LEO X.. Pope 1513-21. Giovanni de' Medici, the son of Lorenzo the Magnificent. He was horn in Florence in 1475, and destined in childhood for an ecclesiastical career. His education was in trusted to the ablest scholars of the age; and through the influence of his father with Pope Innocent VIII., he was created a cardinal at the age of thirteen years, in 1488. In the expulsion of the Medici from Florence, in 1494. the young car dinal was included, and he used the occasion as an opportunity of foreign travel. lie was employed as legate by Julius II.; and during the war with the French he was taken prisoner in the battle of Ravenna, but soon afterwards effected his escape. On the death of Julius II., in 1513, lie was chosen Pope at the early age of thirty-seven, and took the name of Leo X. His first appointment of the two great scholars Bembo and Sadoleto as his secretaries was a pledge of the favor toward learning which was the characteristic of his pontificate; but he did not neglect the more material interests of the Church and the Roman See. He brought to a successful conclusion the Fifth Council of the Lateran, and averted the schism which was threatened by the rival Council of Pisa. At the beginning of his reign his forces aided in driving the French from Italy, although in 1515 the new King, Francis 1.. restored the fortunes of France. In 1516 Leo concluded a con cordat with Francis, which continued to regulate the French Church till the Revolution. In the po litical relations of the Roman See he consolidated, and in some degree extended, the reeonquests of his warlike predecessor, Julius iL. although he used his position and his influence for the ag grandizement of his family. His desertion of the alliance of Francis I. for that of his young rival. Charles V., although the subject of nmeh crit icism, was dictated by a sound consideration of the interests of Italy. But it is most of all as a patron of learning and art that the reputation of Leo has lived with posterity. Himself a
scholar, he loved learning for its own sake; and his Court was the meeting•point of all the scholars of Italy and the world. He founded a Creek college in Rome. and established a Greek press. which lie endowed munificently. (See LAs cut's.) In the encouragement of art he was no has munificent. Painting. sculpture, architec ture, were equally favored; and it is to his vast project for the rebuilding of Saint Peter's, and to the step to which he had recourse for procuring the neeessary funds—his permitting the preach ing of an indulgence, one of the conditions of obtaining which was the contribution to this work—that the first rise of the Reformation in Germany is ascribed. He himself seems to have regarded the movement as of little importance. describing it as 'a squabble among the friars.' In 1520 he issued a bull of excommunication against Luther. which the Reformer burned. Leo X.'s personal habits were in keeping with his taste, splendid and munificent in the highest de gree. In his moral conduct lie maintained a strict propriety, although he was not free from the stain of nepotism, the vice of that age, and his character was more modeled on the ideal of an enlightened prince than on that of a zealous and ascetic churchman. Ilis death, which occurred rather suddenly on December 1, 1521, during the public rejoicings in Rome for the taking of was by sonic ascribed to poison; but there seems no solid reason for the suspicion. Consult : Ros coe. Life and Pontificate of Leo X. (Liverpool, 1S05; new ed. London, 1883) : Conforti. Leone X. cd it suo secolo (Parma. 1896) : Niti, Leone X. C la sue politica (Florence, 1892) ; and his Re gcsta. ed. Cardinal Hergenrother (Freiburg, 1884-91).