Topic > Essay on Pope Leo He loved giving banquets and hosting elaborate dinners night after night, one of his guests writing to his family: "The meal was exquisite, and there was an infinite choice of dishes, for we had sixty-five courses" (The Medici Popes, PBS). Pope Leo Having wasted the money on his relatives and parties, Leo had not yet realized that his extravagance was emptying the church's coffers and that the debt was too much to pay. Once Leo realized the situation, he decided to find the means to get some money, but that money was also spent on worldly affairs. The reason why the nobles and many others did not realize this is because he bribed them with money and entertained them with dinners and banquets. Subsequently Pope Leo Small Italian states were forced to join France, Spain, or the Holy Empire as competing armies marched through Italy. Pope Leo X ran from one to the other to prevent them from taking control of Italy. Then he joined the Holy Empire to drive the French out of Italy. However this didn't last long so the two started working towards a peace agreement, Pope Leo T..... .middle of paper......X spent a lot; he spent most of it on helping his fellow friends, relatives. He held banquets and dinners every evening and enjoyed watching the opera, etc. This slowly led Leo into financial debt. Pope Leo But to keep him independent he forced him to empty the Church's coffers. After this event, Pope Leo Yet it was the indulgences that positioned him as a corrupter of society in the eyes of the people, and fully revealed the cause of his extravagance. All this then made people understand that it was Pope Leo X who allowed the need for reform.