The course will examine the pontificates of Pius IX and Leo XIII in a crucial period of Papal and European history. It will try to explain why from being the most popular man in Europe in 1846, Pius became derided and had lost the Papal lands forever in Central Italy. He faced a ferocious attack on Catholicism by Bismarck, while putting forward the controversial Decree on Papal infallibility in 1870. Pius's successor Leo XIII the 'Workers Pope' put forward the key encyclical 'New Things', and we will analyse how this document influenced Catholic social doctrine and led to the establishment of Christian Democracy in Europe. Finally the course will look at how Leo dealt with the German problem and the Dreyfus case in France, while looking at the Church's role in the eras of Marxism and Imperialism.