The study of Church history was encouraged, and in August 1883 the Vatican archives and library were thrown open to qualified historians. His belief was that the Church would not suffer by the publication of documents. A man of literary taste and culture, familiar with the classics, a facile writer of Latin verses' as well as of Ciceronian prose, he was anxious that the Roman clergy should unite the humanities with their theological studies. He also established voluntary schools, the competition of which with the State schools ultimately obliged the State to include religious teaching in its curriculum. The numerous en cyclicals issued by Leo XIII. were prepared and written by him self, but were submitted to the customary revision. The encyclical Aeterni Patris (Aug. 4, 1879) was written in the defence of the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas. In later ones, working on the principle that the Christian Church should superintend and direct every form of civil life, he dealt with the Christian constitution of states (Immortals Dei, Nov. 1, 1885), with human liberty (Libertas, June 20, 1888), and with the condition of the work ing classes (Rerum novarum, May 15, 1891).
This last was described as "the social Magna Carta of Catholicism," and it won for Leo the name of "the workingman's pope." Translated into the chief modern languages, many thou sands of copies were circulated among the working classes in Catholic countries. Other encyclicals were on Christian marriage (Arcanum divznae sapientiae, Feb. io, 188o), on the Rosary (Supremi aposto/atus officii, Sept. 1, 1883, and Supertore anno, Sept. 5, 1898), and on Freemasonry (Humanum genus, April 20, 1884). Other famous encyclicals were on the study of Holy Scripture (Nov. 18, 1893) and on the reunion of Christendom (June 20, 1894). He showed special anxiety for the return of England to the Roman Catholic fold, and addressed a letter ad Anglos, dated April 14, 1895. This he followed up by an encyclical on the unity of the Church (Satis cognitum, June 29, 1896) ; and the question of the validity of Anglican ordinations from the Roman Catholic point of view having been raised in Rome by Viscount Halifax, a commission was appointed to consider the subject, and on Sept. 15, 1896 a condemnation of the Anglican form as theologically insufficient was issued, and was directed to be taken as final.
The establishment of a diocesan hierarchy in Scotland had been decided upon before the death of Pius IX., but the actual an nouncement of it was made by Leo XIII. On July 25, 1898 he addressed to the Scottish Catholic bishops a letter, in the course of which he said that "many of the Scottish people who do not agree with us in faith sincerely love the name of Christ and strive to ascertain His doctrine and to imitate His most holy example." The Irish and American bishops he summoned to
Rome to confer with him on the subjects of Home Rule and of iLeonis XIII. Pont. Maximi carmina, ed. Brunelli (Udine, 1883) ; Leonis XIII. carmina, inscriptiones, ed. J. Bach (Cologne, 1903).
"Americanism," respectively. In India he established a diocesan hierarchy, with seven archbishoprics.
With the government of Italy his general policy was generally conciliatory. In 1879, addressing a congress of Catholic journal ists in Rome, he exhorted them to proclaim that the affairs of Italy would never prosper until the temporal power was restored ; in 1887 he found it necessary to deprecate the violence with which this doctrine was advocated in certain journals. A similar counsel of moderation was given to the Canadian press in con nection with the Manitoba school question in Dec. 1897. The less conciliatory attitude towards the Italian government was resumed in an encyclical addressed to the Italian clergy (Aug. 5, 1898), in which he insisted on the duty of Italian Catholics to abstain from political life while the papacy remained in its "in tolerable position." And in Jan. 1902, reversing the policy which had its inception in the encyclical, Rerum novarum, of 1891, and had further been developed ten years later in a letter to the Italian bishops entitled Graves de communi, the "Sacred Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs" issued instructions con cerning "Christian Democracy in Italy," directing that the popular Christian movement, which embraced in its programme a number of social reforms, such as factory laws for children, old-age pen sions, a minimum wage in agricultural industries, an eight-hour day, the revival of trade gilds, and the encouragement of Sunday rest, should divert its attention from all such things as savoured of novelty and devote its energies to the restoration of the tem poral power.
His policy towards all governments outside Italy was to sup port them wherever they represented social order ; and it was with difficulty that he persuaded French Catholics to be united in de fence of the republic. The German Kulturkampj was ended by his exertions. In 1885 he arbitrated between Germany and Spain in a dispute concerning the Caroline Islands. In Ireland he con demned the "Plan of Campaign" in 1888, but he conciliated the Nationalists by appointing Dr. Walsh archbishop of Dublin. The jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887 and the pope's priestly jubilee a few months later were the occasion of friendly intercourse be tween Rome and Windsor. Similar courtesies were exchanged during the jubilee of 1897, and again in March 1902; and the visit of Edward VII. to Leo XIII. in April 1903 was a further proof of friendliness between the English court and the Vatican.