January 3 1521

The day on which pope Leo X excommunicated the German augustinian monk Martin Luther ; the start of one of the major divisions in church history and of unchristian butchery and intolerance on both sides.

Leo X (Giovanni de Medici) was not an exemplary pope - quite the contrary : in the impressive list of bad ones, he figures in a prominent place.

The man was only 37 when he became pope and had to be ordained priest, because he was merely a deacon, but "God has given us the papacy. Now let us enjoy it."

"Leo was not inclined temperamentally to appreciate how strong was the current of religious change, especially in northern Europe. Moreover, his lavish extravagance had exhausted the papal treasury and his efforts to replenish it had only resulted in increasing those scandals which had helped to precipitate the Reformation in the first place. 'Après nous le déluge' was actually said by Madame de Pompadour, but it could equally well serve as Leo X's epitaph." A quote from the excellent "Chronicle of the Popes" by P G Maxwell-Stuart (Thames & Hudson 1997 and 2006).

See also : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Leo_X and http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09162a.htm.

It is almost a miracle in itself that the church has survived so many bad popes ...