Leo X (1475-1521), was pope during the climax of the Renaissance in Rome, but he also faced the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation. Leo was elected pope in 1513. He was a pleasure-loving man and a patron of the arts. He spent lavishly on papal court spectacles and on patronage for scholars, composers, and artists.
Leo was born on Dec. 11, 1475, in Florence, Italy. His given and family name was Giovanni de’ Medici. His father was the powerful Florentine leader Lorenzo de’ Medici. During Leo’s reign, France and Spain engaged in a long conflict for dominance of Italy. Leo tried to preserve papal temporal (nonreligious) power, maintain the independence of Florence, and advance his family’s interests. The Reformation began in 1517. But Leo was preoccupied with the cultural life of Rome, Italian politics, growing Ottoman power in the Mediterranean, and the election of a Holy Roman emperor in Germany. He was slow to grasp the seriousness of the Protestant challenge. His condemnation of Protestant leader Martin Luther in 1520 was too late to be effective, and the Protestant split from Rome became permanent. Leo died on Dec. 1, 1521.
