BROGLIE, MAURICE-JEAN-MADELEINE, prince of. — Bishop, born at the castle of Broglie, in Normandy, on 5 September 1766, died in Paris on 20 July 1821. Educated at the seminary of S. Sulpizio in Paris, he was initially favorable to the Revolution, but subsequent events disgusted him. He then emigrated to Trier, where he was ordained a priest. Having returned to France in 1803, Napoleon appointed him chaplain, and two years later bishop of Acqui. In August 1807, for reasons of health, he had himself transferred to the episcopal see of Ghent. Decorated with the Legion of Honour, Bishop B. refused to take the required oath, considering such an act an approval of the violence perpetrated against Pius VII through the occupation of the Papal States in 1809. Called to join the Ecclesiastical Council in March 1811, at the National Council he was among the most determined opponents of Napoleon’s plan concerning the canonical institution of bishops, which Napoleon wished to remove from the Pope. Imprisoned at Vincennes, B. was compelled to resign the see (21 November).
After the emperor’s fall, B. was firmly opposed to the provisions of the Dutch constitution that required the civil oath of the clergy. Again threatened with the loss of his personal freedom, he took refuge in France. In 1817, the Brabant Court of Assizes condemned the bishop of Ghent in absentia to deportation.
Silvio Furlani
BROKEN HILL, DIOCESI e PREFETTURA APOSTOLICA, V. respectively: WILKANNIA-FORBES, DIOCESI di and LUSAKA, PREFETTURA APOSTOLICA di.