Pope Leo XII (Italian:Leone XII; bornAnnibale Francesco Clemente Melchiorre Girolamo Nicola della Genga; 2 August 1760 – 10 February 1829) was head of theCatholic Church and ruler of thePapal States from 28 September 1823 to his death in February 1829.[1]
Leo XII was in ill health from the time of hiselection to thepapacy to his death less than six years later, though he was noted for enduring pain well. He was a deeply conservative ruler, who enforced many controversial laws, including one forbidding Jews to own property. Though he raised taxes, the Papal States remained financially poor.
Della Genga was born in 1760 at the Castello della Genga in the territory ofFabriano[2] to an old noble family fromGenga, a small town in theMarch of Ancona, part of thePapal States. He was the sixth of ten children born to Count Ilario della Genga and Maria Luisa Periberti di Fabriano,[3] and he was the uncle ofGabriele della Genga Sermattei, who in the 19th century was the onlynephew of a pope to be elevated to cardinal.
During the dozen or more years he spent in Germany he was entrusted with several honourable and difficult missions, which brought him into contact with the courts ofDresden,Vienna,Munich andStuttgart, as well as withNapoleon. It is charged, however, that during this period his finances were disordered, and his private life was not above suspicion.[5]
After the Napoleonic abolition of theStates of the Church (1798), he lived for some years atMonticelli Abbey, solacing himself with music and with bird-shooting, pastimes which he continued even after his election as Pope.[5]
"The Grand Gala Berlin", a luxury carriage constructed in Rome during the first half of the nineteenth century, is an order of the States of the Church during the reign of two pontiffs: Leo XII, in the years 1824–1826, andGregory XVI, who requested some important modifications. The carriage was used for five solemn festive occasions in the year.
Pope Pius VII died in 1823 after yet another long pontificate that spanned over two decades. In the conclave of 1823, della Genga was the candidate of thezelanti faction and in spite of the active opposition ofFrance, he was elected as the new pope by the cardinals on 28 September 1823, taking the name of Leo XII.[5]
His election had been facilitated because he was thought to be close to death, but he unexpectedly rallied.[5] He had even remarked about his own health to the cardinals, saying that they would be electing "a dead man".[6] It was said in the conclave that he lifted his robes to show the cardinals a pair of swollen and ulcerated legs to deter them, but that made them even more eager to elect him.[7] Before the conclave opened, theKingdom of the Two Sicilies indicated that it objected to five candidates in the election which included della Genga. While della Genga did not receive a single vote in the first and second ballots, he received seven in the third and then four in the fifth. While it seemed that Cardinal Antonio Gabriele Severoli would prevail on 21 September since he had just below the needed amount, CardinalGiuseppe Albani interposed theveto on the behalf of theAustrian Empire against Severoli. While it was later indicated that the French court would not be amenable to the election of della Genga, Severoli's voting bloc decided to cast their votes for della Genga, seeing him receive 34 votes to become pope.[8]
Leo XII was 63 at the time of his election and frequently fell victim to infirmities. He was tall and thin with an ascetic look and a melancholic countenance. At this timeVincent Strambi served as bishop for the remainder of the pontificate ofPope Pius VII before his successor Pope Leo XII accepted Strambi's resignation and summoned him toRome as his advisor. But the sudden illness of the pope – which seemed likely to prove fatal – prompted Strambi to offer his own life toGod so that the pope could live. Leo XII rallied to great surprise but Strambi died of astroke within the week.[9]
So Leo XII fell ill after his coronation but after his recovery, he showed surprising endurance in carrying out his work. Leo XII devoted himself to his work and was simple in his mode of life. He had a passion for shooting birds and was rumored to have killed a peasant with whom he argued about sporting rights.[7]
Pius VII'sCardinal Secretary of State,Ercole Consalvi, who had been della Genga's rival in the conclave, was immediately dismissed, and Pius' policies rejected.[10] Leo XII's foreign policy, entrusted at first to the octogenarianGiulio Maria della Somaglia and then to the more ableTommaso Bernetti, negotiated certainconcordats very advantageous to the papacy. Personally most frugal, Leo XII reduced taxes, made justice less costly, and was able to find money for certain public improvements, yet he left the Church's finances more confused than he had found them, and even the elaboratejubilee of 1825 did not really mend financial matters.[5]
With regard to theSpanish American Wars of Independence, he initially displayed a cautious stance of neutrality between theSpanish Empire and the Spanish American Republics, not recognizing them diplomatically, but allowing the priestly Ordination of clergy sympathetic to the independence movements, seeking to avoid explicit declarations against the independentists for fear ofanti-clerical policies by theLiberadores in response, as well as an abuse of thepatronato real inSpain to pressure thePope to increase his hostility. But after receiving representatives of the Spanish Court (supported in turn by theHoly Alliance) and also envoys fromGran Colombia proposing aConcordat, he issued opinions against the latter in order torestore tranquility and order to his subjects in those domains, influencing the rejection of theHoly See to the patriotic Armies that they affirmliberal ideologies and theModernist errors of theEnlightenment (perceived by the Church as heresies) contrary tonatural law and theThomistic Conception of Politics (citing as an example its application in theDechristianization of France during theFrench Revolution), as well as considering that the cause of the socio-political disorder in Latin America came from the insurgents with their rebellions against the Legitimate authority and seeking to force the practice of the voluntaristic doctrines of the Social Contract, a work condemned in the Index librorum prohibitorum, which prevented a pacification of the continent in a situation of anarchy since theNapoleonic invasion (This criticism, despite popular rumors, was not influenced by papal sympathies for the traditional Monarchy or any pressure from theCongress of Verona). It was thus that he proclaimed the encyclicalEtsi Liam Diu, in continuity with the previous pro-royalist encyclical,Etsi longissimo terrarum, in which he exhorted the Hispanic American clergy"to advise and insist among the faithful to obedience and submission to the legitimate sovereign and mother country," that is, to maintain the Pact with theHispanic Monarchy intact by inspiring the common population to be faithful vassals and to abjure the "new ideas" of the Hispanic American Enlightenment and itsSecularism (especially the threat that nation-states would claim to be the new socio-political rector of the destinies of society, to the detriment of the spiritual supremacy of the Church according topolitical Augustinianism), as well as to achieve a Reconciliation between Hispanic Americans involved in a fratricidal civil war that threatened to fragment the political ties ofHispanicity. However, due to logistical problems, the document was not delivered to the Spanish Americans until after theBattle of Ayacucho (the wars of independence having already ended in royalist defeat) and theCreole and liberal elites, once they learned of its existence, took the opportunity to accuse the document of being a Spanish forgery (a historiographical controversy that would be resolved with the release of theVatican Archives byLeo XIII at the end of the century, revealing the original copy).[11][12][13]
Leo XII's domestic policy was one of extreme conservatism: "He was determined to change the condition of society, bringing it back to the utmost of his power to the old usages and ordinances, which he deemed to be admirable; and he pursued that object with never flagging zeal."[14] He condemned theBible societies, and underJesuit influence reorganised the educational system,[5] placing it entirely under priestly control through his bullQuod divina sapientia and requiring that all secondary instruction be carried out in Latin, as he required of all court proceedings, also now entirely in ecclesiastical hands. All charitable institutions in the Papal States were put under direct supervision.
Laws such as that forbidding Jews to own property and allowing them only the shortest possible time in which to sell what they owned, and that requiring all Roman residents to listen to Catholic catechism commentary, led many of Rome's Jews to emigrate, toTrieste,Lombardy andTuscany.[15][16]
"The results of his method of governing his states soon showed themselves in insurrections, conspiracies, assassinations and rebellion, especially in Umbria, the Marches and Romagna; the violent repression of which, by a system of espionage, secret denunciation, and wholesale application of the gibbet and the galleys, left behind it to those who were to come afterwards a very terrible, rankling and long-enduring debt of party hatreds, of political and social demoralisation, and – worst of all – a contempt for and enmity to the law, as such."[17] In a regime that saw the division of the population intoCarbonari andSanfedisti, he hunted down the Carbonari and theFreemasons[5] with their liberal sympathisers.
Leo XII made himself unpopular with the people due to the fact that he constrained them to endless rules that concerned private life and public affairs. He decreed that a dressmaker who sold low or transparent dresses would incur ipso factoexcommunication. The pope also denied the Jews the right to possess material possessions and allowed them the shortest time to sell their belongings. He revived the regulations of the Middle Ages in regard to segregation and marks for identification.[7]
While often considered an archconservative Leo XII held a high opinion of theliberal Catholic priestLamennais having a portrait of him hung in his private chambers. When the latter visited Rome in 1824 Leo offered him a Vatican apartment and in 1828 a cardinalate. According to CardinalNicholas Wiseman before the fullconsistory he said that Lamennais was " a distinguished writer, whose works had not only rendered eminent services to religion, but rejoiced and astonished Europe." However some believe that the quote was actually about the historianJohn Lingard.[18]
Leo XII had a fascination with archeology. WhenJean-François Champolliondeciphered theEgyptian hieroglyphs, Leo XII invited him to Rome to study its obelisks. Leo XII later printed and engraved Champollion's work at his personal expense. Champollion later wrote to Cardinal Wiseman that "It is areal service which His Holiness renders to science, and I shall be happy if you will be good enough to place at his feet the homage of my profound acknowledgment.[19]
According to some contemporary authors such as G. S. Godkin, Leo XII was also said to have prohibitedvaccination.[20] More recent scholarship has been unable to find any ban or any suggestion of a ban by Leo XII and his administration. Donald J. Keefe[21] traced a quote by Leo XII which strongly condemned vaccination to "an unverified citation" by Dr. Pierre Simon inHistoire et philosophie du contrôle des naissances. The response of the Papacy to the arrival of vaccination in Italy has been documented inPratique de la vaccination antivariolique dans les provinces de l’État pontifical au 19ème siècle, an article written byYves-Marie Bercé and Jean-Claude Otteni for Revue d’Histoire Ecclésiastique.[22] According to Bercé and Otteni, the biographers and contemporaries of Leo XII do not mention any interdict. The authors credit the origin of the mythical vaccination ban of Leo XII to the personality of Cardinal della Genga when he became pope in 1823. His intransigence and piety alienated liberal opinion very quickly. His austere spirituality made him the target of criticisms and mocking remarks. English travelers visiting the peninsula and many of the diplomats established in Rome remarked on the severity of the pontiff.
The absence of a prohibition is evidenced by the fact that in 1828 the Medical-Surgical Society of Bologna was able to implement a vaccination campaign.[23]
He collaborated withVincent Strambi (future saint) – who served as his advisor. When he was on the brink of death in 1825, Strambi offered himself to God for the survival of the pope. The pope rallied from his ailment, but Strambi died.
Leo XII opens the holy door to mark the beginning of the Jubilee in 1825.
Leo XII celebrated the jubilee in 1825 in an event that saw more than half a million pilgrims travel to Rome to participate in the solemnities. To mark the event, Leo XII issued the encyclicalQuod hoc ineunte on 24 May 1825 that proclaimed the jubilee.
He held 8consistories in which he elevated 25 new cardinals into the cardinalate. This included Cardinal Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari – the futurePope Gregory XVI – on 13 March 1826. In addition, Leo XII nominated three cardinals whom he reserved "in pectore" but later revealed.
For the December 1824 allocations, Leo XII considered elevatingFélicité de La Mennais despite knowing about his crude character and extreme social and moral positions. Nevertheless, the nomination never occurred, however, other sources allege that he declined the pope's invitation. For the October 1826 allocation, Leo XII had nominated one cardinalin pectore whom he later revealed in 1828, however, several subsequent sources indicate that the renowned English historianJohn Lingard was also created a cardinalin pectore and simply never announced. In the 1828 consistory, theBishop of Osimo e Cingoli Timoteo Maria Ascensi was to be made a cardinal but died nine days before the consistory occurred.[25]
Tomb of Leo XII near the tomb of Saint Leo I per his requestsMonument to Leo XII in St. Peter's Basilica
On 5 February 1829, after a private audience with the new Cardinal Secretary of State,Tommaso Bernetti, he was suddenly taken ill and he seemed to know that his end was near. On 8 February, he asked for and received theViaticum and was anointed. On 9 February, he lapsed into unconsciousness and on the next morning, he died. The minister to Rome forFrench KingCharles X,François-René de Chateaubriand, who was near to the events, wrote: "The pope died of that haemorrhoidal condition to which he was subject. The blood, being carried to the bladder, occasioned a retention which they tried to relieve by means of an incision. It is thought His Holiness was injured by the operation. However it may be, after four days of suffering, Leo XII died this morning at nine as I was arriving at the Vatican, where an agent of the Embassy had spent the night."[26] He was buried in a monument of him inSaint Peter's Basilica on 15 February 1829. His remains were transferred and buried before the altar ofPope Leo I on 5 December 1830.
Leo XII is considered to have been a man of noble character, with a passion for order and efficiency, but one who lacked insight into the temporal developments of his time. His rule was unpopular in Rome and in the Papal States, and by various measures of his reign he diminished greatly for his successors their chances of solving the new problems that confronted them.[27]
It was alleged that Leo XII had a liaison as a young prelate with the wife of aSwiss Guard (known as Pfiffer). The allegation was brought to the attention ofPope Pius VI, who met with the prelate to discern the truth of the matter. He refuted all claims to the pope and the matter was dropped then and there save for the fact that della Genga affirmed he was close to Pfiffer.[28]
^For the correct biographical information, date and place of birth and surname, see Ph. Boutry,Souverain et Pontife. Recherche prosographiques sur la Curie romaine à l'âge de la Restauration (1814–1846), Roma, École française, 2002. pp. 359–361.
^Luigi Carlo Farini,Lo stato Romano, dell'anno 1815 a 1850, (Turin, 1850) vol. I, p. 17, quoted by Thomas Adolphus Trollope,The Story of the Life of Pius the Ninth vol. I (1877:39ff)
Boutry, Philippe (2002). "Leo XII". In Levillain, Philippe; O'Malley, John W. (eds.).The Papacy, An Encyclopedia. Vol. 2: Gaius-Proxies. Routledge. pp. 929–933.
Giuseppe Monsagrati: Leone XII. In: Massimo Bray (ed.):Enciclopedia dei Papi. Volume 3: Innocenzo VIII, Giovanni Paolo II. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2000 (treccani.it)
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