4Q0 L E 
juftifies the fuppofition, that he was in this inftance chiefly 
actuated by perfonal motives. 
In 1517, the expelled duke of Urbino collected an army, 
and by rapid movements completely regained his capital 
and dominions. Leo, exceffively chagrined at this event, 
wilhed to engage all the Chriftian princes in a crufade 
againft him. By a profufe application of the treafures of 
the church, he raifed a confiderable army under the com¬ 
mand of his nephew, and finally compelled the duke to 
refign his dominions upon honourable terms. The vio¬ 
lation of a fafe-conduct granted by Lorenzo to the dukeV 
fecretary, who was feized at Rome and put to the torture, 
in order to force him to reveal his mafler’s fecrets, im¬ 
prints an indelible flain on the memory of this pontiff. 
In the fame year his life was endangered, and his peace 
of mind broken, by a confpiracy formed againft him in 
his own court. The principal author of it was cardinal 
Petrucci, who had conceived a violent difpleafure againft 
the pope, on account of the expulfion of his brother from 
Sienna, and the ruin of his family. He laid a plan for 
deftroying Leo by poifon, which having failed of execu¬ 
tion, he withdrew from Rome for a time, ftill maintain¬ 
ing a correfpondence on the lubjefl with his fecretary. 
Some of his letters being intercepted, he was decoyed to 
Rome by a fafe-condudl from the pope, confirmed by a 
folemn promife of his fecurity made to the Spanifh am- 
baflador. He was, neverthelefs, arrefted on his arrival, 
and committed to prifon. Sufpicion fell upon feveral 
other cardinals as being partakers in the confpiracy, and 
fome of them were induced to confefs their guilt. In 
conclufion, Petrucci was ftrangled, his agents in the plot 
were put to death with horrid tortures, and fome of the 
other cardinals were degraded and fubjedfed to heavy fines. 
The conduct of Leo on this trying occalion feems to have 
done little honour either to his fortitude or his clemency; 
and doubts were entertained concerning the reality of the 
confpiracy, at leaft with refpedt to feveral of thofe who 
were charged with it. In order effectually to fecure him- 
felf againft any future dil'affeftion lurking near his perfon, 
the pope created in one day thirty-one new cardinals, 
many of them his relations and friends not yet dignified 
with the prelacy; but it mult be confefled, that many of 
them were perfons who, from their talents and virtues, 
were well worthy of this elevation. He beftowed upon 
thefe objefts of his choice rich benefices and preferments, 
as well in the remote parts of Chriftendom as in Italy ; 
and thus formed round him a numerous and fplendid 
court, attached to his perfon, and adding to the pomp 
and grandeur of his capital. 
From the pontificate of Leo, however, an event takes 
its date which inflifted the fevereft wound upon the 
church of Rome that it had ever experienced; a wound 
never to be healed 1 This vras, the reformation of reli¬ 
gion under Luther. Leo’s unbounded profufion in every 
objedl of expenfe, attached to a tafte for luxurious mag¬ 
nificence, had rendered it neceffary to devife means for 
replenilhing his exhaufted treafury; and one of thofe 
which occurred was the fale of thofe indulgences which 
the church claimed a right of difpenfing from the ftore of 
her fpiritual wealth. The commiffaries appointed for this 
traffic in Germany cried up the efficacy of their wares in 
fuch fcandalous and extravagant terms, as gave great of¬ 
fence to pious and thinking men. Luther, then a doc¬ 
tor in theology and public preacher in Wittemberg, 
warmly protefted againft this abufe, both in his fermons, 
and in a letter addreffed to the ele&or of Mentz. Pie 
further publiffned a fet of propofitions, in which he called 
in queftion the authority of the pope to remit fins, and 
made fome fevere drift ures on this method of railing mo¬ 
ney. As his remonftrances produced a confiderable ef¬ 
fect, feveral ecclefiaftics undertook to refute him, and an 
angry controverfy was thus kindled. Leo, who probably 
regarded theological quarrels with contempt, and from 
his pontifical throne looked down upon the efforts of a 
petty German doctor with fcorn, feems at firft to have 
O. 
treated the matter lightly; and, when his interference 
was thought neceffary, he Ihowed an inclination to lenient 
meafures. A direfl application from the emperor Maxi¬ 
milian induced him, however, to proceed with more vi¬ 
gour; and he iffued a monitory for Luther’s appearance 
before him at Rome. By the interpofition of fome of 
Luther’s favourers, permiflion was given for the cardinal 
of Gaeta to hear his defence at Auglburg. As ufual in. 
fuch conferences, nothing fatisfaftory was determined; 
and Leo, in November 1518, publilhed a bull, affecting 
the pope’s authority to grant indulgences, which will avail 
both the living, and the dead in purgatory. Luther ap¬ 
pealed to a general council; and thus an open war was 
declared, in which the reforming party foon appeared with 
a ftrength certainly little calculated upon by the court of 
Rome. The fentiments of the Chriftian world were, in¬ 
deed, at this time, by no means favourable to that court. 
The fcandal incurred by the infamy of Alexander VI. 
and the violence of Julius II. was not much alleviated in 
the reign of a pontiff who was charaflerifed by an inor¬ 
dinate love of pomp and pleafure, and whole claftical 
taftes even caufed him to be regarded by many as more 
of a heathen than a Chriftian. 
Leo, defirous of trying the effeft of an amicable nego- 
ciation, employed a Saxon nobleman to treat in perfon 
with Luther. But, although the reformer fhowed him- 
felf not averfe to a reconciliation, yet the differences 
between the two parties were fo aggravated by writings 
and public deputations, and came to involve fo many 
eflential points, that no ground was left for conciliation. 
In faft, while Luther firmly adhered to the principle of 
unreftrained appeal to the words of fcripture, and the 
pope infilled upon unqualified fubmiflion to the decrees of 
the catholic church, it was obvious that no medium of 
agreement could fubfift between them. Luther was per- 
fuaded to write a letter to the pope ; but, inftead of ex- 
preflions of humiliation, it contained the bittereft invec¬ 
tives againft the court of Rome. It was therefore re- 
folved to proceed to a direct condemnation of him and 
his doflrines; and a bull to that purpofe was iffued on 
June 15, 1520, which effefted a total feparation between 
the papal fee and the reformers. The writings of Lu¬ 
ther were publicly burnt in various places, which infult 
he retaliated by an equally folemn and public conflagra¬ 
tion of the papal decrees and conftitutions, and the bull 
itfelf. Nothing further on this fubjefr remains to be 
noticed during the pontificate of Leo ; unlefs the confer¬ 
ring of the title of defender of the faith upon Henry VIII. 
of England, for his fpontaneous appearance on the fide of 
the church as a controverfialilt, be deemed fuch. 
In the year 1519, Leo had incurred a fevere domeftic 
misfortune in the death of his nephew Lorenzo, who left 
behind him an infant daughter, afterwards the Catharine 
de Medicis who was fo confpicuous as queen and regent 
of France. The immediate confequences of this event 
were the annexation of the duchy of Urbino with its de¬ 
pendencies to the Roman fee, and the appointment of 
Giulio, cardinal de Medici, Leo’s coufin, (afterwards pope 
Clement VII.) to the fupreme direction of the ftate of 
Florence. 
The tranquil ftate of Italy at this period permitted the 
pope to indulge his tafte for magnificence in (hows and 
fpeftacles, and in the employment of thofe great artifts 
who have reflected fo much lultre on his reign. His pri¬ 
vate hours were chiefly devoted to indolence, or to amul'e- 
ments, often of a kind little fuited to the dignity of his 
ftation. Hunting, mufic, and the company of jellers and 
buffoons, appear to have been his favourite pleafures. He 
was not, however, fo much abforbed in them as to neglett 
the aggrandizement of his family and his fee. Several 
cities and diftrifls in the vicinity of the papal territories, 
and to which the church had claims, had been feized upon 
by powerful citizens, or military adventurers, who held 
them as fovereigns. One of thefe was Perugia, which, 
was poffeffed by JBaglioni, a chief of a tyrannical cha- 
raften. 
