Comme il importe au bien de l’Église et de l’État: L’opposition de l’épiscopat «belgique» aux réformes ecclésiastiques de Joseph II (1780–1790) (review)

Based on several eighteenth-century manuscript sources in Belgian archives and libraries (especially the Acta Episcoporum and the Acta Archiepiscopatus), printed pamphlets, and edited sources—as well as the principal contributions within the historiography on the Enlightenment, Josephinism, Reformkatholizismus, Spätjansenismus, Catholic Enlightenment, and ultramontanism—Bernard Vandermeersch aims to study the reactions of the Belgian episcopate toward the religious reforms imposed by Joseph II. The termini a quo and ante quem of his study correspond to Joseph II’s reign (1780–90). The material limits are those of the so-called Belgian Church of the second half of the eighteenth century, composed by the Dioceses of Ypres, Ghent, Roermond, Antwerp, and Bruges, under the authority of the Archdiocese of Malines, and those composed by the Dioceses of Tournai and Namur, theoretically dependent of the Archdiocese of Cambrai.

According to the author, the religious policy pursued by Joseph II in the Austrian Low Countries was led along three lines: nationalization of the Church, secularization of political life, and state supervision of the clergy. Several decrees were issued to suppress jurisdictional bonds between the Belgian Church and the Holy See. Surprisingly, the Belgian episcopate did not at first really oppose this anti-ultramontane feature of imperial Reformism. Cardinal Johann Heinrich von Franckenberg, archbishop of Malines, was almost the only party not to approve the anti-Roman legislation, and there was hardly any opposition to secularization by the high clergy. It was as if Joseph II easily imposed the Febronianist-inspired legislation on the Belgian bishops. The case of marriage dispensations (1781) revealed that several bishops had episcopalistic tendencies toward Rome. Joseph II took advantage of them by giving them more power to create an independent Belgian Church, molded after the Gallican model. However, it contributed to a degradation of the relationship between the “Two Powers” and to confusion in Catholic minds among Joseph II, the Jansenists, and the Philosophes. Actually, the strongest opposition by the bishops was provoked in 1786 by the state’s attempt to subdue the Belgian Church so as to promote goals influenced by the Enlightenment. The bishops were losing prerogatives, especially in the organization of theological studies (by the foundation of a state seminary) and in the regulation of ecclesiastical careers. The attempt by Joseph II to control and subdue the episcopate at the end of his reign greatly contributed to the return and triumph of ultramontanism, which eventually appeared to be the best way to preserve the Church’s independence and, therefore, faith itself. Ultramontanism then appeared to be the true Roman Catholic orthodoxy. The most important contribution of Vandermeersch is to have proven through his historical research this change and evolution within the Belgian Church during the ecclesiastical reforms of Joseph II.