Pope Leo XII - Foreign Policy

Foreign Policy

Pius VII' Secretary of State, Ercole Consalvi, who had been Della Genga's rival in the consistory, was immediately dismissed, and Pius' policies rejected. Leo XII's foreign policy, entrusted at first to the octogenarian Giulio Maria della Somaglia and then to the more able Tommaso Bernetti, negotiated certain concordats very advantageous to the papacy. Personally most frugal, Leo XII reduced taxes, made justice less costly, and was able to find money for certain public improvements; yet he left the Church's finances more confused than he had found them, and even the elaborate jubilee of 1825 did not really mend financial matters.

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