Leo X. Erasmus

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1867 edition. Excerpt: ... exhilaration was a subject of universal observation, and the bodily seizure which followed was only what might have been expected. The slow progress and suddenly fatal termination of the malady whatever might be its nature, are not matters for suprise, and we may rest satisfied with the ultimate conclusion of De Grassis, that a natural disease, not poison, was the cause of Leo's death.f At the time of his death Leo X. was forty-six years old, and had reigned eight years eight months and nineteen days. It was the misfortune of Leo that he was raised to the papal throne at CHAPTER. %3/Q 1520 to 1521. Duration and chara-racter of Leo's reign. In aletter written from Rome on the day of the pope's death the English ambassador states, on the authority of Cardinal Campeggio, that this event had taken place eight days before that on which it was communicated to the public. This statement, if correct, would be important; but it seems to rest upon no solid foundation; since Leo had spent the last eight days of his life in the most complete seclusion, the announcement of his death may have given rise to a rumour that the fact had been kept secret for a week; but this rumour, if such there was, acquired so little consistency, that it seems to have been unknown to every contemporary historian. Ellis's Original Letters, 3rd series, vol. i. pp. 278. 1' Et conclusum not fuisse Papam venenatum sed excatharro. Raynaldus, vol. xxxi. the most momentous period which had ever taken CHAPTER place in the history of the church. Had Leo governed that church at an ordinary time his 120 decorous manners, general accomplishments, and 1521' the active part which he took in the revival of letters, would have secured for him an honourable place in the...