Leo IX (pope)
1002 – 1054 Alsatian Pope (1049-1054)
Reforming pope whose legates triggered the East-West Schism of 1054.
- Religion
- Catholic; Bishop of Rome
- Affiliations
- The papacy
Leo IX led early church reform against simony, the buying of church office, and clerical marriage, traveling widely to hold councils. In 1054 his legates and the patriarch of Constantinople exchanged excommunications, the break now called the Great Schism between the Catholic West and the Orthodox East. He also led an army against the Normans in southern Italy and was briefly taken prisoner after losing the battle of Civitate.