The Churches: The Dynamics of Religious Reform in Northern Europe, 1780-1920

Church Reform and Modernity in Belgium

Church Reform and Modernity in Belgium 101 Church Reform and Modernity in Belgium Jan Art, Jan De Maeyer, Ward De Pril & Leo Kenis Belgium lies on the southernmost border of Northern Europe, but it could also be described as being the most northerly part of Southern Europe. The country has therefore somewhat Latin characteristics which are hardly, if at all, to be found elsewhere in the North. In the sixteenth to seventeenth century the Southern Netherlands was considered to be a bridgehead of the Counter-Reformation, from which the British, Dutch and Germans, who had ‘fallen away’ from the Catholic faith, would be brought back on the right path. That ‘baroque’ stamp would last for a long time, especially in Flanders, the northern part of Belgium. For centuries the region was far removed from the capital of the empire (Madrid or Vienna), and was therefore able to maintain a relative autonomy from the monarchy and the central authority. That autonomy was manifested in the region’s close attachment to ancient ‘liberties’ and class privileges , an attachment encountered by the enlightened Emperor Joseph II, the French Republic (which governed the Départements réunis longer than any other region), as well as Willem I, King of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Once the period of ‘occupation’ (c.1780-1830) was over, the Catholic Church made good use of the new Belgian liberties - and the shortcomings of the minimal or so-called night watchman state - to restore its influence in society. In politicis, this was the period of Unionism , and in religiosis, the period of the Revival (1830-1850). Once the young Belgian state was consolidated, the old internal differences re-emerged: the liberals formed a political party and would for decades, almost continuously, utilise the state system to implement their views. Catholics responded to this campaign by extending their own network of ultramontane-oriented periodicals, associations and all sorts of charitable work: it was the heyday of ultramontanism (1850-1884), which was dominated by the clerical-anticlerical opposition. After 1884 the country remained in the hands of Catholic governments for thirty years, and during the interwar period also the Catholic party remained in the majority, leading opponents to speak of a régime clérical. From a Jan Art, Jan De Maeyer, Ward De Pril & Leo Kenis 102 Catholic viewpoint the period was characterised by the development of a huge number of voluntary charities and the implementation of social legislation, which resulted from the introduction of universal male plural suffrage (1893), the rise of the socialist party as well as the encyclical Rerum novarum.1 1780-1830 Forms of State Religion and Accompanying Reactions The Austrian rulers attempted to make religious worship part of the state system, following the model of their Protestant colleagues. The church reforms launched by Joseph II led to a period of unrest in the Southern Netherlands. In particular, the dissolution of ‘useless’ (that is, contemplative) monasteries (1783) and the imposition of a civil marriage law (1784) led to a lot of disturbance. In 1786 the storm broke with the foundation of a general seminary in Louvain and a daughter seminary in Luxembourg. These were intended to replace all existing forms of priestly education in the diocesan seminaries, the university colleges and the formation centres of the regular clergy. In the spring of 1787 ultramontane opposition to the general seminary became one of the elements in the wider ecclesiastical and political opposition to the reforms of Joseph II, the so-called ‘Minor Brabant Revolution’. Under increasing political pressure, Joseph II repealed the obligatory character of the general seminary and the bishops could henceforth open their own seminaries again.2 Ultramontanism spread further among Catholics during the Brabant Revolution (Spring 1789). During the short-lived Republic of the United States of the Netherlands (1789-1790), the democratic forces in the Catholic camp were eliminated and driven into the group that would become the basis of the later liberal party. The Brabant Revolution was conceived as a counterrevolution: it restored the established order that had been disrupted. The ultramontanes were extremely hostile to the founding ideas of the French Revolution, and their convictions were validated by the events that took place during the period of French domination - both the anti-religious regime of the Republic (1795-1799) and the increasingly cesaropapist regime of Napoleon (1799-1814). The period of the French Republic saw the gradual introduction of religious laws intended to de-christianise public life. In the autumn of 1796...