Did Pope Leo X Say The Jesus Story Was A Fable?

No. I frequently hear critics claiming that Pope Leo X once said "What profit has not that fable of Christ brought us!" In fact, this quote originated with John Bale (1495-1563), an English playwright who had Leo X saying this in the play "The Pageant of Popes", a satire of the Catholic church, which he wrote in the mid-16th century. Bale's exact quote was "All ages can testifie enough howe profitable that fable of Christe hath ben to us and our companie". Bale himself was a protestant Christian who disliked the Catholics, and made up this quote for Leo X to say, based on his belief (perhaps true) that Leo X was actually an atheist. There is no evidence that Leo X ever said this quote in real life. Even if, hypothetically, Leo actually did say this, so what? All it would do is confirm the rumor that Leo was a closet atheist, and an atheist calling Jesus a 'fable' wouldn't be anything new.