ABSTRACT
Leo X was eventually denounced by Martin Luther and his followers as the antichrist and depicted as an atheist, cynical politician, and frivolous devotee of pleasures. The Florentine historian, Francesco Guicciardini, who worked as an administrator for Leo X, criticized the pope for giving himself over to leisure and to pleasure, and now for the excessive license and grandiosity that is alien to work. He took the name Leo X and was quickly ordained a priest, consecrated a bishop, and crowned as pope. In his speeches at the Lateran Council, Leo X insisted that he willingly embraced these same goals. Leo X supported the cause of reform, provided it did not encroach on his revenues and powers. The failure to effect this should not be blamed on Leo. Apart from the peace and crusade agenda items, Leo X had successfully carried out the election capitularies of the conclave and the goals of the Lateran Council.
