Pope Leo XII
Genga, Papal States | |
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Died | 10 February 1829 Rome, Papal States | (aged 68)
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Pope Leo XII (Italian: Leone XII), born Annibale Francesco Clemente Melchiorre Girolamo Nicola della Genga[a] (ⓘ; 2 August 1760 – 10 February 1829), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 28 September 1823 to his death in February 1829.[1]
Leo XII was in ill health from the time of his
Biography
Family
Della Genga was born in 1760 at the Castello della Genga in the territory of
Education and ordination
Della Genga studied theology at the Collegio Campana in
Papal nuncio and episcopate
In 1790 the attractive and articulate della Genga attracted favourable attention by a tactful oration commemorative of the late
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 of Dresden, Vienna, Munich and Stuttgart, as well as with Napoleon. It is charged, however, that during this period his finances were disordered, and his private life was not above suspicion.[4] He was suspected of having allegedly fathered three illegitimate children.[5]
After the Napoleonic abolition of the States of the Church (1798), he lived for some years at Monticelli Abbey, solacing himself with music and with bird-shooting, pastimes which he continued even after his election as Pope.[4]
Cardinal
In 1814 della Genga was chosen to carry
On 8 March 1816 he was created Cardinal-Priest of
On 9 May 1820, Pope Pius VII gave him the distinguished post of Vicar-General of His Holiness for the Diocese of Rome.[6]
Pontificate
Papal styles of Pope Leo XII | |
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His Holiness | |
Spoken style | Your Holiness |
Religious style | Holy Father |
Posthumous style | None |
Papal election
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 the zelanti faction and in spite of the active opposition of France, he was elected as the new pope by the cardinals on 28 September 1823, taking the name of Leo XII.[4]
His election had been facilitated because he was thought to be close to death, but he unexpectedly rallied.[4] 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, the Kingdom 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, Cardinal Giuseppe Albani interposed the veto on the behalf of the Austrian 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 time Vincent Strambi served as bishop for the remainder of the pontificate of Pope Pius VII before his successor Pope Leo XII accepted Strambi's resignation and summoned him to Rome as his advisor. But the sudden illness of the pope – which seemed to prove fatal – prompted Strambi to offer his own life to God so that the pope could live. Leo XII rallied to great surprise but Strambi died of a stroke 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]
The cardinal protodeacon Fabrizio Ruffo crowned him as pontiff on 5 October 1823.
Foreign policy
Pius VII's
Domestic policy
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."
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, to Trieste, Lombardy and Tuscany.[12][13]
"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."
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 facto excommunication. 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]
Vaccination controversy
According to some contemporary authors such as G. S. Godkin, Leo XII was also said to have prohibited vaccination.[15] 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 in his paper "Tracking the footnote"[16] traced a quote by Leo XII which strongly condemned vaccination to "an unverified citation" by Dr. Pierre Simon in Histoire et philosophie du contrôle des naissances. The response of the Papacy to the arrival of vaccination in Italy has been documented in Pratique de la vaccination antivariolique dans les provinces de l’État pontifical au 19ème siècle, an article written by Yves-Marie Bercé and Jean-Claude Otteni for Revue d’Histoire Ecclésiastique.[17] 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.[18]
Activities
Beatifications and canonizations
Leo XII
Leo XII also created Peter Damian a Doctor of the Church on 27 September 1828 in addition to the formal canonization he presided over.
Saint Vincenzo Strambi
He collaborated with Vincent 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.
Religious congregations
The pope also approved the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate on 17 February 1826 when he gave the congregation official recognition.
Jubilee
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 encyclical Quod hoc ineunte on 24 May 1825 that proclaimed the jubilee.
Consistories
He held 8 consistories in which he elevated 25 new cardinals into the cardinalate. This included Cardinal Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari – the future Pope 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 elevating Félicité 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 cardinal in pectore whom he later revealed in 1828, however, several subsequent sources indicate that the renowned English historian John Lingard was also created a cardinal in pectore and simply never announced. In the 1828 consistory, the Bishop of Osimo e Cingoli Timoteo Maria Ascensi was to be made a cardinal but died nine days before the consistory occurred.[20]
Death and legacy
On 5 February 1829, after a private audience with the new Cardinal Secretary of State,
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.[22]
Rumors of a liaison
It was alleged that Leo XII had a liaison as a prelate with the wife of a Swiss Guard (known as Pfiffer). The allegation was brought to the attention of Pope 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.[23]
As a nuncio in Germany, it was rumored he allegedly fathered three illegitimate children.[24]
Bibliography
Leo XII issued at least 6 encyclicals during his reign.
No. | Title (Latin) | Subject | Date | Texts |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Ubi primum | On Pope Leo's papacy; on the Bishops' duties | 5 May 1824 | [1] |
2. | Quod Hoc Ineunte | Proclaiming a Universal Jubilee | 24 May 1824 | [2] |
3. | Ad Plurimas | Request for support in the restoration of the burnt-out Basilica of St. Paul outside the walls | 25 January 1825 | [3] |
4. | Charitate Christi | On Extending the Jubilee to the Entire Church | 25 December 1825 | [4] |
5. | Quo Graviora | On Secret Societies | 13 March 1826 | [5] |
6. | Quanta laetitia | Introduction of a regular hierarchy in Scotland | 13 February 1827 | [6] |
See also
Notes
- ^ English: Hannibal Francis Clement Melchior Jerome Nicholas della Genga
References
- ^ 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'age de la Restauration (1814–1846), Roma, Ecole francaise, 2002. pp. 359–361.
- ^ a b c Toke, Leslie. "Pope Leo XII." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 28 Aug. 2014
- ^ Yvon Beaudoin, o.m.i., Yvon. "Leo XII, Pope from 1823 to 1829", OMI World
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Leo (popes)/Leo XII". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 16 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ Letters from Rome in: The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, Tom 11, pp. 468–471.
- ^ a b "Miranda, Salvador. "Della Genga, Annibale", The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church". Archived from the original on 9 December 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
- ^ a b c "Pope Leo XII: Proceedings of the Conclave that led to his election". Pickle Publishing. Retrieved 9 February 2015.
- ^ John Paul Adams (5 September 2015). "Sede Vacante 1823". Retrieved 20 February 2022.
- ^ "Saint Vincenzo Strambi". Santi e Beati. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
- ^ Francis A. Burkle-Young, Papal Elections in the Age of Transition, 1878–1922, 2000:22ff.
- ^ 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)
- ^ Farini, eo. loc.
- ^ "Valérie Pirie, The Triple Crown: An Account of the Papal Conclaves". Pickle-publishing.com. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
- ^ Trollope, p. 41.
- ^ Godkin, G. S. (1880). Life of Victor Emmanuel II. Macmillan
- ^ Donald J. Keefe, "Tracking the footnote", Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Newsletter, Volume 9, Number 4, September 1986 pp. 6–7.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 February 2015. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Argelati, Giacomo (1829). Risultamenti ottenuti dalla Società medico-chirurgica di Bologna per la inoculazione del vaccino praticata nell'anno 1828 [Results obtained by the Medical-Surgical Society of Bologna on the inoculation of the vaccine] (PDF). Bologna.
- ^ Faithful and True Translation of a Brief Memoir of the Life and Miracles of the Saintly Brother Julian of Alcala, 1610. World Digital Library.
- ^ Salvador Miranda. "Leo XII (1823-1829)". The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
- ^ "François-René de Chateaubriand, Mémoires d'Outre Tombe, Book XXIX Chapter 17 Section 1, translated by A.S. Kline".
- ^ "Pope Leo XII". Retrieved 24 January 2014.
- ^ "The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal". 1824.
- ^ Letters from Rome in: The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, Tom 11, pp. 468–471.
Further reading
- Leo XII at The Papal Library
- Artaud de Montor: Histoire du Pape Léon XII. 2 vols., 1841
- Schmidlin I, pp. 367–474
- M. Rossi: Il conclave di Leone XII. Lo Stato Pontificio e l’Italia all'indomani del Congresso di Vienna. 1935
- EC VII, 1156–1158
- LThK2. Vol. VI, Sp. 952–953
- Georg Schwaiger: Leo XII. In: LThK3 6 (1997), 827–828.
- Kelly: Reclams Lexikon der Päpste. 1988, pp. 322f.
- Georg Denzler (1992). "LEO XII. (Annibale del la Genga)". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol. 4. Herzberg: Bautz. cols. 1450–1451. ISBN 3-88309-038-7.
- 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)
- Works by and about Pope Leo XII in the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (German Digital Library)
- Catholic-Hierarchy entry