Giovanni de Medici (Pope Leo X), the son of Lorenzo, the Magnificent, was a corrupt, fiscally irresponsible, decadent homosexual whose quest to restore the Medici family to its former glory nearly bankrupted the Catholic Church. He waged an indefensible war in a failed attempt to build a family empire. He used torture freely. While Leo was obsessed by the perceived threat from Islam, he was blind to the far graver threat to the Church posed by Luther and other reformers disgusted by its institutional rot. Martin Luther posted his 95 theses in direct response to Leo's excesses and the Reformation began on Leo's watch. Leo lived at the zenith of the Italian Renaissance and his life was intertwined with those of Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, Savonarola, Machiavelli and the Borgia. The Catholic Encyclopedia's entry on Leo concludes: “The only possible verdict on the pontificate of Leo X is that it was unfortunate for the Church.”
