LEO X, POPE

Pontificate: March 9, 1513, to Dec. 1, 1521; b. Giovanni de'Medici, Florence, Dec. 11, 1475. As the second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, he was destined for high Church service from an early age. Giovanni received the tonsure before reaching the age of eight and became the cardinal deacon of Santa Maria in Dominica at 13. He was educated at his father's court by the humanists Marsilio ficino, Angelo Poliziano, and Giovanni and pico della mirandola, who instilled in him a lifelong interest in learning; later at Pisa he studied theology and Canon Law (1489–91). In 1492, still in his teens, he became a member of the College of Cardinals and took up residence in Rome. At the death of Lorenzo de'Medici (1492), he returned to Florence and lived with his elder brother Pietro. In the same year Cardinal de'Medici took

part in the conclave that elected, without his vote, Alexander VI. During savonarola's "reign of Virtue" he was living in Florence and he left only when the Medicis were sent into exile in November 1494. Expelled from his native city, the 19-year-old cardinal, who was considered clever and wise, visited France, the Netherlands, and Germany. Not until May 1500 did he return to Rome, where he buried himself in literature and the arts and developed a love for music and the theater that he never lost. In 1503, when his brother Pietro died, he became the head of the Medici family. The death of Alexander VI brought the Sacred College of Cardinals together in September of the same year, and only the aging and ailing pius iii could gain the necessary two-thirds vote. When he died 26 days later, the cardinals resumed their deliberations. Cardinal Giulio della Rovere emerged from the conclave as julius ii. In October 1511 the Pope appointed Cardinal Giovanni de'Medici legate of Bologna and Romagna. The following year, when Florence supported the schismatic council at Pia, Julius ordered him to attack his native city at the head of a papal army. But the Florentines engineered a bloodless revolution allowing the Medicis to return on September 14, 1512, Giovanni then became the real power in Florence, though his younger brother Giuliano actually held the first place in the Republic.

Election to the Papacy. The death of Julius II during the night of February 20–21, 1513, resulted in the seven-day conclave that opened March 4. The College was not at full strength since the rebellious cardinals who were holding a council at Pisa were excluded. The remaining 25 cardinals were not divided in any major rivalries, but were desirous of a peace-loving successor to the deceased soldier-pope. As a result, Cardinal de'Medici, who was supported by the younger cardinals, and finally by the senior members as well, since they believed his ill health would lead to a short pontificate, emerged from the conclave with the required votes. The 37-year-old cardinal received Holy Orders on March 15, was consecrated bishop two days later, and was crowned on the 19th. Leo X was the personification of the Renaissance in its most humanistic form. He befriended the humanists, spending not merely the vast sums accumulated by his predecessor and all that he could raise, but mortgaging the papacy to the extent of 400,000 ducats. His love of art, music, and the theater again made Rome the cultural center of the Western world. He vigorously advanced the construction of St. Peter's Basilica and collected books, manuscripts, and gems, with little regard for price. The scandals of the Borgia era were not to be found in Medici Rome. Leo knew how to enjoy life, but not at the expense of piety. Before hunting, one of his greatest loves, he always attended Mass, and on occasions even celebrated the Mass himself. Never one to overwork, he would escape from Rome for months at a time to relax in the country.

Fifth Lateran Council. The early years of the pontificate of Leo X witnessed the culminating work of the Fifth Lateran Council (see lateran councils). The Council had been called by Julius II to offset the council called in Pisa. Nine cardinals, most of them French, had gathered at Pisa and issued a summons for an ecumenical council to meet in that city in 1512. Alienated by Julius's foreign policies and his autocratic manners, they wished to curtail the absolute power of the pope by invoking the decree of the Council of Constance that required councils to be called every ten years. Julius had met this challenge swiftly and effectively by convoking an ecumenical council of his own to meet at the Lateran in July 1511. The Pisa group was supported almost exclusively by the French and Germans, who were unable to come to agreement because both insisted on managing Church affairs within their respective national boundaries. When Emperor Maximilian believed that Pisa II would lead to schism, he withdrew his support and opened negotiations leading to his recognition of the Lateran Council, which opened on May 3, 1512. The death of Julius within nine months left the bulk of the work of the council to his successor, Leo X.

The Council was poorly attended from the beginning, and of the 80 to 90 bishops present, the majority were Italian. Its main objectives were peace within the Christian world, a crusade against the Turks, and internal reforms. The decrees of this Council were primarily disciplinary. Under the heading of reform the Council discussed most matters treated at Trent some 40 years later. That little came out of the deliberations of the Lateran Council is explained in part by the lack of urgency that, as the result of the Protestant Revolt, characterized Trent. Nevertheless there were attempts at reform. Strict rules were drawn up for cardinals and other members of the Curaia; although the Pope violated them even before the Council adjourned. Preachers were warned against criticism of the hierarchy, and a system was approved for the censorship of printed books. The standard condemnations against pluralism and absenteeism were reissued, but it was made clear that dispensations might be granted to circumvent this prohibition. The Council's only major decision concerning faith was to condemn the neo-Aristotelian doubts about the immortality of the soul. The Council ended on March 16, 1517, a scant six months before Martin Luther posted his attack on indulgences.

Foreign Policies. Leo X was not only the head of the universal Church, but also, and often primarily, the temporal ruler of the States of the Church. In addition, as head of the house of Medici, he controlled the Florentine Republic. The major diplomatic problem facing Leo when he ascended the throne was the removal of foreign influence and dominance from the peninsula. France's interest in Italy arose from the claims of Charles VIII to Naples. His successor, Louis XII, added to this a title to Milan. At the beginning of 1513 the French, in alliance with the Venetians, were attempting to regain Milan and Naples. Leo found himself at war as an ally of Emperor Maximilian I, Ferdinand I of Spain, and Henry VIII of England in the League of Mechlin (April 5, 1513). The league suffered initial setbacks, but at the battle of Novara (June 6) the French were decisively defeated. The peace signed between Louis XII and the papacy included the withdrawal of French support from the Pisan council, bringing it to an inglorious end (December 1513).

Concordat with Francis I. The death of Louis XII (1515) brought the ambitious and energetic Francis I to the throne of France. The new King immediately revived his predecessor's claims to Milan and Naples and crossed the Alps at the head of an army that was victorious at the battle of Marignano (September 14, 1515). Leo negotiated a settlement, followed by a secret conference with Francis at Bologna in December of the same year. The groundwork was laid here for a long overdue understanding on Church-State relations. The new Concordat, written into the bull Primitiva (August 18, 1516) and promulgated as law in France the following year, clarified the relationship between King and Pope. The King was given the right to nominate all bishops, abbots, and priors, while the Pope reserved for himself the nominations to vacant benefices in curia and certain other benefices. While in practice the King's nomination amounted to appointment, in theory the Pope always had the power to veto an undesirable candidate. This settlement lasted until the French Revolution in 1789.

Imperial Election. The death of Ferdinand of Aragon in 1516 brought his young and energetic grandson Charles to the throne. Then in 1519 Charles's paternal grandfather, Emperor Maximilian, died. When both Charles and Francis I made a bid for the imperial title, the Pope supported the French King. However, Leo quickly veered in the direction of Frederick the Wise of Saxony, the protector of Martin Luther, until the contest was settled in June 1519, with the election of Charles V. The Pope then gravitated toward Spain.

Leo was also plagued by real and rumored domestic problems and intrigues. To cope with these difficulties and to enhance the grandeur of the Medici family he practiced nepotism. He appointed as archbishop of Florence, and then as cardinal and vice chancellor of the Holy See, his cousin Giulio de'Medici (later clement vii). The Pope's younger brother, Giuliano, and his nephew, Lorenzo, were named Roman patricians. In 1517 the failure of a conspiracy to poison the Pope by several discontented members of the College of Cardinals resulted in the execution of Cardinal Alfonso Petrucci and the imprisonment and punishment by fines of Cardinals Adriano Castellesi, Francesco Soderini, Raffaello Riario, and Bandinello Sauli, as well as far-reaching changes in that Sacred College. Notable among these was the publication on July 1, 1517, of the names of 31 new cardinals.

St. Peter's Indulgence. The construction of St. Peter's in Rome, the planned crusade against the Turks, the war with France and Spain, patronage of the arts, and the various other ever-increasing expenses of the papacy caused Leo X to search constantly for new sources of revenue. One of these, by no means new, was the preaching of indulgences. Julius II had authorized an indulgence to support the building of St. Peter's. Leo renewed the indulgence; although it was so unpopular in Germany, because the local princes resented the flow of money out of northern Europe, that it was being preached in only a few German dioceses by 1514. The death of Archbishop von Gemmingen of Mainz in March 1514 left one of Germany's wealthiest archdioceses vacant. albrecht of brandenburg, already archbishop of Magdeburg and bishop of Halberstadt, immediately advanced his candidacy, but was unable to raise the 14,000-ducat installation tax for Mainz and the 10,000 ducats required for the papal dispensation for the plural holding of sees. In an arrangement with the banking house of Jacob Fugger, the full amount would be advanced to the papacy at once if the new archbishop would allow indulgence preachers to go into his, as yet untouched, dioceses. One-half of the sums accumulated from the indulgences would go to the Fuggers, the other half to Rome. Leo X looked favorably on the profitable proposition, and on March 31, 1515, he issued the bull authorizing the indulgence to be preached in the Archdioceses of Mainz and Magdeburg. It was not until January 1517, that the Dominican friar Johann tetzel began preaching.

Luther's 95 Theses. It was a direct reaction to Tetzel's preaching that led Martin luther to post his 95 theses on the church door of Wittenberg castle. A summary of Luther's ideas was sent to Rome early in 1518. The Pope instructed the Augustinian general, Gabrielle della Volta, to silence the monk, but the attempt was unsuccessful. The diplomatic move to win over Luther's protector, Frederick the Wise of Saxony, by sending him the Golden Rose was likewise futile. After the Leipzig debates between Johann eck and Luther (1519), Leo issued the bull Exsurge Domine (June 15, 1520), which condemned Luther on 41 counts. When Luther publicly burned the bull on December 10, he was excommunicated in the bull Decet Romanum Pontificem (January 3,1521).

Luther's teachings were by no means confined to Germany. In England Henry VIII reacted by writing a defense of the seven Sacraments, for which the Pope bestowed upon him the title Defender of the Faith (October 11, 1521). Reaction in Scandinavia was more negative. Giovannangelo arcimboldi, the papal nuncio to the Danish court of Christian II, had been expelled (1520) because of his political activities, and Christian invited Lutheran theologians to Copenhagen. Leo acted promptly and sent a new nuncio, the Minorite Francesco de Potentia, who temporarily restored harmony.

The Lutheran challenge was not the only one to trouble the reign of Leo X. The dispute between Johannes Pfefferkorn and Johann Reuchlin became the concern of the papacy in September 1513. Pfefferkorn had begun a campaign to confiscate Jewish literature as subversive of faith and was opposed by Reuchlin and other humanists. The Pope referred the matter to the local bishops, who handed down a decision in favor of Reuchlin in March 1514. An appeal to Rome resulted in Leo's reversing the decision; Reuchlin was silenced.

The entangled international wars and alliances, together with the turbulence of domestic politics, explain in part why Leo was not more vigorous in suppressing the heretical and schismatical movements in northern Europe. He was perhaps, the last of the Renaissance popes who looked upon the papacy as primarily a temporal monarchy.

Bibliography: leo x, Regesta … Leonis X … e tabularii Vaticani manuscriptis voluminibus, ed. j. hergenrÖther (Freiburg 1884–). p. giovio, Historia sui temporis, 2 v. (Florence 1550–52); Vita Leonis X (Florence 1548, 1551), earliest account of his life. w. roscoe, Life and Pontificate of Leo X, 2 v. (London 1853). d. gnoli, La Roma di Leone X (Milan 1938). l. pastor, The History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages (London-St. Louis 1938–61) v.7–8, bibliog. f. x. seppelt, Geschichte der Päpste von den Anfängen bis zur Mitte des 20 Jh. (Leipzig 1931–41) 4:408–426. h. m. vaughan, The Medici Popes (New York 1908). g. b. picotti, La Giovinezza di Leone X (Milan 1928). e. p. rodocanachi, Le Pontifical de Léon X, 1513–1521 (Paris 1930). g. k. brown, Italy and the Reformation to 1550 (Oxford 1933). g. truc, Léon X et son siècle (Paris 1941). h. jedin, History of the Council of Trent, tr. e. graf, (St. Louis 1957–60) v.1. r. aubenas and r. ricard, Histoire de l'église depuis les origines jusqu'à nos jours, 15, ed. a. fliche and v. martin (Paris 1951). g. mollat, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant et al., 15 v. (Paris 1903–50; Tables générales 1951–) 9.1:329–332: g. schwaiger, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10v. (2d ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 6:950–952, bibliog. s. bedini, The Pope's Elephant (Lisbon 1997). c. falconi, Leone X (Milan 1987). a. ferrajoli, II ruolo della Corte di Leone X (Rome 1984). Epistolae ad Principes. Leo X–Pius IV (1513–1565), ed. l. nanni (Vatican City 1992). c. bresnahan menning, Charity and State in Late Renaissance Ithaca (Ithaca, N.Y. 1993).

[j. g. gallaher]