The elevation of Newman to the college of Cardinals in 1879 was taken as evidence that Leo XIII. had a wider horizon than his predecessor; and his similar recognition of two of the most dis tinguished "inopportunist" members of the Vatican council, Haynald, archbishop of Kalocsa, and Prince Fiirstenberg, arch bishop of Olmiitz, was even more noteworthy. Dellinger the pope attempted to reconcile, but failed. He worked for the reunion of the Oriental Churches with the see of Rome, establishing Catholic educational centres in Athens and in Constantinople with that end in view. He used his influence with the rulers of Russia, of China, Japan and Persia, to secure the free practice of their religion for Roman Catholics in those countries Among the canonizations and beatifications of his pontificate was that of Sir Thomas More. His encyclical issued at Easter 1902, and de scribed by himself as a kind of will, was mainly a reiteration of earlier condemnations of the Reformation, and of modern philo sophical systems, which for their atheism and materialism he makes responsible for all existing moral and political disorders.
Grave and serious in manner, speaking slowly, but with energetic gestures, simple and abstemious in his life—his daily bill of fare being reckoned as hardly costing a couple of francs—Leo XIII. distributed large sums in charity, and at his own charges placed costly astronomical instruments in the Vatican observatory, pro viding also accommodation and endowment for a staff of officials.
He always showed the greatest interest in science and in literature, and he would have taken a position as a statesman of the first rank had he held office in any secular government. Under him the papacy acquired a prestige unknown since the middle ages. On March 3, 1903, he celebrated his jubilee in St. Peter's with more than usual pomp and splendour; he died on July 20 follow ing. His successor was Pius X.
See Scelta di atti episcopali del cardinale G. Pecci . . . (Rome, 1879) ; Leonis XIII. Pont. Max. acta (17 vols., Rome, 1881-98) ; Sanctissimi Domini N. Leonis XIII. allocutiones, epistolae, etc. (Bruges and Lille, 1887, etc.) ; the encyclicals (Siimtliche Rundschreiben) with a German translation (6 vols., Freiburg, 1878-1904) ; Discorsi del Sommo Ponte fice Leone XIII. 1878-1882 (Rome, 1882). There are lives of Leo XIII. by B. O'Reilly (new ed., Chicago 1903), H. des Houx (pseudo nym of Durand Morimbeau) (Paris, 1900), by W. Mevnell (1887), by J. McCarthy (1896), by Boyer d'Agen (Jeunesse de Leon XIII. [1896] ; La Prelature, 1900), by M. Spahn (Munich, 1905), by L. K. Goetz (Gotha, 5899), by T. Serclaes, Le Pape Leon X111. (3 vols., 2nd ed., 1907). See also 0. Schilling, Die Staats- and Soziallehre des Papstes Leo XIII. (1925). (A. W. Hu.; X.)