Belgium

BELGIUM. - A state of northwestern Europe (30,508 sq. km.; slightly more than Piedmont), bordering on Holland, Germany, Luxembourg and France.

I. GEOGRAPHY

The trench through which the Scheldt and the Meuse flow divides its territory into two distinct sections, also oriented, like that trench, from SW to NE. The southern section is a plateau broken by hilly ridges (Ardennes), with a humid and inclement climate, sparsely populated and predominantly rural in character; the northern one, vast and very populous, is a plain that slopes gently toward the short (66 km) coastline, where there are also low-lying areas, protected by dikes and brought under cultivation (polders), with a typically oceanic climate. The plain which, rich and opulent with harvests in its central and western part (Flanders), becomes poorer and more dreary toward the east (Campine heaths), is crossed by the Scheldt, modest in its course but abundant in water and navigable, on whose estuary opens the greatest commercial emporium of Belgium and one of the most active in this part of Europe: Antwerp.

The population (8.4 million inhabitants in 1947), which attains a high density (276 inhabitants per sq. km.; 540 in the central region of Brabant), indeed the highest in Europe (though one must take into account the modest territorial base), is made up for more than half of Flemings, speaking a Germanic dialect, and for slightly less than half of French-speaking Walloons (with small groups of German speakers in the east): the two linguistic domains are divided grosso modo by the Tournai-Liège line. Almost the entire country is Catholic; Protestants make up barely 0.3% and Jews 0.1% of the total. Besides the capital Brussels (ca. 1 million inhabitants, with its suburbs), several cities transcend, by their economic importance, a purely national interest: Antwerp (256 thousand inhabitants), Ghent (161 thousand inhabitants), center of the wool industry, Liège (151 thousand inhabitants), the principal steel center, Mechelen (61 thousand inhabitants), Ostend (48 thousand inhabitants), etc.

Agriculture and livestock raising, although most flourishing, take second place in the country's economy behind industrial and commercial activity, the former favored by mineral wealth (coal, iron, zinc), the latter by the country's privileged position, at the crossroads of communication routes between non-European regions (beyond England) and Eastern Europe and between the latter and Western Europe.

The kingdom of Belgium is a representative constitutional monarchy with a bicameral Parliament; united in a single State with Holland in 1815, Belgium separated from it in 1830.

II. HISTORICAL EVENTS

It is not necessary to wait for 1830, the year of the revolution that consecrated the definitive separation of the northern Netherlands from the southern ones, in order to speak of B. If the formation of the Belgian State does not go back beyond that date, the southern provinces already had a form of independence of their own under common princes starting from the Middle Ages. Placed between Neustria and Austrasia, the provinces soon freed themselves from the centralizing action of the kingdom of France and of the empire. With the Treaty of Verdun (843), the formation of Lotharingia had bound the Flemings and the Picards of the left bank of the Scheldt to French influence, making the Walloon-and Germanic-speaking populations living on the right of the same river and on the banks of the Meuse depend on the empire.

The families of the counts of Flanders, of Brabant, of Hainaut, of Namur, of Limburg and of Luxembourg often united under the feudal regime in order to preserve their influence beyond their respective frontiers. Bound by marriage ties to the royal families of the neighboring countries, these princes took part in the great politics of their time. Godfrey of Bouillon, one of the leaders of the First Crusade, received in 1099 the title of "advocate of the Holy Sepulchre." The house of Namur preserved the Latin empire of Constantinople from 1217 until its end. The Luxembourgs gave several holders to the Germanic empire. The ecclesiastical principality of Liège did indeed have an independent political life and succeeded in escaping the centralizing movement of the Burgundians in the 15th century, but the elected bishops often belonged to Belgian comital families, and their jurisdiction comprised a good half of the provinces of B. Philip the Good succeeded in bringing about a first union of the States situated between Frisia and Champagne. This union was maintained, after the death of Charles the Bold (1477), by the arms of Maximilian of Habsburg, husband of Mary of Burgundy. This marriage made the Habsburgs the legitimate sovereigns of the United Provinces. For three centuries they had, on assuming power, to swear to preserve the rights and franchises of the communes and of the states, and they were recognized as counts or dukes or marquises in each of the provinces, definitively united and made independent of any vassalage to France or to the empire, starting from Charles V. The communes and the cities enjoyed broad liberties and possessed charters of franchise from the 12th century onward. Taxes and contributions had each year to be approved by the assemblies of the Provincial States, which constituted a limit to the arbitrariness of powerful princes by whom they were dragged into the game of European politics, first under the influence of Spain and then under that of Austria.

Under Charles V and Philip II, the cities of the north underwent more deeply the Protestant influence, Lutheran first and then Calvinist, and together with the southern provinces rose up against Spain. The national sentiment exalted by the desire for political and religious liberties seemed for a moment to triumph after the repressions of the duke of Alba (1568-73) and the failure of Requesens, sent to repair the errors of his predecessor (1573-76). With the "Pacification of Ghent" (1576) the States General in fact proclaimed their independence. Don John of Austria and then Alexander Farnese, aided by the Catholic "Malcontents" of the Confederation of Arras, succeeded in having the authority of Philip II recognized in the southern provinces and in undertaking the subjugation of the northern provinces. William of Orange, leader of the revolt, having been unable to maintain the national ideal of tolerance of 1576, had to resign himself to defending the Union of Utrecht, grouping together the States of the north, Flanders and Brabant. While he was losing these two provinces, Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Frisia, Groningen and Guelders continued the struggle, excluding from their territories any confession other than the Protestant one. The majority of the population, which had remained Catholic but was deprived of its priests, thus passed little by little into heresy.

The struggle between the southern Netherlands (Flanders), which had become practically independent of Spain under the archdukes Albert and Isabella (1598-1623), and the United Provinces continued until 1648 with grave harm to both parties. The reign of the archdukes assured the southern provinces a splendid Catholic renaissance in the field of education, the arts and letters. The Treaty of Münster (1648) consecrated the definitive separation of the north and the south. Flanders lost the Catholic regions of the Lower Scheldt, of northern Brabant and of the Trans-Meuse, and saw the port of Antwerp closed. The wars of Louis XIV took away from the Spanish Netherlands still a good part of the county of Flanders, Artois, Cambrésis, half of Hainaut, Tournai and a part of Luxembourg. The treaties of the Pyrenees (1654), of Aachen (1668) and of Nijmegen (1673) consecrated these successive amputations. The war for the Spanish succession again made the Belgian provinces the principal stake of European rivalries and was the cause of extensive devastations. The Treaty of Utrecht and subsequently the convention of La Barrière (Antwerp 1715) brought these provinces under the authority of the Habsburgs of Austria, after a regime of French and Bavarian influence lasting more than twenty years. The peace restored to the Netherlands of the Austrian crown an incontestable material prosperity, and apart from the parenthesis of the war of the Austrian succession (1745-48) they were able to develop in tranquillity and order. However, the opposition to enlightened despotism had a marked manifestation on the occasion of the ceremony with which the seminary of Louvain was inaugurated in 1785. In 1789 the discontent, until then held in check, broke out in the revolution of Brabant, bringing about the formation of the United Belgian States. But the discord that existed among the conservative representatives led to the loss of what had been achieved. The army of Leopold II, who succeeded Joseph II, retook the provinces in 1790 almost without striking a blow. But in 1794, the French definitively annexed the Austrian Netherlands and the principality of Liège in 1795.

The union of B., Holland (and the grand duchy of Luxembourg, assigned as a personal title to the new king in compensation for the ancestral territories ceded to Prussia) formed, by the Treaty of Vienna, the new kingdom of the Netherlands under the sovereignty of William of Orange-Nassau. This State could constitute a kind of ideal buffer between France and Germany and contribute to the maintenance of the European balance. It could have lived long, had the Protestant king not leaned too heavily on the Dutch Calvinist minorities, to whom he left a preponderant influence in the army and in the ministries; to fuse together populations differing in mentality, religion and language, a sovereign more capable and of more open sentiments than William I of Holland would have been needed. He needlessly alienated the Belgian Catholics with his ill-advised persecutions against the bishop of Ghent and his vicars and with the action carried out against confessional education and the religious Congregations. The law that guaranteed freedom and equality to all cults that did not disturb public tranquillity displeased the bishops and was approved only by a minority of Belgian notables: 527 against 796 and 280 abstentions out of 1,603 called to express their opinion. Despite this warning, William I still had the vain ambition of aiming at the formation of a clergy that would be subservient to his ideas in a compulsory philosophical school. To this end he created a college at Louvain in 1824, which met from the outset with the opposition of the bishops and of the Catholics, and suppressed the small diocesan seminaries and the teaching of the Congregations. The conclusion of a concordat in 1827 was not enough to remove the discredit into which the king's ministers had fallen in their attempt to enslave the Church. The proposal of unworthy candidates to the episcopal sees aroused lively opposition. The liberals, on the other hand, attached to freedom of the press, demanded the restoration of the jury in trials and wanted the responsibility of the ministers. In 1828, having joined their efforts to those of the Catholics, they promoted a general petition in favor of freedom. The work of Lamennais did much to bring Catholics and liberals into agreement, and the agreement was maintained until the revolution. The king's personal absolutism, his obstinacy, his false ideas about the religious value of Catholicism, as well as the servile blindness and sectarianism of the ministers Goubeau and Van Maanen definitively ruined the fragile state artificially pieced together by the Congress of Vienna. The Catholic and liberal press conducted a fierce opposition against the government. The July 1830 revolution in Paris rekindled resentment and increased the audacity of the opponents. The king's ministers took no security measures. The performance of The Mute of Portici, an opera in which the revolt of Masaniello was staged, provoked the enthusiasm of the bourgeoisie and the people of Brussels, an enthusiasm that immediately had its consequences in the streets. The house of the minister Van Maanen was sacked, the revolt spread and gathered strength, and from the provinces it spread to the capital. William I tried to remedy the situation, but it was too late. A provisional government, constituted at the end of Sept., extended its authority over the whole country, proclaimed the independence of B. on 24 Oct. and convoked the national congress. The assembly of 200 directly elected members confirmed the government's decisions from 10 Nov. onward and immediately afterward pronounced itself in favor of the institution of a monarchy.

On 3 Feb. 1831 the national congress elected as king the prince of Nemours, second son of Louis Philippe, but this candidacy was not accepted by the Powers. On 3 June Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, related to the English royal family, was elected. The new king immediately set about obtaining from the conference the treaty of the 18 articles, which granted ample compensation to the Belgian claims both from the territorial and from the financial point of view. The congress ratified the treaty on 9 July and the king was able to make his entry into B. and swear the oath to the constitution on the 21st of the same month.

1. Political organization and parties

The Constituent Assembly had instituted a hereditary constitutional monarchy with the separation of powers. The Church enjoyed total independence, and the ministers of worship were paid by the State.

The first legislative elections took place without a contest: the votes all went to a single unionist party comprising liberals and Catholics. The right to vote was limited to those who paid a determined property qualification, so that that their number did not exceed 30,000. The unionists, under the leadership of Nothomb, Van de Weyer and Theux, held the government from 1830. Nine years later the radical liberals organized a powerful party which separated from the union, while the Catholics, who had remained loyal, prepared public opinion by founding a well-distributed press. A first liberal ministry, presided over by Lebeau, took office in 1840, but the following year it had to give way to the unionist ministry of Nothomb, followed in 1845 by that of Van de Weyer, and in 1846 by the ministry of de Theux. While the Catholics remained loyal to the unionist party, liberal and radical propaganda succeeded in 1842 in preventing the legal recognition of the University of Louvain, and in securing a large parliamentary majority in 1847. With the ministers Charles Rogier and Frère-Orban the political struggle took on a harsh and oppressive aspect with regard to the Church. The liberals aimed to take from it the patrimony of its school foundations, the revenues destined for charitable works, and to eliminate its preponderant influence in the field of education. Catholic and liberal majorities alternated in Parliament until 1884. The Catholics, taught by experience, had renounced unionism and in 1878 had organized themselves into the federation of Catholics, maintaining as their principal objective the defense of the principles of Catholicism, while the liberals moved ever more toward an anticlerical and sectarian policy. This line reached its climax under the liberal ministry of Frère-Orban, which lasted from 1878 to 1884.

BELGIUM. - Historical ecclesiastical map: 1. Antwerp, D. 1559-1801; Pr. 1124-1796; Ci. 1432-1796; Bg. 13th cent. - 2. Bruges, D. 1559-1801; 1834. Can. r. 1050; Ce. 1318; Bg. 1244. - 3. Ghent, D. 1559. St-Bavou: B. 7th cent.-1536; St-Pierre-m. Mont-Blandin: B. 7th cent.-1578-1796; Baudeloo: B. 1197; Ci. 1215-1578; Ghent, 1578-1796. Byloque: Ci. m. 13th cent.-1797; Nissenbosch (see), Ce. 1236; Bg. Grand-Bég. 1232; Pr. Bég. 1234. - 4. Liège-Luik, D. (4th cent.: Tongeren) 718; Liège. St-Laurent: B. 10th cent.-1797; St-Tacques: B. 1015-1797; Robermont: Ci. m. 1215-1796; Vivagnis: 1238-1796; Pr. 1124-1796; B. m. - 5. Malines, AD. 1559 (1801) B. 8th-11th cent.; Can. r. 1289; Bg. 1259. - 6. Namur-Namen, D. 1559 (1801; 1842). Bg. 1235. - 7. Tournai = Doornik, D. 6th cent. (united with Noyon - 1146) (1559, 1801) St-Martin: R. 7th cent.-1796; Prés-Porchins: Can. r. m. 1233-1796. - 8. Ypres = Ypern, D. 1559-1801; Bg. 1240. - 9. Aarschot, Bg. 1250. - 10. Alden-Eyck, B. m. 8th cent.; Can. s. 11th cent.-1571; Bg. 1244. - 11. Alost, BW 1268. - 12. Andenne, B. m. 692-10th cent.; Can. r. m. 1794. - 13. Ath. Ci. m. 1234. - 14. Brogne = St-Gérard, B. 914-1787. - 15. Brussels, Can. s. 1047; Ci. m. 1201. - 16. Diest, Bg. 1247. - 17. Dikkelvenne, B. 734-1081 (then Grammont). - 18. Dilighem, Can. s. 1095 Pr. 1140-1787. - 19. Dinant, B. ? Can. 11th cent., Pr. 1152. - 20. Drongen = Tronchiennes, B. 7th cent.; Pr. 1138. - 21. Edingen = Enghien, Bg. 1255. - 22. Floreffe, Pr. 1121-1797. - 23. Fosse, B. 7th cent.; Can. s. 1008-1796. - 24. Furnes = Veurne B. ? Can. s. 1100; Can. r. 1120; Pr. 1130. - 25. Gembloux, B. 940-1796. - 26. Gistel = Ghistelles, B. m. 1090-1577. - 27. Grammont = Geerardsbergen, B. 8th cent. (Dihlefenne), 1081-1797; Bg. 1245. - 28. Hasselt, Bg. 1245. - 29. Hemiksem, Ci. 1237 (1246). - 30. Herne = Hérinnes, Ce. 1314. - 31. Leuze, B. 7th cent.; Can. s. 11th cent. - 32. Lierre = Lier, Ci. m. 1235; Ce. 1235. - 33. Louvain = Leuven, University; old: 1426-1797 (1835) new: (1833) 1835. - Bg. 1230; B. 1135; Pr. (Parc) 1129; Can. r. 1204; Can. r. m. 1248; Ce. 1489. - S. 15th cent., B. m. - 34. Malonne, B. 7th cent.; Can. s. 9th cent.; Can. r. 1147. - 35. Mons. Ste-Waudru: B. m. 688; Can. s. m. 13th cent.; St-Pierre: B.; Can. s. 959; Val-des-Evoliers: Can. r. 1252-1796; Ci. m. 1216-1678; Bg. 1248. - 36. Moorsel, B. m. 8th-10th cent.; Ci. m. 1228. - 37. Moustier, B. m. 7th cent.; Can. r. m. 13th cent. - 38. Nivelles = Nijvel, B. ? m. 640/50; Can. s. m. 10th cent.-1798; B. 640/50-?; BW 1270; Bg. 1273. - B. 1070; Can. r. 1100; Ci. 1132-1797; Tr. 1926. - 39. Nieuwenbosch, Ci. m. 1246-1578. - 40. Oudenbosch, Ci. m. 1215-46. - 41. Pamele, Ci. m. 1233. - 42. St-Trond, B. 660; Bg. 1265. - 43. Solières = Ben-Ahin, Can. r.; Can. r. m. 1127; Ci. m. 1231-1796. - 44. Tirlemont-Tienen Bg.

The law on elementary education of 1879 banished religious instruction from school curricula and established the erection in each commune of a free, agnostic State school. From 1842 a modus vivendi, acceptable to Catholics, had established that religious instruction was official and under the control of the ministers of worship. Breaking the status quo, the liberals entered into open struggle with the bishops, who in turn condemned the godless schools and forbade the faithful to attend them. Within a few months the Catholics organized elementary schools in all the parishes and, subjecting themselves to grave financial and personal sacrifices, gathered in their free schools more than 63% of the children of school age. The sectarianism and coarseness of the liberals in this struggle so grated on the spirit of the Belgians as to alienate from them definitively the confidence of the electorate. In the elections of 1884 the Catholics obtained an overwhelming majority which was maintained until 1919, despite the considerable broadening of the suffrage and the appearance of a third party, the socialist one.

When in 1918 a ministry of national union was formed, King Albert promised universal suffrage for all citizens who had reached the age of twenty-one, thereby meeting the socialists who had pursued this goal for 40 years. Equality before sacrifice gave the right to electoral equality. The constituent assembly of 1919, elected on the basis of this right, recognized universal suffrage, granting the vote to women only in administrative elections. A simple law could now extend this right to provincial and national elections. The right, which had remained the most numerous party, lost the majority that it had held since 1884, and allowed itself to be deceived by the promises of the socialists by agreeing to support them on the question of votes for women. Subsequently the new party represented by the Flemish nationalists, and then that of the resisters in 1925, greatly reduced the strength of the right, while the communist party made its way within the socialist contingent. This situation for a long time gave the liberal party, reduced to about 25 deputies, the function of arbiter of the coalition governments that divided power between the two wars. In 1948 women's suffrage was extended to all elections. In the present Chamber there are 92 deputies of the social Catholic party, 65 socialists, 21 liberals and 23 communists. In the Senate the social Catholic party has almost half the seats. The government, presided over by Spaak, a socialist, has included since 1947 representatives of the social Christian party and of the socialists. The socialist-liberal-communist coalition, which had taken power in July 1945, has ceased to exist because of the monarchical question.

2. Economic and social questions

If the field of party struggle during most of the 19th century had been almost completely limited to the doctrinal one, this depended on the fact that from the economic and social point of view the censitary electors, grouped in the Catholic and liberal parties, were almost entirely in agreement.

Faced with this industrial prosperity, the condition of those workers who could not defend their rights by means of associations was precarious, and the reports of the Catholic congresses of Malines in 1863 reveal the existence of numerous abuses in the organization of the workers' lives, but the liberal spirit was still too strong to be able to appeal successfully to the coercive intervention of the State. The liberal myth of the harmony of interests prevented action by men of good will.

Socialist propaganda found favorable ground among the masses of workers torn from their usual dwelling, badly housed and forced to conceal their movements of solidarity in mutual aid societies. The right to strike and to organize workers was recognized by law in 1866. The inquiry of 1866 allowed the Catholic ministry of Beernaert to realize the gravity of the situation and led it to undertake a progressive social legislation that placed B. in the vanguard of Europe. The main laws concerned the following heads: prohibition of work for children and of the employment of women in mines and in unhealthy industries; limitation of the duration of work in mines, and subsequently in workshops; protection of wages and insurance measures against accidents at work; accident insurance and provident insurance for old age; construction of houses for workers, and finally reform of the electoral code.

The socialist trade unions, which were the first to be organized, counted numerous Catholic workers. An imposing complex of cooperatives and mutual aid funds supported the movement, which had two great daily newspapers and a political party strongly disciplined and united, in order to be able to achieve effectively its objective, consisting of universal suffrage. The Catholics, who had become aware of the existence of the social question, ever since the congress of Malines in 1863, waited a long time before acting. It would be necessary to wait until 1895, 5 years after the Rerum novarum, to have a formal response on the matter. The time lost in this deplorable delay was never regained. The working masses were won over by socialist propaganda, especially in Wallonia, and the efforts of the Christian democrats, led by G. Kurth and by the abbé Pottier, were exhausted in sterile polemics with the conservative right. The heroism of which the Christian trade-union workers had to give proof in order to regain the lost time will never be sufficiently emphasized. In 1901 they were 11 thousand, in 1914 123 thousand, in 1939 350 thousand, at present they are 500 thousand. The greatest number of members comes from the Flemish regions. At present the Walloon Christian workers' movement, although after the intervention of the J.O.C. (Jeunesse Ouvrière Catholique) it is not a negligible quantity, is nevertheless far from the ranks of socialist trade unionism. In the Walloon regions there are: about 60 thousand Christian trade unionists as against 350 thousand socialists. The Flemish workers have Het volk, a well-edited newspaper with a large circulation. And it should also be emphasized that the average age of the workers enrolled in the Christian trade unions is below forty, while those enrolled in the socialist trade unions are distinctly older. The mutual aid societies at the beginning of the 19th century were solely of Christian inspiration and the members remained for a long time in the old frameworks. The socialists have for 30 years directed their efforts toward this sector. The numbers of socialist participants were 723,203 as of 31 Dec. 1946, while those of the Christian works amounted to 681-710.

If the Catholics suffered an undeniable setback in the organization of the working class, for having remained too long opposed to trade unions, they have in compensation grouped in the Flemish-speaking regions the great majority of the peasants in the «Boerenbond» (v.), or peasants' association. In 1880 the peasants had been struck by a serious agricultural crisis. But in a few years Belgian agriculture succeeded in overcoming the crisis, doubling and in certain cases even tripling the production per hectare, and in orienting itself toward more profitable industrial crops or toward selected livestock breeding.

The establishment of the agricultural cooperatives for sale, purchase and loans of the «Boerenbond» (v.) saved Belgian agriculture, assuring it one of the first places in Europe.

3. Flemish question

In 1830 the reaction against the Dutch laws concerning language had led the constituent assembly to deliberately ignore the Flemish language in political life, in the administration and even in the courts, and this while the majority of the population of the northern provinces did not know French. Starting from 1840 a vast movement of literary rebirth manifested itself in the Flemish countries, bringing as a consequence the demand for equality for the two languages of the nation. The first manifestations within Parliament occurred in 1856. In 1886 the Beernaert ministry, Catholic, founded the Flemish Academy, causing every remnant of inferiority of the Flemings before the courts to disappear. The democratization of the electorate led to the Chambers deputies who did not know French and placed the language problem on a broader plane: the Flemish question became one of the aspects of the social question. The «Frans-quillons», bourgeois of the Flemish cities, bound for centuries to French culture, disdained the popular language and neglected knowledge of the literary one, which was an impediment to the cultural emancipation of the Flemish masses. The action of the supporters of Flemish soon took on a sentimental and romantic aspect animated by a lively nationalist sentiment. Catholic youth and the clergy participated actively in this movement for the vindication of Flemish rights and of the equality of the language, directed more against the «frans-quillones» classes than against the Walloons. The demands were: exclusive use of Flemish in education and in the administration, regional recruitment with entirely Flemish units. These demands, supported in Parliament by a part of the right and by a few deputies of the other parties, were realized gradually, raising passionate polemics. During the German occupation of 1914-18, the German authorities sought to take advantage of the Flemish movement to divide the country and impose administrative separation and make the University of Ghent Flemish, which was the only higher institute reopened under the pressure of the occupying authorities. The polemics that followed poisoned for several years the internal politics of B. Under the pressure of these movements the Flemish Catholics had to support the relative legislative measures. The present state is the following: regional monolingualism, bilingualism in the agglomeration of Brussels and in the general administration and bilingualism in Parliament. The legitimate demands of the Flemings were thus little by little satisfied and the Flemish nationalist party, compromised by its relations with the occupier during the Second World War, ceased to exist. The linguistic difficulties that made their weight gravely felt on the life of B. are thus definitively eliminated.

The population of Belgium has been continuously increasing, despite the losses caused by the last two wars. In 1831 it numbered 3,786,000 inhabitants; a century later, that is in 1913, 7,639,000; and in 1948, 8,450,000. The birth rate remained below 3.2% until 1880, then gradually decreased to 1.4%, subsequently rising again to 1.7% in 1947. The demographic crisis and the influence of neo-Malthusianism are particularly strong in the large urban centers and in the Walloon regions.

III. THE CHURCH IN BELGIUM

The Christian conquest of Romanized B. (which was part of Gallia Belgica) was relatively late, and few records of it survive. The bishop of Tongres, Servatius (Servais), appears at the Council of Rimini in 359, while Superior, bishop of Nerviens, is cited in a Council of Gaul in 356. The persons named in the earliest episcopal lists of Tongres and Tournai, which go back to the time of the disciples of St. Peter, are legendary. To have other names of bishops that offer a sure historical guarantee, one must wait until the 6th century.

Falco, bishop of Tongres, and Vedast (Vaast), bishop of Arras, are contemporaries of Clovis. Eleutherius appears at Tournai around 531. These bishoprics do not seem to have had a long duration: Arras was united to Cambrai until 1094, and Tournai was annexed to Noyon until the 12th century. From Maastricht the see of Tongres was transferred to Liège after the death of St. Lambert in 705. A bishopric founded at Thérouanne by St. Audomar (Omer) in 663 extended its jurisdiction over western Flanders. The boundaries of the dioceses, fixed at that time on those of the Roman political divisions, remained unchanged until 1559.

St. Amand, St. Remaclus and their monks were the principal evangelizers of B. until the 7th century. Numerous abbeys were founded at Ghent, Stavelot, Fosses, St-Trond, Lobbes, St-Hubert, Andennes, Nivelles.

Irish and Anglo-Saxon monks helped them in re-establishing Christianity. Hagiographic legends give us the biography of these valiant pioneers, but they are too late or too conventional to offer an exact picture of this slow work. The Danish, Norman and Hungarian invasions of the 9th century often destroyed the monasteries. The parishes established under Charlemagne were developed by Bishop Walecand of Liège, who attended to the religious instruction of the faithful and the formation of their pastors. In the 11th century, therefore, parochial centers multiplied in the cities and villages, and alongside the ancient popular churches arose castral or demesnial churches. Chapters and collegiate churches were instituted in the towns: in 1122 their number reached 90. The dioceses were divided into archdeaconries and deaneries governed according to customary law. In the 12th century there is a new flowering of monasteries: Floreffe, Averbode, Tongerloo, St. Michael's of Antwerp, founded by St. Norbert, Villers, Orval, Aulne, founded by St. Bernard. These abbeys favor the formation of the clergy and of the parishes or ensure the cultivation of abandoned lands. The abbeys, the chapters, and the lords exercise an extensive right of patronage over the parish churches of their domains, collect the tithes and seriously oppose the episcopal power. Of 3587 churches, as many as B. then counted, 465 are consecrated to the Madonna, 230 to St. Peter, especially the oldest ones, and 350 to St. Martin.

The bishops Notger of Liège (972-1008) and Erluin of Cambrai obtained recognition as counts and princes of the empire and constituted important principalities in their dioceses. Their successors were likewise involved in feudal struggles, and their sees were the object of political ambitions. Bishops and abbots of the 11th and 12th centuries were often feudal lords before being pastors of souls. Vazon of Liège and Gerard of Cambrai (1030) deserve honorable mention. The bishops of Thérouanne and of Tournai, dominated by the counts of Flanders, often incurred the accusation of simony and caused scandal by the tolerance shown toward the concubinage of priests.

From the beginning of the 13th century, Franciscan and Dominican convents arise from most of the cities, dedicating themselves to preaching and making up for the gaps in the ministry of the secular clergy. Female monasteries likewise multiply: first the Norbertines, then the Cistercians, the Beguines and then again the Franciscans. There are numerous vocations of mystics: Beatrice, Hadewijk and Juliana of Cornillon, to whom the celebration of the feast of the Sacrament, "Corpus Domini," instituted in 1248, goes back.

From the first part of the Middle Ages there remain as monuments the churches of Nivelles, St. Bartholomew in Liège, Hastière, and Celles, whose style is linked to Rhenish Romanesque. Liège and Tournai are in this period centers of goldsmithing and ivory sculpture. In the 13th century the cathedrals of Tournai, St. Bavo in Ghent, St. Gudula in Brussels are built. Hugh of Oignies produces masterpieces of goldsmithing with the shrines of St. Hadelin of Visé and of St. Gertrude of Nivelles. In the 15th and 16th centuries buildings of great artistic value arose, such as the church of St-Rombaut in Malines and the abbey churches of Orval and of Villers. Liège and Tournai were considerable intellectual centers in the 11th and 13th centuries.

The Burgundian period was disturbed by the great schism. The hierarchy dependent on France declared for Avignon, while the people of Liège and of Flanders remained faithful to Rome. From the religious point of view, the bad choice of bishops, hunters of benefices, appointed by the popes of Avignon and then by the dukes of Burgundy, accelerated the religious decadence, which extended until the 16th century. The foundation of the University of Louvain in 1425 fortunately constituted a precious bulwark and exercised a profound influence on the country, favoring the formation of a common intellectual mentality and of educated pastors. The Lutheran error was condemned at Louvain as early as September 1520, even before the Church of Rome intervened. Lutheranism had little success at first, except in Antwerp and a few other cities. The Anabaptists made a deeper breach among the popular masses; while Calvinism was more widely accepted by the intellectuals in Hainaut and in Flanders, though never in the proportions reached in the northern provinces of Holland and in Frisia. The most critical moment was that of 1565, at the time of the iconoclastic excesses. The bloody repression of the duke of Alba stiffened the opposition even more, and it was necessary to wait for the reaction of the Walloons and the success of the campaigns of Alexander Farnese for the Catholic worship to recover its freedom in the counties of Flanders and in Brabant.

The principal reform consists in the creation of 14 new bishoprics in 1559, at the request of Philip II. The new bishops were able, from 1565 onward, to apply the decisions of the Council of Trent and to watch over their observance as soon as the armies of Farnese had pacified B. Aided by the Jesuits, the Capuchins, the Recollects, the Benedictines, the Carmelites and the Oratorians, they prepared the magnificent Catholic renaissance of the reign of the archdukes. The heretics were absorbed or had to leave the country. In the 17th century the number of Calvinists in the Catholic Netherlands was reduced to a few representatives. The nunciature, established in Brussels in 1596, collaborated in the efforts of the bishops, giving particularly its help in the action aimed at subjecting the chapters that had remained exempt.

Order and concord, however, were soon disturbed, at the risk even of the faith, by the polemics raised following the spread of Jansenist doctrines (1642). The bishops of Malines, Ghent and Ypres and a good part of the theological faculty of Louvain rose up against the condemnation of Jansenius, bishop of Ypres, who had always lived in union with the Church, attributing it to the hostility of the Jesuits, and they did not submit to the decision of the Pontiff until 1643. The energetic action of the archbishops De Procipiano (1690-1710) and Philip of Alsace (1716-65) was necessary to eliminate every remnant of opposition within the ranks of the clergy. The work carried out by the latter to secure acceptance of the bull Unigenitus and recognition of the pontifical authority was so highly appreciated that he was named cardinal in 1719. Jansenism nevertheless remained powerful in the councils and would make its influence felt in the State's opposition to the privileges of the clergy.

The bishops of the Austrian period were in general active and spared their faithful the deleterious influence of the French encyclopedists. The suppression of the Society of Jesus and of its numerous colleges under Maria Theresa, and subsequently the abolition of numerous contemplative convents under Joseph II, as well as the other anti-ecclesiastical laws of this sovereign, gave tangible proof of the loss of influence suffered by Catholicism. The Brabant revolution was one of its consequences. In the last years of the 18th century the number of those who did not make their Easter duty in Brussels could already be reckoned at 30 to 40%.

Dechristianization was accentuated by the French invasion. The French confiscated and sold the goods of the Church; they abolished 9 bishoprics, 3,400 parishes, 12 seminaries, 25 chapters, 110 abbeys, 275 convents with more than 17,350 religious. The persecution reached unheard-of proportions. With the Concordat of 1802 the dioceses were profoundly transformed. Besides the archbishopric of Malines, the bishoprics of Ghent, Tournai, Liège and Namur were reborn. The Rhenish dioceses of Aachen, Trier and Mainz were united to the metropolis; the department "of the forests", the former Luxembourg, was assigned to the diocese of Metz. Napoleon appointed French bishops everywhere, and these immediately became suspect to a part of the clergy because of their submission to the organic articles; they nevertheless succeeded in reorganizing worship everywhere and in recovering the goods that had not been alienated. But the imposition of the imperial catechism in 1806, and immediately afterwards the rupture with the pontiff Pius VII, unleashed a violent opposition. The bishops of Tournai and of Ghent were imprisoned for having upheld the viewpoint of their clergy at the Council of Paris of 1811. At the moment of the liberation of B. in 1814 there was only one bishop in the exercise of his functions, that of Namur. The bishops of Tournai and of Ghent, having resumed their sees, opposed the adoption of the constitutional law of the new kingdom of the Netherlands and the oath to it, which from the religious point of view they had reason to consider suspect. The conflict became even more bitter when in June 1825 William I suppressed free secondary education and made obligatory the philosophical college of Louvain, which was under government control. The conclusion of the concordat in 1827 and the appointment of new bishops, after long discussions with Rome, and the fruitless presentation of unworthy candidates, did not serve to dampen the zeal of the petitioners. William delayed until 1829 the abolition of the school laws. The Belgian liberals, allied with the Catholics, supported the overthrow of the regime in 1830.

In possession of all the freedoms guaranteed by the constitution of 1831, the new bishops, strengthened by the appointment to Malines of Sterkx, formerly vicar general, and by the re-establishment of the bishopric of Bruges in 1834, were able to reorganize Catholic education. With the founding of a university at Malines and in 1835 at Louvain, they secured for Belgian Catholics the means for a higher scientific formation. The religious congregations took great advantage of the freedom of association. The same may be said of numerous hospital and teaching congregations, which secured for Belgian Catholics almost a monopoly of female institutions of secondary education and of charity. As already in the time of the archdukes, there was a veritable Christian rebirth. The seminaries, crowded again, provided numerous and enthusiastic recruits to the diocesan clergy. The ideas of Lamennais, which had made a strong impression on the Belgian clergy before he was condemned in 1832, were gradually abandoned or modified, thanks to the good sense of the bishops and despite the apprehensions of Leopold I and of Roman circles. At Louvain, however, traditionalism had some excessively ardent partisans.

If Belgian Catholics knew from the outset how to profit from freedom of teaching, they nevertheless neglected freedom of the press too much, allowing themselves to be outstripped by the strongly anticlerical liberal newspapers, which conducted a relentless campaign against the Church. One of the most burning questions that arose under the first liberal ministries was that of the secularization of charitable institutions and of cemeteries. Card. Sterkx and after him Card. Dechamps, his successor, fought in vain to obtain recognition of the civil personality of convents and charitable works. It was necessary to wait for the law of 1912 on non-profit associations before Catholics could have satisfaction on this point. The struggle for the defense of Catholic positions was supported by the bishops Malou of Bruges and De Montpellier of Liège. The difficulties it had to overcome reached their maximum in the battle over education that broke out in 1879. The bishops, by their intransigence, galvanized the resistance of Belgian Catholics and emerged victorious from the crisis of 1884. Apostolic activity is marked by the congresses held at Malines in 1863 and in the following years, and from the social point of view by the congresses of Liège in 1886 and of Malines in 1898 and 1909. Parish missions and retreats for workers were one of the most effective means of slowing the movement of progressive dechristianization that struck the Belgian church starting from 1890. The tactic adopted from then on by the clergy and the faithful was to organize the greatest possible number of works specifically directed to the needs of individual social groups. These works were strongly encouraged by the episcopate under the inspiration of Card. Goossens (1883-1906) and of Card. Mercier (1906-26). The latter was also the inspirer of the Association of Belgian Catholic Youth, whose dynamism and great congresses of Charleroi and Liège in 1928 awakened so many hopes in Belgian Catholics. Among the working class the J. O. C. (Jeunesse ouvrière catholique), founded by Abbé Cardijn, provided a new formula for the reconquest of working women. One of the most painful preoccupations of the laborious apostolate of the Belgian clergy, both secular and regular, is certainly the phenomenon of the dechristianization of working-class centers. The curve of dechristianization is on the rise, despite

Despite the courageous and constant efforts of the clergy and of the organizations of Catholic Action, it is foreseeable that, under the pressure of atheistic communism and socialism, the number of the unbaptized, of non-practicing Catholics, of divorces and of illegitimate unions will increase still further in the coming years. The middle and rural classes of B. have for the most part remained faithful to the Church. It therefore seems that the abandonment of the faith by the working masses largely found a favorable occasion in the delay with which Catholics decided to organize independent Christian trade unions. The clergy, formed in holiness in the seminaries, is in general full of zeal, hard-working, chaste and disciplined, but it has been overtaken by the too rapid evolution of modern life. And perhaps those who had responsibility for souls did not have enough boldness and initiative. The recent missionary efforts will undoubtedly later have the merit of leading back to the Church the crowds, especially of workers, uprooted from their places of origin, who have abandoned it, but who in their sense of justice and solidarity preserve a good part of the Christian spirit. B. also employed its apostolic generosity in the missionary undertakings of the Congo and of other pagan lands. The number of missionaries of both sexes working in the most distant countries reaches 3000. The Congo alone has 1500 of them, and the fruits have been worthy of the work carried out: after 70 years more than a quarter of the native population has been won to Christianity. The number of the baptized and of catechumens exceeds 3 million. These results prove the great Christian vitality of the mother country and the legitimate hope of one day succeeding in winning back the few thousand dechristianized inhabitants of Wallonia.

The population of B. on 1 January 1948 was 8,450,000 inhabitants, distributed very unevenly among the different dioceses. The archbishop of Malines counts 3500 priests for more than 3 million inhabitants. The population of each of the other dioceses generally exceeds one million, except Namur, which has fewer than 600,000 inhabitants and 1200 priests. The same disproportion exists in the parishes. It is not rare to find in the diocese of Malines parishes with more than 25,000 inhabitants, while some parishes of the diocese of Namur have only 250.

Each bishopric has one or more minor seminaries and a major seminary. The number of vocations, which was long sufficient for the needs of the Belgian Church, currently tends to decline, although overall it is fairly high. The diocese of Tournai, which had suffered in past years from a shortage of vocations, is gradually recovering. Seminarians are obliged to perform military service, which is carried out in homogeneous medical units. Seminarians and religious can, during their year of service, continue their theology courses under the direction of their chaplain and of specially appointed professors. Two houses dependent on the episcopate allow a certain number of seminarians and young priests to pursue their university studies at Louvain. However, the demands of the parochial ministry restrict the number of those who can be granted permission to continue higher studies. The Belgian College of Rome hosts a certain number of priests and seminarians who study at the pontifical institutes.

The fidelity and attachment of the Belgian episcopate and of Belgian Catholics to the Holy See have never been belied from 1830 onward. It was in the diocese of Ghent that in 1859 the work of the Peter's Pence was founded, intended to help the Holy See in the defense of its sovereignty. Many Belgians served among the pontifical Zouaves organized by the minister of arms of the Papal State, Msgr. De Mérode. In the doctrinal field, the intervention of Card. Dechamps, archbishop of Malines (1865-83), was among the most notable. The constitution Dei filius of the Vatican Council took up the essential part of his argument. All the Belgian bishops supported the definition of the Pope's infallibility, a traditional doctrine of the University of Louvain. Card. Mercier, archbishop of Malines, and his successor, have continued the tradition of the attachment of the Belgian Church to that of Rome. The representatives of the Holy See in B., internuncios from 1835 to 1841 and then nuncios from 1841 to 1880 and from 1880 to our own days, have discharged with honor the delicate task of temporizers, when the liberal and sectarian governments, from the very beginning of independence, found themselves at grips with combative and energetic bishops. In the school conflict of 1879 the latter were victims of the sectarianism with which the struggle was conducted, and because of the intransigence of the liberals, relations with the Holy See remained interrupted for five years. When the Catholic ministry of 1885 had restored the normality of relations, the nuncios practiced a policy of pacification that earned them the gratitude of the Belgians several times. The most famous of the former nuncios was Msgr. Pecci, who later became Pope under the name of Leo XIII. The nuncios have never ceased to participate intimately in the life of Belgian Catholics, and they validly defended them during the difficult period of the foreign occupation.

Stavelot-Malmédy, in Terre wallonne, 10 (1924); Th. Ploegserts, Les moniales cisterciennes, 4 voll. (Aywieres, La Ramée, Florival e Wauthier-Braine), Bruxelles 1925-26; J.-M. Canives, L'ordre de Cîteaux en Belgique des origines (1930) au XXe siècle, Forges-les-Chimay 1926; Fl. Prims, Geschiedenis van Antwerpen, Bruxelles 1927; A. Poncelet, Histoire de la Compagnie de Jésus dans les anciens Pays-Bas, 2 voll., ivi 1927-28; L'université de Louvain à travers cinq siècles. Etudes historiques, pubblicati sotto la direzione di L. Van der Essen, ivi 1927; Autori vari, Histoire de la Belgique contemporaine, 3 voll., ivi 1928-30; L. Jadin, Procès d'information pour la nomination des évêques et des abbés des Pays-Bas, de Liège..., 3 voll., Roma 1928-31; L.-E. Halkin, L'héroïne et sa répression au pays de Liège avant la Réforme, Tongres 1929; F. Willock, L'introduction des décrets du Concile de Trente dans les Pays-Bas et dans la principauté de Liège, Louvain 1929; U. Berlière, Coup d'œil historique sur l'ordre bénédictin en Belgique dans le passé et dans le présent, in Revue liturgique et monastique, 14 (1929), pp. 458-522; V. Fris, Histoire de Gand, Gand 1930; S. Tassier, Les démocrates belges de 1789. Etude sur le vœu-rhisme et la révolution brabançonne, Bruxelles 1930; H. J. Elias, Kerk en Staat in de zuidelijke Nederlanden onder de redeering der artshertogen Albrecht en Isabella (1595-1621), Anversa 1931; A. Verhaegen, Le card. de Franckenberg, Lilla s. d.; E. de Moreau, Belgique, in DIIG, VII, coll. 520-736.

L. Jadin
IV. LETTERA-
TURE - In Belgium, part of which was annexed to France under Louis XIV, the two ethnic groups, the Flemish, of Dutch language, and the Walloon, of French language, have their own literatures, which, nevertheless, as an effect of living together and of intermarriage, agree in expressing with a wealth of color (the first more than the second, refined by the Latin genius), deep feelings and aspirations for well-being that are sometimes too material or sensual.

1. Flemish literature

In the thirteenth century Flemish didactic poetry is represented by Jacob van Maerlant, translator of French and Latin works, and mysticism by the religious women Beatrice van Nazareth and Hadewijch, whose work in the fourteenth century is surpassed by the greatest mystic of the Low Countries, the Bl. John van Ruysbroeck (d. 1381), with his masterpiece Die cierheit der gheesteliker Brulocht ("The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage"). The "Chambers of Rhetoric" (rederijkerskamers), associations whose purpose was the recitation and performance of mysteries, dramas, miracle plays, etc., persisted until the seventeenth century. The Renaissance with its individualism, Humanism with its return to classical antiquity, the Reformation with the rupture of the unity of religious beliefs, the religious and political struggles and finally the separation from Flanders of the Northern United Provinces (Holland), all this greatly influenced the literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It fell to classicism and later to other French cultural currents to act upon the Flemish literature of the following century, which nevertheless marks a decadence.

When Belgium became independent in 1830, Flemish literature flourished again, in reaction against French influence, and could boast a Jan Frans Willems (d. 1846), father of the movement itself, and Canon Jan David (d. 1866), and writers both romantic and realist such as Hendrik Conscience (d. 1883), author of the celebrated De Leeuw van Vlaanderen ("The Lion of Flanders") and August Snieders (d. 1904), among the most prolific and the most widely read. There followed a host of literary men, for the most part of genuine Catholic faith and particularly interested in social problems, and they were poets, playwrights, novelists, short-story writers, critics, historians. To West Flanders belong Father Guido Gezelle (d. 1899), a poet comparable to Vondel, the poet Albrecht Rodenbach (d. 1880), the short-story writers Hugo Verriest (d. 1922) and Stijn Streuvels (pseudonym of Frank Lateur). Among those who wrote in this century are also to be remembered Edward Vermeulen, Karel van de Woestijne

(d. 1929), August Vermeylen (d. 1945), Maurits Sabbe (d. 1938), Maria Belpaire (d. 1948), Cyriel Verschaeve, Ernest Claes, Felix Timmermans (d. 1947), whose volume entitled Pallieter was translated into various languages.

To the development and diffusion of Flemish literature the journals Van Nu en Straks (founded in 1893) and Dietsche Warande en Belfort (founded in 1900), the latter genuinely Catholic, also contributed effectively. To the study of asceticism and mysticism that flourished in the Low Countries up to 1750, on the other hand, the journal Ons geestelijk Erf (founded in 1927) is dedicated.

2. French literature

Apart from the works written in the Picard and Walloon dialects, the French literature of Belgium begins in the thirteenth century, with the chanson de geste of Adenet le Roi and the rhymed chronicle of Philippe Mousket, and continues in the fourteenth century with the chronicles of Jean le Bel and of Jean Froissart (d. 1404), his brilliant continuator. Generous patrons in the fifteenth century are the four Dukes of Burgundy, from Philip the Bold (d. 1404) to Charles the Bold (d. 1475), possessors also of rich libraries. Distinguished historiographers are, in that century, Georges Chastellain (d. 1475), Jean Molinet (d. 1507), Jean Lemaire de Belges (d. 1524) and Philippe de Commines (d. 1511), the latter a truly modern writer. The same factors that influenced the evolution of Flemish literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries also act upon the contemporary French literature; the prince of Ligne (d. 1814) is the most important among the writers of the eighteenth century.

The establishment of the kingdom (1830) was followed by a renewal of literature, which in the last century boasted the poet André Van Hasselt (d. 1874), the moralist Octave Pirmez (d. 1883), the novelist Charles De Coster (d. 1879), author of La légende d'Ulenspiegel; the historians Louis Gachard (d. 1885), Joseph Kervyn de Lettenhove, Léon Vanderkindere; the orators Charles

Rogier (d. 1885), Hubert Frère-Orban (d. 1896), Auguste Beernaert (d. 1912) and Msgr. Charles Cartuyvels (d. 1907); the theologian Cardinal Victor Dechamps (d. 1883), Redemptorist, archbishop of Malines.

To a further renewal, which combative university students initiated, the journal La Jeune Belgique (founded in 1881) contributed, of Max Waller (pseudonym of Maurice Warlomont), Georges Rodenbach (d. 1920), Ivan Gilkin (d. 1926) and Albert Giraud (whose aims were summed up by the formula, then much debated, L'art pour l'art and by the motto Ne crains, corrected by the addition fort Dieu; to its efforts a group of young Catholics also joined theirs (Henri Moeller, Henri Carton de Wiart, etc.) to whom the founding of the journal Durendal (founded in 1894) is due.

Among the best writers of this century, although not always respectful of the Catholic faith and morals, are to be noted Camille Lemonnier (d. 1913), a naturalist novelist, the distinguished poet Émile Verhaeren (d. 1916), the celebrated playwright Maurice Maeterlinck (d. 1920). Let us also remember the poets Father Hector Hoornaert, Georges Rency, Alphonse Hardy; the playwrights Fernand Crommelynck, Gustave Van Zype; the novelists Edmond Picard (d. 1924), Edmond Glesener, Georges Virrès, Léopold Courouble, Henri Davignon; the short-story writer Paul Demade; the critics Eugène Gilbert (d. 1919), Msgr. Schyrgens (d. 1937), Firmin van den Bosch (d. 1949); the orators Auguste Beernaert (d. 1912), Charles Woeste (d. 1922); the historians Godefroid Kurth (d. 1916) and Henri Pirenne (d. 1935); the philosophers Maurice De Wulf (d. 1948) and Cardinal Désiré Mercier, archbishop of Malines (d. 1926).

For art, v. FIAMMINGA, ARTE.

Auguste Pelzer

V. SCHOOL SYSTEM

Belgian school instruction is based on interdenominationalism and neutrality. Religion is compulsory, but anyone is given the possibility of exemption from religious instruction. 10% of pupils are exempted.

Preschool instruction is provided in kindergartens, which are divided into 1,290 municipal, 1,040 Catholic, and 1,336 private ones.

School instruction comprises primary and secondary schools and the university. Primary schools comprise 5,077 "écoles communales," 1,971 "écoles adoptées," and 1,295 "écoles adoptables" and "écoles privates." The "école communale" is neutral and interdenominational; the "école adoptée" is a school of the Catholic Church, comes under the jurisdiction of the State, and is obliged to provide free instruction to a certain number of children. The "école adoptable" is a private school that does not come under state jurisdiction; the teachers are paid by the State. The "école private" does not come under the jurisdiction of the State. Secondary schools are divided into lower and upper, both male and female. Lower male secondary schools are divided into 89 state, 7 municipal, 6 patronal, 41 religious, and 23 private. Female secondary schools comprise 46 state, 10 municipal, 252 religious, and 26 private. The duration of these is two years. From the lower secondary schools one proceeds to those of a higher grade, which are called "athenaeums" or "colleges." There exist 26 athenaeums, 4 municipal colleges, 9 patronal colleges, 61 episcopal colleges, 41 colleges of religious orders, and 19 private colleges. The universities are 4: the Catholic University of Louvain, founded in 1835, has taken up again the ancient traditions of the one founded in 1425 in the same city; the Flemish University of Ghent, founded in 1806; the Liberal University of Brussels, founded in 1834; and the State University of Liège, founded in 1816. There exist 4 state conservatories, in Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, and Liège, in addition to the numerous municipal conservatories in the major centers.

Teachers are trained in the "écoles normales primaires," which have a duration of 5 years. They are divided into male and female primary normal schools. The former comprise 9 state, 5 municipal, 17 episcopal, and 1 run by a religious order. The latter comprise 7 state, 7 municipal, 36 episcopal, and 8 run by religious orders. The Catholic clergy is instructed in the 6 episcopal seminaries and at the theological faculty of the University of Louvain.

Young people who intend to go to the colonies are instructed at the Colonial University of Antwerp. - See Pl. LXXIV.

Miroslav Stumpf