“It has served us well, this myth of Christ.”

—  Pope Leo X

The quote "It has served us well, this myth of Christ." is famous quote attributed to Pope Leo X (1475–1521), Pope from 1513 to 1521.

Widely attributed to Leo X, the earliest known source of this statement is actually a polemical work by the Protestant John Bale, the anti-Catholic Acta Romanorum Pontificum, which was first translated from Latin into English as The Pageant of the Popes in 1574: "For on a time when a cardinall Bembus did move a question out of the Gospell, the Pope gave him a very contemptuous answer saying: All ages can testifie enough how profitable that fable of Christe hath ben to us and our companie." The Pope in this case being Leo X. Later accounts of it exist, as recorded by Vatican Librarian, Cardinal Baronius in the Annales Ecclesiastici (1597) a 12-volume history of the Church.
In a more modern polemic, "The Criminal History of the Papacy" by Tony Bushby, in Nexus Magazine Volume 14, Number 3 (April - May 2007) http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vatican/esp_vatican30c.htm, it is stated that "The pope's pronouncement is 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."
Disputed

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update April 18, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Pope Leo X photo
Pope Leo X 13
Pope from 1513 to 1521 1475–1521

Related quotes

Ernesto Che Guevara photo

“The myth of the self-made man, has to be profoundly hypocritical: it is the self-serving demonstration that a lie is the truth.”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

Man and Socialism in Cuba (1965)

John Kenneth Galbraith photo

“Conscience is better served by a myth.”

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) American economist and diplomat

Source: The Age of Uncertainty (1977), Chapter 4, p. 111

Richard Watson photo

“Faith is seated in the understanding as well as in the will. It has an eye to see Christ as well as a wing to fly to Christ.”

Richard Watson (1781–1833) British methodist theologian

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 219.

Sandra Day O'Connor photo

“Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must therefore answer a difficult question: why would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly?”

Sandra Day O'Connor (1930) Former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union, 545 U.S. 844 (2005) (concurring).
Context: Reasonable minds can disagree about how to apply the Religion Clauses in a given case. But the goal of the Clauses is clear: to carry out the Founders’ plan of preserving religious liberty to the fullest extent possible in a pluralistic society. By enforcing the Clauses, we have kept religion a matter for the individual conscience, not for the prosecutor or bureaucrat. At a time when we see around the world the violent consequences of the assumption of religious authority by government, Americans may count themselves fortunate: Our regard for constitutional boundaries has protected us from similar travails, while allowing private religious exercise to flourish. [... ] Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must therefore answer a difficult question: Why would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly?

Alice Cooper photo
Annie Besant photo

“The doctrines of the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ also form part of the Lesser Mysteries, being integral portions of "The Solar Myth," and of the life-story of the Christ in man.”

Annie Besant (1847–1933) British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator

Source: Esoteric Christianity: Or, The Lesser Mysteries (1914), Chapter VIII. Resurrection and Ascension

J.C. Ryle photo

“The love of Christ towards His people is a deep well which has no bottom.”

J.C. Ryle (1816–1900) Anglican bishop

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: St. Luke (1858–1859), Vol. II, Luke XXII: 54–62, p. 438

Robert B. Reich photo
Phyllis Schlafly photo

“Every country that has experimented with women in actual combat has abandoned the idea, and the notion that Israel uses women in combat is a feminist myth.”

Phyllis Schlafly (1924–2016) American activist

Women Don't Belong In Ground Combat, Phyllis Schlafly Columns, 2007-03-30, Schlafly, Phyllis, 2005-06-01 http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2005/june05/05-06-01.html,

John Fante photo

Related topics