LEONE I, pope, called the GREAT, saint.
Fresco (8th cent.) - Rome, church
of S. Maria Antiqua.
Although these acts of L. show that he accepted Charles's pre-eminence in Rome, it must not be forgotten that the Pontiff at the same time had the Lateran triclinium decorated with the famous mosaic depicting St. Peter granting the pallium to L. and the banner to Charles, thus revealing a clear tendency to claim for the bishop of Rome a position of political parity with respect to the Frankish sovereign.
In any case, the relations between the two dignitates were soon to be brought to a clarification. In 799 the opposition of the Roman nobility, led by the relatives of Adrian I, erupted tragically on April 25, when, during the procession of the greater litany, L. was seized manu militari by the primicerius Paschal and the sacellarius Campolo, who even attempted to blind him. During the night the Pontiff was able to take refuge in St. Peter's and, under the protection of the Duke of Spoleto, reached Charles in Paderborn; the king ordered that L. be escorted with every honor to Rome (Nov. 29, 799), together with some Frankish investigating commissioners, who, however, reserved all judgment on the accusations brought against the Pontiff for Charles himself. Thus, when the king came to Rome (Dec. 1, 800) he found himself faced with a complex situation in that, on the one hand, the accusers were abandoning the cause, and on the other, a great many maintained that no one could judge the Pope. The latter, however, resolved the strange situation by justifying himself with a purgatio per sacramentum, read from the ambo of St. Peter's on Dec. 23, declaring nevertheless that he acted without having been judged or coerced; without any laws or customs existing in this regard; and without any obligation deriving from his attitude for his successors, should similar circumstances arise. The following day, during Christmas Mass, the coronation of Charlemagne took place, which has given rise to very disparate assessments: the fact remains that Charles was driven toward the coronation in Rome by a whole situation that had been maturing and that had its roots in the extraordinary power he had achieved, in his position as protector of the Confession of St. Peter, and in the exhortations of scholars who, with Alcuin of York (Carmina, XLV, 63, in MGH, Poëtae lat. aev. carol., I, 1, p. 258), told him «spectat te Roma patronum!». L. was likewise inclined toward the coronation, seeing what an increase in prestige would result for himself personally and for the Church, which would thus find it easy to complete that mission of spreading the faith that it now claimed as its own: thus the Sacrum Imperium was born, which exerted such fascination upon medieval consciences. Although L.'s relations with the Emperor remained good even after 800, nine years later the Pope was to oppose Frankish encroachment on the question of the Filioque (v.).
In 814 noble opposition erupted once again, causing serious disturbances that were not entirely quelled in 816, upon the death of L.
He also linked his memory, in the dogmatic field, to the definitive condemnation of adoptionism. His name was inserted into the Roman Martyrology in 1673. Feast day, June 12.