13. The pope’s white elephant may have been regifted to him
Pope Leo X, who was of Italy’s powerful d’ Medici family and who reputedly once said, “Since God has given us the papacy, let us enjoy it,” was a profligate spender and borrower of money. One of the ways he raised money was through the sales of indulgences, granting in essence shorter stays in purgatory in the afterlife in return for financial support in the corporal world. His Holiness’s sales of indulgences helped to finance the rebuilding of Saint Peter’s Basilica and acquired significant wealth in the art for the Vatican. He was also the last person to be elected to the papacy without having been a priest.
The pope received, as a gift, a white elephant from the King of Portugal in 1514. Whether the Portuguese King, Manuel I, had received the animal as a gift himself or had purchased it is disputed. The elephant was named Hanno and quickly became a favorite pet of the pontiff, who housed it in the Vatican in a building erected for the purpose near the Apostolic Palace. Two years after its arrival the elephant was stricken with severe constipation, and the laxatives with which Hanno was treated caused a fatal reaction. The elephant was buried in the Cortile de Belvedere, where it had frequently been paraded by the proud pontiff, basking in the adulation of his subjects.