The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-22

i, ton to the highest position in the church, his tenure of the episcopate coinciding
 exactly with the thirty-two years of the reign of Plus TX. Tn his episcopal labors. the Archbishop showed no less energy and zeal than he had displayed as Governor of a pontifical State Among the achievements he sue ceeded in purg!ng the archdiocese of brigandage. and at a certain time all the prisons under his spiritual Jurisdiction were empty. Such success did not pa unnoticed. and in 1850 Monsignor Pecci was elevated to the dignity of cardinal priest.
 At the consistory held in 1877, Cardinal recci was appointed Camerlingo of the
 Roman Church, which gave him chief | charge of the temporalities of the Holy See. In this capacity 1t fell to his task
 to make the necessary arrangements for the conclave for the election of a new Pope after the death of Plus TX, in Feb
 ruary, 1878. The conclave lasted thirty | SIX hours, and at the third ballot Cardi- rai Pecci was elected supreme pontiff and took the name of Leo XIII, after the famous Leo x, for whom he had a great veneration.
 He was crowned March 3rd, with the | tiara, or triple crown. the ceremony talk
 ing place, not in St. Peters, where all
 his predecessors, but one, had been crown cd since 1853. but in the Sistine Chapel in
 the Vatican, where the conclave had been
 held.
 Demand for Temporal Power. Public opinion regarded the new Pope as characterized above all things by a love of peace. and 1t was expected that,
 departing from that non-possumus policy Of his predecessor, he would speedily conclude compromise with the Italian
 Government and thus put an end to the antagonism between the Vatican and the
 Quirinal. But the world was soon un-
 deceived. and in his first encyclicai, pro-
 mulgated at the Easter following his &C., cession. Pope Leo XIII unhesitatingly
 maintained his demand for the restora-
 ton of the temporal power of the papacy,
 nor did he ever recede from the position
 then taken up.
 At the same time, the policy of the Ro-
 man curia certainly underwent a devel- opment in the direction of moderation, which greatly contributed to increasing the influence of the Vatican abroad From the very outset the new pontiff displayed the greatest interest in the social oues- tions agftating the world of today and in an encyclicat issued in December, 1878, appealed to the intellectual forces of ca- tholicfty to contest the propaganda of dotrtne which His Holiness described as subservient of social order alluding es- pecially to the socilists in Germany and the Nihilist movement in Russia The cooperation afforded by the Pope to the various governments in opposing
 the growing forces of social democracy
 paved the way for the settlement of dis putes existing between those govern ments and the Vatican. both spiritual and | civil authorities being, as it were called upon to merge their differences and make common cause against the common en- | eHy. The first great political achieve ment of the Pope was the settlement of the differences with Germany, which had given rise to the famous Kulturkampf Stand on Anarchism.
 The rapid spread of anarchic doctrines | in Germany and the attempts made upon | the Emperor's life in 1878 induced Prince Bismarck to make approaches to the ul- | tramontano party to secure their support I for his economic policy. Herr Falk,. the | famous author of the May Laws. was re- moved from office and other concessions were made to the Catholics. Finally dip | lomatic relations with the Vatican were resumed and the late Emperor Frederick,
 then Crown Prince. signalized the resto- | ration of an harmonious understanding by | visiting the Pope at the Vatican. A still | greater tribute was paid by Germany to
 His Holiness by her selection of him as arbitrator in the dispute with Spain re- | garding the Carlone Island, and her def erential acceptance oR his decision in