, first rector of the new
Catholic University of Belgium.
Founding in Mechelen (1834) On 8 November 1834, on the basis of authorisation in a
papal brief of 13 December 1833, from Pope
Gregory XVI, the Belgian bishops founded the Catholic University of Belgium () in
Mechelen. About this first year, it is generally referred to as "Catholic University of Mechelen". The bishops aimed to create a university "to accommodate any doctrine from the Holy Apostolic See and to repudiate anything that does not flow from this august source". The announcement of the bishops' founding of the new university in Mechelen was met with demonstrations and disturbances in the cities of
Ghent,
Leuven and
Liège. The first rector was the priest and historian
Pierre de Ram.
Move of the new university to Leuven (1835) The university was short-lived in Mechelen, as the bishops already moved the university to Leuven on 1 December 1835, where it took the name "Catholic University of Leuven". This outraged Belgian liberal opinion, which depicted it as an attempt to usurp the past of the former
Old University of Leuven. It also reinvigorated demands for the foundation of a secular university in Brussels which would lead to the foundation of the
Free University of Brussels.
Previous universities in Leuven An earlier
University of Leuven was founded in 1425 by
John IV, Duke of Brabant and
chartered by a
papal bull of
Pope Martin V. It flourished for hundreds of years as the most prominent university in what would become Belgium, and one of the more prominent in Europe. Once formally integrated into the
French Republic, the law of 15 September 1793, had decreed the suppression of all the colleges and universities in France and it was abolished by Decree of the Departement of the Dijle on 25 October 1797. The region next became part of the
United Kingdom of the Netherlands (1815–1830), and
William I of the Netherlands founded a new university in 1816 in Leuven as a state university () which was a secular university and where several professors from the old university continued their teaching. In 1830, the Southern Provinces of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands became the independent state of Belgium. This university was closed in 1835.
Relation to the Old University of Leuven With the closing of the
State University of Leuven, the new Catholic University of Mechelen moved its seat to Leuven, adjusted its name and declared itself as a "re-founding" of the 1425 University of Leuven. This claim to continuity with the older institution was challenged in the courts, with
Belgium's highest court issuing rulings (in 1844, 1855 and 1861) that as a matter of law the Catholic University of Leuven was a different institution created under a different charter. Nonetheless, the Catholic University of Leuven unofficially continued to claim to be a continuation of the older institution in Leuven, in spite of the liberal protests of the time.
Further history as unified institution (1835–1968) On 3 November 1859, the Catholic University celebrated the silver jubilee of its foundation. A banquet for more than five hundred guests offered by the students to the rector and the faculty, took place the 23 November 1859, in the great festival hall of the Music Academy of Louvain. In the year 1884, the Catholic University of Louvain celebrated solemnly its 50th anniversary. In 1909, the Catholic University celebrated its 75th anniversary, and struck a medal where for the first time it officially used the French word "réinstallation" (resettlement), and the Dutch word "herstelling" (restoration) beginning of a new "official" history. In 1914, during
World War I, Leuven
was looted by German troops. They set fire to a large part of the city, effectively destroying about half of it, including the university library (see below). In the early stages of the war, Allied propaganda capitalized on the German destruction as a reflection on German
Kultur.
Split into two officially new institutions (1962–1970) From its beginning in 1834, the university provided lectures only in
French. Latin was sometimes used in the theology faculty, but it was essentially a French-language institution. Lectures in
Dutch, the other
official language of Belgium and the language spoken in Leuven, had begun to be provided in 1930 in the Catholic University of Leuven in the meantime. In 1962, in line with constitutional reforms governing official language use, the French and Dutch sections of the Catholic University became autonomous within a common governing structure.
Flemish nationalists continued to demand a division of the university, and Dutch speakers expressed resentment at privileges given to French-speaking academic staff and the perceived disdain by the local French-speaking community for their Dutch-speaking neighbours. At the time, Brussels and Leuven were both part of the officially bilingual and now defunct
Province of Brabant; but
unlike Brussels, Leuven had retained its Dutch-speaking character. Tensions rose when a French-speaking
social geographer suggested in a televised lecture that the city of Leuven should be incorporated into an enlarged
bilingual 'Greater-Brussels' region. Mainstream Flemish politicians and students began demonstrating under the slogan
Leuven Vlaams – Walen Buiten ("Leuven [is] Flemish –
Walloons out"). Student demonstrations escalated into violence throughout the mid-1960s. Student unrest fueled by the
history of discrimination against Flemings eventually brought down the Belgian government in February 1968. The dispute was resolved in June 1968 by turning the
Dutch-language section of the university into the independent
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, which remained in Leuven. The French-speaking university, called the
Université catholique de Louvain, was moved to a
greenfield campus called
Louvain-la-Neuve ("New Leuven"), farther south in the French-speaking part of the Province of Brabant. Acrimony about the split was long-lasting. Currently, however, research collaborations and student exchanges between the two "sister universities" take place with increasing frequency. ==Library==