POPE LEO X (ne Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici} was born on this date, (d: 1/11/1521) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from March 9, 1513 to his death in December 1521. Born into the prominent political and banking Medici family of Florence, Giovanni was the second son of Lorenzo de’ Medici, ruler of the Florentine Republic. From an early age Giovanni was destined for an ecclesiastical career and received the tonsure at the age of seven. By the age of ten, he had already been endowed with dozens of benefices—ecclesiastical offices that provided a steady income. He was elevated to the cardinalate in 1489. He was thirteen.

In Protestant circles, Leo is associated with granting indulgences for those who donated to reconstruct St. Peter’s Basilica, a practice that was soon challenged by Martin Luther’s 95 Theses. Leo rejected the Protestant Reformation, and his Papal bull of 1520, Exsurge Domine, condemned Luther’s condemnatory stance, rendering ongoing communication difficult.

Leo’s biographer, Carlo Falconi, says Leo hid a private life of moral irregularity behind a mask of urbanity. Scabrous verse libels of the type known as pasquinades were particularly abundant during the conclave which followed Leo’s death in 1521 and made imputations about Leo’s unchastity, implying or asserting homosexuality. 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.”

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. Those who stand outside this consensus generally fall short of concluding with certainty that Leo was unchaste during his pontificate. 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.