THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
after a brief conclave Giovanni was elected. His family now stood doubly high, since in Florence, too, the leader of a conspiracy against them had just been seized and executed. In Rome the election was hailed with jubilation. The " Holy " League against France was concluded by Henry VII. of England with Ferdinand the Catholic and Maximilian Sforza, though Leo X. had as little part in it as in the matter of accepting an offer of alliance with Louis XI. of France. The defeat of the French at Novara, however, in June, 1513, served the pope's cause. Meanwhile the Fifth Lateran Council was in session at Rome; this was to institute " reform," and it has been affirmed by some later Roman Catholic historians, conceding the corrupt state of contemporary church affairs, that even without Luther, and better than he, the council would have attained this object, had it only been allowed complete operation. But there was no suggestion of thoroughgoing reform; the sole consequence of weight, and that important only for the Curia, was the fact that the schismatic Council of Pisa (see Julius II.) suffered its deathblow, in that the leaders of the schismatic prelates submitted to the Curia. At the eighth and ninth session, the reform question was treated, and certain amendments in respect to the filling of ecclesiastical offices were introduced; there were also some further ameliorations in particular points; but touching what constituted the very fulcrum of the Lutheran Reformation, that is, a religious renewal and quickening, there was no discussion whatever — at the utmost, a speaker here and there suggested the necessity and manner of laboring toward that end.
After the dark clouds of the political situation had been dispelled, Leo X. felt himself at the summit of his power; the Turks were to be actively resisted, funds for a crusade were to be collected, and a fleet made ready. While he was planning all this, likewise collecting money for continuation of the building of St. Peter's and other objects, an event occurred in Germany which was to shake the position and power of the papacy most profoundly— the beginning of the Reformation. Undoubtedy Leo X. against his will promoted its progress, because he failed to understand its nature and aim; and that he did not understand is explained by the fact that his whole interest was directed upon other matters than the question as to how religious life could be reawakened. He did not discern that the Reformation was ushering in a new era, and his bull of excommunication against Luther (1520), as well as his cooperation in the Edict of Worms (1521) were vain attempts to retard the movement. Leo died in Rome, Dec. 1, 1521. K. Benrath.
Bibliography: Sources are: P. Bembo, Epistolm quorum libri 16 Leonis X. . nomine scripti sunt, Basel, 1539; Leonis X. regesta, ed. J. Hergenrother, 8 parts, Freiburg, 1884-91 (reaches only to 1515); the Vita by P. Giviro, in Latin, Florence, 1548, in Italian, ib. 1549, in French, Paris, 1675. The best life is by W Roscoe, London, 1805, reissue, 1886 (was translated into Fr. and Germ.). A work of distinct value is H. M. Vaughan, The Medici Popes, New York, 1908 (deals principally with Leo X.). Other lives are: A. Fabroni, Pisa, 1797; Audin, Paris, 1844; and Life and Times of Leo X., London, 1850.
Consult also: T. Dandolo, II Secolo di Leone X., 3 vols. Milan, 1861; Cambridge Modern History, vol. ii., chap, i., New York, 1904; Ranke, Popes, i. 57-68, iii. 11-22; Creighton, Papacy, v. 203-vi. 213 (essential); Bower, Popes, iii. 291-299; Schaff, Christian Church, vol. vi.vii.; Pastor, Popes, vol. iv. ; and much of the literature on Luther; Reformation.
Leo XI. (Alessandro Ottaviano de' Medici): Pope Apr. 1-Apr. 27, 1605. He was born in Florence 1535, and was archbishop of his native city, when chosen to succeed Clement VIII. by a combination of Italian and French cardinals and against the wish of the king of Spain. The French triumph, however, was frustrated by his death after a pontificate of but four weeks. K. Benrath.
Bibliography: F. Petrucelli della Gattina, Hist, diplomatique des conclaves, ii. 404 sqq., Paris, 1864; M. Brosch, Geschichte des Kirchenstaates, Gotha, 1880-82; Ranke, Popes, ii. 106; Bower, Popes, iii. 327.
Leo XII. (Annibale della Genga): Pope 1823- 1829. He was born at the castle of the Genga, near Spoleto, Aug. 22, 1760. Pius VI. and Pius VII. employed him in various missions in Germany, the latter particularly in the negotiations for concordats in the early years of the nineteenth century (see Concordats and Delimiting Bulls, VI., 2, § 1). Pius VII. made him cardinal in 1816. He was chosen pope to succeed Pius VII. after a five weeks' conclave on Sept. 28, 1823, and forthwith transferred the high office of secretary of state, till then held by Cardinal Ercole Consalvi (q.v.), to one of the Zelanti, the octogenarian Cardinal della Somaglia. The government and administration of the States of the Church now assumed a narrowly ecclesiastical character which disordered the finances and irritated the adherents of the party of progress. The episcopal jurisdiction was extended into civil affairs; the competency of the provincial courts, as well as the right of women to inherit, was restricted; and vaccination was forbidden. On the other hand, the needlessly large corps of public servants was reduced, better training of officials was required, and stricter surveillance was exercised. The segregation of the Jews in ghetti — a practise which had been done away during the French control — and restraint of their mercantile activities was again enforced. The secret revolutionary leagues in the Romagna were summarily dealt with; in the course of three months Cardinal Rivarola, who was dispatched to Bologna in 1825, passed 507 sentences, condemning seven to death, the others to hard labor for life or long terms of imprisonment. A murderous attempt on Rivarola moved him to flight, and the pope then commissioned Monsignor Invernizzi in his place, who pursued the same object, with recourse to denunciation, false promises of indemnity, and the like. Leo's administration of the Church was characterized by the same extreme reactionary policy, shadowed forth in his very first encyclical, May 3, 1824, wherein he issued the invitation to the next jubilee festival at Rome. The same spirit was also operative in connection with the concordats concluded during his pontificate with Hanover, the ecclesiastical province of the Upper Rhine, and. especially, several of the South American governments (see Concordats and Delimiting Bulls,