Part 4

At last, on the 20th of June, 1829, the Dutch Government had to acknowledge itself vanquished. A decree was published abrogating so much of the legislation of 1825 as rendered attendance at the Philosophical College obligatory.

But along with this concession, and perhaps as it were to neutralize it, came new attacks in other ways on the liberties of Catholic Belgium. The royal message to the States-General at the beginning of 1830, recommended measures tending to a further _unification_ of Belgium with Holland. Event followed event, and before the end of August a revolution broke out, and five of the best men in Belgium were installed at Brussels as a provisional government, under the presidency of the Baron de Gerlache, now head of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, and president also of the recent Catholic congresses at Mechlin.

When the revolution broke out in 1830, the wisest members of the clergy said, as Father de Buck tells us, “_Fieri non debuit, sed factum valet_”, and the whole of the priesthood made common cause with the people. But, although the great masses of the country people remained faithful to Catholic principles, and although the nobility was returning to the practices of religion; although the persecution of the clergy by the Dutch Government had aroused the spirit of the nation, and several even of the infidel party began to lay aside their prejudices, and to express sympathy for the faithful priesthood of their common country, still the religious position of Belgium at that moment was most unsatisfactory.

Mgr. Van Bommel, Bishop of Liege, tells us, that “in 1838 there were in Belgium about 100,000 pseudo-liberals, deadly enemies of the Catholic Church, and most powerful”. “And it is not hard”, continues the learned prelate, “to explain the fact. For more than forty years all who are destined to occupy positions of importance were, in general, brought up without religious principles. Under the late government the religious element had no part in university teaching; a part of this teaching had even been entrusted to men known to profess anti-religious principles. The wicked passions of men, dangerous occasions, bad example, an immoral theatre, and above all, a literature steeped in wickedness or hostile to Catholic principles;――in fine, the repeated declarations of men who, for party purposes, told the rising generation that to it alone should henceforth belong the rights of government――all resulted in raising this young generation to such a pitch of pride, independence, and licentiousness, that the sweet yoke of faith and the practices of religion became insupportable. Thus was there formed, outside of the masses, who remained faithful, a multitude of men of position and of influence, who know the religion of their fathers only from the bad books where it is attacked, from the stage where it is insulted, from the assemblies where its sacred ministers are ridiculed, from the newspapers where it is calumniated”.

Such was the religious position of Belgium when the Belgian episcopacy determined to found the Catholic University of Louvain. Public functionaries, barristers, physicians, merchants, manufacturers, nearly all the men of influence in the country, were infected with that false liberalism which, as Mgr. de Ram himself declared in November, 1830, made many who cried out most loudly for liberty, intend to use it only for self-aggrandisement and at the expense of Catholicity.

The prospect was uninviting; but the bishops were not to be daunted, although in February, 1834, on their publishing their decree establishing the university, there were disturbances in Brussels and in nearly all the episcopal cities. In December, 1833, they had obtained from Pope Gregory XVI. the sanction of their project and an apostolic brief for erecting the new university; and in June, 1834, they published in another meeting the general statutes for its government. On the same occasion the assembled prelates decided that the youthful M. de Ram――he had not yet completed his thirtieth year, and was then a canon of the Metropolitan Church of Mechlin, and professor of canon law and church history in the seminary of that diocese――should occupy a distinguished place in the new institution. He was formally appointed, within the next few months, head of the Catholic University of Belgium, with the title which in past ages appertained to that office――_Rector Magnificus_, and in that capacity assisted at the solemn inauguration of the university in the Cathedral of Mechlin, on the 4th of November of the same year, 1834.

No sooner was he appointed to his high office than he set about finding professors for the faculties of theology, of science, and of philosophy and letters, which alone were to be opened the first year in the temporary home of the university in Mechlin. All the priests he selected were Belgians. Of the lay professors one was a Belgian, the rest were Dutch, French, Germans, and Danes. The following year the university was transferred to Louvain, and we have the formal act of agreement entered into in October, 1835, between Monsignor de Ram and the burgomaster of the city of Louvain, and afterwards solemnly approved by the bishops and municipality, by which on the one hand the bishops undertake to establish a full university course, and on the other hand the town council “undertakes to give gratuitously to the University the free use of the buildings _des Halles_ (the great university lecture halls and other public buildings) _du Collège du Pape, du Collège des Vétérans, du Collège du Roi, du Collège des Prémontres, du Collège de Saint Esprit, et du Theâtre Anatomique_”. Mgr. de Ram had now to organise the faculties of law and of medicine, and here his difficulties increased. Where was he to find professors in whom faith and true Catholic principles were united with that profound and varied learning which would fit them to occupy chairs in the new university? When we consider the deplorable state of Catholic education among the cultivated classes in Belgium at the time we speak of, these difficulties can be better imagined than expressed; and from these difficulties we may form a judgment of the great prudence and consummate wisdom through which Monsignor de Ram raised the institution to that proud eminence which is now enjoyed by her professors among the learned bodies of Europe. In all her faculties there are among the professors not only men of extraordinary learning, who unite clearness and method with depth and extent of knowledge, but also models of every Christian virtue; so that with good reason does F. de Buck conclude this portion of his notice of the illustrious prelate by exclaiming: “Yes, the professorial staff brought together by Mgr. de Ram, and which can henceforth be easily recruited from amongst the students of the university itself, is the chief glory, the undying crown of his rectorship”. But to understand the relations of Mgr. de Ram with the professorial staff of the university, we should read the funeral discourses which he pronounced at the obsequies of those who preceded him in death. They are published in the University Calendars from 1838 to this time, and clearly prove the esteem and affection he bore to all who were united with him in the great work of his life, the care with which he selected them, the zeal with which he promoted the honour and happiness of each, and the sincere joy with which he was filled when well-merited success crowned their literary or scientific labours.

His devotedness to the students of the University was not less than his affectionate esteem for the professors. By every means in his power he sought to promote their spiritual, their intellectual, and even their temporal interests. And this anxiety for the welfare of the youth entrusted to him was not confined to the time they spent in the university; it followed them into after life. “His fatherly solicitude”, says M. Prosper Staes, of the Brussels bar, formerly a student of the university, “his fatherly solicitude was not limited to the youths who gathered round him each year for the purposes of study. It followed the students in their several careers through life. His old students always found in their rector one to encourage them, to counsel them, to gather them about him, as a father gathers his children, to rejoice in their success――in a word, to make them his joy and his delight”.

His feelings towards the students, and theirs to him, as well as the sentiments with which he unceasingly sought to fill their minds, can well be gathered from the touching words pronounced over his lifeless remains by one of the law students of the university, M. Van Tomme:

“To-day on this solemn occasion, the remembrance of the twenty-fifth anniversary of our university, fills us with sentiments of deep emotion. Surrounded by the multitude of your students whom you loved so much, happy in being one heart and one soul with them, you then said: Ever remember our watch-word: God and our country; this word epitomizes our duties and our principles. Yes; we have taken to ourselves this word as our inheritance. It will be our comfort in this moment of sorrow, as in those days of joy it excited our enthusiasm. Wherever our students are called by duty, this noble thought will always be their motto, as it is to-day their hope.

“GOD, the knowledge of whom you have imparted to us so well, to whom your life of merit, hidden to men’s eyes, is manifest for your recompense.

“And OUR COUNTRY, which in the persons of these numbers of youths whom you have educated for her, and filled with your spirit, will ever bear upon her the impress of the works you have achieved, and veneration for your memory”.

We are told, that in his government of the students, he knew how to follow the _via media_ between severity and too great indulgence. He was sometimes blamed for excess in the latter direction; but those who make this accusation seem to forget that he had to do with the direction, not of an ecclesiastical seminary, nor even of a school or college, but of an university, where young men were to be prepared, not for the service of the sanctuary, but for the busy scenes of life, and where opening manhood, freed from the restraints of boyhood, was to be gently led rather than forced, to love the beautiful paths of wisdom on account of their beauty, and to walk steadily in them, because of the goal to which they lead. If he did not hinder everything that is evil, he is not to be blamed; for no legislator can ever aim at this; and we are told by the Incarnate Wisdom Himself, that the cockle must at times be permitted to grow with the wheat, lest in plucking it up, the good grain should be injured. But that his work produced blessed fruits, and that those fruits are likely to remain, is evident to every one who compares the state of religious education among Belgian Catholics when it was founded, with its state at present. He did everything in his power to preserve and strengthen the spirit and practice of religion among the students. He established a regular course of religious instruction, at which all the students of philosophy are obliged to assist, and to which the other students are invited; twice each year he brought the most distinguished preachers to Louvain to deliver religious conferences, which might serve as a preparation for the Paschal communion; he assisted in establishing in the University branches, or conferences of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, and to the utmost of his power encouraged the Sodality or Congregation of the Blessed Virgin, which was founded by the Jesuit Fathers in the chapel of their residence, and numbers over two hundred members, all lay students of the Catholic University.

What have been the results? At the beginning of this article we saw the deplorable state of educated Catholics in Belgium in 1830, with respect to Catholic feelings and principles. At that time the number of Catholic barristers and physicians who practised their religion was extremely small. Now, in Brussels, Liege, and Ghent, the greater part of the young bar, if not of the whole bar practising in the chief courts of law, which are situated in these three cities, are thoroughly devoted to the Catholic Church. Without doubt, several of these young lawyers did not study in Louvain; they owe the preservation of their faith to the good education received in the bosom of their families, in the Jesuit Colleges, and in other Catholic institutions; but a large number has studied in the Catholic University, and all of them must be greatly confirmed in their religious feelings and principles, and must derive new strength and courage to declare them openly, from the public spirit redolent of Catholicity which proceeds from Louvain. We are told that one of the most interesting features of the great Catholic Congress of Malines in 1863, was the presence of eight hundred students of the University of Louvain, youths as distinguished for learning as for the truly Catholic spirit by which they were animated on that most interesting occasion. We are also told, that in all the great cities, and some of the smaller towns of Belgium, literary societies are springing up, which publicly proclaim the Catholic principles on which they are founded; and that the class in Belgium most devoted to the interests of religion, is precisely the educated Catholic youth of the country. What wonder, then, that the immense influence for good exercised by the University of Louvain, under the presidency of its distinguished rector, should be acknowledged in Belgium by enemies as well as friends, and that on more occasions than one the Holy See itself should have exhorted the bishops of other countries, as well as of Ireland, to imitate their brethren of Belgium by founding a Catholic University like that of Louvain!

While labouring to make the youth of the University good Christians, Mgr. de Ram laboured also with indefatigable zeal to make them learned men and good citizens. FAITH, LEARNING, LIBERTY, were the words which he loved to unite in his discourses. Every one knows the results of his inculcating those principles without ceasing on the young Belgians entrusted to him by his Catholic country, which had just recovered its liberty from Protestant Holland; and the numerous and high distinctions won by the students of Louvain, in the public examinations to which the whole youth of Belgium is admissible, attest the excellence of the literary and scientific teaching of the University, while the elevated positions now occupied by many of its ancient alumni prove beyond gainsaying, that its educational fruits remain, and will be an abundant source of intellectual, social, and political blessings to Belgium.

Such is the institution which has just lost its first rector, we may say its founder. Such the work which Mgr. de Ram directed with consummate wisdom for thirty-one years. Such the Catholic University of which Belgium, nay Christendom, may well be proud. It is a great lesson to us all to see that even in these days of mere material progress, without faith, without Christian love――when men would fain persuade us that learning, to be a blessing, need not be referred to God or religion――when the apostle’s words: “_Scientia inflat, charitas vero aedificat_”, are held to be not over true. An University founded and governed by a Catholic episcopacy, by the aid of their Catholic people only, established on purely Catholic principles, without any of those helps which men of the world value most, already in its infancy rivals the great seats of learning of the middle ages. And all this is due in a great measure to one man, who at thirty years of age was called by the Belgian Episcopacy to rule over it, and who, with untiring energy, consummate wisdom, and gentle perseverance, moulded every part into perfect symmetry, so that schismatical Russia came to study the model, and the Holy See could say to Ireland, as well as to any other country wishing for a Catholic University: “_Inspice, et fac secundum exemplar_”. With no more fitting words can we conclude this brief notice, than with those spoken by the Vice-Rector of the University at his funeral: “The Catholic University of Louvain was indebted to God and to the bishops of Belgium for her Rector: to her Rector she owes everything else”.[18]

LITURGICAL QUESTIONS.

A reverend correspondent has taken occasion from our remarks in the last number of the _Record_, to ask a question about the custom prevalent in Ireland of reciting the _De profundis_ after mass. We will quote his own words: “In reading the liturgical questions in your last number of the _Record_, it occurred to me to inquire on what authority is founded the practice of reciting the _De profundis_ after mass, whether it can be omitted _ad libitum, secluso scandalo_, and whether it should be said at the altar, or when the priest descends, or when going into the sacristy”. The practice of reciting the _De Profundis_ after each low mass, we believe, exists in all Ireland, without any exception of diocese or district, and has existed for a long period. It is the opinion of many well versed in Irish ecclesiastical matters, that it was introduced and authorised by the Holy See as a substitute for the numerous masses and suffrages for which innumerable endowments were founded by the piety of the faithful in former times, and which were taken away from the Catholic Church at the time of the Reformation. It is more than probable that a rescript from the Holy See authorised this practice, in order that the pious intentions of the founders of such endowments might not altogether be frustrated by the rapacity of the reformers. It is difficult to understand how, under other circumstances, the practice could have become so universal in Ireland. Indeed we have heard it remarked, that possibly a rescript of an old date bearing on this subject might be found; and if any of our readers could aid us in getting authentic documents on the matter, we need scarcely say how anxious we would be to insert them or any information connected with this subject in the _Record_. While writing these lines we have been informed that in the Irish College, Paris, there is a rescript authorising the recital of the _De profundis_ after the community mass in the college.

Apart, however, from this consideration we may reply that the recital of the _De profundis_ cannot be omitted _ad libitum_. Whatever may have been its origin, it has become a usage with the force of law, against which no individual is at liberty to act. Even if the Holy See did not authorise the practice in the commencement, it must necessarily have been introduced by the bishops of the day, and its continuance for so long a period throughout the entire Irish Church without any reclamation from ecclesiastical authority, would be quite sufficient to show that all should conform to such a practice, which in itself is so holy and useful, and calculated to confer such advantages on the suffering souls in Purgatory.

We are therefore clearly of opinion that no priest can on principle omit the _De profundis_, and we would take the liberty of reminding him of the munificent endowments established in former ages of the Irish Church for the exclusive object of having Requiem Masses said, and securing the suffrages of the faithful in aid of the suffering souls in Purgatory. We would refer our readers, for information on this point, to Dr. Lanigan’s _Ecclesiastical History of Ireland_, vol. iii. chap. 21.

With regard to the proper time for saying the _De profundis_, we think that the practice of saying it at the foot of the altar is the most correct. We know this to be the course adopted by many priests, who descend from the altar, make a genuflexion or a reverence to the altar, and then standing recite the _De profundis_. By this plan it is made manifest that the _De profundis_ is a thing quite distinct from the Mass, and not appertaining to it. However, it is right to say that nothing decisive can be laid down as to the place and time of reciting it. There is a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites given by Merati in his _Series Decretorum_, p. 436, which is as follows:

“Quando adest legatum quod sacerdos antequam discedat ab altari, recitet aliquod Evangelium, Psalmum, seu orationem post terminatam missam, debet oneri sibi injuncto satisfacere post finem missae exutis vestibus sacerdotalibus et cum sola cotta in altari vel in sacristia et sic legatum adimplere S. R. C., 31 Augusti, 1669, in Conversanen”.

These words would appear to imply that in our case the sacred vestments should be taken off. However, on referring to the decree itself in Gardellini, we find its terms are not so comprehensive as the interpretation of Merati would make them. The following are the words:

“2339. Conversan. Capitulum Collegiatae Rosigliani Dioecesis Conversanensis exposuit in S. R. C. Nicolaum _Franciscium in ejus sub quo decessit testamento_, reliquisse ejus bona dicto capitulo cum onere celebrandi Missam quotidianam et singulis diebus veneris de Passione et cum onere, terminata missa post Evangelium in principio erat verbum, etc., recitandi ipsam Passionem secundum Johannem. Et proinde cum dicta dispositio sit contra Ritus Ecclesiasticos supplicavit pro declaratione. An dicta passio recitanda sit post dictum Evangelium alibi per celebrantem?

“Et S. eadem C. censuit: Recitandam esse post finem missae exutis vestibus sacerdotalibus et cum sola cotta in altari vel in sacristia. Hac die 31 Augusti, 1669”.

The words of this decree do not refer to a psalm or prayer, but simply to the passion of St. John, and hence, as far as our question is concerned, no conclusion can be clearly established except by analogy, and by whatever weight may attach to the authority of Merati, who manifestly thus extends the meaning of the decree. After writing these lines, we have learned from a distinguished ecclesiastic, that there exists a Rescript of the Holy See about the recital of the _De profundis_ in Ireland after Mass. He has kindly promised to procure it for a future number of the _Record_, when we shall gladly insert it.