LEU VON EBERSOL, JOSEPH. — Swiss politician, born at Ebersol on 1 June 1800, died there on 20 July 1845. A convinced Catholic, he did not approve the advent of the new liberal ideas that prevailed in the canton of Lucerne after 1830, because he feared serious consequences for Catholics. Indeed, not only did the liberal cantons conclude in 1832 the so-called Concordat of the Seven in order to preserve the statu quo and, if necessary, prevent by force a return to the previous form of government, but in 1834 they also promulgated the Articles of Baden, intended to assert the superiority of the State over the Church and the establishment of a national Church.
The Articles of Baden did not meet with the approval of the inhabitants of the canton of Lucerne. L. became the spokesman for this discontent. Elected a member of the cantonal Grand Council in 1831 and again in 1835, he immediately began a vigorous campaign against the Concordat of the Seven and the Articles of Baden. He also called for constitutional reform on entirely democratic foundations: direct elections to the Grand Council and the right of legislative veto on the part of the electorate. The Grand Council rejected these changes. Following a direct appeal to the people, the new constitution sponsored by L. was approved on 1 May 1841. Consequently, Lucerne denounced the Articles of Baden, and the nunciature from Schwyz, where it had moved in 1835, returned to its former seat. Teaching was once again permitted to religious, and the Jesuits were readmitted to the canton. The action undertaken by L. did not succeed in quelling the disputes between the Catholic and Protestant cantons, between conservatives and radicals, and in 1847 it led to civil war. L. did not witness its consequences, because he had been dead for two years, assassinated by a peasant who wished to win the gratitude of the liberals.