POPE LEO X

God has given us the Papacy. Let us enjoy it.

To go to war against the Turks is to resist God who punishes our iniquities through them.

This man will never finish anything. He thinks about the end before he thinks about the beginning.

Since God has been pleased to give us the Papacy, let us enjoy it.

He who is content with a moderate victory is always most successful; for those who would more than conquer, commonly lose.

Give heed to the cause of the holy Roman Church, mother of all churches and teacher of the faith, whom you by the order of God, have consecrated by your blood. Against the Roman Church, you warned, lying teachers are rising, introducing ruinous sects, and drawing upon themselves speedy doom. Their tongues are fire, a restless evil, full of deadly poison. They have bitter zeal, contention in their hearts, and boast and lie against the truth.

Not the Christian religion only, but nature herself, cries out against the state of slavery.

As far as Martin [Luther] himself is concerned, O good God, what have we overlooked or not done? What fatherly charity have we omitted that we might call him back from such errors?

We have devoted ourselves to the government and extension of the Church, and, among other objects, we have conceived it to be our duty to foster especially literature and the fine arts ... next to knowledge and true worship of the Creator, nothing is better or more useful to mankind than such studies.

To deny that in a child after baptism sin remains is to treat with contempt both Paul and Christ.

It is not well to go into things long past, unless to learn something for our present guidance.

This man will never finish anything. He thinks about the end before he thinks about the beginning.

He who is content with a moderate victory is always most successful; for those who would more than conquer, commonly lose.

If in former times the taxation has been unjust, we ought to be thankful, that we have now discovered a method of making it equitable, and hope that this will be the means of uniting the citizens, not of dividing them; which would certainly be the case were they to attempt the recovery of taxes for the past, and make them equal to the present

God has given us the Papacy. Let us enjoy it.

To go to war against the Turks is to resist God who punishes our iniquities through them.

Not the Christian religion only, but nature herself, cries out against the state of slavery.

Since God has been pleased to give us the Papacy, let us enjoy it.

As far as Martin [Luther] himself is concerned, O good God, what have we overlooked or not done? What fatherly charity have we omitted that we might call him back from such errors?

To deny that in a child after baptism sin remains is to treat with contempt both Paul and Christ.

If the Almighty in his mercy allows us to settle peace among the christian leaders, we shall press on not only to destroy completely the bad seeds, but also to expand the territories of Christ, and, supported by these achievements, we shall go forward, with God favouring his own purposes, to the most holy expedition against the infidels, the desire for which is deeply fixed in our heart.

We have devoted ourselves to the government and extension of the Church, and, among other objects, we have conceived it to be our duty to foster especially literature and the fine arts ... next to knowledge and true worship of the Creator, nothing is better or more useful to mankind than such studies.

No person shall preach without the permission of his Superior. All preachers shall explain the Gospel according to the Fathers. They shall not explain futurity or the times of Antichrist!

Give heed to the cause of the holy Roman Church, mother of all churches and teacher of the faith, whom you by the order of God, have consecrated by your blood. Against the Roman Church, you warned, lying teachers are rising, introducing ruinous sects, and drawing upon themselves speedy doom. Their tongues are fire, a restless evil, full of deadly poison. They have bitter zeal, contention in their hearts, and boast and lie against the truth.

Arise, O Lord, and judge your own cause. Remember your reproaches to those who are filled with foolishness all through the day. Listen to our prayers, for foxes have arisen seeking to destroy the vineyard whose winepress you alone have trod.