User:Ridiculus mus/sandbox/Leo X drafting sandbox

Proposal I ''This is a proposal. I have not yet completed the references but they will include Cesareo, Roscoe, Gregorovius, von Pastor, Vaughan, Paolo Giovio, Zimmerman, and Falconi. Links are to be added as appropriate. Comment on the talk page.''

During the conclave that followed the death of Leo, anonymous allegations circulated at Rome in the form of pasquinades and mock epitaphs lampooning him as a sodomite.1 The received opinion expressed by Catholic and non-Catholic historians alike since William Roscoe writing in the early 19th century, is that these and other imputations of sexual immorality made against him after his death2 either do not (in the case of the lampoons) deserve to be credited or (in the case of the later imputations) are too vague to be credited.3 Indeed, Paolo Giovio, a contemporary who knew the pope, reprobated as malicious the scandalous rumours that circulated in the Court of Rome to the effect that inappropriate behaviour with his chamberlains in public reflected grosser liberties in private.4 A biography published in Italian in 1987 speculated, on the basis of inferences, that Leo had a sexual propensity towards male youths.5 Ridiculus mus (talk) 20:42, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

Proposal II (following my perusal of Strathern).

Sexual morality
Since the late 18th century, historians both Catholic and non-Catholic have reviewed and given no credence to imputations of unchastity made against Leo in the years and decades following his death, or else have regarded them as unworthy of notice. The few who stand outside this consensus fall short of concluding that Leo was unchaste. These adverse imputations mostly comprise scabrous verse libels of the type known as pasquinades which were particularly abundant during the conclave which followed Leo's death in 1521, and allusions either veiled and obscure or general and unparticularised in works by two contemporary historians. Another contemporary, and eye-witness at Leo's Court, affirms that Leo was chaste all his life. Ridiculus mus (talk) 05:49, 20 March 2015 (UTC)