The Pope’s Elephant and Its Laxative
Hanno must be the most famous elephant after Dumbo and Kai Mook. He was a diplomatic gift from the Portuguese to Pope Leo X. The elephant entered the history books not only because of his tragic death (he met his end after taking a laxative mixed with gold), but also because of his influence on the Protestant Reformation.
Workers carrying out excavation work in a courtyard in the Vatican in 1962 made a rather peculiar find: they came across some very large animal bones. On investigation these turned out to be the ancient bones of an Asian elephant. But how did this animal end up in Italy?
A diplomatic gift
When Giovanni de' Medici became Pope Leo X in 1513, the king of Portugal, Emmanuel I, decided to win his favour by sending the Pope a shipload of valuable gifts. The crowning glory was an Asian elephant named Hanno. The animal immediately captured the pope's heart. Leo X pampered the elephant, provided it with its own quarters in the Vatican and rode him through the city.
A laxative containing gold
In June 1516, however, Hanno became seriously ill, suffering from respiratory problems and abdominal cramps. Doctors diagnosed a complete bowel obstruction. To treat this, they administered a laxative which - not unusually for this period - was enriched with gold. This, however, did more harm than good. Soon after taking it, Hanno died. Leo X had him buried in the courtyard where his bones were found centuries later.
The Reformation
A year after Hanno's death, Martin Luther published his famous 95 Theses denouncing the abuses in the Catholic Church. His followers then also began to accuse the papacy of decadence, corruption and greed. The fact that the leader of the church had been keeping an exotic elephant as a pet and unashamedly flaunting it was viewed as a prime example of this. This meant that Hanno gave rise to one of the first published criticisms of the Catholic Church.
The Protestant Reformation eventually led to the division of the church, as Protestantism became an important movement alongside Roman Catholicism. Amazingly enough, an elephant played a part in starting off this process.