St. Pius X (1835–1914) is known for serving as the pope, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, from 1903 to 1914, as well as for his staunch political and religious conservatism. Pius X was a strong opponent of Modernism, a contemporary intellectual movement that sought to reinterpret traditional Catholic teaching in the light of 19th-century philosophical, historical, and psychological theories. He also opposed the popular action movement of Christian democracy. Pius placed several Modernist books on the church’s Index of Forbidden Books and issued a decree and an encyclical that rejected Modernist teachings. He also formally condemned the separation of church and state in France, revived the use of Gregorian chant in liturgy, eased regulations on receiving daily communion, and codified canon law for the first time in the church’s history.
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