Pope Leo X allegedly stated: " The myth of Christ has served us well" What are the ramifications?

Ah, yes..... ::::yawn::::: Discussed at length when I was in seminary...

This quote is used mostly by skeptics of the intellectual low rent district -- people like Acharya S, Brooks Trubee, and deceased Nazi-pusher Revilo P. Oliver, who will accept anything that makes Christianity look bad, even at the cost of selling their integrity.

The Secular Web folks don't use it that the church has found, other than in their historical curiosities section where they keep the works of Wheless. Shamefully, the quote is also used by some anti-Catholic/KJV-Only sort of sites.

The overwhelming majority of sites who use the quote provide only the quote and attribution, and nothing else. No context, no citation. In other words, they pass it around uncritically. That's Warning Bell #1.

Warning Bell #2 is the fact that only two sites that anyone of repute has found so far offer any sort of context. One claims the quote was made in the presence of one of Leo's staffers, Pietro Bembo. Another (written by Revilo P. Oliver) says that the quote was made in the presence of "intimates." Neither provides a citation or a source for this information. (But the first does turn out to be right, sort of -- keep reading!)

Warning Bell #3 takes a little knowledge to hear ringing clearly. A small number of sites (including Trubee's) do give a citation, which looks like this:

(Encyc. Brit., 14th Ed. xix, pg. 217).

Ah, encyclopedias! The best sources around for top-flight third-grade research. But here's the facts: neither Trubee nor anyone using this cite (which is reproduced exactly this way everywhere I have found it, also suggesting that it is being passed around uncritically) actually picked up a 14th ed. of Britannica and found this quote. Britannica's 14th edition was printed from 1929-1973, long before any of these websites were a twinkle in their Webmaster's eyes, and in some cases, when some of these people were in diapers.

In a more modern polemic, "The Criminal History of the Papacy" by Tony Bushby, in Nexus Magazine Volume 14, Number 3 (April - May 2007), it is stated that "The pope's pronouncement (“This myth of Christ has served us well.”) is recorded in the diaries and records of both Pietro Cardinal Bembo (Letters and Comments on Pope Leo X, 1842 reprint)

It is documented by witnesses that this quote came from Giovanni deMedici (Pope Leo X). It is earlier quoted by Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander XI.

So much for that quote being a mistake falsely attributed to Pope Leo X. It is not.

You are quoting what is today known as an "urban legend". Pope Leo x NEVER said that. It is a line from a play written by staunch anti-Catholic John Bale that was called "The Pageant of the Popes", in 1574. What it means is that anyone who believes that Pope Leo X actually said this did not do their research.

The most important ramification is that you shouldn't believe in unfounded allegations.

But make no mistake, there have been some *truly self-seeking* Popes. Jim Bakker has *nothing* on some of them. I suspect that all of them probably believed in the *basic* tenets of Christianity, but who knows? Certainly, some of them could have thought of their position as nothing more than running a very lucrative scam.

If I assured you that the world was flat, what are the ramifications? None worth mentioning.

Jim, http://www.jimpettis.com/wheel/

Pretty damaging ramifications if true.

There are other damaging statements other religious leaders have made... the early christian apologists recognized the similarities of Jesus to the earlier pagan saviors.. indeed they even said christianity was nothing new or different from the sons of Jupiter. Their explanation was that the devil knew it would happen and mimicked the story in advance. Really lame explanation, but oh well.

When taken out of context then sure it makes Pope Leo X look like a heretic. People do this all the time with scripture too. Be careful!

religion = myths / superstitions

the ramification of the Truth is the elimination of religion from Spirituality.

Here's the simply Solution for religion:

Have UnConditional Love and Peace by accomplishing this:

Create Your Relationship with Our Creator.