Pope Leo X

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Leo X)

Leo X

Birth name	Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici
Papacy began	March 9, 1513
Papacy ended	December 1, 1521
Predecessor	Julius II
Successor	Adrian VI
Born	December 11, 1475 Florence, Italy
Died	December 1, 1521 Rome, Italy

Pope Leo X, born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici (11 December 1475 – 1 December 1521) was Pope from 1513 to his death. He is known primarily for his failure to stem the Protestant Reformation, which began during his reign when Martin Luther (1483–1546) first accused the Roman Catholic Church of corruption.

Leo X is considered one of the few popes whose original extraction has corresponded in some measure with the splendour of the pontifical dignity. He was the second son of Lorenzo de' Medici. His cousin Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici, would become Pope Clement VII (1523–34).

The quote "How well we know what a profitable superstition this fable of Christ has been for us" is commonly attributed to him despite first appearing in The Pageant of the Popes, a parodical play by the Protestant satirist John Bale.

1 Biography
2 Bibliography
3 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early career

Giovanni de' Medici was born in Florence.

On March 26 1492, the 17-year-old Giovanni became a cardinal and moved to Rome, receiving a letter of advice[1] from his parents which rank among the wisest and weightiest compositions of its class. Within four years, his prospects were clouded by the nearly simultaneous deaths of his father and the Pope, a double bereavement closing the era of peace which Lorenzo's prudent policy had given to Italy, and inaugurating a period of foreign invasion and domestic strife.

One of the first consequences of the French irruption into Italy which shortly ensued was the expulsion of the Medici family from Florence (November 1494). Having resisted to the best of his ability, the Cardinal de' Medici found a refuge at Bologna and, being obnoxious to Innocent VIII's successor, Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503) as well as seeing himself deprived of political importance for the time being, he journeyed to several foreign countries with a party of friends. Upon his return he settled in Rome, withdrawing himself from public life as much as possible, and disarming the jealousy of Alexander VI by displaying an unaffected devotion to literary pursuits.

[edit] Election to Papacy

When he became Pope on March 11, 1513, Leo X rejoiced; he is reported to have said to his brother Giuliano, "Since God has given us the papacy, let us enjoy it." The Venetian ambassador who related this of him was not unbiased, nor was he in Rome at the time, nevertheless the phrase illustrates fairly the Pope's pleasure-loving nature and the lack of seriousness that characterized him. And enjoy he did, traveling around Rome at the head of a lavish parade featuring panthers, jesters, and Hanno, a white elephant. "Under his pontificate, Christianity assumed a pagan character, which, passing from art into manners, gives to this epoch a strange complexion. Crimes for the moment disappeared, to give place to vices; but to charming vices, vices in good taste, such as those indulged in by Alcibiades and sung by Catullus." (Alexandre Dumas pére).[2]

Leo X was also lavish in charity: retirement homes, hospitals, convents, discharged soldiers, pilgrims, poor students, exiles, cripples, the sick,and the unfortunate of every description were generously remembered, and more than 6,000 ducats were annually distributed in alms.

His extravagance offended even some Cardinals, who, led by Alfonso Petrucci of Siena, plotted an assassination attempt. Eventually, Pope Leo found out who these people were, and had them followed. The conspirators died of "food poisoning." Some people argue that Leo X and his followers simply concocted the assassination charges in a moneymaking scheme to collect fines from the various wealthy Cardinals Leo X detested.

[edit] The Reformation

Leo X was noted for his projects, including St. Peter's Basilica, and personal extravagances.

On June 15, 1520 Pope Leo X issued the papal bull "Exsurge Domine" and on January 3, 1521 excommunicated Martin Luther. This bull was widely ignored (and was publicly burned by Luther). The bull said that the statement "That heretics be burned is against the will of the Spirit" was an error, thereby endorsing the burning of heretics [3]. Soon after this, the Pope fell ill with malaria.

He died in Rome in 1521, and was buried in Santa Maria sopra Minerva.

[edit] Bibliography

Ludwig von Pastor, History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages; Drawn from the Secret Archives of the Vatican and other original sources, 40 vols. St. Louis, B.Herder 1898
Luther Martin. Luther's Correspondence and Other Contemporary Letters, 2 vols., tr.and ed. by Preserved Smith, Charles Michael Jacobs, The Lutheran Publication Society, Philadelphia, Pa. 1913, 1918. vol.I (1507-1521) and vol.2 (1521-1530) from Google Books. Reprint of Vol.1, Wipf & Stock Publishers (March 2006). ISBN 1-59752-601-0

Vaughan, Herbert M. The Medici Popes. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1908.
Zophy, Jonathan W. A Short History of Renaissance and Reformation Europe Dances over Fire and Water. 1996. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2003.