LEO XIII (1810–1903), Pope from 1878. Vincenzo Gioacchino Pecci was a native of Carpineto. He was educated by the Jesuits of Viterbo and later studied at the ‘Academy of Noble Ecclesiastics’ in Rome. Ordained priest in 1837, he was sent on a mission to Benevento in the next year. In 1843 he was appointed nuncio to Brussels, where he gained considerable diplomatic experience. On missions to London, Paris, Cologne, and many other European cities he became acquainted with modern social questions which were to play an important part in his pontificate. In 1846 Gregory XVI made him Bp. of Perugia, and in 1853 he was created cardinal by Pius IX. When, in 1860, Perugia passed under the secular power of Piedmont, the Cardinal opposed the new laws, esp. the suppression of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, the institution of civil marriage, and the spoliation of the religious orders.

After his election to the Papacy in 1878, Leo continued many of the policies of Pius IX, while attempting to bring the Church to terms with modern civilization. This aim, reflected in the programme he outlined in his first encyclical, ‘Inscrutabili Dei Concilio’ (21 Apr. 1878), determined his attitude towards the great powers. He restored good relations with Germany after the Kulturkampf by procuring the gradual abolition of the May Laws in 1886 and 1887, and with Belgium after the victory of the Catholic party in 1884. In 1892 he established an Apostolic Delegation in Washington, and he renewed contacts with Russia and Japan. The improvement of relations with Great Britain found expression in King Edward VII’s visit to the Vatican in 1903. His policy failed, however, in the Italian question; the Pope remained the ‘Prisoner of the Vatican’, and the prohibition of the participation of Catholics in Italian politics was retained. In France, too, relations between Church and State deteriorated, and the Pope’s last years were darkened by the increasingly anti-Catholic French legislation, esp. the Associations Law of 1901.

Leo XIII’s pontificate was esp. important for the lead he gave on the burning political and social questions of his time. In some notable encyclicals he developed the Christian doctrine of the State on the basis of St Thomas Aquinas. In ‘Immortale Dei’ (1 Nov. 1885) he defined the respective spheres of spiritual and temporal power; ‘Libertas Praestantissimum’ (20 June 1888) deals with the freedom of citizens, and ‘Graves de Communi’ (18 Jan. 1901) with Christian democracy. He upheld the dignity and rights of the State, whether monarchy or republic, and emphasized the compatibility of Catholic teaching with a moderate democracy. His most important pronouncement on social questions was the famous ‘Rerum Novarum’ (q.v.) of 15 May 1891. Among his activities in the doctrinal sphere his injunction of the study of St Thomas Aquinas by ‘Aeterni Patris’ (q.v.) of 4 Aug. 1879 had far-reaching consequences, leading to a great revival of Thomist studies. In 1883 he opened the Vatican archives to historical research; he encouraged the study of the Bible in the encyclical ‘Providentissimus Deus’ (18 Nov. 1893) and instituted the Biblical Commission in 1902. He gave a limited measure of encouragement to the new methods of biblical criticism, which ceased in the pontificate of his successor. His attitude to other Christian Churches is marked by the letter ‘Praeclara’ of 1894, in which he invited Greeks and Protestants of all shades to unite with Rome; but he rejected the conception of union as a federation of Churches in the encyclical ‘Satis Cognitum’ of 1896. In his Apostolic Letter ‘Ad Anglos’ (1895) he encouraged Anglican aspirations to union as promoted by Lord Halifax and the English Church Union, and in the same year appointed a commission for the investigation of Anglican Ordinations. They were rejected as invalid in ‘Apostolicae Curae’ (1896). Leo XIII promoted the spiritual life of the Church in many encyclicals dealing with the redemptive work of Christ, the Eucharist, and devotion to the BVM and the Rosary; and he sought to renew the spirit of St Francis by modifying the rules of the Third Order in accordance with the requirements of the times. Following a revelation received by Mary von Droste-Vischering, religious of the Good Shepherd of Angers, he consecrated the whole human race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the jubilee year 1900. He also encouraged the work of the missions, esp. the formation of a native clergy. In 1887 he condemned 40 propositions from the works of A. Rosmini contradicting the doctrine of St Thomas, and in 1899 he censured in ‘Testem Benevolentiae’ the teaching known as ‘Americanism’.

Acta (22 vols., index and appendix, Rome, 1881–1905); Allocutiones, Epistolae, Constitutiones, aliaque Acta Praecipua (8 vols., Bruges, 1887–1910). Carmina, Inscriptiones, Numismata, ed. J. Bach (Cologne, 1903). The basic Life is that of C. de t’Serclaes (3 vols., Bruges, 1894–1906). The many others incl. those by M. Spahn (Munich, 1905), F. Hayward (Paris, 1937), and L. P. Wallace (Durham, NC, 1966). E. Soderini, Il pontificato di Leone XIII (3 vols., Milan [1932–3]; Eng. tr. of vols. 1 and 2, 1934–5). E. Lecanuet, La Vie de l’Eglise sous Léon XIII (1930). M. Launay, La papauté à l’aube du xx^e siècle: Léon XIII et Pie X (1997), pp. 13–129. G. Rossini (ed.), Aspetti della cultura cattolica nell’età di Leone XIII: Atti del convegno tenuto a Bologna il 27, 28, 29 dicembre 1960 (1961). E. T. Gargan (ed.), Leo XIII and the Modern World (New York [1961]). G. Jarlot, SJ, Doctrine pontificale et histoire: L’Enseignement social de Léon XIII, Pie X et Benoît XV vu dans son ambiance historique (Studia Socialia, 9; 1964), pp. 17–257. [W.] O. Chadwick, A History of the Popes 1830–1914 (Oxford, 1998), esp. pp. 273–331. R. F. Esposito, SSP, Leone XIII et l’oriente cristiano [1960]. V. C. Orti, Leon XIII y los Catolicos Españoles: Informes vaticanos sobre la Iglesia en España (Pamplona, 1988). R. Aubert in TRE 20 (1990), pp. 748–53, s.v., with bibl. See also bibl. to anglican ordinations.

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