Ledóchowski, Count Mieczislaw

Ledóchowski, Count Mieczisław

(myĕchĭs`läf lĕdo͞okhôf`skē), 1822–1902, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, b. Russian Poland. He became (1865) archbishop of Gniezno and Poznań (then in Prussian Poland). When the Prussian government, opening the KulturkampfKulturkampf
[Ger.,=conflict of cultures], the conflict between the German government under Bismarck and the Roman Catholic Church. The promulgation (1870) of the dogma of the infallibility of the pope in matters of faith and morals within the church sparked the conflict; it
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, forbade the use of Polish in instruction in Poznań, Ledóchowski ignored the order and was jailed in 1874. In March the pope created him a cardinal, and in April the government declared him deposed. In 1875, Ledóchowski was released and banished and thereafter ruled his see from Rome. He resigned in 1885.