Pope Leo VIII
Encyclopedia
Pope Leo VIII a Roman
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 by birth, is considered by the Church an Antipope
Antipope
An antipope is a person who opposes a legitimately elected or sitting Pope and makes a significantly accepted competing claim to be the Pope, the Bishop of Rome and leader of the Roman Catholic Church. At times between the 3rd and mid-15th century, antipopes were typically those supported by a...

 from 963 to 964 and a true Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...

 from 964 to 965. He held the lay office of protoserinus when he was (allegedly invalidly) elected pope by the Roman synod in December 963, when it also invalidly deposed Pope John XII
Pope John XII
Pope John XII , born Octavianus, was Pope from December 16, 955, to May 14, 964. The son of Alberic II, Patrician of Rome , and his stepsister Alda of Vienne, he was a seventh generation descendant of Charlemagne on his mother's side.Before his death, Alberic administered an oath to the Roman...

 (955–964), who was still alive. Because of shifting allegiances this had occurred at the insistence of Emperor Otto I the Great (936–973) 'the first of the Germans to be called the emperor of Italy', who on 2 February 962, John XII had crowned emperor of what would later become the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...

.

Having been hurried with unseemly haste through all the intermediate orders, he received consecration two days after his election, which was unacceptable to the Roman populace. In February 964, the Emperor having withdrawn from the city, Leo VIII found it necessary to seek safety in flight, whereupon he was deposed by a synod
Synod
A synod historically is a council of a church, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. In modern usage, the word often refers to the governing body of a particular church, whether its members are meeting or not...

 held under the presidency of the restored John XII. On the sudden death of John XII, the populace chose Pope Benedict V
Pope Benedict V
Pope Benedict V , Pope in 964, was elected by the Romans on the death of Pope John XII . However the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I did not approve of the choice and had him deposed after only a month and the ex-Pope was carried off to Hamburg and was placed under the care of Adaldag, Archbishop of...

 (964–966) as his successor; but Otto I, returning and laying siege to the city, compelled their acceptance of Leo VIII.

With the consent of all his would-be judges, Benedict was degraded to the rank of a deacon, Leo himself tearing the pallium
Pallium
The pallium is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Roman Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the Pope, but for many centuries bestowed by him on metropolitans and primates as a symbol of the jurisdiction delegated to them by the Holy See. In that context it has always remained unambiguously...

 from his shoulders (July, 964). If it be the fact, as is asserted by a contemporary, that Benedict validly acquiesced in his deposition, and if, as seems certain, no further protest was made against Leo's position, he may well be regarded as a true pope from July, 964, to his death in 965, about the month of March.

It is usually said that, at the synod which deposed Benedict V (with his ultimate consent), Leo VIII conceded to the Emperor and his successors as sovereign of Italy full rights of investiture
Investiture
Investiture, from the Latin is a rather general term for the formal installation of an incumbent...

, but the genuineness of the document on which this allegation rests is more than doubtful.

Leo VIII was succeeded by Pope John XIII
Pope John XIII
Pope John XIII of Crescenzi family served as Pope from October 1, 965, until his death.Born in Rome, he spent his career in the papal court...

 (965–972).

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