Pope Leo XII and the Vaccination Ban

Whoever allows himself to be vaccinated ceases to be a child of God. Smallpox is a judgement from God : thus vaccination is an affront to Heaven

Quote attributed to Pope Leo XII 1829

He was a ferocious fanatic, whose object was to destroy all the improvements of modern times, and force society back to the government, customs, and ideas of mediaeval days. In his insensate rage against progress he stopped vaccination; consequently, small-pox devastated the Roman provinces during his reign, along with many other curses which his brutal ignorance brought upon the inhabitants of those beautiful and fertile regions.

G. S. Godkin

Annibale della Genga - a sickly 63 year old crippled by chronic haemorrhoids - was elected Pope Leo XII in 1823 and began a stronger, more religious and more conservative regime in the Papal states. As a consequence, he became a much derided figure. The authority of the popes had been much weakened during the enlightenment, the subsequent revolution and the violence which followed. Leo’s appointment by the Zelanti came in reaction to this and to the constant manipulation of papal policy by political prudence. He was pious, puritanical and confrontational; with a habit for shooting birds in the Vatican gardens which shocked the cardinals. In the internal government of the Papal states he took steps to establish his moral authority. Gaol sentences were introduced for people caught playing games on Sundays and feast days, tight fitting dresses were forbidden for women. Encores and ovations in theatres were forbidden and actors and actresses ad libbing lines on current affairs were forbidden. The bars in Rome were forbidden from selling alcohol which had to be bought in the street from grills; this led to a massive increase in public drunkenness. The Jews were ordered back into ghettos and forbidden to own real estate. 300 of them were required to attend Christian services every week and business transactions between Jews and Christians were forbidden. The subsequent exodus of Jews from the Papal States worsened an already fraught economic situation.

Leo’s assistants were no better. Cardinal Ravorolla who was sent as legate to Ravenna became a figure of fun for his tyrannical decrees. He closed inns, banned gambling and required anyone who went out at night to carry a lantern with them. He also installed a great iron bound chest outside his residence into which people could put anonymous denunciations of their neighbors, Cardinal Palotta attempted to deal with the huge numbers of brigands in his provinces, but became so hated he was forced to resign. When he did so the brigands held thanksgiving masses to celebrate.

By far the most damning accusation against Leo XII was that he denounced and banned the practice of vaccination. Paul Badham for instance in his 'Sources of Authority in Christian Ethics' mentions that:

Later the practices of inoculation and vaccination faced fierce theological opposition. Indeed in 1829 Pope Leo XII declared that whoever decided to be vaccinated was no longer a child of God; smallpox was a judgement of God, vaccination was a challenge to heaven.

Others tell a more lurid tale, for instance this site mentions that:

‘He forbid vaccination against smallpox during an epidemic, stating that it was 'against the natural law'.

Other sites go on to mention that thousands died during outbreaks of smallpox, all as a result of the Pope’s obstinacy and theological lunacy. This story, in its various forms has gone on to become frequently cited in the science religion debate as an example of how Christianity has blocked scientific and medical advance.

Vaccination in the 19th century in Italy and the provinces of the Papal States

In 1796 Edward Jenner famously created a method of vaccination which could prevent the spread of smallpox. The disease was greatly feared at the time as one in three of those who contracted smallpox died, and those who survived were often badly disfigured. Jenner discovered that by grafting a little pus produced by a benign disease of cows called cow pox he could successfully inoculate a young boy called James Phipps against the virus. Jenner's process would soon replace the inoculation by variola variolisation where a small amount of live smallpox virus was administered to the patient; this carried the serious risk that the patient would be killed or seriously ill. As Jenner’s discovery was published, the practice of vaccination began to spread gradually through Europe.

The Napoleonic wars actually helped the introduction of vaccination to the Mediterranean region. Two eccentric doctors, Joseph Marshall and John Walker were sent to Gibraltar, Minorca and Malta to assist Britain’s army and navy and to inoculate the inhabitants of allied cities. Marshall ended up in Palermo where 8,000 had recently died from a smallpox outbreak. He decided to set up a vaccination centre in a Jesuit seminary where he treated the poor twice a week. From Palermo, the vaccine was brought to Naples by Michele Troja, physician of the royal family, then to Rome where he was administered in the summer of 1801. Marshall followed in the period of peace from 1802-3, setting up an institute in Naples and travelling through Rome, Genoa and Turin, spreading the benefits of Jennerian Vaccination. It was badly needed, Marshall noting for example that in the slums around Genoa, beggars would parade their pustule covered infants in a bit for charity. Meanwhile in the north, vaccination had arrived in Lombardy, brought by doctors accompanying the march of French armies. Luigi Sacco was appointed director of vaccination for Napoleon’s Cisalpine Republic in 1801 and was able to boast that within 3 years he had eliminated smallpox completely. ‘I flatter myself’, he wrote, ‘that in Italy, I have been the means of promoting vaccination in a degree which no other kingdom of the same population has equalled’.

The response of the Papacy to the arrival of vaccination in Italy has been documented in Pratique de la vaccination antivariolique dans les provinces de l’État pontifical au 19ème siècle, an article written by Yves-Marie Bercé and Jean-Claude Otteni for Revue d’Histoire Ecclésiastique. When smallpox struck Rome, vaccination was endorsed by Pope Pius VII. At the hospital of the Holy Spirit in the Borgo Santo Spirito between the shore of the Tiber and the Vatican, the papal authority established a vaccination centre which received 800 newborns each year. This was operated by doctors like Dr. Alessandra, who had previously been an ardent propagator of smallpox inoculation, Domenico Moricchini the Neapolitan chemist (1773-1836) and the young Alessandro Flajani. 'Almost all the new born children are vaccinated’ Sacco reported to Baron in 1824 ‘so that we now know no fear of the smallpox’.

The approval of vaccination in Rome is demonstrated by a work by Alessandro Flajani in 1805 which documented his investigation into the medical policies in progress in Berlin, Vienna, London and Paris’; a large part of this work concerned the practice of vaccination. The report was published on his return to Rome. According to the rules of censure, the book was judged conform to the Catholic religion, the faith and manners; it received on June 16, 1807 the approvals of P. Oliveri, Dominican, professor in Archiginnasio of Rome, the professor of medicine Francisco Petraglia and the administration of the ecclesiastic state . The book was then dedicated to the Pope. It is therefore certain that in the beginnings of its circulation in Europe vaccination was officially allowed by the Church in moral theology and that it was practised publicly in the large Roman hospital. Ample precedent for this had already been set by Pope Benedetto XIV (Pope Lambertini) who had tried to introduce smallpox inoculation by the old variolation method into the Papal States in the early eighteenth century.

Did things change later on?. Apparently not. According to Bercé and Otteni, in January 1814, the French evacuated central Italy, to be replaced by the troops of Murat, king of Naples. In the provinces of the North of the State of the Church, Emilie and Romagna, it was the Austrian army which assumed the leading role. Pope Pius VII returned to Rome on May 24 1814 and in May 1815, the pontifical administration recovered its territories to the North. All the measures of the previous leadership were retained and the only changes were titular, which became pontifical rather than imperial. The use of French was removed from public documents, but most notable dignitaries, magistrates, administrative officers were unchanged, with very little prosecution of the beneficiaries of the previous regime. Vaccination initiatives, which had become fewer because of the military events in 1813 and 1814, began again to operate fully at the end of 1815.

In 1821 the Council of Vaccination was founded, which was made up professors of medicine of the Universities of Rome and Bologna. It had under its supervision all of the doctors guaranteed by the communes (the use of municipal doctors, medici di condotta, had been instigated since the 14th century). The doctors could not be considered for these municipal posts without having shown competence in vaccination. Orphanages and old people's homes were routinely inoculated and Gonfaloniers of communes (the equivalent of the mayor) were instructed to enable the activities of vaccinators. Municipal magistrates were ordered to organize a general vaccination of the new-born babies every spring and autumn. There was no official law of obligation to vaccinate, but no newborn could escape vaccination

The authorities of the various Italian States were attentive to the dangers of epidemics. The arrival of the cholera in Rome in 1830 occasioned emergency measures and the reinforcement of the medical commissions. It does not seem that there were any unusual levels of mortality in Rome during the 1820s and 1830s, nor beyond that. An investigation by a French doctor, Hippolyte Combes in 1838, gave very favourable judgements of the Italian medical policies in general. According to its account, the ecclesiastical State was not an exception and had maintained a rate of medicalisation comparable with the remainder of the peninsula. It also singles Leo XII out for praise for subsidising medical education in Rome. The Italian medical press does not make any mention of any ban on vaccination or any unusual rate of death in the ecclesiastical states; nor do the doctor’s professional bodies - although often resolutely critical towards the temporal authority of the pope - criticize the the papacy for being negligent in its medical affairs. In short, no record of a ban or any suggestion of a ban by Leo XII and his administration can be found in the archives.

The Imaginary edict

All this forces us to raise the question, where did this idea that the pope banned vaccination come from?. According to Bercé and Otteni, the biographers and contemporaries of Leo XII do not mention any interdict. The Knight Artaut, the first biographer of Leon XII and of Massimo d' Azeglio, quotes the latter as being a great admirer of Jenner, “a man who has saved many from death, God knows how many million… the day will come when Jenner will be held in dimensions higher than Napoleon”. It is probable that if Leo XII had promulgated one interdict of vaccination, Azeglio who was well informed of the actions of the pope, would have some mentioned it in his Memories relating to the life in Rome during first half of 19th century. In the same way, historians of the 19th century popes do not mention an opposition to vaccination. Philippe Boutry for instance writes:

‘After Consalvi, vaccination continued under Leon XII, who does not seem to have required it to stop, as opposed to what a certain tradition claims’.

Research of the interdict in treaties of ecclesiastical history has also failed to turn up anything.

A Catholic historian Donald Keefe came across the story when it was repeated by Prof. Daniel Maguire of Marquette University. Keefe tried to trace the source of the quote from Leo XII, tracing it from footnote to footnote, from book to book and found it had emanated from a Dr. Pierre Simon in Le Contredes naissances with no authority given at all. It is probable however, that the myth is much older and dates from the 19th century as it can be found in G. S. Godkin’s ‘Life of Victor Emmanuel II’ from 1880.

According to Bercé and Otteni the origin of the mythical vaccination ban of Leo XII is undoubtedly due to the personality of Cardinal Della Genga when he become pope in 1823. His intransigence and piety alienated liberal opinion very quickly. His austere spirituality made him the target of criticisms and mocking remarks. English travelers visiting the peninsula and many of the diplomats established in Rome remarked on the severity of the pontiff. The obscurantism of the Church, the inertia of the pontifical government, the ridiculous superstitions of Italian piety, the idleness and the dirtiness of the Southerners were commonplaces stereotypes from the accounts of travelers to Italy. These rumors would have reached the ears of whig historians such as G. S. Godkin and percolated into their historical narratives.

In conclusion, Leo XII’s alleged ban of vaccination is a whiggish myth which has been repeated and promulgated slavishly ever since, despite having absolutely no basis in fact whatsoever. No doubt in cyberspace it will continue to take on a new lease of life amongst those who will swallow any myth as long as it is anti-catholic or anti-religious.

Thanks to Alfonso Taboada for bringing this to my attention.

Further Reading

‘Tracking a footnote’ – Donald J Keefe

Pratique de la vaccination antivariolique dans les provinces de l’État pontifical au 19ème siècle - Remarques sur le supposé interdit vaccinal de Léon XII - Yves-Marie Bercé1 - Jean-Claude Otteni

‘The life and death of small pox’ Ian Glynn


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History of Vaccines

A new (to me at least) website is The History of Vaccines (via Glenn Reynolds). They have an article on the history of anti-vaccination movements and I am delighted to say they do not repeat the canard that Pope Leo XII banned vaccines, something Humphrey thoroughly debunked. However, they do make the more plausible claim that "Some objectors, including the local clergy, believed that the [smallpox] vaccine was “unchristian” because it came from an animal", and they reference the following article in support:

Durbach N. "They might as well brand us: Working class resistance to compulsory vaccination in Victorian England." The Society for the Social History of Medicine. 2000; 13:45-62.

Now I'm in the final throes of my PhD and so don't have the time to follow-up on this reference. If anyone else does, I'd be fascinated to hear the evidence that Durbach offers. I should point out that I'm not particularly skeptical that this happened, since one can find "local clergy" who advocate just about any position. It seems odd, however, since 1) the New Testament specifically states that no animal is "unclean"; and 2) the smallpox vaccine came from cowpox, which in turn came from ... wait for it ... cows. Cows are considered "clean" animals in the Old Testament. So it's difficult to see how the smallpox vaccine could be considered "unchristian" or even "unjewish".

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The Unnatural Practice

‘But Onan, knowing that the seed would not count as his, let it go to waste whenever he joined with his brother's wife, so as not to provide offspring for his brother. What he did was displeasing to the Lord, and He took his life also.’

Genesis 38:6-10

‘When a boy injures his reproductive powers so that when a man his sexual secretion shall be of inferior quality, his offspring will show it in their physical, mental and moral natures, shaping the history and destiny of the nation.’

Dr. Sylvanus Stall

Before the early eighteenth century, neither the scientific community nor the church had paid very much attention to the private, yet presumably common practise of masturbation. This was to change dramatically in 1712 with the appearance of an anonymous tract entitled ‘Onania; or, the heinous sin of Self Polution, and all its frightful consequences, in both sexes considered, with spiritual and physical advice to those who have already injured themselves by this abominable practice’. The unnamed author was probably an English surgeon called John Martyn, who has been described by later historians as ‘a profit-seeking quack doctor cum pornographer’. Martyn, who had been prosecuted in 1708 for obscenity, linked the sin of ‘wilful self abuse’ to the sin of the biblical Onan who had decided, perhaps understandably, to spill his seed on the ground instead of impregnating his dead brother’s widow. Despite the dubious track record of the author, Onania was written with a strong tone of moral outrage. In the preface Martyn warns his reader that there are:

‘lascivious People of such corrupt Minds, that at no time excepted, they may be rais’d to impure Thoughts by bare Words without Coherence, and the Names of Parts, even when made use of in the Description of Calamitous Cases and Nauseous Diseases..therefore I say, I beg of the Reader to stop here, and not to proceed any further unless he has a Desire to be chast, or at least be apt to consider whether he ought to have it or no’

Having filtered the perverts out of his readership Martyn proceeds to denounce the practice of self defiling in these terms, even going so far as to give guidelines for its elimination in schools.

‘Self-Pollution is that unnatural Practice, by which Persons of either Sex may defile their own Bodies, without the Assistance of others, whilst yielding to filthy Imaginations, they endeavour to imitate and procure to themselves that Sensation, which God has ordered to attend the carnal Commerce of the two Sexes for the Continuance of our Species....Would all Masters of Schools have but a strict Eye over their Scholars, (amongst whom nothing is more common, than the Commission of this vile Sin, the Elder Boys teaching it the Younger) and give suitable Correction to the Offenders therein, and shame them before their School-fellows for it; I am perswaded it would deter them from the Practice, and by that means save them from Ruin’.

The tract then went on to outline the terrible medical consequences of Onanism; this aspect of the work was to have far reaching effects over the course of the next two centuries.

‘In some it has been the Cause of fainting Fits and Epilepsies; in others of Consumptions; and many young Men, who were strong and lusty before they gave themselves over to this Vice, have been worn out by it, and by its robbing the Body of its balmy and vital Moisture, without Cough or Spitting, dry and emaciated, sent to their Graves. In others again, whom it has not kill’d, it has produc’d nightly and excessive Seminal Emissions, a Weakness in the Penis, and Loss of Erection, as if they had been Castrated.’

Onania was to become tremendously successful and enjoy widespread popularity. In his one of his works on the history of sexuality Thomas Laqueur describes it as ‘one of the first books to be extensively advertised in the nascent country press’. The meteoric rise of masturbation ‘to prominence’ wrote Laqueur, ‘constitutes ones of the most spectacular episodes of intellectual upward mobility in literary annals’. In just fifty years, it rose up from an obscure provincial publication to become included in the Encyclopedie of the Philisophes; the enlightenments great compendium of learning.

One of the most important factors in this rise to fame was a book by the famous Swiss physician Samuel Auguste David Tissot, a man described in glowing terms as ‘the physician of the enlightenment’. This work was entitled ‘Onanism; or, a treatise upon the disorders produced by masturbation’, and it was to become a literary sensation throughout Europe. Tissot taught that one of the basic causes of illness and death was the wasting away of the body’s energy and that the most dangerous of the wastes was that brought on by masturbation. Having observed that the body became flushed during and after sexual intercourse, Tissot concluded that all sex was potentially dangerous because it caused the blood to rush to the head, starving the nerves and leaving the person vulnerable to the onset of insanity. Those that performed masturbation, and would therefore ejaculate excessively, would suffer a cloudiness of ideas, a decay of their bodily power, be afflicted with pains in their head and pimples on their face, eventually even losing the ‘power of generation’. Females who indulged would suffer hysterical fits, cramps, ulceration of the matrix and uterine tremors. One man, according to Tissot, was so addicted to self-abuse that his brain dried out and could be heard rattling in his head. Masturbation, he concluded, was more dangerous than smallpox.

Marten, Tissot, and the Encyclopaedists who embraced their ideas were to have a profound cultural impact. Their popularised writings were read and passed on by figures such as, Rousseau and Kant; they also filtered down into the populace and the professions. Over the years, the hysteria multiplied.

In the first American psychiatry textbook, Benjamin Rush claimed that masturbation would inflict upon its victim

“...impotence, ...dimness of sight, vertigo, epilepsy, ...loss of memory, ...fatuity and death.”

By the middle of the 1800s, it was standard to blame masturbation for a bewildering variety of symptoms. If masturbation were widespread in the population, disasters could occur. The brain would wilt, the sex organs would shrivel up and die. Insanity, syphilis, blindness, deafness, cancer, afflictions of the female reproductive organs, nosebleeds, heart murmurs, sterility, acne, undesirable odours of the skin, epilepsy, headaches, infantile paralysis, infantile rheumatism, pederasty, and homosexuality were only a few of the conditions thought to be the direct result of masturbation and the bodily traumas it produced. In publications and popular discourse, lack of cleanliness, nervousness, sitting cross-legged or for long periods, spanking, corsets, straining of the memory, erotic reading, play, pictures, perfumes, solitude, fondling, rocking chairs, pockets, feather beds, horseback riding, and bicycling were all considered to encourage the practice of ‘self pollution’. An illustration from The Silent Friend of 1853 showed a bleary-eyed, slack-jawed, imbecile with his tongue lolling and oozing with drool; this was the grim fate that met the persistent self polluter.

When this phenomenon was documented by later historians, some tended to stress the continuity with earlier patterns of thought in the classical, Jewish or Christian traditions. But this obscures the fact that what had emerged in the early 18th century was radically different and widely popular. The ‘Sin of Onan’s’ rise from obscure biblical passage to cultural phenomenon happened -perhaps could only have happened- because it was backed by the best minds of the age and the most fervent advocates of 'unshackling the chains of unreason'. They conceptualised masturbation in scientific and rational terms, as a vice of individuation, a threat to the enlightenment, a medically reckless pursuit which was in danger of ushering in a world of solipsism; a denial of moderation, real autonomy and reason. In doing so they created a monster which was to haunt the Victorian imagination.

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