Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
LEO X
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: LAP-LEO
del.icio.us it!
|
See also:LEO X . [Giovanni de' See also:Medici] (1475-1521), See also:pope from the lrth of See also: On the 1st of See also:October 151 1 he was appointed papal See also:legate of See also:Bologna and the Romagna, and when the Florentine See also:republic declared in favour of the schismatic Pisans Julius II. sent him against his native See also:city at the head of the papal See also:army. This and other attempts to regain See also:political See also:control of Florence were frustrated, until a bloodless revolution permitted the return of the Medici on the 4th of See also:September 1512. Gioyanni's younger brother Giuliano was placed at the head of the republic, but the cardinal actually managed the See also:government. Julius II. died in See also:February 1513, and the conclave, after a stormy seven See also:day's session, See also:united on Cardinal de' Medici as the See also:candidate of the younger cardinals. He was ordained to the priesthood on the 15th of March, consecrated See also:bishop on the 17th, and enthroned with the name of Leo X. on the 19th. There is no See also:evidence of simonv in the conclave, and Leo's election was hailed with delight by the See also:Romans on See also:account of his reputation for liberality, kindliness and love of See also:peace. Following the example of many of his predecessors, he promptly repudiated his election " See also:capitulation " as an infringement on the divinely bestowed prerogatives of the See also:Holy See. Many problems confronted Leo X. on his accession. He must preserve the papal conquests which he had inherited from Alexander VI. and Julius II. He must minimize See also:foreign See also:influence, whether See also:French, See also:Spanish or See also:German, in See also:Italy. He must put an end to the See also:Pisan See also:schism and See also:settle the other troubles incident to the French invasion. He must restore the French Church to See also:Catholic unity, abolish the pragmatic See also:sanction of See also:Bourges, and bring to a successful See also:close the Lateran See also:council convoked by his predecessor. He must stay the victorious advance of the See also:Turks. He must quiet the disagreeable wranglings of the German humanists. Other problems connected with his family interests served to complicate the situation and eventually to prevent the successful consummation of many of his plans. At the very See also:time of Leo's accession See also: The king of Spain wrote to his See also:ambassador at Rome " that IIis Holiness hau hitherto played a See also:double See also:game and that all his zeal to drive the French from Italy had been only a See also:mask "; this reproach seemed to receive some See also:confirmation when Leo X. held a See also:secret See also:conference with Francis at Bologna in December 1515. The ostensible subjects under See also:consideration were the See also:establishment of peace between France, Venice and the See also:Empire, with a view to an expedition against the Turks, and the ecclesiastical affairs of France. Precisely what was arranged is unknown. During these two or three years of incessant political intrigue and warfare it was not to be expected that the Lateran council should accomplish much. Its three See also:main See also:objects, the peace of Christendom, the crusade and the reform of the church, could be secured only by See also:general agreement among the See also:powers, and Leo or the council failed to secure such agreement. Tts most import-See also:ant achievements were the See also:registration at its See also:eleventh sitting (19th December 1516) of the abolition of the pragmatic sanction, which the popes since See also:Pius II. had unanimously condemned, and the confirmation of the See also:concordat between Leo X. and Francis I., which was destined to regulate the relations between the French Church and the Holy See until the Revolution. Leo closed the council on the 16th of March 1517. It had ended the schism, ratified the censorship of books introduced by Alexander VI. and imposed See also:tithes for a See also:war against the Turks. It raised no See also:voice against the primacy of the poise. The year which marked the close of the Lateran council was also signalized by Leo's unholy war against the See also:duke of Urbino. The pope was naturally proud of his family and had practised nepotism from the outset. His See also:cousin Giulio, who subsequently became See also:Clement VII., he had made the most influential See also:man in the See also:curia, naming him See also:archbishop of Florence, cardinal and See also:vice-See also:chancellor of the Holy See. Leo had intended his younger brother Giuliano and his See also:nephew Lorenzo for brilliant See also:secular careers. He had named them See also:Roman See also:patricians; the latter he had placed in See also:charge of Florence; the former, for whom he planned to carve out a See also:kingdom in central Italy of Parma, Piacenza, See also:Ferrara and Urbino, he had taken with himself to Rome and married to Filiberta of See also:Savoy. The death of Giuliano in March 1516, however, caused the pope to See also:transfer his ambitions to Lorenzo. At the very time (December 1516) that peace between France, Spain, Venice and the Empire seemed to give some promise of a Christendom united against the Turk, Leo was preparing an enterprise as unscrupulous as any of the similar exploits of Cesare Borgia. He obtained 150,000 ducats towards the expenses of the expedition from Henry VIII. of England, in return for which he entered the imperial league of Spain and England against France. The war lasted from February to September 1517 and ended with the expulsion of the duke and the See also:triumph of Lorenzo; but it revived the nefarious policy of Alexander VI., increased See also:brigandage and anarchy in the States of the,Church, hindered the preparations for a crusade and wrecked the papal finances. See also:Guicciardini reckoned the cost of the war to Leo at the prodigious sum of 800,000 ducats. The new duke of Urbino was the Lorenzo de' Medici to whom See also:Machiavelli addressed The Prince. His See also:marriage in March 1518 was arranged by the pope with Madeleine la Tour d'See also:Auvergne, a royal princess of France, whose daughter was the See also:Catherine de' Medici celebrated in French See also:history. The war of Urbino was further marked by a crisis in the relations between pope and cardinals. The sacred college had grown especially worldly and troublesome since the time of See also:Sixtus IV., and Leo took See also:advantage of a See also:plot of several of its members to See also:poison him, not only to inflict exemplary punishments by executing one and imprisoning several others, but also to make a See also:radical See also:change in the college. On the 3rd of July 1517 he published the names of See also:thirty-one new cardinals, a number almost unprecedented in the history of the papacy. Some of the nominations were excellent, such as Lorenzo See also:Campeggio, Giambattista Pallavicini, See also:Adrian of See also:Utrecht, See also:Cajetan, Cristoforo Npmai and Egidio Canisio, The naming of seven members of prominent Roman families, however, reversed the See also:wise policy of his predecessor which had kept the dange.ous factions of the city out of the curia. Other promotions were for political or family considerations or to secure See also:money for the war against Urbino. The pope was accused of having exaggerated the See also:conspiracy of the cardinals for purposes of See also:financial gain, but most of such accusations appear to be unsubstantiated. Leo, meanwhile, See also:felt the need of staying the advance of the warlike See also:sultan, See also:Selim I., who was threatening western See also:Europe, and made elaborate plans for a crusade. A truce was to be proclaimed throughout Christendom; the pope was to be the arbiter of disputes; the emperor and the king of France were to See also:lead the army; England, Spain and See also:Portugal were to furnish the See also:fleet; and the combined forces were to be directed against See also:Constantinople. Papal See also:diplomacy in the interests of peace failed, however; Cardinal Wolsey made England, not the pope, the arbiter between France and the Empire; and much of the money collected for the crusade from tithes and indulgences was spent in other ways. In 1519 See also:Hungary concluded a three years' truce with Selim I., but the succeeding sultan, Suliman the Magnificent, renewed the war in June 1521 and on the 28th of August captured the citadel of See also:Belgrade. The pope was greatly alarmed, and although he was then involved in war with France he sent about 30,000 ducats to the Hungarians. Leo treated the Uniate Greeks with See also:great See also:loyalty, and by See also:bull of the 18th of May 1521 forbade Latin clergy to celebrate See also:mass in See also:Greek churches and Latin bishops to ordain Greek clergy. These provisions were later strengthened by Clement VII. and See also:Paul III. and went far to settle the chronic disputes between the Latins and Uniate Greeks. Leo was disturbed throughout his pontificate by See also:heresy and schism. The dispute between See also:Reuchlin and Pfefferkorn relative to the See also:Talmud and other Jewish books was referred to the pope in September 1513. He in turn referred it to the bishops of See also:Spires and See also:Worms, who gave decision in March 1514 in favour of Reuchlin. After the See also:appeal of the inquisitor-general, Hochstraten, and the See also:appearance of the Epistolae obscurorum virorum, however, Leo annulled the decision (June 1520) and imposed silence on Reuchlin. The pope had already authorized the extensive See also: Neither the imperial edict nor the See also:work of Henry VIII. stayed the Lutheran movement, and Luther himself, safe in the solitude of the See also:Wartburg, survived Leo X. It was under Leo X. also that the See also:Protestant movement had its beginning in Scandinavia. The pope had repeatedly used the rich See also:northern benefices to See also:reward members of the Roman curia, and towards the close of the year 1516 he sent the grasping and impolitic Arcimboldi as papal nuncio to See also:Denmark to collect money for St Peter's. King See also:Christian II. took advantage of the growing dissatisfaction on the See also:part of the native clergy toward the papal government, and of Arcimboldi's interference in the See also:Swedish revolt, in order to expel the nuncio and summon (1520) Lutheran theologians to See also:Copenhagen. Christian approved a See also:plan. by which a formal See also:state church should be established in Denmark, all appeals to Rome should be abolished, and the king and diet should have final See also:jurisdiction in ecclesiastical causes. Leo sent a new nuncio to Copenhagen (1521) in the See also:person of the Minorite See also:Francesco de Potentia, who readily absolved the king and received the rich bishopric of Skara. The pope or his legate, however, took no steps to remove abuses or otherwise reform the Scandinavian churches. That Leo did not do more to check the tendency toward heresy and schism in Germany and Scandinavia is to be partially explained by the political complications of the time, and by his own preoccupation with schemes of papal and Mediceanaggrandizement in Italy. The death of the emperor Maximilian on the 12th of January 1519 had seriously affected the situation. Leo vacillated between the powerful candidates for the See also:succession, allowing it to appear at first that he favoured Francis I. while really working for the election of some See also:minor German prince. He finally accepted Charles I. of Spain as inevitable, and the election of Charles (28th of June 1519) revealed Leo's See also:desertion of his French alliance, a step facilitated by the death at about the same time of Lorenzo de' Medici and his French wife. Leo was now anxious to unite Ferrara, Parma and Piacenza to the States of the Church. An See also:attempt See also:late in 1519 to seize Ferrara failed, and the pope recognized the need of foreign aid. In May 1521 a treaty of alliance was signed at Rome between him and the emperor. Milan and See also:Genoa were to be taken from France and restored to the Empire, and Parma and Piacenza were to be given to the Church on the expulsion of the French. The expense of enlisting xo,000 Swiss was to be See also:borne equally by pope and emperor. Charles took Florence and the Medici family under his protection and promised to punish all enemies of the Catholic faith. Leo agreed to invest Charles with Naples, to See also:crown him emperor, and to aid in a war against Venice. It was provided that England and the Swiss might join the league. Henry VIII. announced his adherence in August. Francis I. had already begun war with Charles in See also:Navarre, and in Italy, too, the French made the first hostile movement (23rd June 1521). Leo at once announced that he would excommunicate the king of France and See also:release his subjects from their See also:allegiance unless Francis laid down his arms and surrendered Parma and Piacenza. The pope lived to hear the joyful See also:news of the See also:capture of Milan from the French and of the occupation by papal troops of the See also:long-coveted provinces (November 1521). Leo X. died on the 1st of December 1521, so suddenly that the last sacraments could not be administered; but the contemporary suspicions of poison were unfounded. His successor was Adrian VI. Several minor events of Leo's pontificate are worthy of mention. He was particularly friendly with King See also:Emmanuel of Portugal on account of the latter's missionary enterprises in See also:Asia and See also:Africa. His concordat with Florence (1516) guaranteed the See also:free election of the clergy in that city. His constitution of the 1st of March 1519 condemned the king of Spain's claim to refuse the publication of papal bulls. He maintained close relations with See also:Poland because of the Turkish advance and the See also:Polish contest with the See also:Teutonic Knights. His bull of the 1st of July 1519, which regulated the discipline of the Polish Church, was later transformed into a concordat by Clement VII. Leo showed See also:special favours to the See also:Jews and permitted them to erect a See also:Hebrew See also:printing-See also:press at Rome. He approved the formation of the See also:Oratory of Divine Love, a See also:group of pious men at Rome which later became the Theatine Order, and he canonized Francesco di Paola. As See also:patron of learning Leo X. deserves a prominent See also:place among the popes. He raised the church to a high See also:rank as the friend of whatever seemed to extend knowledge or to refine and embellish See also:life. He made the See also:capital of Christendom the centre of culture. Every See also:Italian artist and man of letters in an age of singular intellectual brilliancy tasted or hoped to See also:taste of his See also:bounty. While yet a cardinal, he had restored the church of Sta Maria in Domnica after See also:Raphael's designs; and as pope he built. S. Giovanni on the Via Giulia after designs by Jacopo See also:Sansovino and pressed forward the work on St Peter's and the Vatican under Raphael and Chigi. His constitution of the 5th of November 1513 reformed the Roman university, which had been neglected by Julius II. He restored all its faculties, gave larger salaries to the professors, and summoned distinguished teachers from afar; and, although it never attained to the importance of See also:Padua or Bologna, it nevertheless possessed in 1514 an excellent See also:faculty of eighty-eight professors. Leo called See also:Theodore See also:Lascaris to Rome to give instruction in Greek, and established a Greek printing-press from which the first Greek book printed at Rome appeared in 1515. He made Raphael custodian of the classical antiquities of Rome and the vicinity. The distinguished Latinists Pietro See also:Bembo (1470-1547) and Jacopo See also:Sadoleto (1477-1547) were papal secretaries, as well as the famous poet Bernardo See also:Accolti (d.1534). Writers of See also:poetry like See also:Vida (1490-1566), Trissino (1478-1550), and Bibbiena (1470-1520), writers of novelle like See also:Bandello, and a See also:hundred other literati of the time were bishops, or papal scriptors or See also:abbreviators, or in other papal employ. Leo's lively See also:interest in art and literature, to say nothing of his natural liberality, his nepotism, his political ambitions and necessities, and his immoderate See also:personal luxury, exhausted within two years the hard savings of Julius II., and precipitated a financial crisis from which he never emerged and which was a See also:direct cause of most of the calamities of his pontificate. He created many new offices and shamelessly sold them. He sold cardinals' hats. He sold membership in the " Knights of Peter." He borrowed large sums from bankers, curials, princes and Jews. The Venetian ambassador Gradenigo estimated the paying number of offices on Leo's death at 2150, with a capital value of nearly 3,000,000 ducats and a yearly income of 328,000 ducats. See also:Marino Giorgi reckoned the See also:ordinary income of the pope for the year 1517 at about 58o,000 ducats, of which 420,000 came from the States of the Church, See also:Ioo,000 from See also:annates, and 6o,000 from the See also:composition tax instituted by Sixtus IV. These sums, together with the considerable amounts accruing from indulgences, See also:jubilees, and special fees, vanished as quickly as they were received. Then the pope resorted to pawning See also:palace See also:furniture, table See also:plate, jewels, even statues of the apostles. Several banking firms and many individual creditors were ruined by the death of the pope. In the past many conflicting estimates were made of the See also:character and achievements of the pope during whose pontificate Protestantism first took See also:form. More See also:recent studies have served to produce a fairer and more honest See also:opinion of Leo X. A See also:report of the Venetian ambassador Marino Giorgi bearing date of March 1517 indicates some of his predominant characteristics:—" The pope is a See also:good-natured and extremely free-hearted man, who avoids every difficult situation and above all wants peace; he would not undertake a war himself unless his own personal interests were involved; he loves learning; of canon law and literature he possesses remarkable knowledge; he is, moreover, a very excellent musician." Leo was dignified in appearance and elegant in speech, See also:manners and See also:writing. He enjoyed See also:music and the See also:theatre, art and poetry, the masterpieces of the ancients and the wonderful creations of his contemporaries, the spiritual and the witty—life in every form. It is by no means certain that he made the remark often attributed to him, " Let us enjoy the papacy since See also:God has given it to us," but there is little doubt that he was by nature devoid of moral earnestness or deep religious feeling. On the other See also:hand, in spite of his worldliness, Leo was not an unbeliever; he prayed, fasted, and participated in the services of the church with conscientiousness. To the virtues of liberality, charity and clemency he added the Machiavellian qualities of falsehood and shrewdness, so highly esteemed by the princes of his time. Leo was deemed fortunate by his contemporaries, but an incurable malady, See also:wars, enemies, a conspiracy of cardinals, and the loss of all his nearest relations darkened his days; and he failed entirely in his general policy of expelling foreigners from Italy, of restoring peace throughout Europe, and of prosecuting war against the Turks. He failed to recognize the pressing need of reform within the church and the tremendous dangers which threatened the papal See also:monarchy; and he unpardonably neglected the spiritual needs of the time. He was, however, zealous in firmly establishing the political power of the Holy See; he made it unquestionably supreme in Italy; he successfully restored the papal power in France; and he secured a prominent place in the history of culture.
See L. Pastor, Geschichte der Pdpste See also:im Zeitalter der See also:Renaissance u. der Glaubensspaltung von der Wahl Leos X. bis zum Tode Klemens VII. part i (See also:Freiburg-i.-B., 1906); M. See also:Creighton, History of the Papacy, vol. 6 (1901); F. See also:Gregorovius, Rome in the See also:Middle Ages, trans. by Mrs G. W. See also: See also:Foster in the See also:Bohn Library; Histoire de France, ed. by E. See also:Lavisse, vol. 5, part I (1903) ; See also:Walter Friedensburg, " Ein rotulus familiae Papst Leos X.," in Quellen u. Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven u. Bibliotheken, vol. vi. (1904) ; W. See also:Roscoe, Life and Pontificate of Leo X. (6th ed., 2 vols., 1853), a celebrated See also:biography but considerably out of date in spite of the valuable notes of the German and Italian translators, See also:Henke and See also:Bossi; F. S. Nitti, Leone X. e la sua politica secondo documents e carteggi inediti (Florence, 1892) ; A. Schulte, See also:Die See also:Fugger in Rom r4Qc–1523 (2 vols., See also:Leipzig, 1906); and H. M. See also:Vaughan, The Medici Popes (1908). (C. H. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] LEO VIII |
[next] LEO XI |