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Leo XIII: “The Diplomat Pope”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

James E. Ward
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Extract

THE election of Leo XIII on February 20, 1878, made a deep and rather favorable impression on the French statesman, Léon Gambetta. Quite inadvertently, he recorded it for posterity when, on the very day of Leo's election, he wrote to his mistress:

They have elected a new pope, the elegant and refined Cardinal Pecci, bishop of Perugia. … This Italian, more diplomat than priest, has overcome all the intrigues of the Jesuits and the foreign clergy; he is pope, and the name of Leo XIII which he has taken seems to me to be a most favorable omen. I hail this occasion so full of promise.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , January 1966 , pp. 47 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1966

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References

1 Gambetta to L. Léon, Feb. 20, 1878, in Halevy, Daniel and Pillias, Emile, eds., Lettres de Gambetta, 1868–1882 (Paris, 1938)Google Scholar. Documents in this book must be located by date.

2 de Vogüé, Melchior, “Leo XIII,” l'Univers, 03 4, 1892, p. 1Google Scholar, col. 6; p. 2, cols. 1, 2. The quotation is from p. 2, col. 1.

3 Benigni, Umberto, “Leo XIII,” Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. IX, p. 170Google Scholar.

4 Hughes, Philip, “Leo XIII,” Dublin Review, CCII (1938), 249–257Google Scholar. The quotation is from p. 249.

5 Soderini, Eduardo, II pontificato di Leone XIII, 3 vols. (Milan, 1932–1933)Google Scholar, presents the result of research in the Vatican archives. Extensive research in the Viennese diplomatic archives is presented in Engel-Janosi, Friedrich, Oesterreich und der Vatikan, 1846–1918, Vol. I: Die Pontifikate Pius IX. und Leo XIII., 1846–1903 (Graz, Vienna, Cologne, 1958)Google Scholar. Some material from the Russian archives is presented in Adamow, E., Die Diplomatie des Vatikans zur Zeit des Imperialismus, translated from the Russian by Count von Lambsdorff (Berlin, 1931)Google Scholar.

I have done extensive research on the diplomacy of Leo XIII in the diplomatic archives of Paris, Brussels, Munich, Bonn, and Vienna.

6 Soderini, , II pontificato di Leone XIII, I, 106–169Google Scholar; Simon, A., Lettres de Pecci, 1843–1846 (Rome, Brussels, 1959)Google Scholar.

7 This negotiation is the subject of a lengthy correspondence preserved in the archives of the French Foreign Ministry. Béhaine to Ferry, Tél., Sept. 12, 1884, and Béhaine to Ferry, Dép. 111, Sept. 19, 1884, describe the interview with Leo.

8 Hübner, to Kálnoky, , three reports from Rome, dated Aug. 7, 1888, which I examined in Vienna. They are printed in Francesco Salata, Per la, storia diplomatica della Questione Romana (Milan, 1929), I, 206–226Google Scholar.

9 Ward, James E., “Leo XIII and Bismarck: the Kaiser's Vatican Visit of 1888,” The Review of Politics, XXIV (07 1962), 392–414CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 I have studied a large number of dispatches on the Peking nunciature affair in the diplomatic archives of Paris, Brussels, and Bonn. Three of the key documents in the affair are published in Documents diplomatiques français, 1st series, Vol. VI, documents 283, 285, and 310. For information on the opposition of France and many cardinals to the nunciature project see Béhaine to Freycinet, lettre privée, Mar. 20, 1886, and Béhaine to Freycinet, Dép. 48, Apr. 15, 1886, in the Paris archives. On Leo's authorship of an article in the Osservatore Romano see Pitteurs to Chimay, No. 52, Aug. 6, 1886, and Pitteurs' report No. 53 of Aug. 13, 1886, in the Brussels archives. Leo's chagrin is described in Schlözer to Bismarck, No. 142, Sept. 24, 1886, in the Bonn archives and in Monbel to Flourens, Dép. 1, Jan. 1, 1887, in the Paris archives.

11 Béhaine to Flourens, Tél., Oct. 11, 1887, in the Paris archives.

12 Benoist, Charles, Souvenirs de Charles Benoist, Vol. I: 1883–1893, Léon XIII, Crispi, Bismarck (Paris, 1932)Google Scholar. The Petit Journal interview is reproduced in l'Univers, Feb. 18, 1892, p. 1. For the origins of the interview and some commentaries on it see Ferrata, Dominique, Mémoires: ma nonciature en France (Paris, 1922), pp. 205–208Google Scholar. On the Figaro interview see Hayward, Fernand, Léon XIII (Paris, 1937), pp. 316, 317Google Scholar.

13 For one indication of the esteem in which Franchi was held by diplomats see Engel-Janosi, , Oesterreich und der Vatikan, I, 218Google Scholar. On Nina's disgrace, passed over in silence by several writers, see Béhaine to Flourens, Dép. 34, Mar. 8, 1887, in the French diplomatic archives.

14 On Jacobini see Hayward, , Léon XIII, pp. 174, 175, 184, 187Google Scholar. The French diplomatic correspondence contains a number of references to the diminution of Jacobini's influence and the rise of Galimberti's.

15 My impression is derived largely from French and Austrian diplomatic correspondence. Interestingly enough, the French were not initially in favor of Rampolla's appointment; they even seem to have worked against it. The Austrians were not opposed; but they quickly became disillusioned with and hostile to Rampolla.

16 Czacki comes off very well in virtually every reference to him I have encountered in print or in manuscript: Soderini, Engel-Janosi, Hayward, Ferrata; his colleague in the Paris diplomatic corps, Prince Hohenlohe, refers to him favorably in his memoirs; so does the Marquis de Gabriac in his recollections of his Roman mission published in the Revue des Deux Mondes. Shortly after his death Czacki was the object of an interesting tribute in Béhaine to Flourens, Dép. 46, Mar. 9, 1888, in the Paris archives.

17 Portions of the Galimberti papers are published in Crispolti, Crispolto and Aureli, Guido, La politica, di Leone XIII da Luigi Galimberti a Mariano Rampolla: su documenti inediti (Rome, 1912)Google Scholar. What these papers suggest is amply borne out (with some interesting details) in the French and German diplomatic correspondence. For example, an interesting hint of Galimberti's desire to discredit Rampolla is to be found in Reuss to Bismarck, No. 457, Oct. 31, 1888, and in Reuss' No. 461, Nov. 6, 1888, in the Bonn archives.

18 On Rotelli, “the Perugian,” see Béhaine to Flourens, Dép. 58, Apr. 17, 1887, plus Béhaine's telegrams of Apr. 21 and 24, 1887. For a blunder at Constantinople (where he was apostolic delegate) which annoyed Leo and nearly cost Rotelli his appointment to Paris see Schlözer to Bismarck, No. 145, Oct. 2, 1886, Bonn archives. For Rotelli's blunders in Paris and the Vatican's embarrassment see Béhaine to Flourens, Tél. 53, July 5, 1887, and De Pont to Flourens, Dép. 113, July 19, 1887, Paris archives.

19 See my article cited in note 9. The quotation is from p. 411.

20 Monbel to Goblet, Tél. 1, Jan. 1, 1889, and Monbel to Spuller, Dép. 219, Oct. 8, 1889, Paris archives.

21 Marc-Bonnet, Henry, La papauté contemporaine, 1878–1945 (Paris, 1945), p. 86Google Scholar.

22 Ibid., p. 83.