Leo X: The Medici Pope and the Dawn of Reformation
The Tenth of the Leos | Pope Leo X (1513–1521 AD)
“For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?”
— Mark 8:36, Douay-Rheims
If Leo IX embodied reform and Leo IV defended Rome’s walls, then Leo X embodied the Renaissance in all its glory and its peril. He was a patron of the arts, a lover of spectacle, a Medici prince in papal robes. Under his reign, Rome dazzled, but it was also during his papacy that Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses and the Western Church began to fracture.
Leo X’s pontificate is a paradox: brilliance and beauty on the one hand, complacency and crisis on the other.
From Giovanni de’ Medici to Vicar of Christ
Born Giovanni de’ Medici in 1475, he was the second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, the Florentine ruler and patron of Renaissance genius. From childhood, Giovanni was destined for the Church: he became a cardinal at only 13 years old.
When Pope Julius II (the warrior pope) died in 1513, Giovanni was elected at the age of 37, taking the name Leo X. His election fulfilled his family’s ambition of placing a Medici on the throne of Peter.
Unlike Julius, who strode in armor, Leo X presided like a prince of peace and culture. His court sparkled with music, poetry, and painting. He delighted in banquets, theatre, and hunting, a man of refined tastes who said of the papacy:
“Since God has given us the papacy, let us enjoy it.”
The Patron of the Renaissance
Leo X’s court was one of the most brilliant in papal history. He sponsored Raphael, whose frescoes adorned the Vatican. He protected Michelangelo, who labored on the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica. He encouraged music and learning, turning the Vatican into a center of art and letters.
In Leo, the papacy became a beacon of Renaissance humanism, shining with cultural achievement. Rome was transformed into a city of splendor.
And yet… beneath the gold and frescoes, cracks widened.
The Indulgence Controversy
To finance the massive expenses of rebuilding St. Peter’s Basilica, Leo authorized the widespread sale of indulgences, the remission of temporal punishment for sin, ordinarily granted under strict spiritual conditions.
Though indulgences were not heretical in themselves, their abuse was rampant. In Germany, the Dominican friar Johann Tetzel preached indulgences crudely: “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.”
This provoked the protest of an Augustinian monk, Martin Luther, who on October 31, 1517, published his Ninety-Five Theses in Wittenberg. His challenge quickly spread beyond academic debate into a movement that questioned papal authority itself.
Leo’s Response to Luther
At first, Leo X underestimated Luther, dismissing him as a drunken monk who would sober up. But as Luther’s movement gained traction, threatening both doctrine and papal prestige, Leo acted.
In 1520, he issued the bull Exsurge Domine, condemning 41 of Luther’s propositions and threatening excommunication if he did not recant. The bull famously began:
“Arise, O Lord, and judge thy cause: a wild boar from the forest seeks to destroy thy vineyard.”
Luther burned the bull in public. In January 1521, Leo formally excommunicated him with the bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.
The Reformation had begun.
Death of a Medici Pope
Leo X did not live to see the full storm. He died suddenly on December 1, 1521, at only 45 years old, likely of pneumonia (though rumors of poisoning swirled). He left behind a papacy more resplendent than ever—but also more fragile.
He was buried in Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome. His reign remains one of the most debated in papal history: a man of immense culture and generosity, but one whose indulgence in worldly grandeur left him ill-prepared for spiritual revolt.
“Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven.”
— Matthew 6:19–20, Douay-Rheims
Leo X gave the Church Raphael and Michelangelo, but failed to foresee that the greatest treasures are souls, not palaces. His reign is a warning: brilliance without vigilance can lead to disaster.
The Lion of Splendor, The Lion of Crisis
Pope Leo X’s papacy is a symbol of the Renaissance Church: dazzling, generous, and alive with beauty, yet burdened by complacency and worldly splendor. He was not a monster, nor a saint, but a man of culture who misread the signs of his age.
If Leo the Great had turned back Attila, Leo X failed to turn back Luther. But even in failure, the papacy endured, for it rests not on Medici gold, but on Christ’s promise.
The lion of the Renaissance roared in triumph of the arts, but his roar also echoed the coming thunder of division.