In 1053, Pope Leo IX made an unorthodox decision to personally lead a papal army against Norman forces in southern Italy. The two sides met at the Battle of Civitate where the Norman army decisively defeated the papal forces and subsequently captured the pope. In a letter the next year, Leo IX explained to the Byzantine emperor, Constantine Monomachos, why he felt the need to employ violence despite being a vicar of God on earth. He wrote that the Normans—who were themselves Catholic—embodied “an