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LEO X. (Giovanni de' Medici) may be said to have been destined to an ecclesiastical career from the very cradle. Born at Florence on the 11th of December, 1475, as the second and favorite son of Lorenzo de' Medici, he received the tonsure at seven, became an abbot, and, through the influence of his father with Pope Innocent VIII., was made a cardinal at the age of thirteen (October, 1488), the investiture being postponed for three years, however, after which he was formally admitted to the sacred college (March, 1492). On the expulsion of the Medici from France (November, 1494) he spent some time in traveling, and when Pope Alexander VI. was succeeded by Julius II., he found himself restored to favor, and was, in 1511, appointed legate at Bologna, in which capacity he was taken prisoner by the French under Gaston de Foix, at the battle of Ravenna (April 11, 1512).

On the death of Julius II. (February 21, 1513) he became Pope at the age of thirty-seven (March 11, 1513), assuming the name of Leo X. The problem of tightening the grasp of the papacy on the acquisitions of his martial predecessor, Julius II., taxed all his diplomatic energies, and the interests of his family had likewise to be looked after. Francis I., King of France, dominated by the ambition of recovering Milan and Naples, crossed the Alps, and on September 13,

1515, defeated the Swiss at Marignano, the Church in consequence losing Parma and Piacenza. Leo hastened to meet Francis, with whom he concluded a concordat, which deprived the Gallican Church of its autonomy, and remained in force until the Revolution. (A fond wish of the Pope's heart was gratified by the recovery of the duchies thus lost, a few weeks before his death in 1521, after his desertion of the martial French king to ally himself with the Emperor Charles V.)

Leo's next enterprise was a rather unscrupulous one: he seized on the duchy of Urbino, the duke being dethroned to make room for the Pope's nephew, Lorenzo. At about this same time, several cardinals, having plotted to poison him, were severely dealt with: death for some, imprisonment for others was the punishment. Soon after (1517), Leo created thirty-one cardinals in one day, filling his coffers by this simoniacal procedure, and strengthening his power in his court. He was, like his father, a poor financier, and relief for the low state of the treasury was sought especially in the sale of indulgences, offering full absolution in return for cash payments. This presumptuous assumption of power over man's future state was the first cause to call forth the most far-reaching and momentous event of his reign: the revolt, in 1517, of the monk, Martin Luther, inaugurating the Reformation. Leo appears to have failed to grasp the far-reaching importance of this manifestation of a new spirit, which he designated as "only monkish squabbles," although, perhaps, at his death there came to him a presentiment of the real nature of this powerful religious revolution. He contented himself by hurling an impotent excommunication against the sturdy German monk, whom he could neither conciliate nor terrify; and having here, as also during his whole reign, failed to live up to the spiritual and moral possibilities of his high office, died on the 1st of December, 1521. His demise was so sudden that he had not time to receive extreme unction, and there was a general suspicion, apparently groundless, that he had been poisoned.

Harsh was the judgment of the popular voice: "You came in like a fox; you ruled like a lion; you died like a dog." "Posterity," says a noted authority, "has been more favor

able to his memory, and men of intellect have even looked with sympathy upon that graceful pontiff, who was the friend of Erasmus and Raffaello, and who, if he had lived in a less corrupt atmosphere, might have yielded to the reforms of Luther. But the Golden Age of Leo X. is chiefly memorable as the period when the magnificent Church of the Middle Ages began swiftly to wane before the rising vigor of the Church of the Reformation."

His personality is well described by Emil Gebhart in a paragraph on Raphael's masterly portrait of the Pope: "The head bespeaks both amiability and sensuality, the countenance is open, the complexion brilliant, the features at once firm and gentle; the mouth, with lips at the same time full and compressed, betokens both the gourmet and homme d'esprit; the glance is both manly and ingratiating. The tout-ensemble expresses real majesty, and recalls the verse of Dante which the flattery of contemporaries had applied to him, ‘A guisa di leon, quando si posa.'"

Leo, not wanting in craftiness, was a poor politician; though ambitious, he lacked the great qualities which made some of the popes famous rulers of men; he had no head for finances, but was a splendid spendthrift, delighting in magnificent and extravagant displays, such as the gorgeous pageant of the triumphal procession on his ascension of the papal throne; his reckless expenditures furthered the corruption and ruin of the Church; his passion for nepotism led him into dangerous projects, throwing Italy into perilous complications by his family ambition. In the words of the author of Roman Cameos and Florentine Mosaics, he was "well qualified to represent the neo-pagan freedom of the Renaissance," and "there remained an irreconcilable incongruity between his profession of the Primacy of Christianity and his easy epicurean philosophy."

But while controversy has shown his character as a pope to stand in a rather doubtful light, the general verdict on his character as a patron of culture in its various forms has been warmly-in not a few instances enthusiastically-favorable. Leo was neither an ideal pontiff nor a great statesman, but a literary prince, one of the most noteworthy representatives of

his family. He was an extravagantly bountiful friend of intellect, and the homage he paid to genius of every form was no doubt sincere, actuated as it was by his own interest in its manifestations. His contact with the best intellect of the time was personal, for with him the love of art and letters was the ruling passion of a scholar, not the whim or hobby of a patronizing sovereign. Men of learning found a meeting-point at his court, which formed the focus of the intellectual movement of that age. One of his first acts, after entering on his papal office, was to appoint two prominent writers of his time, Bembo and Sadolet, as his secretaries; he reëstablished the University at Rome, and in other ways furthered literature, art and science. While his taste and profuse liberality conferred great obligations on those whose work he encouraged, we are reminded not to forget that there were others, such as Michael Angelo and Ariosto, who did not enjoy the same sympathetic stimulation. But on the whole we may concur in the statement that the era which bears his name-the "golden age of Italian culture," "golden with the glories of art,"-was "one of the brightest periods in the history of mankind."

ANCIENT ART INVADES THE CHURCH.

It has been the exclusive privilege of a few favored and golden ages of the world to conceive and to express pure beauty of form. Such was the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century. How were it possible here to give the faintest outline of the entire devotion to art, of the fervid love, the unwearied study of it which then existed? We may confidently assert that all that was most beautiful in the architecture, sculpture or painting of modern art falls within this brief period. It was the tendency of the times; not in speculation and argument, but in practice and in application. In that men lived and moved. I may even assert, that the fortress which the prince erected to ward off his enemy, the note which the commentator inscribed on the margin of his author, have somewhat of the common character. The same spirit of severe beauty lies at the bottom of every production of that age.

At the same time we must not omit to notice, that while poetry and art had seized upon the religious element, they had not left its character unaffected by the alliance. The romantic epic, which is founded on legends of the church, is generally in complete opposition to its primitive spirit. Ariosto found it necessary to remove from his fable the background which contains its original meaning.

At an early period religion had as large a share in all the works of the painter and sculptor as art. From the time that art was touched by the breath of antiquity, she lost her profound attachment to the types consecrated and adopted by faith; a change which may be distinctly traced from year to year, even in the works of Raffaele. People may censure it if they will; but it seems not the less true, that an admixture of the profane element was necessary to the full development and bloom of art.

Was it not a most significant fact, that a pope should himself conceive the project of pulling down the ancient basilica of St. Peter, the metropolis of Christendom, every spot of which was consecrated, in which monuments of the piety of so many centuries were collected, and of erecting in its stead a temple on the model of those of antiquity? It was a purely artistical project. The two factions which then divided the world of artists, so easily moved to jealousy and contention, united to persuade Julius II. to this undertaking. Michael Angelo wished to have a worthy place for the tomb of the Pope, which he intended to execute with all the sublimity and grandeur that characterize his Moses. Bramante was yet more urgent. He wanted to put in execution the bold idea of raising a copy of the Pantheon, as vast as the original, on colossal pillars. Many cardinals remonstrated, and it appears that the plan was generally unpopular. So many personal recollections and affections cling to every old church; how much more, then, to this chief temple of Christendom! But Julius II. was not wont to give heed to opposition. Without further hesitation he caused half of the old church to be pulled down, and laid the foundation-stone of the new one himself.

Thus, in the very centre of Christian worship arose once

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