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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Belgium</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02395a.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="Information on the history, education, and cemeteries of the country"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="02395a.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/b.htm">B</a> > Belgium</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Belgium</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <h2 id="section1">The Napoleonic era</h2> <p>The victory of Fleurus, gained by the French army over the Austrian forces, 26 June, 1794, gave to <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">revolutionary France</a> all the territories which constitute Belgium of today: the Austrian <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Netherlands</a>, the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> principality of <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a>, the little monastic principality of Stevelot-Malmedy, and the Duchy of Bouillon. The French, who professed to have entered the country to deliver the Belgians form the yoke of tyranny and to liberate them, in reality gave themselves up to such pillaging and extortion that, as a <a href="../cathen/03021a.htm">Brussels</a> magistrate said, they left the inhabitants nothing but their eyes to weep with. After this, in alleged compliance with the express wish of the Belgians, who as a matter of fact had not been consulted, a <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> of the Convention, <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">dated</a> 1 October, 1795, proclaimed the annexation of the Belgian provinces to <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>.</p> <p>At the beginning of the French rule, which was to last twenty years (1794-1814), religious conditions were not identical in the annexed countries. Religion was deeply rooted in what had formerly been the Austrian <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Netherlands</a>. They had revolted in 1789 against the reforms of <a href="../cathen/08508b.htm">Joseph II</a>, which were inspired by the spirit of sophistry. <a href="../cathen/08285a.htm">Jansenism</a>, <a href="../cathen/06023a.htm">Febronianism</a>, and Josephinism had gained but few partisans there; the <a href="../cathen/09391a.htm">University of Louvain</a> was a bulwark of <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/11330a.htm">orthodoxy</a>; even the Vonckist party, which in 1789 had been clamouring for political reforms, showed great respect for religion and had taken as its motto <em>Pro aris et focis</em>. On the other hand, in the ancient principality of <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a>, which, since the fourteenth century had shown the deepest sympathy with <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, public sentiment was gallophile, revolutionary, and even somewhat Voltairean; the predominant desire was to throw off the yoke of the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>, and the principality had literally cast itself into the arms of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> through <a href="../cathen/07149b.htm">hatred</a> of the theocracy. But the French Government soon caused these local differences to be lost sight of in the common <a href="../cathen/07149b.htm">hatred</a> of the foreign oppressor.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>The Directory began by enforcing, one after another, the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">French revolutionary</a> <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">laws</a> concerning monastic orders and public worship in Belgium. Religious houses, except those devoted to teaching or to the care of the sick, were suppressed; it was forbidden to wear an <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> garb; the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> were forced to publish a declaration recognizing the people of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> as the sovereign authority, and promising submission and obedience to the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">laws</a> of the Republic; the communes were forbidden to contribute to the expenses of public worship and every external symbol of religion was prohibited. The Belgians stood firm, and the elections of the fifth year having shown an undeniable reaction of public opinion against the revolutionary spirit, the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> appealed to the Five Hundred (<em>Cinq Cents</em>) to demand a suspension of the declaration until a <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">papal</a> decision should be received settling the question its licitness. In the meanwhile, the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a> who had not made the declaration continued to exercise their <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priestly</a> functions in the Belgian provinces, and the tribunal of La Dyle acquitted those who were brought before it. At this juncture, Camille Jordan made a favourable report to the <em>Cinq Cents</em> on the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy's</a> request, and thus the Belgians had the <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honour</a> of changing the current of French legislation for the better.</p> <p>The <em>coup d'état</em> of the fifth Fructidor, however, carried out by the revolutionary members of the Directory, destroyed all hope. The victorious conspirators dismissed many Belgians who had been elected, and the elections of the sixth year, conducted under the violent pressure of republican deputies, gave the Government the wished-for results. Then <a href="../cathen/11703a.htm">persecution</a> began again. The observance of the <em>decadi</em>, or the last day of the republican decade (week of ten days), was made <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligatory</a> and the Sunday rest was forbidden; for the second time, the wearing of any <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> garb was prohibited; in the suppression of <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious</a> orders no exception was made for nursing and teaching orders; <a href="../cathen/13694a.htm">seminaries</a> and secular chapters were likewise abolished. The <a href="../cathen/09391a.htm">University of Louvain</a> was closed on the ground of not having "the kind of public instruction conformable to Republican principles". As if the "declaration" had not sufficiently overtaxed consciences, <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a> were compelled to take an <a href="../cathen/11176a.htm">oath</a> of <a href="../cathen/07149b.htm">hatred</a> for royalty. On the refusal of the great majority, they were banished <em>en masse</em> and a <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> issued, closing all churches served by recalcitrant <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>. The officials of many communes ignored this order, and in more than one respect, it became a source of trouble. The interdicted <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a> continued to exercise their functions in the woods, or in private houses which afforded them places of retreat; in many places the <a href="../cathen/05769a.htm">faithful</a>, deprived of the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>, assembled in churches or in barns, to celebrate "blind Masses" as they were called, viz. Masses without <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecration</a>, or any services at the altar. The French deputies daily devised new methods of <a href="../cathen/11703a.htm">persecution</a> in revenge for the opposition of public opinion, all the more unconquerable by reason of its silence and its tranquillity.</p> <p>Things did not rest here. The spark that started the conflagration was the enforcing (1798) in the Belgian provinces of the French conscription <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">laws</a> requiring the enlistment of young men in the armies of the Republic. Rather than shed their blood for masters whom they <a href="../cathen/07149b.htm">hated</a>, they rose in revolt, first in Waesland and in Campine, then in <a href="../cathen/06094b.htm">Flanders</a> and in German Luxemburg. The Walloon provinces took part in the movement, but with much less energy. This was "the peasants' <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a>" called in <a href="../cathen/09465a.htm">Luxemburg</a>, "the <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> of the cudgels" (<em>Klöppelkrieg</em>). There was no lack of <a href="../cathen/06147a.htm">courage</a> and devotion among the combatants, and some among them afforded admirable examples of heroism. However, they were poorly armed, had inefficient commanders, and were totally lacking in discipline and military organization; they were deprived of the support of the nobility and of the middle class, who remained absolutely inactive, and they were abandoned even by the <a href="../cathen/02121b.htm">Austrian</a> Government which had every reason to stir up a Belgian insurrection. Consequently they could offer no serious resistance to the French troops. They fell back every time they met the enemy in open field; those who did not die in battle were later shot.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>After this rising had been quelled, the <a href="../cathen/11703a.htm">persecution</a> of the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> was resumed; 7,500 <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a> were illegally condemned to be deported. The great majority escaped, only four or five hundred being arrested. Of this number, the oldest and those who were ill were detained in Belgium and in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>; about three hundred were sent to Rochefort with Guiana as their ultimate destination, and, in the interval, were held at the Ile de Re and the Ile d'Oleron where they had much to undergo from ill treatment. It was the darkest hour during the French domination, and was terminated by the <em>coup d'état</em> of 18 Brumaire, 1799. The new Government did not persecute on principle, but only in so far as it was believed <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessary</a> to enforce the revolutionary <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">laws</a> to maintain the interests of the party in power. A solution of difficulties was supposed to have been discovered when the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> were required to take merely an <a href="../cathen/11176a.htm">oath</a> of "fidelity to the Republic as resting on the sovereignty of the people". The Belgian <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> who were refugees in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> condemned this <a href="../cathen/11176a.htm">oath</a> because the <a href="../cathen/05075b.htm">doctrine</a> of the sovereignty of the peopled seemed to them <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">heretical</a>. They also refused to sanction the promise of fidelity to the Constitution of the seventh year, which the Government exacted of the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> before permitting them to exercise the <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duties</a> of their ministry, because the Constitution rested on <a href="../cathen/05781a.htm">false</a> bases and contained articles deserving of condemnation. The leader of this opposition was a <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> named Corneille Stevens (1747-1828), who, appointed administrator of the <a href="../cathen/10679a.htm">Diocese of Namur</a> (1799) by Cardinal Frankenberg, <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/10104a.htm">Mechlin</a>, forbade the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> to promise fidelity to the Constitution, and who, in a series of pamphlets appearing under the pseudonym of Lemaigre, continued to advocate resistance. Finally, the Concordat of 15 August, 1801, brought, if not final peace, at least a truce. At the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope's</a> request, the four Belgian <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> who had survived the persecutions tendered their resignations and of the nine <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">episcopal sees</a> into which Belgium had been divided since 1559, five only were retained: <a href="../cathen/10104a.htm">Mechlin</a> Tournai, <a href="../cathen/06542c.htm">Ghent</a>, <a href="../cathen/10679a.htm">Namur</a>, and <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a>. The <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">bishoprics</a> of <a href="../cathen/01588e.htm">Antwerp</a>, <a href="../cathen/03005a.htm">Bruges</a>, Ypres, and Ruremonde were suppressed. This organization of 1801 is still effective with this difference, however, that the <a href="../cathen/03005a.htm">See of Bruges</a> was re-established in 1834, and that of Ruremonde in 1840.</p> <p>Great was the rejoicing in the Belgian provinces when, on Pentecost day, 1802 (6 June), <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> worship was <a href="../cathen/14133a.htm">solemnly</a> re-established throughout the country. For some years, the name of <a href="../cathen/10687a.htm">Bonaparte</a>, the First Consul, was most popular, and it even seemed as if the "new Cyrus", by the great boon which he had granted Belgium, had gained the support of the Belgians for a foreign government. The <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> appointed by <a href="../cathen/10687a.htm">Napoleon</a> fostered in the people sentiments of personal devotion to him, and to such an extent that today they cannot be acquitted of the charge of exceeding all bounds in the adulation and servility. There were, it is <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a>, protests against the new regime. The "non-communicants", as they were styled, refused to recognize the Concordat, contending that it had been forced upon the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a>, and they formed a <a href="../cathen/13529a.htm">schismatical</a> group, termed the "little church" (<em>la petite église</em>), which, though continually falling off in numbers, has preserved its existence, until very recent times. The members have often been <a href="../cathen/05525a.htm">erroneously</a> designated as Stevenists. Stevens did not oppose the Concordat. The champion of a rigorous and uncompromising <a href="../cathen/11330a.htm">orthodoxy</a>, he recognized the authority of the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> of the Concordat, but mercilessly condemned their cringing attitude towards the <a href="../cathen/02137c.htm">civil authorities</a>, against whose religious policy he never ceased protesting. Form the recesses of his retreat he sent forth brochures, training his guns upon "Saint Napoleon", whose <a href="../cathen/06021b.htm">feast day</a> had been fixed by the Government as the 15th of August. He also attacked bitterly the imperial <a href="../cathen/05075b.htm">catechism</a> of 1806 already adopted by the great part of the French <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>, which contained a special chapter upon the <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duties</a> of the faithful toward the emperor. This uninterrupted propaganda struck a responsive chord in the national consciousness and was doubtless responsible for the <a href="../cathen/06147a.htm">courage</a> displayed by the Belgian <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">episcopacy</a> in refusing to accept the imperial <a href="../cathen/05075b.htm">catechism</a>, which was adopted only in the Diocese of <a href="../cathen/10104a.htm">Mechlin</a>. Stevens was perhaps the most unbending adversary <a href="../cathen/10687a.htm">Napoleon</a> ever encountered, and their contest was extremely interesting. Although the emperor offered thirty thousand francs to anyone who would deliver Father Stevens into his hands, the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> was never seized; nor was he silenced as long as the Empire lasted. When <a href="../cathen/10687a.htm">Napoleon</a> fell (1814) he came out of his retreat, entered the <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> of the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/10679a.htm">Namur</a>, and submitted all his writings to the judgment of the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a>, which, however, never pronounced upon them.</p> <p>The Belgian <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> were wearied with the exactions of the Government, which went so far as to require every year special pastoral letters impressing upon the people their military <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a> on the occasion of each call for conscripts, and they, as well as the body of the people, had already lost confidence in <a href="../cathen/10687a.htm">Napoleon</a>, when, in 1809, he made the tremendous mistake of suppressing the temporal power of the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> and of annexing the <a href="../cathen/14257a.htm">States of the Church</a> to the Empire. From that day, he was regarded by the Belgians as a persecutor. Count de Morode-Westerloo, a Belgian, and Prince Corsini, an Italian, alone dared to express publicly in the Senate their disapproval of this usurpation, and thus prevent it from receiving a unanimous ratification. The more anti-religious the policy of the emperor, the more energetic became the resistance of the Belgians, and the more spirited the conduct of their <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, who discarded the language of the courtier for that of the <a href="../cathen/11537b.htm">pastor</a>. While the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> of <a href="../cathen/10104a.htm">Mechlin</a> and <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a>, recently appointed by the emperor, denounced their own <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>, at <a href="../cathen/06542c.htm">Ghent</a>, <a href="../cathen/14798a.htm">Tournai</a>, and Namur, Bishops de Broglie, Hirn, and Pisani de la Gaude, respectively gave examples of noble firmness. Named Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, Bishop de Broglie declined on the plea of being unable in <a href="../cathen/04268a.htm">conscience</a> to take the <a href="../cathen/11176a.htm">oath</a> to maintain the territorial integrity of the Empire which thenceforth would comprise the <a href="../cathen/14257a.htm">States of the Church</a>. "Your conscience is a fool", said the <a href="../cathen/10687a.htm">Emperor</a>, turning his back. At the famous council of 1811, convoked by <a href="../cathen/10687a.htm">Napoleon</a> without the authorization of the <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">imprisoned</a> <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a>, the attitude of de Broglie and of Hirn was no less <a href="../cathen/06147a.htm">courageous</a>; they, together with the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/15067a.htm">Troyes</a>, succeeded in inducing the council to defeat the imperial <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> limiting the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope's</a> right of institution. The very next day, the council was dissolved by imperial command, and the three <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> were arrested and thrown into <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">prison</a>, not to be released until they had been forced to tender their resignations. Their successors appointed by <a href="../cathen/10687a.htm">Napoleon</a> were not recognized in their respective diocese, in which the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> and the <a href="../cathen/05769a.htm">faithful</a> were a unit in their resistance. More and more incensed, the emperor fell to striking blindly; numbers of <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a> were <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">imprisoned</a>, and all the seminarists of <a href="../cathen/06542c.htm">Ghent</a> were drafted into the army and dispatched to Wesel on the Rhine, where forty-nine of them succumbed to contagious diseases (1813). Such was the end of a regime which had been acclaimed by the Belgians with universal <a href="../cathen/07131b.htm">joy</a>. The fall of <a href="../cathen/10687a.htm">Napoleon</a> was greeted with no less satisfaction, and many Belgian volunteers took up arms against him in the campaigns of 1814 and 1815. In this nation of loyal <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>, it was <a href="../cathen/10687a.htm">Napoleon's</a> blundering religious policy which alienated his subjects.</p> <h2 id="section2">The Kingdom of the Netherlands (1814-30)</h2> <p>Soon after the victory of the Allied Powers, who became masters of Belgium, they established there a provisional government under the Duke of Beaufort (11 June, 1814). The new governing powers promptly proclaimed to the Belgians that, in conformity with the intentions of the Allied Powers, "they would maintain inviolable the spiritual and the <a href="../cathen/02137c.htm">civil authority</a> in their respective spheres, as determined by the canonical <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">laws</a> of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> and by the old constitutional <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">laws</a> of the country". These declarations roused hopes which, however, were destined to be disappointed; for by the secret treaty of Chaumont (1 March, 1814), confirmed by Article 6 of the Treaty of <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a> (30 May, 1814), it had even then been decided that <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Holland</a> should receive an addition of territory, and that this addition should be Belgium. The secret Treaty of <a href="../cathen/09341a.htm">London</a> (23 June, 1814) furthermore provided that the union of the two countries was to be internal and thorough, so that they "would form one and the same State governed by the constitution already established in <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Holland</a>, which would be modified by mutual consent to accord with new conditions". The new State took the name of the Kingdom of the <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Netherlands</a>, and was placed under the sovereignty of William I of Orange-Nassau.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>The object of the Powers in creating the Kingdom of the <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Netherlands</a> was to give <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> on her northern frontier a neighbour strong enough to serve as a barrier against her, and with this aim in view they disposed of the Belgian provinces without consulting them. The State resulting form this union seemed to offer numerous guarantees of prosperity from the standpoint of economics. Unfortunately, however, the two peoples, after being separated for more than two centuries, had conflicting temperaments; the <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Dutch</a> were <a href="../cathen/03198a.htm">Calvinists</a>, the Belgians <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>, and the former, although greatly in the minority, 2,000,000 as against 3,500,000 Belgians, expected to rule the Belgians and to treat them as subjects. These differences could have been lessened by a sovereign who would take the <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a> on himself; they were, however, aggravated by the policy adopted by William I. Arbitrary, narrow-minded, obstinate, and moreover an intolerant <a href="../cathen/03198a.htm">Calvinist</a>, he surrounded himself almost exclusively with Dutchmen, who were totally <a href="../cathen/07648a.htm">ignorant</a> of <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> matters and of the Belgian character. In addition, he was imbued with the principles of "enlightened despotism" which made him regard his absolutism as the form of government best suited to the needs of his kingdom, and thus he was unequal to his tasks from the very outset. While still Prince of <a href="../cathen/06313b.htm">Fulda</a>, he had <a href="../cathen/11703a.htm">persecuted</a> his <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> subjects until the Diet was forced to check him. As King of the <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Netherlands</a>, he showed that he had learned nothing by experience, and imagined that he could effect the fusion of the two peoples by transforming Belgium into <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Holland</a> as far as possible.</p> <p>On the other hand, the Belgians, passionately attached to their national traditions, and even more to their religious unity, did not take sufficiently into account the profound changes which had taken place in the conditions of the two peoples. Forgetful of the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">French Revolution</a> and the consequent upheaval of Western <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> they were convinced that past conditions could be restored even in the midst of a <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a> that had outgrown them; nor did they grasp the fact that as the Treaty of <a href="../cathen/09341a.htm">London</a> established freedom of worship in the Kingdom of the <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Netherlands</a> they were under an international <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligation</a> which could not be put aside. They calmly demanded, first of the Allied Sovereigns, then of the Congress of Vienna, not only the restoration of the former <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">rights</a> of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, but the re-establishment of their old constitution in its entirety. Their disappointment was great when their sovereign, obeying the provisions of the Treaty of <a href="../cathen/09341a.htm">London</a>, submitted for their acceptance the "Fundamental Law of Holland", with some modifications. Leaving out of the question the initial <a href="../cathen/08010c.htm">injustice</a> in granting each country the same numerical representation in the States-General, despite the fact that the population of Belgium was almost twice that of <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Holland</a>, it entirely overthrew the old order of things, suppressed the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> as an order, abolished the privileges of the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, and guaranteed the enjoyment of the same civil and political <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">rights</a> to every subject of the king, and equal protection to every religious creed. The Belgian <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> promptly made respectful appeals to the king. William having disregarded these, they issued a "Pastoral Instruction" for the use of the prominent Belgians summoned to present their views on the revised Fundamental Law. This condemned the Law as contrary to religion and forbade its acceptance. The high-handed course taken by the Government to hinder the effectiveness of these measures <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proved</a> unavailing; of the 1,603 prominent Belgians consulted, 280 did not vote, 796 voted against the Fundamental Law, and only 527 declared themselves in favour of it. The Fundamental Law was therefore rejected by the nation; for, adding to the 527 favourable votes the 100 unanimous votes of the States of <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Holland</a>, there was a total of only 637 votes. Nevertheless, the king declared the Fundamental Law adopted, because, according to him, those who did not vote were to be regarded as favouring it, while of the 796 who opposed it, 126 did so only because they misunderstood its meaning. Owing to this "Dutch arithmetic", as King William's computations were termed, Belgium found itself under a constitution which it had legally repudiated, a constitution too which <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proved</a> to the Kingdom of the <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Netherlands</a> a heavy burden during its brief, stormy existence.</p> <p>The adoption of the Fundamental Law, by the king's decision, did not end the conflict between the <a href="../cathen/02137c.htm">civil authority</a> and the Belgian <a href="../cathen/04268a.htm">conscience</a>. Besieged with questions as to whether it was permissible to take the <a href="../cathen/11176a.htm">oath</a> of fidelity to the Fundamental Law, the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> published their "Doctrinal Decision", which condemned it (1815). In consequence, many <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> in obedience to their religious superiours, refused to take the <a href="../cathen/11176a.htm">oath</a>, resigned their offices and their seats in the legislature. On the other hand, the Prince de Méan, former Prince-Bishop of <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a>, took the required <a href="../cathen/11176a.htm">oath</a>, and the king immediately appointed him to the <a href="../cathen/10104a.htm">archiepiscopal See of Mechlin</a>, then vacant. The king next had attempted to gain the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a> for his side in his struggle with the Belgian <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">episcopacy</a>, by practically demanding of it <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Bulls</a> of canonical investiture for his candidate as well as a formal censure of the "Doctrinal Decision". The <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> replied gently but firmly, condemning the words of the <a href="../cathen/11176a.htm">oath</a> of allegiance to the Fundamental Law, sending a <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Brief</a> of commendation to the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, and refusing investiture to the Prince de Méan until he should have publicly declared that his <a href="../cathen/11176a.htm">oath</a> had not bound him to anything "contrary to the <a href="../cathen/05089a.htm">dogmas</a> and <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">laws</a> of the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, and that in swearing to protect all religious communions, he understood this protection only in its civil sense". The condescension of the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a> in this matter, instead of winning the king to moderation, seemed to make him bolder. Reviving the obsolete claims of the old Gallican and Josephinist governments, and determined to overcome the opposition of the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/06542c.htm">Ghent</a>, he had the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> prosecuted for having published the "Doctrinal Decision"; for having corresponded with <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> without authorization; and for having published the <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">papal Bulls</a> without <a href="../cathen/01656b.htm">approbation</a>. The <a href="../cathen/03021a.htm">Brussels</a> Court of Assizes condemned the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> to be deported for <a href="../cathen/04340a.htm">contumacy</a> (1817), and the Government, carrying the sentence even farther, had the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop's</a> name written on the pillory, between two professional thieves sentenced to be pilloried and branded. The <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> of the <a href="../cathen/06542c.htm">Diocese of Ghent</a> who remained faithful to the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> were also <a href="../cathen/11703a.htm">persecuted</a> by the State. The conflict would have continued indefinitely had not the <a href="../cathen/12386b.htm">prelate</a> died in exile, in 1821, after having had twice confessed the Faith in the face of <a href="../cathen/11703a.htm">persecution</a>. After his death, the Government conceded that the <a href="../cathen/11176a.htm">oath</a> should be binding only from the civil point of view, which set at rest the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/04268a.htm">conscience</a> and ended the difficulties which had beset the first six years of the Kingdom of the <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Netherlands</a>.</p> <p>If there had been any real desire on the part of King William to respect the <a href="../cathen/04268a.htm">conscience</a> of <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>, who constituted the greater part of the nation, he would now have inaugurated a policy, which would have set aside religious differences, and started the kingdom along lines leading to the frank and cordial fusion of the two peoples. This was not done. On the contrary, in his obstinate determination to treat the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">sovereign pontiff</a> as an outsider, and to bring the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> under the <a href="../cathen/11251c.htm">omnipotence</a> of the State, William in his blind fury continued his policy of oppression. Before the above-mentioned conflict, the king had created a State commission for <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> affairs and had declared in the <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> that "no church ordinance coming from a foreign authority — [i.e. the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a>] could be published without the approval of the Government". This was equivalent to re-establishing in the full dawn of the nineteenth century the <em>placet</em> of the despotic governments of the former regime. Going farther, he instructed this commission "to be on their guard in maintaining the liberties of the Belgian Church", an extravagant formula borrowed from defunct Gallicanism, implying that the commission should take care to withdraw the Belgian Church from the legitimate authority of the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a>. The men he had chosen to help him pushed their distrust and <a href="../cathen/07149b.htm">hatred</a> of the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/07322c.htm">hierarchy</a> farther than he did. Baron Goubau, the head of the board of <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> worship, and his superior, Van Maanen the minister of justice, by a system of petty persecutions soon made their names the most <a href="../cathen/07149b.htm">hated</a> in Belgium, and largely increased the unpopularity of the Government.</p> <p>In 1821 the Government began to be chiefly occupied with the suppression of liberty in the matter of <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a>. Since the foundation, in 1817, of the three State <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">universities</a>, <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a>, <a href="../cathen/06542c.htm">Ghent</a>, and <a href="../cathen/09391a.htm">Louvain</a>, higher <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a> had been entirely under the control of the State, which now assumed control of middle inferior <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a> (20 May, 1821) by a ministerial ordinance which allowed no free <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> to exist without the express consent of the Government. Lastly, a <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> of 14 June, 1825, suppressed free middle superior instruction by determining that no college could exist without being expressly authorized, and that no one could teach the children of more than one <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a> without an official diploma. A second <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> of the same <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">date</a> declared anyone who made his studies abroad ineligible for any public office in the kingdom. The State having monopolized all lay <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a>, there still remained the training of the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>, which by the general canons of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, and those of the <a href="../cathen/15030c.htm">Council of Trent</a>, in particular, belonged exclusively to the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>. By a third <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a>, 14 June, 1825, said to be a revival of that of <a href="../cathen/08508b.htm">Joseph II</a>, establishing the General Seminary, a State institution was erected under the name of Philosophical College (<em>College philosophique</em>), in which every aspirant for the <a href="../cathen/12409a.htm">priesthood</a> was <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obliged</a> to make a course of at least two years before he could be admitted to a <em>grand séminaire</em>.</p> <p>On this occasion, the <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/10104a.htm">Mechlin</a>, whose servility toward the king had till then known no limit, did not hesitate to make some respectful remonstrances to the Government, declaring that he could not in <a href="../cathen/04268a.htm">conscience</a> accept these decrees. Goubau, in answering, repeated in substance <a href="../cathen/10687a.htm">Napoleon's</a> gibe to the Prince de Broglie, "Your <a href="../cathen/04268a.htm">conscience</a> will be regarded as a mere pretext and for good reasons". The other <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, however, the capitular vicars of vacant sees, and the rest of the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>, unanimously took sides with the <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/10104a.htm">Mechlin</a> and joined in his protest. The <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> Belgian deputies to the States-General protested; the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a> protested in its turn. Nothing availed; the Government closed the free colleges one after another, thereby ruining a flourishing <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">educational</a> system in which Belgian <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">families</a> had absolute confidence; the Philosophical College was opened with great pomp, with a corps of instructors little thought of, either from a scientific or a moral point of view; students were drawn thither by bursaries or scholarships, and by exemption from military service. The Government becoming more radical than ever, then undertook to create <a href="../cathen/13529a.htm">schism</a> in the Belgian Church by elaborating a plan, whereby the authority of the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a> would be abolished and the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> placed immediately under the Government.</p> <p>But all these measures only increased the discontent of the Belgians and their passive resistance. To get the mastery, the Government conceived the <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of having recourse a second time to the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">sovereign pontiff</a>, and broaching again the project of a Concordat, which had failed in 1823, on account of the king's inadmissible claims. The king counted, on the one hand, on wresting as many concessions as possible from the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a>, and on the other, on gaining popularity among the Belgians through the arrangement he would make with the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a>. These calculations failed, and once more the superiority of papal diplomacy was made manifest in the difficult negotiations which finally resulted in the Concordat of 1827. The Philosophical College ceased to be <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligatory</a> for <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clerics</a> and became a matter of choice; in place of having the right of designating the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, the king was <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obliged</a> to content himself with that of vetoing the choice made by the Chapters. The Concordat, which filled the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> with <a href="../cathen/07131b.htm">joy</a>, excited the ire of the <a href="../cathen/03198a.htm">Calvinists</a> and the <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a>, and the Government tried hard to quiet the latter by showing the worst possible will in the application of the treaty which it had just concluded with the Vatican. The Philosophical College was not declared optional until 20 June, 1829; vacant <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">episcopal sees</a> were provided with titulars elected according to the conditions laid down in the Concordat, but a royal decree rendered the recruiting of the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> almost impossible save from the ranks of the old pupils of the Philosophical College. The <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> opposition, headed by <a href="../cathen/02645a.htm">Bishop Van Bommel</a>, the new <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a>, was so vigorous, and political complications so grave, that the king at last consented to permit the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> to reorganize their <a href="../cathen/13694a.htm">seminaries</a> as they wished (20 October, 1829). Then, as the crisis became more serious, he went farther, and on 9 June, 1830, entirely suppressed the Philosophical College, which had been deserted form the time attendance had become optional. On 27 May of the same year, the king even revoked his decrees regarding freedom in <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a>; he thanked Goubau and committed to <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/15753a.htm">zeal</a> the direction of matters concerning <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> worship, and would have left no ground for grievance on the part of <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> had he not, at the last moment, seen fit, in the negotiations with the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a>, to demand the right of approving appointments to <a href="../cathen/03252a.htm">canonries</a>. But all the king's concessions, which were really extorted from him by force of circumstances, and despite his dogged reluctance, came too late, and the negotiations in regard to the question of canons were still in progress when the Belgian Revolution broke out.</p> <p>As to the causes of an event so decisive for the future of the Belgian people, it is highly improbable that if King William had given them grounds for complaint only in religious matters, the public discontent would have culminated in a revolution. The <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>, faithful to the teachings of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> and to the counsels of their <a href="../cathen/11537b.htm">pastors</a>, had no wish to exceed what was lawful and <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knew</a> that they should confine themselves to peaceful protests. But the Government had injured many other interests to which a great number were more sensitive than they were to the oppression of the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, at which they would have been wholly indifferent if, indeed, they would not have rejoiced. It will suffice to recall the principal grievances. Although <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Holland's</a> population was less than Belgium by almost half, each nation was allowed the same number of deputies in the States-General. Acquaintance with the <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Dutch</a> language was at once made <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligatory</a> for all officials. The greater number of institutions of the central Government were located in <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Holland</a>, and the majority of the offices were reserved for the <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Dutch</a>. Taxes on corn and on slaughtering weighed most heavily on the southern provinces. The press was under the arbitrary control of the Government and the courts, and they vigorously prohibited any criticism of the Government and its deputies. The Government stubbornly opposed the introduction of the jury system, the verdicts of which, inspired by a saner appreciation of public feeling, would often have calmed opinion instead of inflaming it. Lastly, as if wishing to fill the measure of its blunders, the Government shamelessly hired an <a href="../cathen/08001a.htm">infamous</a> <a href="../cathen/06135b.htm">forger</a> condemned by the French tribunals, a certain Libri-Bagnano, whose journal, the "National", never ceased insulting and taunting every Belgian who had the misfortune of incurring the displeasure of the Government. There came a time when the <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a>, who, as late as 1825, had applauded the Government in its <a href="../cathen/11703a.htm">persecution</a> of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, found themselves attacked in their turn, and began to protest with more <a href="../cathen/15446a.htm">violence</a> than the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> had ever done.</p> <p>Then the inevitable happened. Equally oppressed, the two parties forgot their differences, and joined forces. The fiery anti-clerical Louis de Potter, author of various historical works extremely irreligious in tone, was one of the first to advocate, from <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">prison</a> in which he was confined for some violation of <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">laws</a> concerning the press, the union of the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> and the <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a>. This union was made the more easy because the greater part of the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>, under the influence of the teachings of <a href="../cathen/08762a.htm">Lamennais</a> and the pressure of events, had abandoned their stand of 1815 and had rallied to the <a href="../cathen/05075b.htm">doctrine</a> of "liberty in all and for all". Once effected, the union of <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> and <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a> soon bore fruit. Their first step, proposed by the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> who wished to employ lawful means only, was the presentation of petitions by every class of <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a> in turn. Hundreds of petitions piled up in the offices of the States-General, demanding liberty of <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a>, freedom of the press, and the righting of other wrongs. While these petitions were being circulated the perfect order that was maintained deceived the king. On a tour which he made through the southern provinces, to convince himself personally as to the state of the public mind, he received such demonstrations of loyalty that he persuaded himself that the petition was a factitious movement, and went so far as to declare, at <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a>, that the conduct of the petitioners was <a href="../cathen/08001a.htm">infamous</a> (1829).</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>This <a href="../cathen/05781a.htm">false</a> step was his undoing. In the face of his refusal to initiate any reforms, the country became incensed, and the direction of the national movement passed from the hands of the peaceful <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> into those of the impatient <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a>. The resistance soon took on a revolutionary character. The <a href="../cathen/07322c.htm">ecclesiastical authorities</a> had foreseen this, and had for a long time opposed both the "Union", and the petitions which were its first manifestation. The Bishops of <a href="../cathen/06542c.htm">Ghent</a> and <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a> had come forward to remind the faithful of their <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duties</a> to the sovereign; the <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/10104a.htm">Mechlin</a> had assured the Government of the neutrality of the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>; the <a href="../cathen/11160a.htm">nuncio</a> had shown his disapproval of the "Union", and the Cardinal-Secretary of State had stigmatized it as monstrous. But the religious authorities soon found themselves powerless to control the movement. The <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>, imitating the <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a>, had recourse to violent language; their most important periodical refused to print the conciliatory letter of the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a>, which one of the Liberal leaders styled an episcopal-ministerial document; the lower <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>, in turn, allowed itself to be drawn into the current; the Government, wilfully blind, continued wantonly, in its imprudence, to pile up the materials for a great conflagration; at last nothing was lacking but a fuse. This came from <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>. The revolution of July, 1830, lasting from the 27th to the 29th, overthrew the government of Charles X; on 25 August, of the same year, a riot broke out in <a href="../cathen/03021a.htm">Brussels</a> and brought on the revolution which culminated in the conflicts between (24-26 September) the <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Dutch</a> troops and the people of <a href="../cathen/03021a.htm">Brussels</a> assisted by re-enforcements of volunteers from the provinces. The whole country rose up; at the end of some weeks the <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Dutch</a> army had evacuated the soil of the southern provinces, and Belgium was free.</p> <h2 id="section3">Independent Belgium (1830-1905)</h2> <p>As has been shown, not only was the revolution the work of two parties but the chief role in it had been played by the <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a>, and for a long time, although a minority in the nation, their ranks supplied the principal leaders in national life. The <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> did not close their eyes to this state of things. Sincerely attached to the Union of 1828, they wanted a unionist policy without laying too much stress on party names. The provisional government which assumed the direction of affairs after the revolution had but one <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> among its ten members, and had as head and inspiration, Charles Rogier, who, in September, 1830, had come, at the head of the <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a> volunteers, to lend a strong helping hand to the combatants in <a href="../cathen/03021a.htm">Brussels</a>. The constituent Congress, convoked by the provisional government, was in great majority composed of <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>; partisans of liberty "in all and for all", in conformity with the teachings of <a href="../cathen/08762a.htm">Lamennais</a>. The Liberal minority was split into two groups; the stronger professed the same <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">ideas</a> of liberty as the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>; the other was made up of a small number of sectarians and of State <a href="../cathen/07636a.htm">idolaters</a> who had dreams of bringing the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> into subjection to the <a href="../cathen/02137c.htm">civil power</a>. The leaders of the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> group were Count Félix de Mérode, a member of the provisional government, and Baron de Gerlache, President of the Congress; the most prominent among the <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a> were Charles Rogier, Joseph Lebeau, Paul Devaux, <a href="../cathen/11123b.htm">J.B. Nothomb</a>, and Sylvan Van de Weyer; the group of sectarians followed the orders of Eugene Defacqz. The Constitution which resulted from the deliberations of the Congress reflected the dispositions of the great majority of the assembly and showed at the same time a reaction against the tyrannical regime of King William. It proclaimed the absolute freedom of worship and of the press, which the <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a> put first, and also freedom of <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a> and association, two things especially dear to the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>; concessions were even made to the prejudices of some, by rendering <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligatory</a> the priority of <a href="../cathen/09691b.htm">civil marriage</a> over the religious <a href="../cathen/03538b.htm">ceremony</a> and commanding that no one should be forced to observe the religious holidays of any denomination. The Congress showed the same broad-mindedness in the choice of a sovereign. The first selection fell on the Duke de Nemours, son of Louis Philippe, but the French king, fearing the jealousy of the <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">European</a> powers, dared not accept the throne for his son. Then, after having given the regency for some months to Baron Surlet de Chokier, the Congress declared in favour of Prince Leopold de Saxe-Coburg Gotha, widower of the Princess Charlotte, heir presumptive to the Crown of <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>. Though a <a href="../cathen/12495a.htm">Protestant</a> prince, Leopold I (1831-65) showed himself worthy of the confidence of a <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> people; during his entire reign he maintained an even balance between the two parties, and never lost his solicitude for the moral and religious interests of the nation. Owing largely to Leopold's wise policy, Belgium successfully inaugurated free institutions, and showed the world that a <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> people is capable of progress in every field.</p> <p>During the early years of the new kingdom both sides remained faithful to the union of 1828, the administration being divided between the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> and <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a>. The dominant thought was to defend against <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Holland</a> the patrimony of independence and of liberty won by the revolution, patriotism inspiring unanimous opposition to the foreigner. The tendency towards mutual conciliation was evident in the organic <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">laws</a> perfected during these early years, especially in that of 1842 on primary <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a> which was passed unanimously by the Chamber, save for three blank votes, and received the unanimous vote of the senate. This law, the work of <a href="../cathen/11123b.htm">J.B. Nothomb</a>, the minister, made religious teaching <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligatory</a>, but dispensed dissidents from attendance. King Leopold expressed his gratification on signing it. For thirty-seven years this remained the fundamental charter of public <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a>. At this time, everyone of whatever party was convinced of the necessity of religion in the <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a> of the people. The <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> readily rallied to the support of the bill and even suffered a great number of the 2,284 private <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> which they had opened to be closed that they might co-operate in the establishment of the public <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>.</p> <p>The <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> of 1842 was, in a way, the last product of Unionist principles. Since the treaty of 1839 had definitely regulated Belgium's position in regard to <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Holland</a>, the fear of an outside enemy had been removed, and the Liberal party was convinced that there was no longer anything to hinder its political doctrines from prevailing in the national government. This attitude was partly justified by the state of affairs. The <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> were weak, without organization, without a press, without consciousness of their own strength; they had no relish for partisan contests, and they counted on Unionism to maintain public life along the lines of 1830. In contrast to the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> masses who lacked cohesion, and consciousness of their strength, the <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a> formed a young, spirited, united party, gaining recruits form the bourgeoisie and the learned classes alike, commanding much sympathetic support from official circles, in possession of a press with twenty times the influence of the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> press, in a word, master of the Belgium Government since 1830. Paul Devaux, one of the most remarkable men of this party and one of the organizers of the Union in 1828, became the apostle of <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberalism</a> in its later development, which implied the abolition of the Union and the victory of a policy exclusively Liberal in character. The articles which, beginning with 1839, he published in the "National Review", founded by him, exerted an enormous influence upon his party and even gradually won over to his <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">ideas</a> a large number of moderate <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a>.</p> <p>While the Union of 1828 was being dissolved and some of its promoters were seeking to give a partisan predominance to mixed ministries, the dissenters, who cherished an implacable <a href="../cathen/07149b.htm">hatred</a> for the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, wished to profit by the new turn of affairs in Liberal ranks to avenge the defeat they had met with at the hands of the constituent Congress. The <a href="../cathen/09771a.htm">Masonic</a> lodges entered on the scene with the avowed intention of forming the "conscience" of the Liberal party and of outlining its programme. They established a large <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a> called "The Alliance", which soon numbered 1,000 members, and which was to serve as their agent and go-between with that part of the people in which <a href="../cathen/09771a.htm">Freemasonry</a> awakened distrustfulness. In 1846, the Alliance called together a Liberal Congress, presided over by Eugene Defacqz, the dissenter of 1830, now Grand Master of Belgian <a href="../cathen/09771a.htm">Freemasonry</a>. The same secrecy was preserved in the deliberations of the Congress as in the Lodges, from which it originated, and the only <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> its proceedings was to be gained from the programme which it published. In this document, side by side with political reforms, appeared "the real independence of the civil power", a mere formula signifying systematic <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> on the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, and "the organization of public instruction under the exclusive direction of <a href="../cathen/02137c.htm">civil authority</a>, which should be granted legal means to maintain a competition with private establishments, without the interference of the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>, on the ground of authority. At the time that this programme was being drawn up, the Congress made plans for a general confederation of <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberalism</a> in Belgium, which with the Alliance as centre and type, was to establish in each district an association of free Liberal electors, bound in <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honour</a> to vote for the candidates chosen by the Congress. There were also be electoral division in every one of the cantons to extend the influence of the association. General reunions were to be held periodically to enable the alliance to reach the members of the associations and imbue them with the <a href="../cathen/09771a.htm">Masonic</a> spirit. The Liberal Congress of 1846 brought the session to a close with "a resolution favouring the liberation of the lower clergy", whom they hoped to incite against the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> by suggesting possibilities of bettering their condition. This resolution brought out strongly the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> character of the Congress, as a reactionary movement against the work of the National Congress of 1830. It stands to reason that the strong impulse stirred up by the Congress in the ranks of the Liberal party, and the ardent hopes based on it reacted on the legislative elections, while the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> remained buried in their dream of Unionism, then merely an anachronism. The elections of 1847 placed the <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a> in power.</p> <p>The new Government brought together in the same ministry Charles Rogier, member of the Congress of 1830, and Frere-Orban, one of the promoters of the Congress of 1846. Under the influence of the latter, a man of great talent but extremely arbitrary, whose imperious will got the better of the unionist scruples of his colleague, the Cabinet declared that it would inaugurate a "new policy" taking as its principle the "independence of the <a href="../cathen/02137c.htm">civil power</a>". And as a matter of fact, from this time forth, <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> was made on religious influence with a bitterness destined to divide the Belgian nation into two hostile camps. De Haussy, the Minister of Justice, set about applying to charitable foundations the most unheard-of principles. According to him, only charitable (State) bureaux could receive charitable bequests, and all endowments were to be turned over to them, even though the testator had made the selection of an administrator for the endowment an indispensable condition. On the other hand, the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> of 1850 on middle-superior <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a> was inspired by a spirit diametrically opposite to that of the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> concerning primary <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a>; it showed the Government's intention of using the taxpayers' money to start competition with free <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a>, and if, as a matter of policy, the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> were invited to give religious instruction in public institutions, conditions were such as to make their co-operation lack both dignity and effectiveness.</p> <p>The Belgian nation was not yet ripe for the adoption of a policy so out of harmony with the spirit of its national traditions, and after five years, the cabinet was overthrown. A more moderate Liberal cabinet modified the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> of 1850 by adopting the "agreement of <a href="../cathen/01588e.htm">Antwerp</a>" made between the communal administration of that city and the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, giving to the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> the guarantees required for their admission to the public institutions of secondary <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a>. The support given to this agreement, by the chamber, the vote being 86 to 7, showed that the necessity of religious instruction was still understood by a large number of <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a>. The elections of 1855, which returned a <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> majority, resulted in a cabinet presided over by P. de Decker, who may be called the last of the Unionists. This cabinet, which its friends might have reproached with excessive moderation, was destined to be overthrown as reactionary. One of its members, <a href="../cathen/11123b.htm">A. Nothomb</a>, drafted a law concerning charitable bequests intended to protect the interest of testators and repair the unfortunate effects of De Haussy's legislation. Testators were authorized to appoint special administrators for their bequests, but the powers of the latter were circumscribed and their exercise placed under the strict supervision of the State (1857). Under the leadership of Frere-Orban, who under the pseudonym of Jean Van Damme had just written a sensational pamphlet, the <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a> pretended to find in this scheme a roundabout restoration of the monastic <em>main-morte</em>; they called it the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> of the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a>, and when the plan was brought up for discussion, they organized riots which intimidated the head of the cabinet. He took advantage of the communal elections, which had been favourable to the Liberal party, to tender the resignation of the cabinet. This pusillanimous conduct delivered the Government again into the hands of the <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a>, who held power for thirteen years (1857-70).</p> <p>During this long period the new ministry, which was merely the outcome of a riot, did nothing but emphasize the anti-religious character of its policy. The real head was Frere-Orban, who in the end forced his colleague, Rogier, to retire (1868), and carried out successively the principal features in his programme of secularization. More prominent than ever was the alleged aim of protecting civil <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a> against the "encroachments of the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>". The <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> of 1859 on charitable endowments was the counterpart of that of 1857 and the despoiling policy inaugurated in 1847 by de Haussy. A law of 1869, of the same animus, confiscated all the bursaries for free scholarships, nine-tenths of which had been established to advance the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a> of the young, annulling the formal provision of the testators. A law of 1870 confined exemption from military service to students of the <em>grands séminaires</em>, refusing it to <a href="../cathen/11144a.htm">novices</a> of <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious</a> orders. In actual practice, the Government was sectarian and intolerant towards religion and the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>. It countenanced the efforts prompted by the <a href="../cathen/09771a.htm">Masonic</a> lodges to secularize cemeteries, notwithstanding the <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> of Prairial, twelfth year, that there should be a cemetery for each denomination, which left <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> cemeteries under the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church's</a> <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a>. Appointments to public offices, especially to the magistracy, were noticeably partisan. An example of the petty prejudice of the Government was its suppression of the annual subsidy which the <a href="../cathen/02630a.htm">Bollandists</a> had hitherto received for the continuation of their magnificent work, the "Acta Sanctorum".</p> <p>It seemed as if the rule of the Liberal party would continue indefinitely, and that <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> were permanently excluded from power, which their adversaries declared they were incapable of exercising. However, the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> made use of their long exclusion from a share in governmental affairs in at last seriously attempting to organize their forces. Jules Malou devoted himself most energetically to this task, and for the first time, the broad outlines of organization were visible, an organization such as the Liberal party had long possessed. At the same time, in imitation of the German <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>, they held important Congresses at <a href="../cathen/10104a.htm">Mechlin</a>, in 1863, 1864, and 1867, which awakened <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> enthusiasm and gave <a href="../cathen/06147a.htm">courage</a> to the pessimists. In this way, <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> found themselves able to resume the struggle with new vigour. Dissensions in the Liberal party, the strenuous opposition to the <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a>, or Doctrinaires, of the Government, on the part of men of advanced <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">ideas</a>, who claimed the double title of Progressists, and of Radicals, combined to help the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> and in 1870, they finally succeeded in overthrowing the Liberal Government.</p> <p>The <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a> then had recourse to the means which had contributed to their success in 1857. The ministry had appointed as Governor of <a href="../cathen/09260a.htm">Limburg</a> P. de Decker, who had been the head of the ministry of 1855, and whose name had been connected with the failure of a financial association. The <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a> affected to be greatly <a href="../cathen/13506d.htm">scandalized</a> and organized riots which so frightened Leopold II that he dismissed his ministry (1871). He replaced it, it is <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a>, by another <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> ministry, of which Jules Malou was president. Though formed during the disturbances of a popular outbreak in defiance of the wishes of the large cities, which were all Liberal in their sympathies, and secretly impugned before the king by Jules Van Praet, the royal secretary, who was nicknamed the "Seventh Ministry", this ministry managed to hold out until 1878 only by dint of being as unobtrusive as possible. None of the anti-religious <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">laws</a> made by the <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a> were revised, not even the one concerning bursaries, which had been passed by a bare majority. There was no restoration of the balance of power in public offices, which continued to be held by the <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a>. In 1875, the Burgomaster of <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a> having forbidden the Jubilee processions in that city, in defiance of the Constitution, the Government dared not annul his illegal order and had the humiliation of seeing the 1,500 <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a> tender him a complimentary banquet. <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> rule seemed in very <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a> what its adversaries called it, an "empty parenthesis", and, towards the end of his administration, Jules Malou in a <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> meeting, summed it up in these words: "we have existed" — <em>Nous avons vécu</em>.</p> <p>When a turn in the elections brought the <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a> back into power, after the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> administration had dragged out a precarious existence of eight years, they were able to continue their anti-Catholic policy from the point where they had left it. While out of office they had become more irreligious owing to the growing influence of <a href="../cathen/09771a.htm">Masonry</a>. Not only the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>, but the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, and religion itself, became the objects of their attack. They encouraged writers who, like Professor Laurent of the <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">University</a> of <a href="../cathen/06542c.htm">Ghent</a>, denied the necessity of granting liberty to the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, or who, like Professor de Laveleye of the University of <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a>, asserted the superiority of <a href="../cathen/12495a.htm">Protestantism</a>. Their Antwerp associations flooded the country with copies of a pamphlet written by the latter in this vein. Besides this, the <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a> sought to make the country <a href="../cathen/12495a.htm">Protestant</a> by supporting de Laveleye and Goblet d'Alviella, who, taking advantage of a quarrel between the villagers of Sart-Dame-Aveline and the <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a>, introduced <a href="../cathen/12495a.htm">Protestant</a> worship there and tried to proselytize the inhabitants. They adopted the name <em>Gueux</em> (beggars) which they found in the story of the religious troubles of the sixteenth century. Their presses daily waged <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> on the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> religion; their carnival pageants were vulgar parodies which exposed the most sacred things to popular derision. Lastly, the leaders of the movement agreed upon a revision of the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> of 1842 dealing with primary instruction. Once more in power they set about their work of uprooting <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> without delay, and framed the famous <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> law of 1879, which the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> called the "Law of Misfortune" (<em>Loi de malheur</em>), a name it still retains.</p> <p>The work of drafting this <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> was placed in charge of Van Humbeck, the Minister of Public Instruction, a <a href="../cathen/09771a.htm">Freemason</a> who some years before had declared in his lodge that "Catholicism was a corpse that barred the way of progress and would have to be thrown into the grave". The law did him <a href="../cathen/08571c.htm">justice</a>, being in every respect the reverse of the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> of 1842; it excluded from the <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> all religious instruction, and barred from the ranks of teachers all graduates of free normal, i.e. religious <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>. But for once, <a href="../cathen/09771a.htm">Freemasonry</a> had counted too much on the apathy and good nature of the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> masses. The resistance was unanimous. At the call of the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> rose in a body and entered on a campaign of petitions; committees for resistance were everywhere formed; public <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a> were offered in all the churches for delivery from "teachers without faith", and "godless <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>". In the Chambers, the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> after emphatic protests refused to take any part in the discussion of the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> even of its amendment, which forced the <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a> to do their worst and to shoulder the entire responsibility. It was carried without formal opposition. The President of the Senate, Prince de Ligne, a Liberal, resigned his post, deploring the division of the nation in to <a href="../cathen/07056c.htm">Guelphs and Ghibellines</a>. The <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>, co-operating with the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> and the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>, achieved wonders. In one year they erected three or four thousand <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>; the rule that there should be one to each commune was obeyed with few exceptions. More than 2,000 teachers of both sexes resigned their position, the great number to take part in free <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a> often at a very small salary. At the end of a year, the State <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> had lost fifty-five per cent of their pupils, and retained only thirty-eight per cent of the entire body of <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> children, while the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> had sixty-one per cent. Many of the State <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> were entirely deserted, and others had a ridiculously small attendance. Dumbfounded and enraged at such unexpected resistance, the Government tried every resource, however contemptible or absurd. Negotiations were begun with the Vatican, and a breach of diplomatic relations threatened, in the hope of forcing <a href="../cathen/09169a.htm">Leo XIII</a> to condemn the action of the Belgian <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>. Nothing came of this, and in consequence the Belgian ambassador to the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a> was recalled. To intimidate the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> and the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>, a <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> was passed ordering an inquiry as to the execution of the <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> law, and the investigators journeyed through the country like real judges, and cited people before their tribunal at random, exposing the most respectable people to the insults of the mob. This tour of investigation was scarcely finished, when the <a href="../cathen/09771a.htm">Freemasons</a>, carrying their blindness to the limit, proposed to the Chamber another inquiry concerning the <em>main-morte</em> measure that is to say, a campaign against <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a>. This time, the nearness of elections dictated a more prudent policy and the motion was lost by a majority of two votes.</p> <p>The country was roused to great excitement. In the face of open <a href="../cathen/11703a.htm">persecution</a>, the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> showed unexpected energy. Foreseeing their triumph, they established the "Union for the Redress of Grievances", to compel their candidates in the event of their election to adopt a vigorous policy. On 10 June, 1884, the country was called on to pronounce judgment. The result was overwhelming. Half the members of the Chamber had been candidates for re-election. Only two Liberal deputies were returned, the others being defeated in the whirlwind which uprooted <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberalism</a>. Amid great national rejoicing, the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> resumed the reins of power, which they have held uninterruptedly for twenty-three years. "We shall surprise the world by our moderation" said one of their leaders; and in this moderation which is not devoid of energy, lies their strength. The <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> law of 1879 was repealed without delay, the first time in the history of Belgium that a <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> Government had <a href="../cathen/06147a.htm">courage</a> to repeal a law made by the <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a>. The legislators of 1884, however, did not revive the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> of 1842. Taking into consideration the change of times, they took the primary <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> from State control and placed them under the communes, leaving each commune to decide whether or not religious instruction should be given; the State subsidized these <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, on condition that they would accept the State programme and would submit to State inspection; all <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">laws</a> subversive of liberty were repealed, and, needless to say, relations with the Vatican were resumed.</p> <p>The <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a>, counting on the support of the cities, thought that by <a href="../cathen/15446a.htm">violence</a> they could bring about a reaction against the decision of the electoral body, as they had done in 1857 and 1871. With the connivance of the Burgomaster of <a href="../cathen/03021a.htm">Brussels</a>, they assailed and scattered a peaceful procession of 80,000 <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> who had come to the capital to make a demonstration in favour of the Government, and, as in 1857, appealed to <a href="../cathen/05781a.htm">false</a> statistics of the communal elections of 1884, to prove that the voters had changed their <a href="../cathen/10321a.htm">minds</a>. In this way, they obtained from King Leopold II the dismissal of Charles Woeste and Victor Jacobs, the two <a href="../cathen/10326a.htm">ministers</a> whom they held in special aversion. Jules Malou, the head of the Cabinet, protested, and followed his colleagues into retirement. But the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> party remained in power and M. Beernaert, who succeeded Malou, inaugurated the era of prosperity which has placed Belgium in the front rank among nations.</p> <p>The situation confronting the Government bore no resemblance to that of former years. Since 1830, the inner national energy had been absorbed by the struggle between the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> and the <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a>, both representing bourgeois voters, who were divided as to the amount of influence to be allowed to <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholicism</a> in public affairs. By 1886 a change had come about. A third party had come into existence known as the "Workingman's Party", which, recruited entirely from the labouring classes, presented a dangerous platform, comprehending not reforms but <a href="../cathen/12213b.htm">economic</a> and social revolutionary measures. This Socialist party had been secretly taking shape since 1867, and continued in Belgium the traditions of the "Internationale", created by Karl Marx. It proclaimed to the workingmen that they were slaves, promised to give them liberty and prosperity and, as the first means towards the <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessary</a> reforms, to secure for them the right of suffrage. In this way the great mass of the people were won over and organized while the two older parties were wholly occupied with their traditional quarrel. Not that eminent <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>, such as Edouard Ducpetiaux, to mention one of the highest rank, had not sought for a long time a way of bettering the condition of the <a href="../cathen/08719a.htm">working</a> classes, or that many <a href="../cathen/15753a.htm">zealous</a> men had not made disinterested attempts to bring about such a result; but the body of the nation had not realized the political role soon to be played by the dense ranks of the organized proletariat, and hence had not tried to find legislative means of satisfying their demands. Moreover, the administrative classes, <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a> as well as <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>, were under the influence of the Manchester <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a>. The policy of non-interference was accepted as the guiding principle, and particularly when there was any question of labour legislation, the words on every tongue were: "most liberty, least government".</p> <p>When, therefore, in 1886, serious uprisings, plainly revolutionary in character, took place, first at <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a> (18 March), and soon afterwards in the industrial districts of Hainaut, the whole country was thrown into a state of consternation and alarm. The labour party came forward and put the social question before the country in the form of incendiarism and riots. The most enlightened <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> grasped the significance of these events and saw that the time had come for turning their attention towards labour reform. Under the presidency of Bishop Doutreloux of <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a>, three Congresses of Social Works were held at <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a>, in 1886, 1887, and 1890, in which the most vital question were studied and exhaustively discussed. Groups were formed, especially among the younger men, to introduce the most urgent reforms into the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> platform; Canon Pottier, professor of <a href="../cathen/14601a.htm">moral theology</a> in the <em>grand séminaire</em> of <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a>, became the apostle of the reform movement; the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> friends of reform established a Democratic Christian League, which, encouraged by the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> and keeping within the bounds of the strictest <a href="../cathen/11330a.htm">orthodoxy</a>, bent all its energies on reform. The <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a> formed among the <a href="../cathen/13675a.htm">secular priests</a> a new order, "The Almoners of Labour", whose <a href="../cathen/15753a.htm">zeal</a> and devotion were entirely directed to bettering the lot of the working people.</p> <p>As for the Government, it <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proved</a> equal to its task, new and unforeseen as it was. A through investigation of the labour question gave an understanding of the nature and extent of the principal grievances of the <a href="../cathen/08719a.htm">working</a> classes, after which the <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessary</a> reforms were energetically entered upon. For several years, the entire legislative activity devoted itself to the redress of the most crying evils. Councils of Industry and of Labour were formed; legislation was passed on the following subjects: workingmen's dwellings, wages, the abolition of the truck system, the illegality of attaching or assigning wages, labour inspection, child-labour, and the labour of <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a>. Strong encouragement was given to mutual benefit <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">societies</a> which had been hitherto in anything but a flourishing <a href="../cathen/04211a.htm">condition</a>. To these important <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">laws</a> was added the commendable law of conditional condemnation and liberation, the work of M. Lejeune, the minister of justice; it has since been imitated by many larger countries.</p> <p>This work, which extended over ten years, culminated in a revision of the Constitution, which the advanced members of the Liberal party had been demanding for a long time, and which the Socialists were now insisting on. This revision had become imperative. Belgium was a country which had very few voters; out of a population of more than six millions there never were more than 150,000, and during the last years of the Liberal Government no less than six <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">laws</a> had been passed to diminish this number still further by excluding entire classes of <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> voters. In spite of this, and though it was clear to all that the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> would be the first to profit by a revision, through a spirit of conservatism, they shrank from taking the initiative in this matter. One of the their leaders, M. Woeste, was its declared adversary. The <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a>, observing this hesitation on the part of their opponents, joined the Socialists in demanding the revision, hoping for its refusal. Under these circumstances, and with a full appreciation of the necessities of the situation, M. Beernaert proposed the revision of the Constitution, and succeeded, after many difficulties, in having the revision adopted by the party of the Right. The revision was as broad as possible: the motion for universal suffrage was passed without opposition — a suffrage, however, modified by plural voting as proposed by M. Nyssens, a deputy of the Right. Each Belgian was to have one vote; a married man who could prove his title to some <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a> had two; a man able to give certain <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proofs</a> of <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a> had three. The electoral body was increased tenfold, and henceforth only the worthless and the incompetent were excluded form the administration of public affairs in Belgium (1893).</p> <p>In this way the Belgian Government, by exercising <a href="../cathen/12517b.htm">prudence</a> as well as <a href="../cathen/06147a.htm">courage</a>, succeeded in a few years in carrying out a splendid reform programme, and deserved the admirable eulogy of Fernand Payen, a French jurisconsult: "We have before us the most complete body of legislation which the history of this century can show in any country." A former liberal minister praised hardly less emphatically the wise policy of the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> Government, by declaring that it was difficult to combat it because if offered no grounds for complaint. For the first time in the history of Belgium <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> showed their ability to govern, that is to say, their ability to comprehend at a glance the needs of the times and to meet them satisfactorily. Even the king, hitherto distrustful of <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>, gradually gave up his prejudices, and at every election the voters confirmed their tenure of power. The party of the Right showed their ingratitude towards M. Beernaert, by declining, partly through motives of personal interest, to vote for the proportional representation of parties, and this the head of the Cabinet demanded as an indispensable item in the revision of the Constitution. On this refusal, M. Beernaert resigned his position at the head of the Cabinet, in 1894, depriving Belgium of her greatest statesman.</p> <p>Results <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proved</a> M. Beernaert's wisdom. From the time of the revision, the Liberal party, which had its exclusive support in the bourgeoisie of the cities, had been entirely shut out of Parliament, where its place had been taken by a strong group of Socialists. This group, destitute, for the most part of culture and parliamentary training, introduced coarse and violent methods of discussion into the Chamber, seriously compromising the dignity of parliamentary debate. On the other hand, the total suppression of Liberal representation was both an <a href="../cathen/08010c.htm">injustice</a>, since this party still retained the sympathies of the middle class in the large cities, and a danger for the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> parliamentary spirit was violated by the exclusion from public life of views which had lately been all powerful and were still very much alive. Proportional representation seemed to be the only way of restoring parliamentary balance, and it came about that those who had caused M. Beernaert's loss of power to avoid this very thing were won over to his views. Proportional representation was therefore proposed and carried, making electoral legislation in Belgium the most complete in the world. The <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a> returned to the Chambers, the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> sacrificing their overwhelming majority in their desire for the representation of every shade of opinion to be found in the electoral body, thus substituting the three parties for the two which had divided the power previous to 1893.</p> <p>The <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>, nevertheless, retained a permanent majority. The successors of M. Beernaert continued to conduct the Government along his lines, even if with less prestige and authority. From time to time the administration was affected by reactionary influences, occasionally compromised by mistakes in policy, but the current of social legislation has not changed its course. In 1895, a special department of Labour was created, and M. Nyssens, the first minister, filled the position with great distinction. Laws were passed regulating workshops, trade unions, pensions for workmen, insurance against accidents while working, and providing for rest on <a href="../cathen/14335a.htm">Sundays</a>. The number and importance of these legislative enactments was such that a Socialist deputy codified and published them in a collection, rendering thereby tacit but significant homage to the Government responsible for them.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>But the very stability of the Government, which each successive election retained in power, was the despair of its enemies who saw the impossibility of overthrowing it by legal methods. The Socialists decided that their success would be greater if they obtained by threats, or, if <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessary</a>, by <a href="../cathen/15446a.htm">violence</a>, a new revision of the Constitution, suppressing the plural vote and replacing it by universal suffrage, pure and simple: "One man, one vote." Failing to bring about this reform by intimidating the Chamber, they sent revolutionary bands into the streets. "I have always tried to dissuade you from violence", said Vandervelde, their leader, to his audience of workingmen; "but today, I say to you: The pear is ripe, and must be plucked." Another leader, Grimard, the Socialist senator, and a millionaire, even went to far as to declare that he would turn over his whole fortune to the workingmen and would start again at nothing. Intoxicated by these words, the workingmen of many large cities and industrial districts abandoned themselves to excesses, and blood was shed in several places, notably at <a href="../cathen/09391a.htm">Louvain</a>. The energy with which the Government applied repressive measures, however, soon put an end to these attempts. Then the General Council of the workingmen's party declared a general strike, the last weapon of the revolutionary party. This failed after a few days, and the General Council was forced to advise the workmen to return to work. The prestige of the Socialists with the popular masses was greatly impaired by the failure of so great an effort and the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> Government came out of the crisis stronger than ever (1902).</p> <p>There remained but one way of overcoming the Government: the alliance of the two opposition parties, the Socialists and the <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a>. This was effected at the time of the general elections of 1906. Although from the <a href="../cathen/12213b.htm">economic</a> point of view the two parties were antipodal, they were united in their anticlerical sympathies, and there was reason to fear that their success would mean the downfall of religion. In their <a href="../cathen/03539b.htm">certainty</a> of success they circulated the names of their future <a href="../cathen/10326a.htm">ministers</a>, and open preparation were made for the festivities attendant on their victory. But their alliance met with a crushing defeat in the elections of 1906, which left the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> Government as strong as ever. The fetes, commemorating the seventy-fifth anniversary of national independence, had been celebrated throughout the country with unrestrained enthusiasm, under the patronage of the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> Government, which, in 1909, will celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of its own existence. In the history of Belgium no government has held power so long, and the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> party has come to be more and more of a national party, or, to speak more correctly, the nation itself.</p> <p>This summary would be incomplete if the history of the struggles in defence of religion and of social order were not supplemented by the internal history of the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> people of Belgium, i.e. the development of popular opinion during a quarter of a century. Generally, in the face of adversaries who attacked their most precious possession, the religion of their fathers, <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> had proclaimed themselves "conservatives"; their political association were thus designated and it was the name which the leaders of the party were fond of applying to themselves in Parliament. But the appearance of the workingmen on the political scene and the programme of their claims in pointed opposition to the conservatives (1886), brought home to enlightened <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> the danger of this name. Hence the name "Conservative" was repudiated not only by the advanced members of the party, who called themselves "Democratic Christians", but even by the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> opposed to reforms, who really aimed at preserving the <a href="../cathen/12213b.htm">economic</a> regime which had caused all the grievances of the <a href="../cathen/08719a.htm">working</a> class. The latter, rejecting the term "Conservative" as a wrong done them, desire to be called simply "Catholics". Of the two groups, that of the Democratic <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> is at present numerically inferior, although more influential by reason of its enthusiasm, its activity, its faculty for taking the initiative, and its propaganda. To understand this it must be recalled that before the revision of the Constitution the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a>, like the Liberal, party was exclusively a bourgeois party, as its members had to pay a large poll tax for the privilege of suffrage. Its leaders for the most part were drawn from the upper bourgeoisie, and those whose ability and energy called them to a share in the direction of affairs had no other ideals, or interests, than those of the bourgeoisie. When the revision heavily recruited their ranks, the new voters, though large in number, played the part of mere privates and had no active part in the management of the parties. Those of the newcomers, who were conscious of possessing the requisite ability and <a href="../cathen/06147a.htm">courage</a> in order to carry out their <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">ideas</a> and programme were <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obliged</a> to organize new groups, which were looked at askance by the former leaders, often even regarded with suspicion, and accused of socialistic tendencies.</p> <p>In a large number of arrondissements, the rivalry of conservative and democratic tendencies among Belgian <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> resulted in the establishment of two distinct political groups, and the Belgian <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, and the most farsighted leaders, found it a hard task to prevent an open rupture. At Ghent, where the Democratic <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> assumed the harmless name of Anti-Socialists, there was never any real danger of a break in the ranks. At <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a>, which was a centre of opposition to democratic <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">ideas</a>, <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> circles being under the control of employers and financiers inimical to reform principles, a rupture was barely averted. At Alost, where the break was beyond control, the Abbé Daens organized an independent and radical body, which, taking the name of "Christene Volksparty" (Christian people's party), abandoned by the Anti-Socialists, opposed the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> more bitterly than the Socialists. It made common cause with the latter in carrying on a campaign against the Government in the elections of 1906. But, apart from the Daensists, a group, very small at most, which in its best days was unable to send more than two or three representatives to the Chamber, the Democratic <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a>, in all their electoral battles, have always marched to the polls side by side with the conservative <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>. They hold the controlling vote indispensable for any victory, and their leaders in Parliament have been in the front ranks in advocating the labour legislation which has produced the social <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">laws</a>. After opposing them for a long time, the Conservatives have gradually become accustomed to regard them as an essential factor of the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> army. In the meantime, the birth and progress of this group clearly marked the evolution which is taking place in the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> party in the direction of a new social ideal, an evolution too slow for some, and too rapid for others, but in any case, evident and undeniable.</p> <h2 id="section4">Conclusion</h2> <p>This politico-religious history of Belgium, covering over a hundred years, contains more than one lesson. In the first place, it clearly establishes the fact that in every generation the Belgian nation has fought with vigour against every regime that was inimical to its <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a>. It struggled against the French Republic, against <a href="../cathen/10687a.htm">Napoleon I</a>, against William I, against the Liberal Government, against the coalition of the <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a> and the Socialists, and has come forth victorious. In the second place it must be remarked that the <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> on the religion of the people has daily assumed a more threatening aspect. At the close of the eighteenth century, Belgium had no enemies except its foreign oppressors, abetted by a few handfuls of traitors. Under the <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Dutch</a> Government, it was evident that the generation which developed under the French domination had been partly won over to revolutionary doctrines, and that among the bourgeoisie of the cities there was a body which no longer recognized the authority of religion in social matters. After 1846, it was manifest that this faction was under the control of the <a href="../cathen/09771a.htm">Masonic</a> lodges, and had positively declared itself for <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> upon religion and the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>. In 1886, it was evident that, in the bourgeois class, the great mass of workingmen had been won over to the cause of irreligion and that the population of the industrial districts had been seriously affected. In addition to this, the four larger cities of Belgium, <a href="../cathen/03021a.htm">Brussels</a>, <a href="../cathen/01588e.htm">Antwerp</a>, <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a>, and Ghent, and most of the cities of the Walloon provinces, had gone over to the Anti-Catholic party. The defenders of religion and its oppressors tended to become numerically equal, a state of things that would be apparent to all, were it not masked in a way by the system of plural voting. In the votes cast at the general elections there is always a <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> majority, but it is a question whether the majority of voters are <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>. If it is asked whether the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>, namely, the Belgians who submit to the teachings of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, still constitute the majority of the nation, the answer would be more or less <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubtful</a>. This leads to a third remark. The resistance to the enemies of religion has not been as effective as the duration and intensity of the contest might lead one to believe. Whenever the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> were successful, they have been satisfied with keeping the power in their hands; they have not exercised it to carry out their programme. No <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> wrongs have been redressed; every law made by the <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a> against the church and the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> has remained unrepealed, and it was only in 1884 that the Government, supported by the entire nation, felt strong enough to inaugurate a bolder policy. But the revision of the School Law of 1879 is the solitary instance of this progress, and will probably continue to be so for some time to come.</p> <p>The social condition of the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> religion in Belgium, while doubtless favourable, is not, therefore, free from danger. The School Law of 1884, amended in 1895, is inadequate to guarantee the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a> of the people. It is evaded by the municipal government of the capital, which manages by trickery to exempt the majority of the children from religious instruction, and even in the Liberal communes, where the pupils receive religious instruction, it is neutralized by the lessons given them by their <a href="../cathen/06258b.htm">freethinking</a> teachers. Many of the public <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> are now developing generations of unbelievers. This is a matter that needs attention. It is also imperative to re-enforce the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> army by drawing recruits from the only source open to it, namely, the people. To do this the Government must accentuate the character of its social legislation, which is too often compromised by provisions which deprive it of a large part of its effectiveness. The <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> on trade unions deprives them of the means most likely to make them prosper, which is to make trade. The <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> on labour accidents would be excellent, if insurance against accidents was made <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligatory</a>. The law enjoining the Sunday rest, carried with the co-operation of the Socialists, contains such a large number of exceptions and is enforced with such want of earnestness that it is almost a dead letter. The Socialists declare, often with a semblance of <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a>, that the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">laws</a> passed to benefit the workingmen are mere blinds, and it is not always easy to convince them of the contrary. The continuation of the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> regime in Belgium seems to be contingent on a radical reform of <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> legislation, on provision for the division of State subventions among all the communal or private <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> in proportion to the services that they render, and greater boldness in the solution of the labour questions. Religion has in Belgium so strong a support in popular loyalty and devotion that by judiciously taking advantage of them at the proper time, an indefinite tenure of power will be ensured.</p> <h2 id="section5">Statistics</h2> <p>According to the census of 31 December, 1905, the population of Belgium is 7,160,547. The great majority of the inhabitants are <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a>, but the lack of <a href="../cathen/14275a.htm">religious statistics</a> makes it difficult to give the exact number of non-Catholics. There are about 30,000 <a href="../cathen/12495a.htm">Protestants</a>, 3,000 to 4,000 <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a> and several thousand <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a> who, not having been <a href="../cathen/02258b.htm">baptized</a>, do not belong to any <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a>. The kingdom is divided into six <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">dioceses</a>, namely: The <a href="../cathen/10104a.htm">Archdiocese of Mechlin</a> and the suffragan Dioceses of <a href="../cathen/03005a.htm">Bruges</a>, <a href="../cathen/06542c.htm">Ghent</a>, <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a>, <a href="../cathen/10679a.htm">Namur</a>, and <a href="../cathen/14798a.htm">Tournai</a>. Each diocese has a <a href="../cathen/13694a.htm">seminary</a> and one or several preparatory <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> for the training of the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>; there are, in addition, the Belgian College at <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, a <a href="../cathen/13694a.htm">seminary</a> to which all the Belgian <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> send the best of their pupils, and the College of the Saint-Esprit at <a href="../cathen/09391a.htm">Louvain</a>, where a superior <a href="../cathen/14580x.htm">theological</a> course is pursued. The <a href="../cathen/13675a.htm">secular clergy</a> number 5,419; the <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">regular</a> <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>, 6,237; these latter are distributed in 293 houses. The <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious</a> orders in Belgium have 29,303 members living in 2,207 houses; the members of the orders, both male and <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">female</a>, devote their time chiefly to teaching and nursing the sick; the male orders also aid the <a href="../cathen/13675a.htm">secular clergy</a> in <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parochial</a> work.</p> <p>Under the guidance of this large body of labourers for the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, the <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious life</a> in Belgium is intense, and the works of <a href="../cathen/12748a.htm">piety</a> and charity are very numerous. Statistics of these charities are given in Madame Charles Vloebergh's "La Belgique charitable", in the preface to which M. Beernaert states that no country has their equal. Belgium also takes a share out of all proportion to the size of its territory in international works of <a href="../cathen/12748a.htm">piety</a> and in foreign missions. It is at the head of the work of the Eucharistic Congress, two of its <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, Monseigneur Doutreloux, of <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a>, and Monseigneur Heylen, of <a href="../cathen/10679a.htm">Namur</a>, having been the first two presidents of the association. Five sessions of this congress have been held in Belgium; at <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a> (1883), <a href="../cathen/01588e.htm">Antwerp</a>, <a href="../cathen/03021a.htm">Brussels</a>, <a href="../cathen/10679a.htm">Namur</a>, and <a href="../cathen/14798a.htm">Tournai</a>. Equally distinguished are the services of Belgium in the sphere of <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> missions. The congregation of <a href="../cathen/13675a.htm">secular priests</a> of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, founded at Scheutveld near <a href="../cathen/03021a.htm">Brussels</a> in 1862, labour for the evangelization of <a href="../cathen/10479b.htm">Mongolia</a> and the Congo; several of their members have suffered <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrdom</a> in these countries. The Belgian <a href="../cathen/14081a.htm">Jesuits</a> have for their mission-field Calcutta and Western Bengal. Their missionaries are trained in the Apostolic school established at Turnhout. The American <a href="../cathen/13694a.htm">seminary</a> at <a href="../cathen/09391a.htm">Louvain</a> (1857) aids in recruiting the <a href="../cathen/13675a.htm">secular clergy</a> of the <a href="../cathen/15156a.htm">United States</a>. Other <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious</a> orders also labour for the evangelization of foreign regions. The toils and heroism of a number of the Belgian missionaries have given them a world-wide renown; such are, Father Charles de Smedt, the apostle to the Indians of the Rocky Mountains, and <a href="../cathen/04615a.htm">Father Damien de Veuster</a>, who devoted himself to the <a href="../cathen/09182a.htm">lepers</a> of Molokai.</p> <p>The great success of <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholicism</a> in Belgium is largely explained by the freedom it enjoys under the Constitution. "The freedom of <a href="../cathen/12738a.htm">religions</a> and their public exercise, as well as the <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">right</a> to the expression of opinions on all subjects are guaranteed, with the exception of misdemeanours committed in exercising this liberty" (art. 14). The sole restriction to this liberty is contained in article 16 of the Constitution which says that a <a href="../cathen/09691b.htm">civil marriage</a> must always precede the religious <a href="../cathen/03538b.htm">ceremony</a>, with such exceptions as may be established by <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a>. The <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> who, in fulfilling his <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a>, <a href="../cathen/02599b.htm">blesses</a> a marriage <em>in extremis</em> under this article is in danger of prosecution and condemnation; the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> which the Constitution provided for, and which would have protected such cases, has never been passed. With the exception of this and the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> authorizing <a href="../cathen/05054c.htm">divorce</a>, to which, however, recourse is seldom had, it may be said that the legislation of Belgium conforms to the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> standard of morality. Although the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> is independent in Belgium, and the country has no State religion, it does not follow that the governmental and the religious authorities have no connection with each other. Tradition and custom have produced numerous points of contact and relation of courtesy between <a href="../cathen/14250c.htm">Church and State</a>. The latter pays the stipends of the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> as well as of the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> of the <a href="../cathen/12495a.htm">Protestant</a> and Jewish <a href="../cathen/12738a.htm">religions</a>, very moderate salaries which have been slightly increased by a law passed in 1900. The State also assists in the expense of erecting buildings for religious purposes and of keeping them in repair. The <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parishes</a> have been granted a civil existence and can hold <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a>; each <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> has a board of administration, of which the major of the town is a member by law, for the aid of the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> in the management of the finances of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>. The Liberal party, it is <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a>, has tried a number of times to get control of the <a href="../cathen/12466a.htm">church property</a>, but the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> of 1870 (a compromise law), concerning the temporalities of the different <a href="../cathen/12738a.htm">religions</a>, only requires the supervision of the public authorities over expenses concerning which the intervention of these authorities is requested. Students at the <a href="../cathen/14580x.htm">theological</a> <a href="../cathen/13694a.htm">seminaries</a>, who are to be <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>, are exempted from military <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a>. Finally, the <a href="../cathen/02137c.htm">civil authorities</a> are officially present at the "Te Deum" which is sung on the national anniversaries; and except during the period of 1880-84 (see above) the Government has maintained diplomatic relations with the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a>.</p> <h2 id="section6">Education</h2> <p>The most successful work of the Belgian Church as been done in the field of <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a>, in spite of most violent opposition on the part of the Liberal party. Article 17 of the Constitution, says, concerning instruction: "Teaching is free; all preventive measures are forbidden; the repression of offences is reserved to the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a>. Public instruction given by the State is equally regulated by <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a>." The Constitution, therefore, supposed at the same time a free instruction and an instruction by the State; it guarantees complete liberty to the first and subordinates the latter to the enactments of the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a>. The <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> alone have made use of this article of the Constitution to establish a flourishing series of <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> and colleges leading up to a <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">university</a>. The <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a> have contented themselves with founding a <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">university</a> (subsidized by the city of <a href="../cathen/03021a.htm">Brussels</a> and the province of Brabant) and an insignificant number of <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, and are generally satisfied with State instruction for their children; this instruction they endeavour to make as neutral, that is, as irreligious as possible. They also favour in every way State instruction to the detriment of the free teaching. There are two State <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">universities</a>, <a href="../cathen/06542c.htm">Ghent</a> and <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a>, which have, respectively, 1000 and 2000 students. There are also 20 State athenaeums with 6000 students, besides 7 communal colleges having about 1000 pupils; these institutions are for secondary <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a> in its upper classes. The lower classes are taught in 112 intermediate <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, 78 of which are for boys and 34 for girls, with a total of 20,000 pupils. There are also 11 intermediate <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> opened by the communes, 5 for boys and 6 for girls, with a total of 4000 pupils. The <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> of 1895 makes the communes responsible for primary instruction; each commune is <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obliged</a> to have at least one <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a>, but it may be relieved of this responsibility if it is shown that private initiative has made sufficient provision for instruction. The State intervenes also in primary instruction by means of its normal <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> for male and <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">female</a> teachers, by employing <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> inspectors whose business it is to see whether all the legal requirements are observed, and by the subsidies granted to communes which carry out the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a>.</p> <p>Compared with these State institutions the <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> established for free <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a> are equal and in several respects superior. The <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/09391a.htm">University of Louvain</a>, founded by the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, has 2200 students; it is surrounded by several institutes, one of the most famous of which is the "Institut philosophique", of which Monseigneur Mercier, now <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">Cardinal</a> <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/10104a.htm">Mechlin</a>, was the founder and first president (until 1906). The Episcopal Institute of St. Louis at <a href="../cathen/03021a.htm">Brussels</a> and the <a href="../cathen/14081a.htm">Jesuit</a> College of Notre-Dame at <a href="../cathen/10679a.htm">Namur</a> prepare pupils for the degrees of <a href="../cathen/12025c.htm">philosophy</a> and letters. There are 90 free colleges for intermediate instruction, most of them <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocesan</a>, other carried on by the different <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious</a> orders, among whom the <a href="../cathen/14081a.htm">Jesuits</a> take the lead with 12 colleges, having 5500 pupils. The free colleges have a total of 18,000 pupils, which is more than three times that of corresponding State <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>. The situation is the intermediate classes of the lower grade is not so satisfactory for <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> and may be called the dark page of their <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> statistics.</p> <p>Since 1879 the subject of primary <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a> has been the real battle-field; during this struggle the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> almost attained the ideal, having at least one <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> in almost every commune. But this was done at the cost of great <a href="../cathen/13309a.htm">sacrifices</a>, so that since the suppression of the "Law of Misfortune" (<em>Loi de malheur</em>) of 1879, which had taken the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> character from the primary <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> have accepted the communal <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> in their renewed <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> form and have given up those which they had founded. The State, moreover, subsidizes the free <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> when they give the guarantees <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessary</a> from a pedagogical point of view, and it authorizes the communes to adopt them as communal <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>. Notwithstanding this, the legislation concerning primary teaching is far from being absolutely satisfactory; the large communes evade or even openly disregard the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a>, and it is only at long intervals that the Government interferes to check the most <a href="../cathen/13506d.htm">scandalous</a> abuses. The law puts the State instruction and the free teaching on an absolute equality, and this equality is maintained by the Government; the diplomas granted by the free <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">universities</a> open the way to government positions just as do those granted by the State <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">universities</a>; the certificates given by the free institutes are equal to those of the State <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>.</p> <h2 id="section7">Cemeteries</h2> <p>It is only by the greatest exertions that the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> of Belgium have saved the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>. In regard to the question of cemeteries they have shown less vigour. The <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> of Prairial of the year XII (1804), by which the cemeteries of Belgium were regulated, stipulated that, in localities where several <a href="../cathen/12738a.htm">religions</a> exist, each form of <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a> should have its own cemetery, and that where there was but one cemetery it should be divided into as many sections as there were different <a href="../cathen/13674a.htm">denominations</a>. The <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> cemeteries, in conformity with the Ritual, had separate sections for those who had died in communion with Church, for infants dying without <a href="../cathen/02258b.htm">baptism</a>, for those to whom the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> had refused religious burial, and for <a href="../cathen/06258b.htm">free-thinkers</a> who died outside of the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> communion. There was no conflict until 1862 when, obedient to the order of the <a href="../cathen/09771a.htm">Freemason</a> lodges, the <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a> declared the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> of 1804 to be unconstitutional. The Government, then carried on by the <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberals</a>, left it to the communal authorities to apply the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> of 1804 or not, and for some fifteen years the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> was disregarded or observed at the pleasure of the mayors of the town. With the lapse of time the enforcement of the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> declined, and a further step was taken; in 1879, the year of the <em>Loi de malheur</em>, the Court of Cassation suddenly changed its traditional method and began to convict those mayors who enforced the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> of 1804. From this date the enforcement of the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> became a misdemeanour, and many adverse sentences fell on the authorities who believed themselves bound in <a href="../cathen/04268a.htm">conscience</a> to maintain this <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a>. Owing to the inactivity of the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>, there has been, since that time, no freedom with regard to cemeteries in Belgium.</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes">Claessens, <em>La Belgique chretienne depuis la conquete francaise jusqu'a nos jours, 1794-1880</em> (Brussels, 1883); De Lanzac de Laborie, <em>La domination francaise en Belgique, 1795-1814</em> (Paris, 1895); Van Caenghem, <em>La guerre de paysans</em> (Grammont, 1900); De Gerlache, <em>Histoire du royaume des Pays-Bas</em> (Brussels, 1875); Terlinden, <em>Guillaume I, roi des Pays-Bas, et l'Église catholique en Belgique, 1814-1830</em> (Brussels, 1906); Juste, <em>La revolution belge de 1830</em> (Brussels, 1872); Colenbrander, <em>De Belgische omwenteling</em> (The Hague, 1905); Thonissen, <em>La Belgique sous le regne de Leopold I</em> (Liège, 1855-1858); Balau, <em>Soixante-dix ans d'histoire contemporaine de Belgique, 1815-1884</em> (Brussels, 1889); Discailles, <em>Charles Rogier</em> (Brussels, 1883-95); Hymans, <em>Frere-Orban</em> (Brussels, 1905); Nyssens, <em>Eudore Pirmez</em> (Brussels, 1893); De Trannoy, <em>Jules Malou</em> (Brussels, 1983); Verhaegen, <em>La lutte scolaire en Belgique</em> (Ghent, 1905); Van Hoorebeke, <em>Histoire de la politique contemporaine en Belgique depuis 1830</em> (Brussels, 1905); Bertrand, <em>Histoire de la democratie et du socialisme en Belgique depuis 1830</em> (Brussels, 1905); MacDonnel, <em>King Leopold II: His Rule in Belgium and the Congo</em> (London, 1905); Blok, <em>Geschiedenis van het nederlandsche volk</em> (Leyden, 1905), Statistics of Belgium in the <em>Census</em> of 31 December, 1900; <em>Annuaire de statistique</em> (1906); <em>Annuaire de clerge belge</em> (1906); Vloeberghs, <em>La Belgique charitable</em> (Brussels, 1904).</p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Kurth, G.</span> <span id="apayear">(1907).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Belgium.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02395a.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Kurth, Godefroid.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Belgium."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 2.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1907.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02395a.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Susan Birkenseer.</span> <span id="dedication">Dedicated to Sr. Mary John, 1910-1999, S.H.C.J.</span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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