Pope Leo IX

Timeline

1. 1026–1049Toul · LorraineLeo IX was educated in local monasteries and at court in his early years, and later served as bishop of Toul, renowned for strict discipline and an anti-simony stance, building the reputation and connections he would later use to carry out reform in Rome.
2. 1049–1054Rome · LazioAfter being elected pope in 1049, Leo IX convened reform councils in Rome and elsewhere, cracking down on simony and clerical marriage, and relied on aides such as Cardinal Hildebrand to modernize the papal administration. Between 1051 and 1054 his reform agenda continued to expand, affecting the entire Western European church.
3. 1054Constantinople · ConstantinopleIn 1054 his legate Cardinal Humbert and the patriarch of Constantinople Michael I Cerularius mutually excommunicated each other. Although Leo IX had died several months earlier, the event is still regarded by later ages as the symbolic starting point of the Great Schism between the Eastern and Western Churches.