Mechelen, Archdiocese of

MALINES (in Flemish MECHELN), ARCHDIOCESE of. - City and archdiocese in the province of Antwerp.

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 regulars, three seminaries, 216 male religious communities and 1,099 female ones (Annuario Pontificio, 1951, p. 261).

As early as the 7th century Christianity penetrated into the region through the work of St. Eligius of Tournai, of the apostle of Flanders St. Amand, continued later by Sts. Lambert, Hubert, Willibrord and Rumbold, martyred at M. around 775. On the site where the present Cathedral stands there was already 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 created the archdiocese of M. and shortly afterwards Pius IV raised its archbishop to the rank of primate. The first pastor of M. was Card. Granvelle (1561); there followed J. Hauchin, the English cardinal Will, Levinus Torrentius, who died soon after his appointment, then M. van den Hove (1595-1620), who built the Seminary and convened the III Provincial Council (1607, presided over by Rithovius, bishop of Ypres). He divided the archdiocese into 339 deaneries, which rose to 400 in 1606 and to 423 in 1623. He was succeeded by G. Boonen (1623-54), struck with the interdict « ab ingressu ecclesiae » and suspended « ab officiis et exercitio pontificalium » on 19 Dec. 1652 for his conduct regarding the bull In eminenti. Having submitted by letter of 1 Aug., he was absolved on 21 Oct. following. Then came A. Creusen (1657-66), who repressed the followers of Jansenist theories more than his successor A. De Berghes (1670-1689). Very energetic were Humbert de Precipiano (1690-1710) and Card. T. Philip 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 Aug. 1718). Then came Card. de Franckenberg (1759-1801), arrested on 19 Sept. 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 n.d., pp. 334-63). The bull Qui Christi Domini vices of 29 Nov. 1801 suppressed all the ancient ecclesiastical circumscriptions; M. then had as suffragans Tournai, Namur and Liège, and later also Aachen, Trier and Mainz. Card. Franckenberg resigned and died at Breda in 1804. He was succeeded by the French Msgr. 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 Dutch rule, Msgr. de Méan and then Msgr. Sterckx (1831-67), later cardinal, ascended to the see of M. (Henry, Le card. Sterckx, archevêque de M., ibid. 1868). Then are remembered Cards. Dechamps (1867-83), Goossens (1883-1906), Mercier (v.: 1906-26) and the present G. E. van Roey.

Its suffragans are now the dioceses of Tournai, Liège, Namur, Ghent and Bruges.

Monuments. — The cathedral of St. Rumbold has the nave and transept of the 13th century, the choir of the end of the 14th century. In the interior, on the pillars of the central nave, are the statues of the 12 Apostles; the wooden cathedra (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 to over 97 m. and contains a carillon with 44 bells (J. Laenen, Histoire de l'église métropolitaine de St-Rombaut à M., 2 vols., Malines 1919). The church of St. John is of the 15th century; the polychrome group of the Most 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 inner panels on the right St. John Ev. immersed in boiling oil, on the left the Beheading of St. John the Baptist; on the outside St. John Ev. on 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 of 1545, but was finished only in the middle of the 18th century. In the interior one admires the triptych painted by Rubens (1618) for the guild of fishmongers with the Miraculous Draught of Fishes. The church of the Great Béguinage was erected 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 Pepin of Landen, whose daughter Gertrude was the first abbess. The church of St. Gertrude dates back to the 11th century and was remodeled in the 18th century; the ancient portal still remains; on the altar is a large copper shrine containing the great metal reliquary of St. Gertrude decorated with statuettes, a work of goldsmithing by Jacquemont de Nivelles and Colars of Douai (1272-92)

after a design by Jacqueney d'Auchin; in the treasury are then preserved the cup known as that of St. Gertrude (14th century), and a reliquary by Odelard (14th century). At Tirlemont the church of St. Germanus dates back in part to the 9th century with restorations of several periods and with a great square bell tower. At Lierre, the church of St. Gommarus in Gothic style (1425-1515) with an octagonal bell tower and stained-glass windows partly of the 15th century. At Hoogstraeten the collegiate church of St. Catherine in Gothic style founded by Antoine de Lalaing (1540), with Flemish stained-glass windows of the 16th century. At Diest the Gothic church of St. Sulpicius (1416-1456) with a carved wooden cathedra and the church of the Béguinage of 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. Libert, St. Guy, St. Albert of Louvain (1192), St. Mary of Oignies, St. Vivina foundress of the abbey of Gran Bigard, St. Boniface bishop of Lausanne, the martyrs of Gorcum (1572), St. John Berchmans (v.). The archiepiscopal curia has published monthly since 1907 La vie diocésaine; since 1917 the Collectanea Mechlinensia.

Enrico Josi

II. CONVERSATIONS OF MECHELEN

This is the name given to the meetings held between 1921 and 1926 among certain Catholic and Anglican representatives, with a view to a possible union of the two Churches.

The bull Apostolicae curae of 13 Sept. 1896 on the invalidity of Anglican ordinations seemed bound to make the hopes of union between the Roman Church and the Anglican one vanish forever. Nevertheless, the appeal in favor of unity, issued by 252 Anglican bishops assembled in plenary session at the VI Lambeth Conference, held in London from 5 July to 7 Aug. 1920, rekindled the hopes of Lord Halifax and of Fr. Portal, who from 1894 to 1896 had worked actively to bring Rome and Canterbury closer together (v. OXFORD, MOVEMENT of). With the aim of favoring the union of the Churches, the Anglican bishops declared themselves "ready to accept from the authorities of the other Churches a kind of commission that would approve the ministry of the Anglican clergy."

Lord Halifax, instructed by previous experiences and by the advice already given by Newman, set out in Oct. 1921 for the continent, where he met with Fr. Portal, and together they presented themselves to the archbishop of M. on the 19th of the same month. Lord Halifax addressed to Card. Mercier the request 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 turned first of all to the English Catholic hierarchy. Lord Halifax's answer was: "It is not possible because of the state of mind." The cardinal then accepted: "For nothing in the world — he would say later — would I want to put one of our separated brethren in the position of having to say that he knocked confidently at a bishop's door and that the latter refused to open it to him."

The purpose of the M. C. was clearly expressed by Card. Mercier himself in a speech given on 25 Sept. 1925 in Brussels: "To remove with all our effort the obstacles that stand in the way of union: this is the goal for which we work; as for the union, it will be the work of Grace when divine Providence so wills."

1. First M. C. (6-8 Dec. 1921). — Lord Halifax, Dr. W. Frere, bishop of Truro, a historian of the liturgies, Dr. Armitage Robinson, dean of Wells, a specialist in patristic matters, representing the Anglican group, arrived at M. on the evening of 5 Dec. 1921. The Catholic side was represented by Card. Mercier, by Msgr. Van Roey, then vicar general of His Eminence, and by Fr. Portal, a Lazarist. On the following day, 6 Dec., the first conversation opened. Lord Halifax had the first word, treating of the Lambeth Appeal and then of his memorial (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 the participants in the conversations. Immediately afterward the cardinal began reading this memorial, and those present made their observations on it. Thus the discussion passed 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 an article of faith in the Catholic Church.

In the afternoon of the same day the cardinal finished reading the memorial; each article was then taken up again and discussed. On both sides there were explanations on Baptism, on Confirmation, on the Eucharist, on the Holy Sacrifice, on Communion under both kinds, on the dogmas, on the jurisdiction of bishops, on the freedom granted until that moment to the various Churches and on that which might be granted them in the future, on Extreme Unction and Penance.

On the following day, 7 Dec., the discussion took as its subject the text of the Lambeth Appeal, which the cardinal himself read. In the afternoon the participants in the conversations heard from the mouth of Card. Mercier the reading of paragraphs 8 and 9 of the Lambeth Appeal. It is precisely in paragraph 8 that the Anglican bishops, with the aim of achieving the union of the Churches, declare themselves ready, 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 agreement have already been reached in a satisfactory manner." The last session of the first M. C. was held on 8 Dec. Card. Mercier spoke of that proper degree of discretion to which all the participants in the conversations were to commit themselves. Before departing from the cardinal, the 3 Anglicans kissed his hand, saying: "Your Eminence, at least, do not drive us away."

2. Second M. C. (14-15 March 1923). — As early as 25 Dec. 1922 Card. Gasparri, Secretary of State, despite certain oppositions that were beginning to spread among English Catholics, had written to Card. Mercier: 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 good God to bless them."

The Anglican participants also obtained the approval of the highest ecclesiastical authorities of the Anglican Church. Opening the second M. C., on 14 March 1923, Card. Mercier could well say: "This time not only we Roman Catholics have the written assurance that the Holy Father approves us, encourages us, blesses us, but we also know that our 3 Anglican brethren come here with the approval of the archbishops of Canterbury and of York, who, after consulting the English bishops under their jurisdiction, send them to M. in their name." In the first session of 14 March, Card. Mercier proposed taking as the theme of the discussions 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 diversity of conditions of the Church of England at the beginning of the 16th century and of the Anglican Church in those days, with regard both to geographical extent and to 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 come to assume in the event that the union of Rome with the Anglican Church were realized. The participants in the conversations then set themselves to examine together the question of jurisdiction and of Orders. Msgr. Van Roey pointed out that the rectification proposed by the Lambeth Conference could be obtained by the imposition of hands sub conditione, in the first place for the archbishop of Canterbury himself or through his legate, and then by the archbishop for his suffragans. The participants in the conversations then passed to paragraph 2 of point 3 of the Memorandum and finally to point 4 of the same Memorandum.

3. Third M. C. (7-8 Nov. 1923). — Five Catholics and 5 Anglicans took part in this conversation. On the Catholic side were: Card. Mercier, Msgr. Van Roey, Msgr. Batiffol, Fr. Portal, M. Hemmer, curate of St-Mandé. On the Anglican side: Lord Halifax, Bishop Gore, Dr. Frere, Dr. Armitage Robinson, Dr. Kidd, warden of Keble College.

The very important question of the papal primacy occupied the whole of this third C. of M.: the first to speak was Dr. Robinson, who read a report he had prepared on the Position of St. Peter in the primitive Church according to the testimony of the New Testament (cf. J. de Bivort de la Saudée, op. cit., pp. 86-93). The discussion turned on several points of that report. Immediately afterwards Dr. Kidd read his first memorandum on the Use of the texts relating to St. Peter up to the year 461 (loc. cit., pp. 109-27). Msgr. Batiffol replied, discussing 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 point in discussing the list of official texts of the parliaments and of the provincial ecclesiastical synods. All those present agreed in admitting that the new discussions had achieved happy results, but that, nevertheless, it was necessary to go more deeply into the doctrine concerning the claims of the Roman pontiffs.

4. Fourth C. of M. (19-20 May 1925)

On 25 Dec. 1923 Dr. Randall Davidson, archbishop of Canterbury, published a letter, addressed to the archbishops and metropolitans of the Anglican communion, to make known the C. of M. as an episode of the general movement for the rapprochement of the Churches following the Lambeth Appeal (J. de Bivort de la Saudée, op. cit., pp. 135-39). Card. Mercier and Lord Halifax were disappointed by the excessive reserve of the archbishop of Canterbury. The reactions in the press were varied. Dr. Davidson's letter required clarifications; therefore on 18 Jan. 1924 Card. Mercier thought it well to publish a pastoral letter on the C. of M. (loc. cit., pp. 140-52). In Rome and throughout Europe the impression was better than could be hoped. On 7 Feb. Card. Mercier was able to say: "From Rome I have received a splendid private letter from Card. Gasparri: it confirms the encouragements of the first, but the Holy See desires for the moment not to assume an official position." However, this reserved attitude of Rome was not to last long. In the consistorial allocution of 24 March 1924, the Pontiff expressed in a special way all his sympathy for this new effort in favor of the union of the Churches. On the day following the Consistory, Card. Gasparri, in a letter confidential to Card. Mercier, spoke clearly of the meaning of the approval given by the Holy Father in the preceding allocution.

The fourth C. of M., which began on 19 May 1925, thus came to assume an importance far superior to that of the preceding ones. The Catholic and Anglican participants were the same as at the third. The subject of discussion was the study by Msgr. Van Roey, entitled The episcopate and the papacy from the theological point of view (loc. cit., pp. 155-66) and that of Canon Hemmer: The relations between the Pope and the bishops considered from the historical aspect (loc. cit., pp. 175-211). It was likewise in this conversation that Card. Mercier, acting "as a private author," read the memorandum of dom L. Beauduin on The Anglican Church united, not absorbed (loc. cit., pp. 212-24). The author developed what seemed to him to be 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 is well to note, however, that it expressed only the private thought of a theologian and that, moreover, according to the agreements reached between the Catholics and Anglicans at M., it was not to form part of the minutes of the conversations. The fourth C. of M. closed with a discussion on Dr. Gore's memorandum entitled: Unity in diversity (loc. cit., pp. 225-32). In it a distinction was proposed between fundamental dogmas and those which are not: only thus was reconciliation with Rome possible, following the faith of the first councils. Msgr. Batiffol, in a report entitled Reply to Dr. Gore's memorandum (loc. cit., pp. 233-49), rightly and explicitly affirmed the impossibility of such a distinction between the various dogmas.

5. Fifth C. of M. (11-12 Oct. 1926). — In the period between the fourth and the fifth C. of M., Fr. Woodlock, an English Jesuit, published some articles in the Church Times and one, on 10 Aug. 1925, in the review Etudes. This last article was written, in the form of a "rather acrid commentary, though softened by the review," — as Fr. Dudon, who was then editor of the review, put it, — on a speech delivered by Lord Halifax at the Albert Hall on 9 July 1925. The attitude taken by Fr. Woodlock expressed ever more the divergences existing between certain English Catholic personalities (supported by Card. Merry del Val) on the one hand, and the Catholic participants in the C. of M., on the other. This situation, to which was then added the death of Card. Mercier on 23 January 1926, followed immediately afterwards by that of Fr. Portal, explains why the fifth C. of M. had from the outset "almost the air of an event in liquidation." On the Catholic side the three who were still living took part; on the Anglican side there took part: Halifax, Kidd and Frere. The other two were absent. This fifth conversation had as its purpose to summarize the points placed in discussion between Catholics and Anglicans from 1921 to 1926 and to draft a text that would give in summary the result. From this text it appears that "Catholics and Anglicans found themselves in agreement on the following points: Jesus Christ founded one only true Church; it is his will that all believers live united among themselves in one society, whose unity and continuity are visible and sensible; it is the duty of all to collaborate to preserve this unity"; this unity must be "a common faith." There is agreement moreover on the doctrines defined by the first ecumenical councils and on the articles of the different Credos: the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Creed of St. Athanasius. Tradition is not disregarded among the Anglicans, because they admit that Scripture needs to be interpreted, that it belongs only to the Church to give its interpretation, which is the norm for all that concerns faith and morals.

From the exchange of explanations that took place, it further appears that the 39 Articles do not constitute, as the Catholics feared, an insurmountable obstacle to an understanding between the two Churches.

If one then passes to the question of the Sacraments, there likewise results from the mutual explanations a very encouraging impression regarding the doctrine that concerns them as means of Grace and of spiritual life.

The participants in the C. of M. also found themselves in agreement in affirming that according to the common doctrine the hierarchy must descend directly from the Apostles through the uninterrupted succession of the bishops, their successors and continuators; that the pope cannot abolish the episcopate: it would be an attack on the constitution of the Church to take an attitude which, while not abolishing it theoretically, would nullify it in fact.

As for the special position of the pope in the Church, the divergences of belief and opinion are more serious and more difficult to reduce; they are not, however, so radical as to exclude later the possibility of resuming the question with new elements of discussion and with good hope of facilitating agreement of spirit and of sentiment.

In the dogmatic field the Catholics of the C. of M. offered no hope whatever of eventual concessions; in the disciplinary field, on the other hand, they gave great hopes that certain divergences could be accepted by Rome in the event of union.

The M. C. gave all their participants the impression that, as doctrinal agreement was gradually realized, disciplinary understanding too would become easier, however delicate. The Anglicans are prepared to make sacrifices for union. Catholics, for their part, are equally prepared to grant to those who might eventually be converted that freedom which would not prejudice unity itself, whose harsh price they know through the long and painful experience of four centuries of separation.

On the evening of 12 Oct. 1926 the fifth M. C. came to an end. In the movement of convergence between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Church, the M. C. constitute a stage whose full extent is difficult to measure. If they were able to engender in certain Anglican personalities, such as Card. Bourne and Fr. Woodlock, the fear of a momentary slowing of the usual individual conversions, they have at least realized the first desired aim: the points of agreement have been clarified and the road has been opened that will one day lead, it is to be strongly hoped, to Christian unity. The methods followed in the M. C. are, moreover, the very ones that the S. Congregation of the Holy Office warmly recommended in a document issued on 20 Dec. 1949: Attuazione agli Ordinari sul movimento ecumenico. What is perhaps even more worthy of admiration is the atmosphere in which these meetings took place. As one of the representatives of the Anglican Church, Dr. Robinson, expressed it, the M. C. lasted "hours and hours on the major subjects that divide," yet not even "for a single instant was the cordiality of relations disturbed or confidence in the future disappointed."

III. CODEX OF MECHELEN

Within the great movement stirred up by the Leonine social encyclicals is inscribed the International Union of Social Studies, founded at M. in 1920 and placed under the direction first of Cardinal Mercier and then, from 1926, of Cardinal Van Roey, with the purpose of studying social problems in the light of Catholic morality; of communicating to the public, and especially to men of action, the directives and resolutions deliberated by it; of creating, when necessary, an office of social consultations. A similar purpose had been aimed at, between 1884 and 1891, by the analogous Union that arose at Fribourg (Switzerland), under the direction of Cardinal Mermillod.

The idea of a reconstruction flashed upon a Belgian statesman, a veteran of the first Union, Minister Helleputte, after a conversation with E. Suthoit, rector of the Catholic University of Lille and president of the "social weeks" of France; it was favorably received by Cardinal Mercier, who took upon himself to gather the adhesions, extended, from the initial Franco-Belgian nucleus, to personalities of Austria, Canada, Germany, England, Italy, Holland, Poland, Spain, the United States of North America, and Switzerland. After long studies and provisional drafts, in the session of 1924 it was resolved to compile a "social synthesis under the Christian and Catholic aspect"; a special committee drafted it and submitted it to the session in 1925; reviewed again in 1926, it was sent to press in 1927. This is precisely the social code commonly called "of M.," from the city in which it was elaborated.

Although the articles were for the most part approved unanimously, they often result from different considerations, whose opposition, sharper at the outset, ended up disappearing into a sufficiently broad formula, so as to leave each one a certain freedom of opinion. Thus is explained the generic character of several solutions. Nevertheless the conclusions adopted — grouped into an introduction and seven chapters (family life, civic life, professional society, economic life, private associations, international life, supernatural life as the crowning of earthly life) — allow one to discern the common doctrine with which they are imbued, together with the Christian ideas of justice and charity. Without disregarding the value of personal initiative and while recognizing the State's legitimate part, there appears the care to discipline individuals and nations by means of the bodies of which they are part — free associations, the family, the profession, the League of Nations, the Church — rather than by means of the direct and coercive union of political power.

The 1st ed. of the code (Rovigo 1927) was followed by another, more up to date and adapted to the times (Rome 1933), again revised in a third (ibid. 1950). Moreover the Union has published a documentary volume on ca. 1500 acts of the universal episcopate (La hiérarchie catholique et le problème social depuis l'encyclique « Rerum novarum » 1891-1931, Paris 1931) and a Code of International Morality (15 July 1937; new updated ed., Rome 1950), meeting a keenly felt need for clarification of ideas in such matters. An analogous code is the so-called "of Camaldoli," compiled between 1943 and 1945 by a group of Italian scholars under the guidance of Msgr. Adriano Bernareggi, bishop of Bergamo. Then there is a "declaration" of 1946 of the principles governing individual and state initiatives, promoted by the "Rural life conference" and signed by 28 Catholic, 35 Protestant and 12 Jewish personalities of North America.

Ferruccio Pergolesi