"The Vatican Walls and Prisoners in the Vatican. From Leo IV to Leo XIII, amongst kings and emperors"

17 July 855. Leo IV died; he had commissioned a new set of walls (the “Leonian Walls”) to protect St Peter’s Basilica and Vatican Hill from repeated Saracen raids on the city’s defenceless areas. They were built very quickly thanks to a rotational working system that allowed many building sites to be kept open simultaneously. Under Emperor Louis II, Leo IV introduced a further symbol, alongside the crown, the chrism and the sword already used by his predecessors to emphasise that the legitimacy of the imperial office derived from them: the emperor led the Pope’s horse by the reins for a short distance (the length of a bowshot), repeating a gesture known as the officium stratoris (that is, the service of the squire), which had already been performed by his great-great-grandfather Pepin almost a hundred years earlier with Stephen II.

20 July 1903. Leo XIII, Vincenzo Gioacchino Pecci, died after a pontificate lasting 25 years. Elected during a period of great tension, his first decision – a deeply painful one – was not to impart the papal blessing from the external loggia of St Peter’s but from the one inside the basilica. This gesture represented a strong protest against the Kingdom of Italy, which had put an end to the temporal power of the popes. He, too, considered himself a ‘prisoner’ in the Vatican, like his predecessor Pius IX. Despite this rigid political stance, the pontificate of Leo XIII was particularly innovative and is remembered for its openness towards the modern world. He did not confine himself to condemning what he regarded as doctrinal deviations or threats to the Church, but proposed alternative solutions to the complex problems of the industrial society of the time, characterised by severe social imbalances and the exploitation of the working classes. He did not share either the indifference shown by capitalism and laissez-faire towards the weaker social classes—who were regarded merely as a labour force governed by market forces—nor the communist proposal for a class struggle which, being based on the opposition between the two sides, contained within it the seeds of violence. He intervened with the famous encyclical "Rerum novarum" of 1891, dedicated to the ‘labour question’, which had a seismic impact, dismantling old paradigms and giving rise to what is now known as the social doctrine of the Church. The document also spurred numerous initiatives within the Catholic world, including the spread of rural and workers’ credit unions, cooperatives and other collectively managed economic activities, as well as forms of social security: I would highlight in particular the scheme for “insurance-redemption homes”, which ensured that the dwelling remained with the family of a deceased worker even before all instalments had been paid. Finally, I would like to mention the focus on ecumenism (Leo XIII was the first Pope to use the expression ‘separated brethren’ to refer to non-Catholic Christians) and the opening of the Vatican Secret Archives, which was received with enthusiasm by the academic world.