Leo VI, Pope
LEO VI, POPE
Pontificate: May or June 928 to Dec. 928 or Jan. 929;b. Rome. The son of the primicerius Christopher, he was a priest of St. Susanna at the time of his promotion. He was elected by marozia and her party and succeeded to the papacy at the deposition of Pope john x, who died in prison in the castel sant 'angelo. Almost nothing is known of his brief pontificate. He seems to have followed the policy of his predecessor, and one surviving bull was directed to the bishops of Dalmatia, ordering them to obey their archbishop, John of Spalato, to whom Leo had granted the pallium.
Bibliography: p. jaffÉ, Regesta pontificum romanorum ab condita ecclesia ad annum post Christum natum 1198, ed. s. lÖwenfeld (repr. Graz 1956) 3579. Liber pontificalis, ed. l. duchesne (Paris 1886–92) 2:242. h. k. mann, The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages from 590 to 1304 (London 1902–32) 4:188. p. brezzi, Roma e l'Impero medioevale (Bologna 1947). f.x. seppelt, Geschichte der Päpste von den Anfängen bis zur Mitte des 20. Jh. (Munich 1954–59) 2:355, 434. s. scholz, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche 3d. ed. 6 (Freiburg 1997). h. zimmermann, Biographisch–Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon, 4 (Herzberg 1992). j. n. d. kelly, Oxford Dictionary of Popes (New York 1986) 122.
[o. j. blum]