a General Council to meet in Rome for the reformation of the Church.
This, the Fifth Lateran Council, as it was called, was opened in May
1512, but the earlier sessions were devoted almost entirely to the
condemnation of the French schism, the decrees of the /Conciliabulum/
at Lyons, and the Pragmatic Sanction. Before the work of reform could
be taken in hand Julius XII. died (1513), and the young cardinal
deacon, John de' Medici, ascended the papal throne under the title of
Leo X.

From the new Pope, if one were to judge him by his antecedents, a
development of classical learning and art might be expected rather
than a renewal of religion. Personally Leo X. was not a wicked man. On
the contrary in his private life he was attentive to his religious
duties, but he was indifferent and inclined to let things shape their
own course. The Lateran Council did, indeed, undertake the restoration
of ecclesiastical discipline. It condemned abuses in connexion with
the bestowal of benefices, decreed the reformation of the Curia,
especially in regard to taxes, defined the position of the regulars in
regard to the bishops of the dioceses in which their houses were
situated, ordered the bishops to enforce their censorship over books
published within their jurisdiction, and approved of the Concordat
that had been arranged between Leo and Francis I. (1516).

Such reforms as these were so completely inadequate that they failed
to give satisfaction to the host of clerics and laymen who desired a
thorough reform. The news that the Council was dissolved in March 1517
without having grappled with the urgent reform of the Church in its
head and members, sent a thrill of dismay throughout the Christian
world, and secured for Luther the sympathy of many when a few months
later he opened his campaign at Wittenberg. It was thought at first