Essay On Pope Leo X

After becoming the Pope, Pope Leo X paid no attention to the dangers threatening the papacy, and gave himself into amusing his people (History of Popes). He loved to give banquets and host elaborate dinners night after night, one of his guests wrote to his family, “The meal was exquisite, and there was an endless selection of dishes, for we had sixty-five courses,” (The Medici Popes, PBS). Pope Leo X also hired more than seven hundred servants to take care of the papal household, which mostly included his family, relatives and Florentines, more than ever before (Pope Leo X, the opponent of the reformation). Having wasted the money upon his relatives and parties, it still did not occur to Leo that his extravagance was emptying the churches coffers and the debt was to much to pay. Once Leo was aware of the situation at hand, he decided to find means to get hold of money, however that money too was spent on worldly affairs. The reason why the nobles and many others did not realize this is because he bribed them with money and amused them with dinners, and banquets.

Afterwards Pope Leo X decided to look upon political affairs, one of his chief goals were to keep Italy independent from France and Spain who were wanting to gain control (Knight, 2009). The small Italian states were forced to join the France, Spain or the Holy Empire as the competing armies marched through Italy. Pope Leo X ran from one to another to prevent them from gaining control of Italy. He then joined the Holy Empire to drive the French out of Italy. However this did not last long so the two began working on the peace settlement, Pope Leo X was forced to do all the giving, the French King wanted the most important statues, two northern cities in Italy, etc. T...

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... X spent heavily; he spent most on helping his fellow friends, relatives. He would hold banquets and dinners every night and amuse himself through watching opera and etc. This slowly led Leo in financial debt. Pope Leo X then wanted the help keeping Italy, in particular Florence to stay independent so his family could rule it, as it had been doing before. However to keep it independent it forced him to empty the church’s coffers. After this event, Pope Leo X wanted to rebuild the St. Basilica however after being heavily involved in the political affairs, it required him to sell indulgences, which were a big hit. However it was the indulgences that put him as a corrupter of society in the eyes of people, and fully exposed the cause of his extravagance. All this than made the people realize that it was Pope Leo X that allowed for the need for there to be a reform.