White smoke above the Vatican recently announced the election of Chicago-born Robert Prevost as pope, the 266th incumbent of the Chair of St Peter. He has taken the regnal name of Leo XIV. The world waits to see what kind of a pontiff he will be. Meanwhile, we look at some of the other popes who have chosen the name Leo.

Pope Leo XIII

In central Rome, just off the Corso, there is a small, dark church by the name of San Silvestro in Capite. It stands on the ruins of what might have been a temple of the Sun, built by the sun-worshipping emperor Aurelian in the 3rd century. In 1890 it was bestowed on the Enlgish Roman Catholics by Pope Leo XIII (r. 1878–1903). Today it is administered by the Pallottines. Pope Leo XIII was also known for his moves to expand Catholicism outside Europe.

Pope Leo I

Going back to the 5^th century, Rome was sacked by an army of Goths in 410. These Goths were fellow Christians, but nevertheless they looted and ransacked for three days, making a nonsense of the idea of Rome’s inviolability. The disintegration of the Western Empire began. But into the chaos came men of ability and ambition, prominent among them Pope Leo I (‘the Great’, r. 440–61). He made much of his position as the direct legal heir of St Peter, affirming the pre-eminence of the Bishop of Rome over all others. When Attila the Hun invaded Italy in 452, Pope Leo is said to have confronted him personally and induced him to withdraw. His legendary heroism as a saviour of civilization was invoked centuries later by Raphael, who decorated a rooms in the Vatican with a mural entitled Leo I Repulsing Attila. The pope occupies the foreground, seated on a white mule. Raphael was in fact making a direct allusion to a much later confrontation, the Battle of Ravenna of 1512, which had resulted in the withdrawal of French troops from Italy and in which a cardinal from the Medici family had taken part. It was pure flattery. One year after this battle, that same cardinal had been elected pope and had taken the name Leo X.

Pope Leo X

“God has given us the papacy: now let us enjoy it.” Famously, those are the words that Leo uttered upon his nomination in 1513. Portly and merry and a patron of the arts, Leo was in fact wilier than the impression he liked to create. His aims were twofold: to preserve Italy’s independence from foreign powers and to further the interests of his friends and family. He was also self-indulgent and a spendthrift. His readiness to take money in exchange for indulgences provoked Luther to nail his 95 theses on the door of Wittenberg church. Leo issued a papal bull against Luther, which Luther made a public show of burning. An excommunication followed. A Reformation followed that. When Henry VIII of England spoke out against Luther, Pope Leo granted him the title Defender of the Faith, a title which the sovereign of the United Kingdom has held ever since.

Pope Leo IV and Pope Leo III

Other Leos have sought to protect and reinforce, such as Leo IV (r. 847–55), who built a set of walls in the 9^th century, as defence against the Saracens, thus lending the Vatican the name of “Leonine City”. Leo III (r. 795–816) was a builder of metaphorical bridges. Having himself been chased from Rome by a mob and almost blinded, he sought the protection of the leader of the Franks, Charlemagne, conferring a sanctified legitimacy on him in the year 800, when he crowned Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas Day. In a deliberate reference to the glorious days of ancient Rome, Charlemagne took the name “Augustus” as one of his titles. In the old Lateran palace there was a room known as the Triclinium of Leo III, which had a mosaic of St Peter worshipped on one side by Charlemagne and on the other by Pope Leo. The Church, in other words, served by temporal and spiritual rulers in co-operation.

For more on popes, the papacy and the city of Rome, see the latest Blue Guide.