LEU VON EBERSOL, JOSEPH. - Swiss politician, b. at Ebersol on 1 June 1800, d. there on 20 July 1845. A convinced Catholic, he did not approve of the advent of the new liberal ideas that prevailed in the canton of Lucerne after 1830, because he feared grave 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 to prevent, if necessary even by force, a return to the previous form of government, but in 1834 they issued the Articles of Baden, tending to affirm 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 of this discontent. Elected a member of the Cantonal Grand Council in 1831 and then in 1835, he immediately began a vigorous campaign against the Concordat of the Seven and the Articles of Baden. He also called for a constitutional reform on absolutely democratic foundations: direct elections for the Grand Council and the right of legislative veto on the part of the electorate. The Grand Council rejected these changes. By direct appeal to the people, on 1 May 1841 the new constitution sponsored by L. was approved. Consequently Lucerne denounced the Articles of Baden and the nunciature returned from Schwyz, where it had moved in 1835, to its former seat. Teaching was again permitted to religious and the Jesuits were readmitted to the canton. The action carried out by L. did not succeed in settling the disputes between Catholic and Protestant cantons, between conservatives and radicals, and led in 1847 to civil war. L. did not see its consequences, because he had been dead for two years, murdered by a peasant who wished to win the gratitude of the liberals.
Bibliography3 works
Silvio Furlani