Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king, Charlemagne, Emperor of the Romans on Christmas Day, 800 in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, making him the most powerful ruler of his time. In November 799, Charlemagne (ca. 747 - 814) set out for Rome. The pope had summoned him, because he could no longer fend off his enemies in the city.
With the letter informing the Frankish ruler Charlemagne that he had been unanimously elected pope, Leo sent him the keys of the confession of St. Peter, and the standard of the city, and requested an envoy. This he did to show that he regarded the Frankish king as the protector of the Holy See.
Pope Leo III. Pope Saint Leo III (Latin: Leo; fl. 12 June 816) was pope from 26 December 795 to his death in 816.
Leo III "placed two silver shields in Rome with the uninterpolated creed in both Greek and Latin." The Liber Pontificalis states Leo III put those shields at the top of St. Peter 's entrance "in his love for and as a safeguard for the orthodox faith".
On the occasion of the procession of the Greater Litanies, 25 April 799, when the pope was making his way towards the Flaminian Gate, he was suddenly attacked by armed men. He was dashed to the ground, and an effort was made to root out his tongue and tear out his eyes which left him injured and unconscious.
Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king, Charlemagne, Emperor of the Romans on Christmas Day, 800 in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, making him the most powerful ruler of his time.
Pope Leo III (died June 12, 816) was Pope from 795 to 816. Pope Leo III is best known for crowning Charlemagne as the first Holy Roman Emperor and for promoting the vision of the Christian world as a single, orderly, peaceful society under the ultimate authority of the Bishop of Rome as Christ's deputy on earth.
December 25, 800Pope Leo III crowning Charlemagne emperor, December 25, 800.
The dramatic zenith of his partnership with the church occurred on December 25, 800, in the old Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome, when Pope Leo III interrupted Christmas mass to place a crown on Charles's head and anointed him emperor – the first to bear the title west of Constantinople in more than three centuries.
The significance of Pope Leo III crowning Charlemagne as emperor was the fact that it joined germanic power with the church and the heritage of Rome.
Leo III (ca. 680-741), called the Isaurian, was Byzantine emperor from 717 to 741. He rescued the empire from disaster and began the containment of the Arabs' eastern advance. He also initiated the controversial Iconoclastic movement.
For Charlemagne, the coronation was an attempt to sanctify the power he had already achieved, and an opportunity to become equal in power and prominence with the emperor in the East.
Terms in this set (3) Charlemagne, King of the Franks, was crowned as the Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas Day, 800 A.D. by Pope Leo III. The coronation was important to the Pope as it recognized how important Charlemagne had been to him in protecting him from rebels in Rome.
At Mass, on Christmas Day (December 25), when Charlemagne knelt at the altar to pray, the pope crowned him Imperator Romanorum (“Emperor of the Romans”) in Saint Peter's Basilica. In so doing, the pope effectively nullified the legitimacy of Empress Irene of Constantinople.
Elected pope on January 8, 1198, Innocent III reformed the Roman Curia, reestablished and expanded the pope's authority over the Papal States, worked tirelessly to launch Crusades to recover the Holy Land, combated heresy in Italy and southern France, shaped a powerful and original doctrine of papal power within the ...
His coronation was the culmination of years of mutual support between Charlemagne and the Holy See, and shored up a mutually beneficial relationship. By crowning Charlemagne, Leo gained military support for the Vatican, and Charlemagne gained the authority to revive the unity of the Roman Empire in medieval Europe.
During the medieval times, the medieval pope enjoyed a position of supreme power and was even more powerful than medieval kings. He could issue orders to the medieval kings and excommunicate them from the Church. The pope decided on the official doctrines of the Church and clarified the disputing issues.
It all began when Pope Leo III found himself in grave danger from threats within the church. Having won the election to become Pope, he was immediately subjected to taunts and abuse from the previous pope’s family and friends (Hadrian I 772-95 AD) about his suitability and breeding for high office.
By November 799, Charlemagne was finally in a position to help. He sent Leo back to Rome with Frankish escorts, with an eye on sorting out all the alleged charges brought against Leo, at a time in the near future that suited him.
In short, the re- emergence of a new emperor in the west, would change the political, social and religious landscape of Europe. In one swift act Charlemagne lay claim to govern and preside over much of western Europe and but also bring into his protection the papal territories.
He offered his hand in marriage to Byzantine Empress Irene, in an attempt to reunite the two halves of the empire. Unfortunately, negotiations to this diplomatic union were quickly extinguished by a new usurper, Nicephorus I.
Even when the Byzantines found themselves in all sorts of bother, in defeat at the hands of the Bulgars, at Verbitza, in Bulgaria, where they were massacred (including the Emperor Nicephorus I ), Charlemagne was still willing to be fair and reasonable in the terms he sought for his own recognition as Emperor.
So as, Charles I (Charlemagne) knelt praying, Pope Leo III placed upon his head a magnificent jewel-encrusted crown. Some reports claim that Charlemagne was angered rather than flattered by Leo’s gesture. Other reports claim that he was taken by surprise, but many historians believe that this was not the case.
Christmas Day, Rome, 800 AD. In the great basilica of St. Peter’s, Rome, Pope Leo III celebrated mass. It was meant to be like any other Christmas mass that celebrated the birth of Christ, except on this particular glorious day, an additional ceremony was performed. Pope Leo III, on this day, 25th December, 800 AD, ...
In November 799, Charlemagne (ca. 747 - 814) set out for Rome. The pope had summoned him, because he could no longer fend off his enemies in the city. After Charlemagne calmed representatives from both sides and had Leo take an oath of purgation concerning charges of adultery and perjury brought against him, the two rulers attended ...
Charlemagne's biographer was keen to convey the impression that the king was surprised by the coronation. It's probable that Charlemagne had speculated on the likelihood of receiving the crown; the pope was, after all, in need of the kind of assistance only the King of the Franks could offer. As soon as the crown was in position, ...
And because Charlemagne sought to bind antiquity with the Middle Ages in this way, he also put himself on a level with those heroes of antiquity. The salvation of antiquity's cultural heritage was a conscious process , because the scholars started with the idea of a linear connection in both culture and politics.
The architecture of the Carolingian era also harked back to antiquity. Aachen's Palatine Chapel, for example, was meant to call to mind the "little Hagia Sophia," the Sergios-Bakhos Church in Constantinople. Other government buildings in Aachen were copies of Roman buildings.
Charlemagne's throne in the Aachen cathedral. Immediately after the coronation, Charlemagne introduced a common currency, written language and measurements in Francia. In Aachen, he commissioned buildings, the remnants of which still provide an indication of how the city was meant to become a "second Rome.".
The core of his new realm was formed by those countries which, around 1,150 years later, would make up the European Economic Community: France, Germany, the Benelux states and Italy.
Apollo 8 went on to result in a series of breakthroughs for manned space flight: The three astronauts became the first men to leave Earth’s gravitational pull, the first to orbit the moon, the first to view all of Earth from space and the first to see the dark side of the moon.
7. 1968: Apollo 8 orbits the moon. As part of 1968’s Apollo 8 mission, astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders spent the night before Christmas orbiting the moon. The operation was originally planned to test out the lunar module—later used in the Apollo 11 moon landing—in Earth’s orbit.
Apollo 8 is perhaps best remembered today for the broadcast the three astronauts made when they entered the moon’s orbit on Christmas Eve. As viewers were shown pictures of the moon and Earth from lunar orbit, Borman, Lovell and Anders read the opening lines of the book of Genesis from the Bible.
The year 1914 saw the Christmas spirit manifest itself in the most unlikely of places-a World War I battlefield. Starting on the evening of December 24, scores of German, British and French troops in Belgium laid down their arms and initiated a spontaneous holiday ceasefire. The truce was reportedly instigated by the Germans, who decorated their trenches with Christmas trees and candles and began singing carols like “Silent Night.” British troops responded with their own rendition of “The First Noel,” and the weary combatants eventually ventured into “no man’s land”—the treacherous, bombed-out space that separated the trenches—to greet one another and shake hands.
Charlemagne would serve as emperor for 13 years, and his legal and educational reforms sparked a cultural revival and unified much of Europe for the first time since the fall of the Roman Empire.
William the Conqueror’s 21-year rule would see many Norman customs and laws find their way into English life. After consolidating his power by building famous structures such as the Tower of London and Windsor Castle, William also gave copious land grants to his French-speaking allies.
At the end of 1776, the Revolutionary War looked like it might be lost for colonial forces. A series of defeats by the British had depleted morale, and many soldiers had deserted the Continental Army.