,
1882, cols. 457–800.
Nicol, D. M. “Byzantium and the Papacy in the Eleventh Century.”
Journal of Ecclesiastical History 13 (1962): 1–20.
Tellenbach, Gerd. The Church in Western Europe from the Tenth
to the Early Twelfth Century, trans. T. Reuter. Cambridge,
England: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Daniel F. CallahanLEODEGUNDIA
In addition to Egeria, other Iberian women were in-
volved in literary activities in the early Middle Ages.
Some wrote letters of a more or less artistic nature.
Some participated, in various ways, in producing texts.
Such is the case with Leodegundia of Bobadilla, a Gali-
cian nun who wrote a Codex regularum, a Visigothic
compendium that was widely read for centuries. Her
manuscript is one of the oldest versions of this work,
which typically contains the teachings and lives of the
holy fathers of the church.
The manuscript, which was moved from Oviedo to
the Escorial (a.I.13) in the sixteenth century, includes
the following colophon: “O vos omnes qui legeritis hunc
codicem mementote/clientula et exigua Leodigundia
qui hunc scripsi in monasterio Bobatelle regnante Ad-
efonso principe in era 950 quisquis pro alium oraver it
semetipsum deum commendat.” The manuscript appears
to refer to King Alfonso II and presumably was written
in 850 rather than 950.
Leodegundia’s calligraphy has been highly praised.
However, it is logical to assume she did more than
copy the manuscript. In addition to the usual teachings
and lives of the holy fathers, her version of the Codex
regularum contains St. Jerome’s letters to women
friends, St. Augustine’s letter to his sister Marceline, St.
Leander’s letters to his sister Florentina, and the livesLEODEGUNDIA