Louvain, University of

LOUVAIN, University of. - Founded on 9 Dec. 1425 by Pope Martin V at the request of John IV, Duke of Brabant, to draw toward the capital of the Duchy the young men of the Low Countries who were heading for Cologne and above all for Paris. As early as 7 March 1432 Pope Eugene IV granted the erection of a Faculty of theology.

From 1425 to 1797 the University preserved its original religious and civil characteristics, continuing to depend both on the authority of the Holy See and on that of the national powers, and it remained the only university of the Low Countries until the founding of that of Douai (1560) for the Walloon provinces and of that of Leiden (1575) for the Protestant provinces of the North that had made themselves independent. In the theological Faculty Adrian Floriszoon, later Adrian VI, distinguished himself by his teaching. Under Charles V (1506-55), L. became an important center of Humanism; the book industry established and developed itself there. It was visited by Thomas More; Erasmus resided there; G. Busleyden founded there the famous Collegium Trilingue; it was at the head of the struggle against Luther and counted eminent theologians, such as Driedo, Latomus, Tapper, Hessels; it published an edition of the Vulgate (1547), a Dutch version of the Bible (1548) and an Index of forbidden books (1547). It took part in the Council of Trent and favored the erection of new dioceses under Philip II (M. Dierckx, Deoprichting der nieuwe bisdommen in de Nederlanden onder Filips II, Antwerp-Utrecht 1950).

The Spanish period of the University (1555-68; 1633-1715) is marked by turmoil and incessant wars, except for the time of the archdukes Albert and Isabella (1598-1633). Nevertheless, it was then that the revision of the Vulgate and the edition of the Plantin Polyglot were produced, and the struggle against the Calvinists continued, although some doctors, such as Baius, came under their influence. Likewise the arrival of the Jesuits at L. gave rise to a series of conflicts between them and the University, both on the juridical and on the doctrinal plane. The greatest distinction to the old institution was conferred by Prof. Justus Lipsius, who had definitively returned to Catholicism. With King Philip IV (1633) a period of wars with the kings of France began again for the Low Countries and L. suffered greatly from it, while the internal tranquility of the University was disturbed by the publication of the posthumous work Augustinus, of the bishop of Ypres, Cornelius Jansenius (v.). Other currents of ideas agitated the teaching body, with regard to laxist morality, while in the Faculty of arts Cartesian ideas were spreading (Fromond), and in canon law Zeger van Espen upheld opinions contrary to the rights of the Holy See. Nevertheless the University, in its majority, did not desist from defending the strictest orthodoxy and expelled from its bosom those who did not accept the bull Unigenitus (1729).

With the Austrian period (1715-94) there was an ever greater interference of the State in the University. Joseph II in fact erected there his famous general Seminarium, which ended in a failure, and transferred to Brussels the Faculties of law, of medicine and of arts. Hardly re-established in its prerogatives, on 1 March 1790, the University was suppressed and sacked by the French on 25 Oct. 1797; the Library was sold at auction, the professors dispersed, the revenues confiscated, many of its colleges demolished or left in ruins.

The Dutch government attempted to revive it in the form of a State university (1816-30), adding to it a philosophical college for the clergy. Once freedom of teaching was assured after the Belgian revolution, the Belgian Catholics were able to make it rise again, thanks to the episcopate and the secular clergy, who knew how to create among the population a movement of sympathy and to obtain the necessary funds. On 1 Dec. 1835, the University resumed possession or use at L. of part of its ancient buildings.

Among the rectors magnifici who have presided over its activity two especially deserve to be remembered: the first is F.-X. de Ram, a distinguished historian, who gave the University its new organization; as representative of the episcopate, he practically had in his hands the administration of the alma mater; he broadened its horizons, because together with the Faculty of theology there were those of law, of medicine, of philosophy and of letters and sciences; and later the Polytechnics, the Institutes of agronomy and of commerce, the Higher Institute of philosophy were added; always with the desire to recruit the greatest possible number of professors from among the best Catholic laymen of the nation.

No less important was the rectorate of Msgr. Ladeuze, a brilliant exegete and pathologist. On 25 Aug. 1914 there was the devastation of L. and the burning of the Library by the German armies; but its admirable reflourishing followed at once: the civil personality of the University, the extension of the teaching of the sciences and of medicine, the new university clinics, the new university center of Heverlé, the linguistic duplication. If such extraordinary development forced it to accept the subsidy from the State, nevertheless the independence recognized for the free Universities was not thereby impaired.

Numerous professors of the restored University have distinguished themselves by their works: in theology, Msgr. Beelen, Msgr. Lamy, Canon Ladeuze and Van Hoonacker; in law, Profs. Thomissen, Van den Heuvel, Van Bieriilet, Poulet; in the social sciences, Perin, Vliebergh, Brants; in medicine, Van Beneden, Van Gehuchten, Ide (discovery of the function of vitamins); in the sciences, Gilbert, Henry, Dumont (discovery of the coal basin of the Campine), Vierendeel, Carnoy, Grégoire, Biourge (studies on the cell, botany); in philosophy and letters, Canon David, Prof. Willems, Prof. Nève, Msgr. de Harlez (orientalist), Msgr. Mercier (Higher Institute of philosophy), Canon A. Cauchie (Revue hist. ecclés.).

The University is distinguished above all by the number of scientific journals and collections that emanate from it: Ephemerides theologicae Lovanienses; Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique; Le Muséon; Analecta Lovaniensia Biblica et Orientalia; Revue philosophique de Louvain; Les philosophes belges; Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium; Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniens (in collaboration with the Jesuits and Dominicans of L.); La Cellule; Les lettres romanes; Studia Hellenistica; Recueil des travaux de philosophie et lettres; the collection Dissertationes ad gradum magistri in sacra theologia vel in iure canonico; the Sylloge exceptorum e dissertationibus ad gradum doctoris in theol. vel in iure canonico; Revue médicale de L.; Annuaire de l'Université; Leucense Bijdragen; Monumenta humanistica Lovaniensia; Material for the study of the old English drama; Lovanium.

In the last academic year 1949-50 the number of students rose to 7678. Rector of the University, since 1940, is Msgr. Van Waeyenbergh. During the Second World War there was occasion to deplore a new total destruction of the Library (17 May 1940) and the ruin of several institutes following aerial bombardment in May 1944; but immediately after the liberation the rector set about with ardor to make the destroyed buildings rise again and to enlarge even further the centuries-old institution.

Giuseppe Coppens