In existographies, Pope Leo X (1475-1521) (CR:22) was a Renaissance era pope, noted for his "indulgence selling practice" or sexual indulgence controversies, which left the indelible impression of his pontificate (Ѻ), which is said to have sparked the Reformation; he also, in religio-mythology, referred to Christianity as the "fable of Christ" (see: Christ fable).

Christ | Fable
In 1514, at a lavish Good Friday banquet, in the Vatican, in the company of seven intimates, Leo X famously stated the following as he raised his toast glass to the air: [1]

“How well we know what a profitable superstition this fable of Christ has been for us and our predecessors.”

The pope's pronouncement, since characterized as the “most infamous and damaging statement about Christianity in the history of the Church”, was recorded in the diaries and records of both Pietro Cardinal Bembo (Letters and Comments on Pope Leo X, 1842 reprint) and Paolo Cardinal Giovio (De Vita Leonis Decimi..., op. cit.), two associates who were witnesses to it.

Reformation
In 1515, Pope Leo X granted a plenary indulgence intended to finance the construction of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. It would apply to almost any sin, including adultery and theft. All other indulgence preaching was to cease for the eight years in which it was offered. Indulgence preachers were given strict instructions on how the indulgence was to be preached, and they were much more laudatory of the indulgence than those of earlier indulgences. The "indulgences" being sold that promised reduced time in purgatory for deceased relatives" was the straw that broke the back of a camel named Martin Luther, who in 1517 nailed 95 theses,or indulgence-selling objections, on the door of the Wittgenberg Castle Church door.

Other

Leo X is said to have used an early type of telescope to observe, from the Medici Palace in Florence, “distant hunting chases and birds flying over the Fiesole hills”. [4]

Moreover, Giovanni Rucellai (1475-1525), cousin of Pope Leo X, used a concave mirror to study the anatomy of bees, later described in the short poem Le api. [4]
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Quotes | On
The following are quotes on Leo X:

“The power of Rome was directed mercilessly for centuries against everything that stood in its way. Under the notorious Torquemada (1481-98), in Spain alone eight thousand heretics were burned alive and ninety thousand punished with the confiscation of their goods and the most grievous ecclesiastical fines; in the Netherlands, under the rule of Charles V., at least fifty thousand men fell victims to the clerical bloodthirst. And while the heavens resounded with the cry of the martyrs, the wealth of half the world was pouring into Rome, to which the whole of Christianity paid tribute, and the self-styled representatives of god on earth and their accomplices (not infrequently atheists themselves) wallowed in pleasure and vice of every description. ‘And all these privileges,’ said the frivolous, syphilitic Pope Leo X, ‘have been secured to us by the fable of Jesus Christ.”
— Ernst Haeckel (1899), The Riddle of the Universe [3]

Quotes | By
The following are quotes by Leo X:

“All ages can testify how profitable that fable of Christ has been to us and our company.”
— Pope Leo X (1514), response to cardinal Bembus in response to gospel question [2]

See also
● Frederick II
● Pope Francis
● Pope Pius XII

References
1. Author. (2007). “The Criminal History of the Papacy: Part 3 of 3” (Ѻ), Nexus Magazine, 14(3), Apr-May.
2. Bale, John. (c.1540). The Pageant of the Popes (Ѻ). Publisher, 1574.
3. Haeckel, Ernst. (1899). The Riddle of the Universe: at the Close of the Nineteenth Century (translator: Joseph McCabe) (pg. 318). Harper & Brother, 1900.
4. Ilardi, Vincent. (2007). Renaissance Vision from Spectacles to Telescopes (pg. 208). Publisher.

External links
● Pope Leo X – Wikipedia.