Leo XIII and the Dirty Picture

Last updated on: August 4, 2014 at 11:46 am by David Mills

Leo XIII and the Dirty Picture 2014-08-04T11:46:54-04:00 David Mills

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Leo XIII favored snuff. Before he became pope, he had served for a time as papal nuncio in Brussels and enjoyed the conversation and company of the cultured and easy-going aristocrats there. One evening at dinner, a certain Count, who was a Freethinker, thought he would have a little fun at the nuncio’s expense, and he handed him a snuff box to examine, which had on its cover a miniature painting of a beautiful nude Venus. *‘*The men of the party watched the progress of the joke, and as for the Count he was choking with laughter, until the Nuncio deferentially returned the box with the remark: ‘Very pretty, indeed, Count. I presume it is the portrait of the Countess?’”

— From John B. Buescher’s In the Habit: A History of Catholicism and Tobacco

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