UO 166 UBO
advocated a crusade against the Turks, and at the close obliged to collect 10,000 ducats^ which he was taxed of the war with Urbino took up the cause with renewed over and above the usual connrmation fees. To in- determination. In November, 1517, he submitted an demnify him, and to make it possible to discharge these exhaustive memorial to all the princes of Europe, and obligations Rome permitted him to have preached in endeavored to unite them in a common eflfort, but in his territory the plenary indulgence promised all those vain. The replies of the powers proved widely dis- who contributed to the new St. Peter's; he was al- smoilar. They were suspicious of one another and lowed to keep one half the returns, a transaction which each sought naturally to realize various secondary brought dishonour on all concerned in it. Added to purposes of its own. Leo answered a threatening let- this, abuses occurred during the {^reaching of the In- ter from the sultan by active exertions. Religious dulgence. The money contributions, a mere acces- processions were held, a truce of five years was pro- sory, were frecmently the chief object, and the "Indijd- claimed throughout Christendom and the Crusade gences for the Dead became a vehicle of inadmissible was preached (1518). The pope showed real earnest- teachings. That Leo X, in the most serious of all the ness, but his great plan miscarried through lack of co- crises which threatened the Church, should fail to operation on the part of the powers. Moreover, Car- prove the proper guide for her, is clear enough fram dmal Wolsey, Lord Chancellor of England, thwarted what has been related above. He recognised ndther the pope's peaceful efforts and thus dealt a grievous the cavity of the situation nor the underlying causes blow to the international prestige of the papacy, of the revolt. Vigorous measiures of reumn mig^ When the Crusade was preacned in Germany, it found have proved an efficacious antidote, but the pope was a large section of the people strongly predisposed deeply entangled in political affairs and allowed the im- against the Curia, and furnished them with an occasion periaf election to overshadow the revolt of Luther; to express their views in plain terms. It was believed moreover, he gave himself up unrestrainedly to his that the Curia mefrcly sought to obtain more money, pleasures and failed to grasp fully the duties of his One of the numerous spiteful pamphlets issued dc- nigh office.
clared that the real Turks were in Italy and that these The pope's last political efforts were directed to ex- demons could only be pacified by streams of gold, panding the States of the Church, establishing thereby The good cause was graaually merged with an impor- a dominating power in Central Italy by means of ihe tant poUtical (question, the succession to the imperial acquisition of Ferrara. In 1519 he concluded a treaty throne. Maximilian sought the election for his grand- with Francis I against Emperor Charles V. But the son, Charles of Spain. A rival appeared in the person selfishness and encroachments of the French and the of Francis I, and both he and Charles vied witn each struggle against the Lutheran movemen^ induced other in seeking to win the pope's favour by re- him soon to unite with Charles, after he had again re- peated assurances of their willingness to move against sorted to his double-faced method of treating with the Turks. The event of the election relegated the both rivals. In 1521 pope and emperor signed a d©- crusade to the background. In 1519 the pope real- fensive alliance for the purpose of on vine the French ized that there was no longer any prospect of carrj'ing out of Italy. After some difficulty, the allies occupied out his design. Milan and Lombardy. Amid the rejoicings over Leo's attitude towards the imp>erial succession was these successes, the pope died suddenly of a malignant influenced primarily by his anxiety concerning the malaria. His enemies are wrongly accused of having power and independence of the Holy See and the so- poisoned him. The magnificent pope was given a simr called freedom of Italy. Neither candidate was ac- pie funeral and not until the reign of Paul III was a ceptable to him, Charjes, if possible, less than Francis, monument erected to his memory in the Church ot f owinff to the preponderance of power that must result Santa Maria sopra Minerva. It is cold, prosaic, and from his accession. The pope would have preferred quite unworthy of such a connoisseur as L^. a German electoral prince, that of Saxony or later, The only possible verdict on the pontificate of Leo the Elector of Brandenburg. He "sailed", as usual, X is that it was unfortunate for the Church. Sigi&- "with two compasses", held both rivals at bay by a mondo Tizio, whose devotion to the Holy See is un- double jame played with matchless skill, and even doubted, writes truthfully: *'In the general opinion it succeeded in concluding simultaneously an alliance was injurious to the Church that her Head should de- with both. The deceitfulness and insincerity of his light in plays, music, the chase and nonsense, instead political dealings cannot be entirely excused, either by of paying serious attention to the needs of his flock the difficult position in which he was placed or by the ana mourning over their misfortunes". Von Reu- example of his secular contemporaries. Maximilian's mont says pertinently — '* I^eo X is in great measure to death (January, 1519) ended the pope's irresolution, blame for the fact that faith in the integrity and merit First he tried to defeat both candidates by raising up a of the papacy, in its moral and regenerating powers, German elector. Then he worked zealously for Fran- and even in it« good intentions, should have sunk so cis I in the endeavour to secure his firm friendship in low that men could declare extinct the old true spirit case Charles became emperor, an event which grew of the CHiurch."
daily more likely. Only at the last moment when the Pastor, History of the Popes, VII (St. Louis, 1908): Lwnis
election of Charlw was certain and unavoidable did J„t^b,«-,.f.?,:tF«fb "fJSS^^lr/ovJv^^^
Leo come over to his side; after the election he watched (Florence. 1548. Losi); Fabroniuh, Lconit x. P. M. vita (Pita.
in cnreat anxiety the attitude the new emperor might 1797): Uosoqe, Life and Pontificate of Le^ X (Liverpool, 1806,
-_-?,_- London, 1883): Italian tr. with new matenals by B«>8«i (Milan,
^ri .. XX rx » x-/? X ism, \\J DIS, H iUoire de ly on X.etde son siMc {Ftin9,lS44);
The most important occurrence of Leo S pontificate Nirn, Leone X e la sua politica (Florence, 1892); CoNFORTi,
and that of gravest consequence to the Church was the Leone X edU suo eecolo (Parma, 1896); Von Reumont, Ge-
Pt^fnrmof inn xrViiVh l^vnn in 1 ^1 7 \Vp rinnof pnt^r 9chichte derStadt Rom, III (Berlin, 1870). part ii; Greooroviub,
Ketormation, Which began in ii)i/. v\ e cannot enter ^^^/^^^^^ ^^ ^,^ /^^^^ VIII (Stuttgart, 1896); Geiger.
mto a minute account of this movement, the remote Renaissance und Humanismus in Deutschland und Italien (Bor-
cause of which lay in the religious, political, and social lin. 1882).
conditions of Germany. It is certain, however, tliat Klemens L(>ffler.
the seeds of discontent amid which Luther threw his
firebrand had been germinating for centuries. The Leo XI (Alessandro Ottaviano de' Medici),
immediate cause was bound up with the odious greed Pope, b. at Florence in 1535; d. at Rome 27 April,
for money displayed by the Roman Curia, and shows 1605, on the twenty-seventh day after his election to
how far short allefforts at reform had hitherto fallen, the papacy. His mother, Francesca Salviati, was a
Albert of Brandenbui^, already Archljishop of Magde- daughter of Giacomo Salviati and Lucrezia Medici,
burg, received in adtlition the Archbishopric of Mainz the latter l)eing a sister of Leo X. From his boyhood
and the Bishopric of Han)erstadt, but in return was he led a life of piety and nlwajTS had an earnest desire
