Jolm Francis Pico, uepliew of Pico of Mirandola, speaks of one pope who did not believe in God; and of another, who, having acknowledged to a friend his disbelief in the immortality of the soul, aj^peared to him one night after death, and said, "Alas, the eternal fire that is now consuming me makes me feel but too sensibly the immortality of that soul which I had thought would die with the body."When Leo X. and his train of glittering courtiers and pedantic scholars took possession of the Vatican, the church was not reformed, nor was Christianity revived.
It required something very different from the maxims of Aristotle, the mystic philosophy of mediaeval hermits, the decrees of councils, the bulls of conceited pontiffs, and the platonism
Medici were identified, to medicine the wound which rankled in the heart of In 1513, Julian de Medici, a son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, a Florentine of the illustrious house of the Medici, was elected to the A^acaut throne of the Pontifical see, under the name of Leo X.
Upon Leo, whose reign was destined to witness and to occasion the commencement of the Beformation, the muse of history can pronounce no higher eulogium than that he w^as a liberal patron of the arts and of hdles-lettrcs.
Himself no mean proficient in scholastic lore,t he had inherited the magnificent spirit and the elegant tastes of his family.
F. Pici de Fide, 0pp. II, 820. f Eanke's Hist, of the Popes. while lie was clever aud amiable in his personal character, he wholly neglected ecclesiastical affairs, was notoriously destitute of all claims to piety,* and habitually sunk his mind to the absorbing pursuit of useless and dilettant(^ studies, enamoured only of that dolcefar oiientef which the lazy Italian proverbially loves.
The atmosphere of that Florence from which Leo came was deleterious to liberal ideas, and the growth of Preeminently a belles-lettres city, it cared httle for the austerities of Cliristian practice, or for religious purity and progress, so long as it might pursue unvexed its artistic avocations.
It valued itself more upon the garnered trophies of its artistic genius, upon its elegant facades, its marble columns, its palaces flushed with the hues of painting, its squares crowded with the marvels of the sculptor's chisel, and its vistas of Corinthian pilasters, than upon its high principles, or its rigid morality.
The luxurious Florentine, melted in baths and perfumes, and lounging in a delicious Languor, stood mocking at the severe precepts of Christian virtue, and pointing to his silvery Arno, to his gardens filled with pomegranates, to his lyres and his easels, really felt that his gay capital, lovesick with music and poetry, fully compensated him for the loss of morality and religious honor.
Something of this feeling Leo had unquestionTHE LIFE AND TIMES fiblj carried witli liim to tlie papal throne.
It is very certain that his prelates, learned and unlearned, paid little respect to their sacred calling.
" They regarded those Christian mysteries of which they were the stewards, just as the Augur Cicero and the Pontifex Maximus Caesar regarded the Sibylline books and the pecking of the sacred chickens.
Among themselves they spoke of the incarnation, the eucharist, and the Trinity in the same tone in which Cotta and Velleius talked of the oracle of Delphi, or of the voice of Faunus in the mountains.
" Their years glided by in a soft dream of sensual and intellectual voluptuousness.
Choice cookery, delicious wines, lovely women, hounds, falcons, horses, newly discovered manuscripts of the classics, sonnets and burlesque romances in the sweetest Tuscan— just as licentious as a fine sense of the graceful would permit ; plates from the hand of Benvenuto, designs for palaces b}^ Michael Angelo, frescoes by Raphael, busts, mosaics, and gems just dug up from among the ruins of ancient temples and villas—these things were the dehght and even the serious occupation of their lives."*
This picture of the occupations of the most learned court of modern Europe sufficiently demonstrates the utter worthlessness of unassisted learning in regenerating societ}'.
That herculean task required for its accomplishment a mightier power than could be supplied by human wit.
* Macauley's Essay on K.-inke's History of the Popes. cle of justification by faith," said Luther, "is what creates the church, nourishes it, edifies it, preserves and defends it.
No one can teach worthily in the church, or oppose an adversary with success, if he does not adhere to this truth.
This is the heel that shall bruise the head of the serpent."* * Luther to Breutius.
LuTHEE, upon his return from the Roman capital, thankful to God for his escape from its abominations, and more fiercely beset by doubts than ever, had constant recourse to the Scriptures for consolation and support.
No longer dazzled by the flickering blaze of consular decisions and pajDal decretals, he now lighted his torch at the heavenly altar.
Kesuming the daily lectures which had been interrupted by his Roman journey, and which had created so great a sensation, the ardent professor continued those terrific attacks upon scholasticism which ere long completely 'demolished that citadel of self-righteous priestcraft ; while he drew the Wittemberg students, and the thousands of others who crowded fi-om the remotest parts of Germany to hear him, towards
Christ, and inducted them into that knowledge of the Scriptures which had already raised his own soul to such a height that he could hear, echoing from the heavenly courts, " a sevenfold chorus of hallelujahs and harping symphonies."
Elector Frederick, upon whom the preaching of the Augustinian had made a lasting impression, and who greatly admired his sound learning, splendid eloquence, self-abnegation, and candid truthfulness,* summoning
Melanctlioii's " Vita Liitheri."