Editing Pope Leo X (section)

===Unpopular behavior and scandals===
[[File:Hanno.raffael.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Leo X's pet elephant, [[Hanno (elephant)|Hanno]]]]
Even those who defend him against the more outlandish attacks on his character acknowledge that he partook of entertainment such as masquerades, "jests," fowling, and hunting boar and other wild beasts.<ref>Buffoonery: {{harvnb|Roscoe|1806|pp=491–496}}; {{harvnb|Pastor|1908|pp=77, 151–156}}. Fowling and hunting: {{harvnb|Roscoe|1806|pp=496–498}}; {{harvnb|Pastor|1908|pp=157–161}}; {{harvnb|Vaughan|1908|pp=192–214}}.</ref> According to one biographer, he was "engrossed in idle and selfish amusements".{{sfn|Vaughan|1908|p=283}}

Leo indulged buffoons at his Court, but also tolerated behaviour which made them the object of ridicule. One case concerned the conceited ''improvisatore'' Giacomo Baraballo, Abbot of [[Gaeta]], who was the butt of a burlesque procession organised in the style of an ancient [[Roman triumph]]. Baraballo was dressed in festal robes of velvet and with ermine and presented to the pope. He was then taken to the piazza of St Peter's and was mounted on the back of [[Hanno (elephant)|Hanno, a white elephant]], the gift of King [[Manuel I of Portugal]]. The magnificently ornamented animal was then led off in the direction of the [[Capitoline Hill|Capitol]] to the sound of drums and trumpets. But while crossing the [[Ponte Sant'Angelo|bridge of Sant'Angelo]] over the [[Tiber]], the elephant, already distressed by the noise and confusion around him, shied violently, throwing his passenger onto the muddy riverbank below.<ref>{{harvnb|Bedini|1981|pp=79ff}}. And see {{harvnb|Pastor|1908|pp=154ff}}.</ref>

Leo's biographer, [[Carlo Falconi]], says Leo hid a private life of moral irregularity behind a mask of urbanity.<ref>[[Carlo Falconi|Falconi, Carlo]], ''Leone X'', Milano (1987).</ref> Scabrous verse libels of the type known as [[pasquinade]]s were particularly abundant during the conclave which followed Leo's death in 1521 and made imputations about Leo's unchastity, implying or asserting [[homosexuality]].<ref>See, ''e.g.'', {{harvnb|Cesareo|1938|pp=4ff, 78}}; see also references to lampoons in {{harv|Roscoe|1806|p=464 footnote}} (he also prints several in his appendix); and {{harvnb|Pastor|1908|p=68}}.</ref> Suggestions of homosexual attraction appear in works by two contemporary historians, [[Francesco Guicciardini]] and [[Paolo Giovio]]. Zimmerman notes Giovio's "disapproval of the pope's familiar banter with his chamberlains – handsome young men from noble families – and the advantage he was said to take of them."<ref>[[Paolo Giovio]], ''De Vita Leonis Decimi Pont. Max.'', Firenze (1548, 4 vols), written for the Medici Pope Clement VII and completed in 1533; and (covering the years 1492 to 1534) [[Francesco Guicciardini]], ''Storia d'Italia'', Firenze (1561, first 16 books; 1564 full edn. 20 books) written between 1537 and 1540, and published after his death in the latter year. For the characterisation of the relevant passages (few and brief) in these authors, see, ''e.g.'', {{harvnb|Vaughan|1908|p=280}}: and Wyatt, Michael, "Bibbiena's Closet: Interpretation and the Sexual Culture of a Renaissance Papal Court", comprising chap. 2 of Cestaro, Gary P. (ed.), ''Queer Italia'', London (2004) pp. 35–54 a.  To these can be added Zimmerman, T.P., ''Paolo Giovio: The Historian and the Crisis of Sixteenth-Century Italy'', Princeton University Press (1996), citing at p. 23 Giovio's disapproval of the banter. Two pages later Zimmerman notes Giovio's ''penchant'' for gossip.</ref>

Luther spent a month in Rome in 1510, three years before Leo became pontiff, and was disillusioned at the corruption he found there.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/luther_martin.shtml|title=BBC History – Historic Figures: Martin Luther (1483–1546)|website=www.bbc.co.uk}}</ref> In 1520, the year before his excommunication from the Catholic Church, Luther claimed that Leo lived a "blameless life."<ref name=lutherleo /> However, Luther later distanced himself from this claim and alleged in 1531 that Leo had vetoed a measure that cardinals should restrict the number of boys they kept for their pleasure, "otherwise it would have been spread throughout the world how openly and shamelessly the pope and the cardinals in Rome practice sodomy."<ref name=lutherleo>{{harvnb|Wilson|2007|p=282}};  This allegation (made in the pamphlet ''Warnunge D. Martini Luther/ An seine lieben Deudschen'', Wittenberg, 1531) is in stark contrast to Luther's earlier praise of Leo's "blameless life" in a conciliatory letter of his to the pope dated 6 September 1520 and published as a preface to his ''Freedom of a Christian''. See on this, {{harvnb|Hillerbrand|2007| p=53}}.</ref> Against this allegation is the papal bull ''Supernae dispositionis arbitrio'' from 1514 which, ''inter alia'', required cardinals to live "... soberly, chastely, and piously, abstaining not only from evil but also from every appearance of evil" and a contemporary and eye-witness at Leo's Court (Matteo Herculaneo), emphasized his belief that Leo was chaste all his life.<ref>Passage from ''Supernae dispositionis arbitrio'' quoted by Jill Burke {{harv|Burke|2006|p=491}}. Herculaneo, Matteo, publ. in Fabroni, ''Leonis X: Pontificis Maximi Vita'' at note 84, and quoted in the material part by {{harvnb|Roscoe|1806|p=485 in a footnote}}.</ref>

Historians have dealt with the issue of Leo's sexuality at least since the late 18th century, and few have given credence to the imputations made against him in his later years and decades following his death, or else have at least regarded them as unworthy of notice; without necessarily reaching conclusions on whether he was homosexual.<ref>Those who have rejected the evidence include: Fabroni, Angelo, ''Leone X: Pontificis Maximi Vita'', Pisa (1797) at p. 165 with note 84; {{harvnb|Roscoe|1806|pp=478–486}}; and {{harv|Pastor|1908|pp=80f. with a long footnote}}. Those who have treated of the life of Leo at any length and ignored the imputations, or summarily dismissed them, include: [[Ferdinand Gregorovius|Gregorovius, Ferdinand]], ''History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages'' Eng. trans. Hamilton, Annie, London (1902, vol. VIII.1), p. 243; {{harvnb|Vaughan|1908|p=280}}; [[Carlton J. H. Hayes|Hayes, Carlton Huntley]], article "Leo X" in ''The Encyclopædia Britannica'', Cambridge (1911, vol. XVI); [[Mandell Creighton|Creighton, Mandell]], ''A History of the Papacy from the Great Schism to the Sack of Rome'', London (new edn., 1919), vol. 6, p. 210; Pellegrini, Marco, articles "Leone X" in ''Enciclopedia dei Papi'', (2000, vol.3) and ''[[Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani]]'' (2005, vol. 64); and [[Paul Strathern|Strathern, Paul]] ''The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance'' (a popular history), London (2003, pbk 2005), p. 277. Of these, [[Ludwig von Pastor]] and Hayes are known Catholics, and Roscoe, Gregorovius, and Creighton are known non-Catholics.</ref> Those who stand outside this consensus generally fall short of concluding with certainty that Leo was unchaste during his pontificate.<ref>The most recent biography of the pope speculates that his private life may have been marked by moral irregularity: [[Carlo Falconi|Falconi, Carlo]], ''Leone X'', Milano (1987). [[Giovanni Dall'Orto]] gathered and reviewed the most relevant material (including Falconi, pp. 455–461) in an entry in Wotherspoon & Aldrich, ''Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History'', Routledge, London and New York (2001), at p. 264, arriving only at tentative and provisional conclusions as to Leo's suggested homosexuality.</ref> [[Joseph McCabe]] accused Pastor of untruthfulness and Vaughan of lying in the course of their treatment of the evidence, pointing out that Giovio and Guicciardini seemed to share the belief that Leo engaged in "unnatural vice" (homosexuality) while pope.<ref>''A History of the Popes'', London (1939), p. 409.</ref>