"...this myth of Christ."

[kevathaide01]

Greetings, all. I’m new on these forums.

I have a small question about this little non-quote of Pope Leo X: “it has served us well, this myth of Christ.” I found it as a sort of caption on the cover of this storybook ‘the Templar revelation’.

Internet encyclopaedia, Wikipaedia labels it:

Widely quoted without source on the Internet. From a satire by John Bale (1495-1563), The Pageant of the Popes: “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 howe profitable that fable of Christe hath ben to us and our companie.”

I’m interested in what other Catholics think about this. Any reply is well appreciated.

 

[Genesis315]

Anti-Catholics try and use it to show how the Catholic Church is evil–but of course it just shows how they are bearing false witness and using some fake thing some other anti-Catholic from way back when used :yawn:

 

[Della]

Welc:wave:e to the forum, kevathaide01!

As to the non-quote–it’s not the first and it won’t be the last mis/non-quote composed by enemies of the Church. Sadly, such phrases get repeated over and over again no matter how much they are/can be disproven. I just chalk such things up to ignorance and bigotry and let them go, or I’d be spending all my time engaged in a wild goose chase.

 

[Hastrman]

Actually, he might very well have said that, sarcastically. Hilaire Belloc, for instance, said a boatload of things sarcastically that people think he meant, and that are used to show what a horrible reactionary he was.

Pius might really have said it, but remember: ‘profitable’ meant, till well into the nineteenth century, beneficial in general. And he probably also meant “So-called myth”.

God knows English people half the time don’t notice when Italians and Frenchmen are sarcastic; sarcasm’s not nearly as marked, tonally, in Romance languages as Germanic ones. It’s also pretty hard to spot in Japanese.