Leo VIII (died 965), Pope from 963 to 964, a Roman by birth, held the lay office of "protoserinus" when he was elected to the papal chair at the instance of Otto the Great by the Roman synod which deposed John XII in December 963.
Having been hurried with unseemly haste through all the intermediate orders, he received consecration two days after his election, which was unacceptable to the people. In February 964, the emperor having withdrawn from the city, Leo found it necessary to seek safety in flight, whereupon he was deposed by a synod held under the presidency of John XII. On the sudden death of the latter, the populace chose Benedict V as his successor; but Otto, returning and laying siege to the city, compelled their acceptance of Leo. It is usually said that, at the synod which deposed Benedict, Leo conceded to the emperor and his successors as sovereign of Italy full rights of investiture, but the genuineness of the document on which this allegation rests is more than doubtful. Leo VIII was succeeded, after the deposition of Benedict, by John XIII
Indignant at the expulsion of Leo, and the election of Benedict, Otho hurried to Rome, and was soon in possession of both it and the new pope.
With the consent of all his would-be judges, Benedict was degraded to the rank of a deacon, Leo himself tearing the pallium from his shoulders (July, 964).
Leo was not a competent ruler; he was a good, pious man, a dilettante of letters and art, but not greatly interested in the advancement of the church.
Leo X is considered one of the few popes whose original extraction has corresponded in some measure with the splendour of the pontifical dignity.
Leo X was also lavish in works of charity: hospitals, convents, discharged soldiers, pilgrims, poor students, exiles, cripples, the sick, homosexuals, and the unfortunate of every description were generously remembered, and more than 6,000 ducats were annually distributed in alms.
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