### MECHELN (Dutch: MECHELEN), ARCHDIOCESE OF
**I. THE ARCHDIOCESE.** – It extends over an area of 6,115 sq. km., comprising the two civil provinces of Antwerp and Brabant; it has 3,093,819 inhabitants, 895 parishes served by 3,186 secular priests and 2,129 regular clergy, three seminaries, 216 male religious communities and 1,099 female ones (Annuario Pontificio, 1951, p. 261).
soon to constitute for Islam the primary source of all juridical elaboration.
From the 7th century, Christianity penetrated the region through St. Eligius of Tournai, the apostle of Flanders St. Amand, and was later continued by Sts. Lambert, Hubert, Willibrord, and Rumbold, who was martyred at M. around 775. On the site of the present Cathedral there was once an Augustinian priory; M. was under the jurisdiction of the diocese of Cambrai until 1559. Pope Paul IV, with the bull *Super universi orbis ecclesias* of 12 May 1559, established the archdiocese of M., and shortly afterward Pius IV elevated its archbishop to the rank of primate. The first pastor of M. was Cardinal Granvelle (1561); he was followed by J. Hauchin, the English cardinal Will, Levino Torrentius, who died shortly after his appointment, then M. van den Hove (1595–1620), who built the Seminary and convened the Third Provincial Council (1607, presided over by Rithovius, bishop of Ypres). He divided the archdiocese into 339 deaneries, which increased to 400 in 1606 and to 423 in 1623. He was succeeded by G. Boonen (1623–54), who was struck by an interdict “ab ingressu ecclesiae” and suspended “ab officio et exercitio pontificalium” on 19 December 1652 for his conciliatory attitude toward the bull *In eminenti*. Having submitted with a letter dated 10 August, he was absolved on 21 October following. He was followed by A. Creusen (1657–66), who repressed the followers of Jansenist theories more than his successor A. De Berghes (1670–1689). Very energetic were Umberto de Precipiano (1690–1710) and Cardinal T. Philippe of Alsace (1716–59), who was the first to write a doctrinal letter in the sense of the bull *Pastoralis officii* of Clement XI (18 August 1718). Then came Cardinal de Franckenberg (1759–1801), arrested on 19 September 1797 and deported to Germany for his opposition to the oath imposed on the clergy by the French government (A. Verhaegen, *Le card. de Franckenberg*, Lille s.a., pp. 334–63). The bull *Qui Christi Domini vices* of 29 November 1801 suppressed all ancient ecclesiastical circumscriptions; M. then had as suffragans Tournai, Namur, and Liège, and later also Aachen, Trier, and Mainz. Cardinal Franckenberg resigned and died at Breda in 1804. He was succeeded by the French monsignor de Roquelaure, who reorganized the Seminary and retired in 1807 (P. Verhaegen, *La Belgique sous la domination française*, IV–V, Brussels 1929). After Belgium passed under the Dutch regime, the see of M. was occupied by monsignor de Méan and then by monsignor Sterckx (1831–67), later cardinal (Henry, *Le card. Sterckx, archevêque de M.*, ibid. 1868). Among his successors are remembered Cardinals Dechamps (1867–83), Goossens (1883–1906), Mercier (q.v.; 1906–26), and the present incumbent, G. E. van Roey.
Its present suffragans are the dioceses of Tournai, Liège, Namur, Ghent, and Bruges.
**Monuments.** – The cathedral of St. Rumbold has the nave and transept from the 13th century, and the choir from the end of the 14th century. Inside, on the pillars of the central nave are statues of the 12 Apostles; the wooden cathedral (1723) has carved on it the conversion of St. Norbert. In the transept is a Crucifix by Van Dyck (1627), restored several times. The unfinished tower rises over 97 m. and contains a carillon of 44 bells (J. Laenen, *Histoire de l'église métropolitaine de St-Rombaut à M.*, 2 vols., Malines 1919). The church of St. John dates from the 15th century; the polychrome group of the Holy Trinity is by the sculptor Van den Wekere; at the high altar is the triptych with the Adoration of the Magi, a masterpiece by Rubens (1619), on the inside shutters to the right St. John the Evangelist immersed in boiling oil, and the Beheading of St. John the Baptist; on the outside St. John the Evangelist at Patmos and St. John the Baptist baptizing Jesus Christ. The church of Notre-Dame-au-delà-de-la-Dyle is in Gothic style with a transept from 1545, but was completed only in the mid-18th century. Inside is admired the triptych painted by Rubens (1618) for the guild of fishmongers with the Miraculous Draught of Fishes. The church of the Great Béguinage was built by the architect J. Francart (d. 1651), also author of the church of Notre-Dame of Hanswijck. Nivelles owes its origin to the monastery founded there in 645 by the wife of Pippin of Landen, whose daughter Gertrude was the first abbess. The church of St. Gertrude dates from the 11th century and was remodeled in the 18th; the ancient portal still remains; on the altar is a large copper chest containing the great metal reliquary of St. Gertrude decorated with statuettes, a work of goldsmithery by Jacquemont of Nivelles and Colars of Douai (1272–92).
On a design by Jacquemy d'Auchin; in the treasury are preserved the so-called pair of St. Gertrude (14th century), and a reliquary of Odelard (14th century). At Tienen the church of St. Germanus partly dates from the 9th century with restorations from various periods and a large square bell tower. At Lier, the church of St. Gummarus in Gothic style (1425–1515) with an octagonal bell tower and stained glass windows partly from the 15th century. At Hoogstraten the collegiate church of St. Catherine in Gothic style founded by Anthony of Lalaing (1540), with Flemish stained glass windows from the 16th century. At Diest the Gothic church of St. Sulpicius (1416–1456) with a carved wooden pulpit and the church of the Béguinage from the 14th century. At Hal the Gothic church of Notre-Dame (1341–1409). Remains of the Cistercian abbey of Villers (1147), ruined by the French Revolution.
Among the saints of the archdiocese are remembered: St. Itta, foundress of the abbey of Nivelles; the two sisters Sts. Gudula and Rainelda; St. Libertus, St. Guy, St. Albert of Louvain (1192), St. Mary of Oignies, St. Viva, foundress of the abbey of Grand Bigard, St. Boniface, bishop of Lausanne, the martyrs of Gorkum (1572), St. John Berchmans (q.v.). The archiepiscopal curia has published monthly since 1907 *La vie diocésaine*; since 1917 the *Collectanea Mechliniensia*.
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### II. MECHELIN CONVERSATIONS
This is the name given to the meetings held between 1921 and 1926 among some Catholic and Anglican exponents with a view to possible union between the two Churches.
The bull *Apostolicae curae* of 13 September 1896 on the invalidity of Anglican ordinations seemed to dash forever hopes of union between the Roman Church and the Anglican Church. However, the appeal for unity launched by 252 Anglican bishops gathered in plenary assembly at the Sixth Lambeth Conference held in London from 5 July to 7 August 1920 rekindled the hopes of Lord Halifax and Fr. Portal, who from 1894 to 1896 had actively worked to bring Rome and Canterbury closer together (q.V. OXFORD, MOVEMENT). With the aim of promoting Church unity, the Anglican bishops declared that they were “willing to accept from the authorities of other Churches a kind of commission that would approve the ministry of Anglican clergy.”
Lord Halifax, informed by past experiences and by the advice already given by Newman, set out in October 1921 on a journey to the continent, where he met Fr. Portal, and together they presented themselves to the Archbishop of M. on the 19th of the same month. Lord Halifax made a request to Cardinal Mercier to organize conferences between representatives of the Catholic Church and representatives of the Anglican Church. The cardinal, somewhat surprised by the proposal made to him, asked those concerned why they had not first approached the English Catholic hierarchy. Lord Halifax’s reply was: “It is not possible because of the state of mind.” The cardinal then accepted: “Not for anything in the world—he would later say—would I place one of our separated brethren in the position of having to say that he knocked with confidence at a bishop’s door and that he refused to open it to him.”
The purpose of the Malines Conversations was clearly expressed by Cardinal Mercier himself in a speech delivered on 25 September 1925 in Brussels: “To remove by every effort the obstacles that stand in the way of union: this is the purpose for which we work; as for the union itself, it will be the work of Grace when divine Providence so wills.”
1. First Malines Conversation (6–8 December 1921)
Lord Halifax, Dr. W. Frere, Bishop of Truro, historian of liturgies, Dr. Armitage Robinson, Dean of Wells, specialist in patristic matters, representative of the Anglican group, arrived in M. on the evening of 5 December 1921. The Catholic side was represented by Cardinal Mercier, Monsignor Van Roey, then Vicar General of His Eminence, and Fr. Portal, a Lazarist. On the following day, 6 December, the first conversation opened. Lord Halifax spoke first, addressing the Lambeth Appeal and then his memorandum (cf. J. de Bivort de la Saudée, Documents sur le problème de l'Union anglo-romaine [1921–1927], Paris-Brussels 1949, pp. 9–17), of which he had given a copy to all participants in the conversations. Immediately after, the cardinal began reading the memorandum, and those present made their observations. Thus the discussion moved successively from the question of the visible and invisible Church to that of the necessity of Baptism for becoming a member of the Church, from the question of the Council of Trent and the 39 Articles to that of the Vatican Council and its ecumenicity; down to the conditions required for a truth to become a dogma in the Catholic Church.In the afternoon of the same day, the cardinal finished reading the memorandum; each article was then taken up and discussed. On both sides, explanations were given on Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, the Holy Sacrifice, Communion under both kinds, dogmas, the jurisdiction of bishops, the freedom granted up to that point to the various Churches and that which might be granted to them in the future, Extreme Unction and Penance.
On the following day, 7 December, the discussion took as its subject the text of the Lambeth Appeal, which the cardinal himself read. In the afternoon, the participants were read by Cardinal Mercier paragraphs 8 and 9 of the Lambeth Appeal. It is precisely in paragraph 8 that the Anglican bishops, with a view to achieving the union of the Churches, declare themselves willing, together with their clergy, to be reordained according to the Roman rite, if this can serve to bring about union with Rome, “provided that, on the other hand, the terms of the agreement have been satisfactorily reached.” The final session of the first Malines Conversation was held on 8 December, when Cardinal Mercier spoke of the just degree of discretion to which all participants in the conversations were to commit themselves. Before taking their leave of the cardinal, the three Anglicans kissed his hand, saying: “Your Eminence, at least you do not disown us.”
2. Second Malines Conversation (14–15 March 1923)
As early as 25 December 1922, Cardinal Gasparri, Secretary of State, despite certain opposition beginning to stir among English Catholics, had written to Cardinal Mercier: the Pope Pius XI “authorizes Your Eminence to tell the Anglicans that the Holy Father approves and encourages your conversations and prays with all his heart to Almighty God to bless them.”The Anglican participants also obtained the approval of the highest ecclesiastical authorities of the Anglican Church. At the opening of the second Malines Conversation on 14 March 1923, Cardinal Mercier could well say: “This time, not only do we Roman Catholics have the written assurance that the Holy Father approves of us, encourages us, and blesses us, but we also know that our three Anglican brethren arrive here with the approval of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, who, after consulting the English bishops under their jurisdiction, send them to M. in their name.” In the first session of 14 March, Cardinal Mercier proposed that the discussions take as their theme the Memorandum drawn up by the Anglicans (cf. J. de Bivort de la Saudée, op. cit., pp. 58–60). The cardinal read the first point, in which the Anglicans emphasize the differing conditions of the Church of England at the beginning of the 16th century and of the Anglican Church at that time, with regard to both geographical extent and numerical consistency. Dr. Robinson then read the first paragraph of point 2 of the Memorandum, concerning the position that the Catholic hierarchy of England would assume in the event that union with Rome were realized. The participants then proceeded to examine together the question of jurisdiction and of Orders. Monsignor Van Roey pointed out that the rectification proposed by the Lambeth Conference could be obtained by the laying on of hands sub conditione, first for the Archbishop of Canterbury himself or by his legate and then by the archbishop for his suffragans. The participants then moved on to paragraph 2 of point 3 of the Memorandum and finally to point 4 of the same Memorandum.
3. Third Malines Conversation (7–8 November 1923)
Five Catholics and five Anglicans took part in this conversation. On the Catholic side were: Cardinal Mercier, Monsignor Van Roey, Monsignor Batiffol, Fr. Portal, and M. Hemmer, curate of St-Mandé. On the Anglican side were: Lord Halifax, Bishop Gore, Dr. Frere, Dr. Armitage Robinson, Dr. Kidd, warden of Keble College.The question of the papal primacy occupied the whole of this third Malines Conversation: Dr. Robinson spoke first, reading a report he had prepared on The Position of St. Peter in the Early Church according to the Testimony of the New Testament (cf. J. de Bivort de la Saudée, op. cit., pp. 86–95). The discussion turned on several points of this report. Immediately after, Dr. Kidd read his first memorandum on The Use of Texts Relating to St. Peter up to the Year 461 (loc. cit., pp. 109–27). Monsignor Batiffol replied, going through each paragraph (ibid., pp. 118–28). In the afternoon session, Dr. Kidd presented his second memorandum entitled: To What Extent the Authority of the Pope Was Repudiated in England at the Time of the Reformation. M. Hemmer replied that there was no need to discuss the list of official texts of parliamentary and provincial synodal decrees. All present agreed in recognizing that the new discussions had achieved happy results, but that it was nevertheless necessary to deepen the doctrine concerning the claims of the Roman pontiffs.
4. Fourth Conversation at Malines (19–20 May 1925)
On 25 December 1923, Dr. Randall Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury, published a letter addressed to the archbishops and metropolitans of the Anglican Communion to present the Conversations at Malines as an episode in the general movement of rapprochement among the Churches following the Lambeth Appeal (J. de Bivort de la Saudée, op. cit., pp. 135–39). Cardinal Mercier and Lord Halifax were disappointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s exceptional reserve. The press reacted in various ways. Dr. Davidson’s letter demanded clarifications; therefore, on 18 January 1924, Cardinal Mercier decided to publish a pastoral on the Conversations at Malines (loc. cit., pp. 140–52). In Rome and throughout Europe, the impression was better than could have been hoped. On 7 February, Cardinal Mercier could state: “From Rome I have received a splendid private letter from Cardinal Gasparri: it confirms the encouragements of the first, but the Holy See for the moment desires not to take an official position.” However, this reserved attitude of Rome was not to last long. In the concistorial allocution of 24 March 1924, the Pope expressed in a special way his sympathy for this new effort in favor of the union of the Churches. The day after the Consistory, Cardinal Gasparri, in a private letter to Cardinal Mercier, clearly spoke of the meaning of the approval given by the Holy Father in the previous allocution.
The fourth Conversation at Malines, which began on 19 May 1925, thus assumed an importance far greater than that of the previous ones. The Catholic and Anglican participants were the same as those of the third. The topic of discussion was the study by Msgr. Van Roey, entitled *L’epi-scopato e il papato dal punto di vista teologico* (loc. cit., pp. 155–66), and that of Canon Hemmer: *Le relazioni tra il Papa e i vescovi considerate sotto l’aspetto storico* (loc. cit., pp. 175–211). It was also during this conversation that Cardinal Mercier, acting “as a private individual,” read the memorandum by Dom L. Beauduin on *La Chiesa anglicana unita, non assorbita* (loc. cit., pp. 212–24). The author developed what seemed to him the ideal formula for reconciliation: union, not absorption, of the Anglican Church by the Roman Church. The work of Dom L. Beauduin contained truly suggestive observations; it must be noted, however, that it expressed only the private thought of a theologian and, moreover, according to the agreements reached between Catholics and Anglicans at Malines, it was not to form part of the minutes of the conversations. The fourth Conversation at Malines concluded with a discussion of the memorandum by Dr. Gore (loc. cit., pp. 225–32). In it, a distinction was proposed between fundamental dogmas and those that are not: only thus was reconciliation with Rome possible, in accordance with the faith of the first ecumenical councils. Msgr. Batiffol, in a report entitled *Risposta al memorandum del dott. Gore* (loc. cit., pp. 233–49), rightly and explicitly affirmed the impossibility of such a distinction among the various dogmas.
5. Fifth Conversation at Malines (11–12 October 1926)
In the period between the fourth and fifth Conversations at Malines, Fr. Woodlock, an English Jesuit, published articles in *The Church Times* and one, on 10 August 1925, in the journal *Études*. This last article was written, in the form of “a rather harsh commentary, however softened by the journal,” as Fr. Dudon, then editor of the journal, put it, in response to a speech delivered by Lord Halifax at the Albert Hall on 9 July 1925. Fr. Woodlock’s stance increasingly expressed the divergences existing between some English Catholic personalities (represented by Cardinal Merry del Val) on the one hand and the Catholic participants in the Conversations at Malines on the other. This situation, to which was soon added the death of Cardinal Mercier on 23 January 1926, followed shortly thereafter by that of Fr. Portal, explains why the fifth Conversation at Malines began “almost with the air of a winding-up event.” From the Catholic side, those who were still alive took part; from the Anglican side, Halifax, Kidd, and Frere were present. The other two were absent. The purpose of this fifth conversation was to summarize the points discussed between Catholics and Anglicans from 1921 to 1926 and to draft a text that would succinctly present the results. From this text, it emerges that “Catholics and Anglicans have agreed on the following points: Jesus Christ founded one true Church; it is His will that all believers live united among themselves in a society whose unity and continuity are visible and perceptible; it is incumbent upon all to collaborate in preserving this unity”; this unity must be “a common faith.” There is also agreement on the doctrines defined by the first ecumenical councils and on the articles of the different Creeds: the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. Tradition is not unrecognized among Anglicans, for they admit that Scripture needs to be interpreted and that it is for the Church alone to provide the interpretation that shall be the norm for all matters concerning faith and morals.
From the exchange of explanations that took place, it also emerges that the Thirty-Nine Articles do not constitute, as Catholics feared, an insurmountable obstacle to an understanding between the two Churches.
Turning to the question of the Sacraments, the mutual explanations likewise produced a very encouraging impression regarding the doctrine concerning them as means of grace and spiritual life.
The participants in the Conversations at Malines also agreed in affirming that, according to common doctrine, the hierarchy must descend directly from the Apostles through the uninterrupted succession of bishops, their successors and continuators; that the Pope cannot abolish the episcopate: it would be an attack on the constitution of the Church to adopt an attitude that, while not abolishing it in theory, would nullify it in practice.
As for the special position of the Pope in the Church, the divergences of belief and opinion are more serious and less easily reducible; they are, however, not so radical as to exclude the possibility of resuming the question later with new elements of discussion and with good hope of facilitating agreement in spirit and sentiment.
In the dogmatic sphere, the Catholics of the Conversations at Malines offered no hope of possible concessions; in the disciplinary sphere, however, they gave great hope that certain divergences might be accepted by Rome in the event of union.
The Conversations at Malines gave all their participants the impression that, as doctrinal agreement gradually becomes a reality, an understanding in the disciplinary sphere, though delicate, would also become easier. The Anglicans are prepared to make sacrifices for union. The Catholics, for their part, are equally prepared to grant to those who might convert the freedom that would not prejudice the unity itself, the hard price of which they know through a long and painful experience of four centuries of separation.
The evening of 12 Oct. 1926 marked the end of the fifth Conversations of Malines. Within the movement toward convergence between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Church, the Conversations of Malines constitute a stage whose full significance is difficult to measure. While they may have aroused in certain Anglican personalities, such as Cardinal Bourne and Fr. Woodlock, the fear of a temporary slowing of customary individual conversions, they at least achieved their primary desired aim: the points of agreement were clarified and the path was opened—which it is fervently to be hoped—toward Christian unity.
The methods employed in the Conversations of Malines were, moreover, those very methods that the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office warmly recommended in a document issued on 20 Dec. 1949: Instruction to Ordinaries on the Ecumenical Movement. What may be even more worthy of admiration is the atmosphere in which these meetings took place. As one of the Anglican representatives, Dr. Robinson, expressed it, the Conversations of Malines lasted “for hours and hours on the major issues that divide,” yet “not for a single moment was the cordiality of relations disturbed or confidence in the future disappointed.”
III. MALINES CODE — In the great movement stirred by the Leonine social encyclicals there arose the International Union of Social Studies, founded at Malines in 1920 and placed under the direction first of Cardinal Mercier and, from 1926 onward, of Cardinal Van Roey. Its purpose was to study social problems in the light of Catholic morality; to communicate to the public—and especially to men of action—directives and resolutions adopted by the Union; and to establish, when necessary, an office for social consultation. A similar aim had guided, between 1884 and 1891, the analogous Union founded at Fribourg (Switzerland) under the direction of Cardinal Mermillod.
The idea of a reconstruction took shape in the mind of a Belgian statesman, a veteran of the first Union, the minister Helleputte, after a conversation with E. Duthoit, professor at the Catholic University of Lille and president of the “Social Weeks” of France. The idea was warmly received by Cardinal Mercier, who undertook to gather support for it, extending from the initial Franco-Belgian nucleus to include figures from Austria, Canada, Germany, England, Italy, Holland, Poland, Spain, the United States, and Switzerland. After lengthy study and provisional drafts, the 1924 session resolved to compile a “social synthesis from a Christian and Catholic standpoint.” A special committee drafted and signed it in 1925; after further revision in 1926, it was published in 1927. This is precisely the social code commonly called the “Malines Code,” from the city in which it was elaborated.
