Leo XII
Annibale Francesco Clemente Melchiorre Girolamo Nicola della Genga · 1823 – 1829
A conservative pope who tried to restore pre-revolutionary Catholic order during the Restoration era.
Annibale della Genga became pope in 1823 and spent his six-year pontificate trying to turn back the clock to the world before the French Revolution. He expanded the Roman Inquisition's authority, restricted Jewish rights in the Papal States, and enforced strict public morality. He also celebrated the Jubilee Year of 1825. His approach was seen as reactionary even by some contemporaries, though he was personally devout and ascetic.
Why He Matters
Leo XII's attempt to restore the old order largely failed, but his pontificate shows the Church grappling with modernity — a struggle that would define the next two centuries of papal history.