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Thomist Revival, Belgian Catholic jurists and their international networks, 1880s-1920s

Peter Heyrman

Résumés

Cette contribution explore le vaste impact sociétal et intellectuel du renouveau thomiste en Belgique à la fin du xixe et au début du xxsiècle. Nous nous concentrons sur l’infrastructure néoscolastique de l’université catholique de Louvain, en accordant une attention particulière aux réseaux (internationaux) liés à son Institut supérieur de philosophie (1889), fondé par le futur archevêque et cardinal Désiré-Joseph Mercier (1851-1926). Dans la ligne d’Aeterni Patris (1879), l’initiative de Mercier est à la fois académique, pédagogique, pastorale et apologétique. Nous mettons en lumière les principaux acteurs, institutions et périodiques liés au renouveau thomiste à Louvain, en accordant une attention particulière aux différentes initiatives semi-académiques impliquant des juristes. Le mouvement néothomiste de Louvain a façonné la manière dont les intellectuels catholiques, les juristes en particulier, ont abordé la question sociale, aidé à développer des réponses politiques et mobilisé la société civile pour contrer la montée du socialisme. Nous mettons particulièrement l’accent sur l’Union internationale d’études sociales, un réseau international de théologiens moraux catholiques et d’experts laïcs établi à Malines en 1919-1920, et sur ses efforts pour mettre à jour les enseignements sociaux catholiques.

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1Our contribution aims to illustrate the societal and intellectual impact of the Thomist revival in Belgium in the late 19th and early 20th century, and the different ways in which the country’s Catholic intellectuals linked to neoscholasticism, legal scholars in particular, were involved in international networks. Prevalent historiography on this topic, mainly focussing on the emblematic figure of Mercier and the pivotal role of the Leuven Higher Institute of Philosophy (1889), has particularly highlighted the impact of neoscholasticism on how the Belgian Catholic intellectuals around the turn of the century dealt with the emergence of the modern social sciences, sociology in particular, and with designing policy answers to the mounting social question (Wils 1992, 2005 and 2014; Kanabus 2022; De Volder 2018; Deferme and De Maeyer 2009; Deferme 2021 and 2007; Serry 2004).

  • 1 Union internationale d’études sociales, Code social. Esquisse d’une synthèse sociale catholique, Pa (...)

2While building on this literature, we argue the inherent multifaceted identity of the Thomist revival and aim to illustrate that its societal impact in Belgium was much broader, largely superseding the worlds of science and academia. Answering the research agenda in a recent study on the societal and legal impact of neoscholasticism (Decock et al. 2021), our contribution also explores the international networks that carried this movement, where we particularly highlight the interconnections between Belgian and French scholars. Furthermore, we are convinced that the study of the neoscholastic movement should foster a broad chronological perspective. Therefore our exploration ranges a significant time span. The 1880s emerge as a obvious starting point, marking a transformative period for the social role of the Catholic Church under the impetus of the new pope Leo XIII (1878-1903). This decade also witnessed the institutionalization of the Thomist revival in Belgium with the foundation of the Leuven Higher Institute of Philosophy. Our essay deliberately spans the subsequent decades until the 1920s, when Belgian neo-Thomist scholarship on social issues gained enduring international significance within Mercier’s International Union of Social Studies. In 1927, this network involving several leading legal scholars, published a Code social. Esquisse d’une synthèse sociale catholique. This social catechism achieved wide dissemination in the Catholic world, with editions in no fewer than twelve languages1. Our expansive chronological viewpoint enables us to underscore enduring trends over time. However, it also implies we cannot provide an intricate examination of specific discussions within Belgian Catholic academic spheres or illustrate the precise legal and societal ramifications of these deliberations and inquiries. Similarly, we won’t extensively explore the writings and philosophical frameworks of individual authors. Nevertheless, our objective remains to illustrate the profound societal influence exerted by these networks associated with social-Catholicism and the Thomist intellectual tradition within which it was situated (De Smet 2021).

3While the Thomist revival is commonly associated with the papal encyclical Aeterni patris (4 August 1879), its origins extend much further back, even to the 1820s. A pivotal moment occurred with the Magisterium’s condemnation of ontologism in 1861-1862. In Italy during the 1860s and 1870s, numerous scholars contributed to the rediscovery of Thomist philosophy. However, the true breakthrough of this revival is notably tied to the pontificate of Leo XIII and his advocacy in Aeterni patris for the establishment of neoscholastic study centres, providing intellectual incubators for a new Catholic intellectual elite. Saint Thomas Aquinas’ transparent metaphysical framework, endorsed by the Council of Trent during the Reformation era as the principal philosophical system of the Church, was rediscovered as a remedy for addressing intellectual fragmentation within Western Catholicism. Leo urged for a dialogue between traditional Christian metaphysics and rationalist positive philosophy and science. Just as Thomas had successfully assimilated Aristotle’s “pagan knowledge” into Christian doctrine, the resurgence of scholastic philosophy aimed to furnish 19th-century Catholic intellectual elites with a robust metaphysical framework capable of assimilating the paradigms of positivist, agnostic philosophy. This framework would aid in resolving the increasingly contentious disputes in modern society regarding the interplay between natural reason and supernatural revelation. In essence, the Thomist revival sought to equip Catholics against secular modernity and facilitate the reconciliation of their faith, reverence for scripture, Church doctrine, and tradition with the myriad new scientific discoveries and insights of the modern era (Durand 2005; De Laubier 1978; Hartley 1971; Behr 2019).

4This call was particularly well received in Belgium, a highly industrialized and urbanized country that was often considered as a good testing ground for developing valid Catholic responses on social issues and (particularly) the “threat of socialism”. From 1884 until 1914 the country was uninterruptedly ruled by Catholic governments. The social provisions and workers’ associations set up by the country’s Catholic hommes d’œuvre were closely monitored in Rome. Their expertise and discussions, for instance during the social congresses of Liège in 1886, 1887 and 1890 (Gérin 2001), nourished international study circles such as the Union catholique d’études sociales et économiques de Fribourg. Both the discussions in Liège and in Fribourg would, in turn, clearly influence emerging Catholic social teaching, the drafting of the encyclical Rerum novarum (1891) in particular (Lamberts 2002).

I – The Leuven neoscholastic infrastructure

  • 2 Union nationale pour le redressement des griefs, Congrès des œuvres sociales à Liège. 26-29 septemb (...)

5A pivotal figure in the Belgian Thomist revival was the philosopher Désiré-Joseph Mercier (1851-1926), the later archbishop of Mechelen (1906) and cardinal (1907). From 13 October 1882 onwards, as a young professor of the Catholic University of Leuven, he taught the course La haute philosophie selon Saint Thomas, formally linked to the Faculty of Theology but open to all students and even to the general public. Mercier showed particular interest in the emerging social sciences and did not refrain from publicly debating different social issues and the rise of socialism (Gerard and Wils 1999; Wils 2002, esp. 326-341). In 1886 the question sociale quickly rose to the top of the political agenda in Belgium: in March strikes and deadly riots ravaged the industrialised regions of Wallonia, in April the government installed a national labour commission and in September the first of aforementioned three Catholic social congresses was organised in Liège2. In his courses Mercier repeatedly illustrated aspects of Thomist philosophy by referring to social issues. In 1887, he pleaded with the Pope for the establishment of an independent institute at Leuven University, thus solidifying the neoscholastic project in Belgian academia and broader society. In July 1888, Leo XIII made that same suggestion in a letter to the Belgian bishops, while also pledging a substantial financial contribution. On 8 November 1889, the Leuven Institute of Philosophy or École Saint-Thomas d’Aquin was formally inaugurated by Cardinal Petrus-Lambertus Goossens (1827-1906) (Mirguet and Hiraux 2008; Courtois and Jačov 2013; Van Riet 1981; De Raeymaeker 1951 and 1952).

  • 3 Fontaine was also charged with a course of Moral Philosophy at the Arts Faculty (1890). Main work: (...)

6Following the lines set out in Aeterni Patris also Mercier’s initiative was both academic, pedagogic, pastoral and apologetic. The Leuven Institute, conceived as a multidisciplinary study and research centre in the spirit of Thomas Aquinas, became quickly intertwined with other university faculties and institutes. The students of the Leuven Law Faculty in particular were markedly encouraged to follow Mercier’s courses and to obtain a licence, later on a baccalaureate in Thomist philosophy. In 1884-1892 no less than nine doctorates in Thomist philosophy were awarded. Mercier’s first doctoral pupil, the jurist Théodore Fontaine (1858-1898) was appointed professor at the Leuven Faculty of Law in a newly created chair of Social Law (1886), teaching the course Le Droit social dans ses rapports avec la question ouvrière, for both law and engineering students (De Wulf 1898)3. Léon de Lantsheere (1862-1912), another jurist and Mercier’s second doctoral student, would also become professor (1895/1899) and even dean (1911) at the Leuven Law Faculty (Heyrman 2021). Concurrently, he and his college friends and fellow jurists Jules Renkin (1862-1934) and Henry Carton de Wiart (1869-1951) were the main protagonists of emerging Christian Democracy and the Christian labour movement in Brussels. In 1900, de Lantsheere secured a seat as a Parliamentary Deputy and in 1908-1911 became Minister of Justice in the government led by Franz Schollaert (1851-1917). We should also mention that de Lantsheere played a leading role in the Leuven School of Political and Social Sciences, established in 1892 by Jules Van den Heuvel (1854-1926) (Vanlangenhove 1969; Waelkens et al. 2014), an eminent specialist of Public Law and minister of Justice in 1899-1907.

  • 4 Main works: Le conflit de la morale et de la sociologie (1911) and Saint Thomas et la question juiv (...)
  • 5 Professor at the Antwerp Higher Institute for Commercial Studies.

7Also other main collaborators of Mercier held degrees in Law. We could, for instance, refer to Maurice De Wulf (1867-1947), a historian and jurist who would become an internationally renowned expert of medieval philosophy (Van Steenberghen 1948 and 1965). But the closest confident of Mercier was Simon Deploige (1868-1927). Holding a doctoral degree in Arts (1888) and Law (1889) and a licence en philosophie (1890), he taught courses on Natural Law, Political Economy and the History of Social Theories at the Institute of Philosophy from 1893 onwards. Furthermore, he also held a course on Rural Law in the Leuven School of Agriculture. Deploige, who was ordained a priest in 1896, would succeed Mercier as head of the Leuven Higher Institute of Philosophy in 19064. Armand Thiéry (1868-1955), another priest, jurist and close collaborator of the later cardinal, led a laboratory that would become the cornerstone of the future Leuven School (later on Faculty) of Pedagogical and Psychological Sciences (1923) (De Raeymaeker 1954-1956). Cyrille Van Overbergh (1866-1959), yet another legal scholar and pupil of Mercier, would be the co-founder and chairman of the Société belge de sociologie. His colleagues Camille Jacquart (1867-1931) (Dufrasne 1976) and Fernand Deschamps (1868-1957)5, again both jurists, were the editorial secretaries of Le Mouvement sociologique (1900-1906), a periodical formally embracing this new and controversial science but, of course, within the Thomist framework that Mercier had set out.

  • 6 The impact of the French Jesuit Michel d’Herbigny (1880-1957), who lectured at the Jesuit study cen (...)

8Mercier’s team also showed strong connections to the different Belgian diocesan seminaries and to the training centres of the main male religious institutes. Belgian Jesuit theologians such as Auguste Castelein (1840-1922) (Heyrman 2021), Arthur Vermeersch (1858-1936) (Creusen 1947; Viaene 2013; Genin 2021), Valère Fallon (1875-1955) (Sauvage 2014) or Albert Müller (1880-1951) particularly applied the Thomist framework to social issues6. But we should, of course, also mention the Dominican study house in Leuven (1856), its Thomas Society (1873) and Studium Generale of Le Saulchoir (1904) with the Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques (1907-) and the Bulletin thomiste (1924-) (De Leeuw 2012).

9All this illustrates that the Thomist revival was far more than an academic vogue and that its significance largely transcended the debate on the introduction of modern social sciences and sociology in Belgium, and the antagonism on this between the private universities of Brussels and Leuven (Kanabus 2022). It wanted to impact society as a whole. By offering public lectures, creating different study circles and a University extension programme (1902) Mercier’s team promoted the revived philosophical framework of Aquinas in broader circles. Apart from the aforementioned and rather scholarly Revue néo-scolastique, the Leuven Higher Institute of Philosophy also published two important semi-academic periodicals: the Revue catholique de droit (1898-1914) and the Revue sociale catholique (1896-1920). After the war these two would merge into the Revue catholique sociale et juridique (1920-1925). For the later period, we should also refer to the Revue catholique des idées et des faits (1921-1970) of priest René Gabriel Van den Hout (1886-1969) although this journal had a broader vocation and was less explicitly linked to academia.

  • 7 “Le Droit est trop demeuré cantonné jusqu’ici dans les sphères techniques et professionnelles. Le c (...)
  • 8 Crahay would be appointed professor extraordinarious in March 1902 and full professor in July 1907. (...)
  • 9 Apart from Crahay and Damoiseaux the editorial board in 1912 also comprised: Victor Denyn; Simon De (...)

10The contents of the Revue catholique de droit, carrying the motto Le Droit pour tous demonstrate how the Thomist revival revigorated Catholic jurists in seeking to engage with and contribute to the important societal debates of their time7. The leading scholar of this periodical was Edouard Crahay (1872-1945), a pupil of Mercier and Deploige who had been entrusted teaching responsibilities at the Law Faculty of the State University of Liège in 18968. The Revue published a total of 238 articles. Many of them dealt with the so-called question sociale and the rise of socialism. But Crahay and his editorial team, of which we should particularly mention the later governor of the Hainaut province Maurice Damoiseaux (1866-1938) (Jouret 1983-1984), also showed great interest in the complex legal framework in Belgium governing the financing of the cult, the establishment and governance of parishes, the financial dealings between the fabriques d’églises and municipal and provincial authorities in particular9. Another recurring theme in their writings was the absence of a legal form allowing the many religious actors in education and care to acquire and manage their patrimony. This long-debated issue in Belgian politics would only be genuinely solved with the introduction of a legal form for non-profit organisations (vzw/asbl) in June 1921 (Stevens 2004; De Groof 1989). The Revue catholique de droit also extensively reflected on how law should deal with for Catholics disturbing phenomena such as gambling, obscene songs, alcoholism etcetera.

11Even if Crahay’s periodical has often been framed as a sister publication of the French Revue catholique des institutions et du droit (1873-1939), hardly any reference was made to this title, even in articles relating directly to France (Galland 2022; Fillon 2001). Nonetheless, several Leuven scholars actively contributed to this periodical. Apart from Charles Périn on which we will elaborate later, we want to particularly highlight the role of Hector Lambrechts (1865-1938), a legal scholar and pupil of Brants who, after venturing into international comparative research on Private Law, became a leading civil servant in the recently established Belgian Ministry of Industry and Labour (1895) where he, from 1899 onwards, headed the administrative services for the classes moyennes/middenstand. He extensively published on the so-called problème sociale de la petite bourgeoisie, and was a key actor in the Institut international des classes moyennes, founded in Stuttgart in 1903 (Heyrman 2013).

  • 10 Rutten was particularly targeted regarding a passage on the legitimacy of strikes in his speech at (...)

12But Mercier and his team seem to have distanced themselves from the network around the French Revue, often labelled as the “school of Angers”. The future archbishop and his collaborators showed clear sympathy for the Christian Labour movement, as it was organised by prominent Dominicans such as Jules Perquy (1870-1946) and especially Georges Rutten (1875-1952) (Gerard 1991, 123-126; Lamberigts et al. 2016). But they too had to navigate the more conservative course of the Vatican in social matters after the election of Pius X on 4 August 1903 (De Maeyer and Kenis 2018). Let us merely mention the papal motu proprio Fin dalla prima (1904), his condemnation of modernism in the encyclicals Lamentabili sane exitu and Pascendi Dominici Gregis (September 1907), his denunciation of Le Sillon (1910) and the introduction of an antimodernist oath to be taken by all priests (Mayeur 2006; Bernardi 2000, p. 277–307). Although several allegations were made, particularly towards Rutten, none of Mercier’s close collaborators would be explicitly accused of social modernism10.

  • 11 “Pourquoi nous sommes”, Revue sociale catholique, I (1896), 1, 1-4.
  • 12 Main works: L’Impôt sur le capital & le revenu en Prusse. Réforme de 1891-1893, Brussels/Paris/Namu (...)

13The carefully plotted, but in essence quite progressive course in social matters of the network around the Leuven Higher Institute of Philosophy, becomes apparent when studying the contents of the Revue sociale catholique (1896-1920). This second important semi-academic periodical of the Leuven Thomist revival network ambitioned to offer Catholic intellectuals a broad scientific information and reflection platform on social issues, particularly targeting « tous ceux qui croient que la solution des problèmes d’aujourd’hui pendants n’affecte pas seulement un parti ou une classe, mais intéresse tous les hommes, frères en Jésus-Christ »11. In such, it wanted to offer an alternative for the official Revue du travail (1895), the neutral Revue sociale et politique (1891) and especially the socialist L’Avenir social (1896) (Quaghebeur 1984). The Revue sociale catholique was subsequently coordinated by three close collaborators of Mercier: Deploige, the jurist and sociologist Georges Legrand (1870-1946)12, an alumnus of the Leuven Higher Institute of Philosophy who had been appointed professor at the Gembloux State University College for Agriculture, and from 1906 onwards by the sociologist Maurice Defourny (1878-1953) (De Smet 2021; Gerard and Wils 1999; Leclercq and Rousseaux 1953; Rousseaux 1953; Scharff 1966). But the periodical was also closely linked to the Société belge d’économie sociale, an older (1881) network of socially involved Catholic academics, politicians and hommes d’œuvres headed by the legal scholar and historian Victor Brants (1856-1917), a pupil of Francis de Monge (1836-1909) and Frédéric Le Play (1806-1882), and holder of the chair of Political Economy at the Leuven Law Faculty (Casteleyn 2013; Meerts 1982 and 1985; Deferme and De Maeyer 2009).

  • 13 The école d’Angers (Garriguet 1909, p. 112-113) was sometimes dubbed as the école des patrons du No (...)
  • 14 Interesting contemporary accounts on Périn: Victor Brants, “Charles Périn. Notice sur sa vie et ses (...)
  • 15 French publications, eagerly promoted in Belgium: Frédéric Le Play, L’organisation du travail selon (...)

14In that prestigious chair, Brants succeeded the renowned Belgian Catholic legal scholar Charles Périn (1815-1905), who, although not explicitly associated with the Belgian Thomist revival, warrants mention in this overview (Potempa 2022, p. 155-303; Stevens 2021; Lamberts 1984; Louant 1952 and 1959). Périn’s principal works, De la richesse dans les sociétés chrétiennes (Paris, 1861) and Les lois de la société chrétienne (Paris, 1875), outlined a sophisticated framework for Catholic political economy. He was a confident of Pope Pius IX and a prominent figure in Belgian intransigent ultramontanism. However, in 1881, following a public dispute within the Belgian episcopacy, Périn resigned from his position in Leuven, retreating to his estate in Ghlin. He then found intellectual refuge at the Catholic University of Lille and joined the editorial board of the Revue catholique des institutions et du droit. Although he applauded Rerum novarum and also clearly subscribed to the papal instructions, for instance on minimum wages, he was considered a leading figure of the already quoted school of Angers, obstinately rejecting state intervention, social legislation and independent workers’ organizations13. Périn held a somewhat steadfast and uncompromising perspective on the social question, believing that patronage and voluntary charitable endeavors were adequate to maintain or reinstate social harmony14. His views were particularly appreciated by the cross-border networks of Catholic entrepreneurial families in Northern France and Belgian Wallonia, a discourse community professing an active social responsibility of industrial entrepreneurs for the moral and material well-being of their workforce, often referring to the Leplaysian ideas on patronage and (esp. before 1894) to the writings and exemplary initiatives of Léon Harmel (1829-1915) (Trimouille 1974)15. The Association catholique des patrons du Nord (1884) and the Conférences d’études sociales de Notre-Dame du Hautmont clearly served as an inspiring model to the Belgian Association des patrons et industriels catholiques (APIC, 1894) and its fierce resistance against (further) social legislation and State intervention in social matters (Heyrman 2019 and 2021).

15Looking back, this conservative opposition was clearly successful. Belgian social legislation before the war remained cautious. Following the policy paradigm of “subsidized liberty”, the State restricted itself to promoting, facilitating, and subsidizing various association-driven social initiatives: from popular education and vocational training to mutual aid and economic support. This approach led to a progressively compartmentalized, even pillarized societal structure, wherein distinct ideological groups or pillars oversaw separate networks of social institutions and services, catering to the needs of their members (Hellemans 1990).

II – International networks

  • 16 An interesting contemporary overview: Joseph-Louis Perrier, The Revival of Scholastic Philosophy in (...)

16Although further research on this topic is clearly required, it is already apparent that the Leuven Higher Institute of Philosophy quickly became a central node of the growing network of neoscholastic study centres throughout Europe. It eagerly ventured into academic exchanges with Catholic scholars and institutes in Rome, Paris, Lyon, Lille, Fribourg, Luzern, Maria Laach etcetera16. The contents of its in-house periodical, the Revue néo-scolastique (1894-), offers a good overview of its growing international resonance and networks, somewhat interconnecting German-speaking and francophone academia. Leuven scholars devoted to the Thomist revival eagerly participated in the Congrès scientifiques des catholiques (1888-1900), the 1894 edition in Brussels in particular. But the pupils of Mercier were also manifestly encouraged to interact with research units and laboratories outside the Catholic networks. Mercier himself took courses with the famous neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893) at the Paris Salpêtrière hospital. Thiéry was a post-doctoral fellow at the laboratories of psychologist Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) in Leipzig. In 1891 Deploige made a research trip to Switzerland, and Van Overbergh to Germany, France and England. Having concluded his studies in Leuven, Defourny undertook research stays with the French sociologists Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) and Gabriel Tarde (1843-1904) and the German economists Gustave von Schmoller (1838-1917) and Adolph Wagner (1835-1917) (Wils 2017; Gerard 2022). Deschamps travelled to Bonn, Leipzig, Berlin and Hamburg, …

  • 17 The first of the Belgian invitees seems to have been historian Godefroid Kurth (1847-1916). In 1907 (...)
  • 18 Institut catholique de Lille : Papers Duthoit 731, letter Mercier to Duthoit, 1 December 1911.
  • 19 Gids op Sociaal Gebied, 26 July 1914, 126. On Mercier’s support for the Christian trade unions and (...)

17Along with several of his team members, Mercier was also connected to the quickly expanding network of the French social weeks (Lécrivain 1990; Droulers 1981), yearly events sometimes dubbed as the ‘travelling university of social Catholicism’, interconnecting Church, academia and Catholic civil society. The organizing committee featured prominent figures such as the Lille jurist Eugène Duthoit (1869-1944), his mentors Henri Lorin (1857-1914) and Adéodat Boissard (1870-1938), and the Lyon social-Catholics Marius Gonin (1873-1937) and Augustin Crétinon (1860-1947) (Lamoot 1955; Caudron 1990 and 1991; Cartiaux 1991). From 1908 onwards, also in Belgium yearly Catholic Social Weeks were organized, although separately in Flanders and Wallonia. It is clear that the French and Belgian networks closely interacted. The already quoted Henry Carton de Wiart, Georges Rutten and Simon Deploige gave lectures at the French social weeks before the war17. On Sunday 26 November 1911, when Mercier was invited to the Lille Velodrome to address the 23th Congrès des catholiques du Nord et du Pas-de-Calais, he previously spent some “charming hours” in the company and home of Duthoit18. Early July 1914, Lorin and probably Duthoit too attended the jubilee congress of the Belgian Christian trade union movement in Gent, a most festive event where also Mercier delivered a speech19.

III – International Union of Social Studies

18After the devastation of the First World War, neoscholasticism went in many different directions, ranging from aesthetics to royalist nationalism (Chenaux 1999). The international networks of Catholic jurists that were involved in this/these movement(s) were clearly anchored down in pre-war precedents. Amongst the many international contacts and exchanges, we want to particularly highlight the role of the Union internationale d’études sociales, an international network of Catholic moral theologians and lay experts established in Mechelen in 1919-1920 and chaired by (then immensely popular and influential) Cardinal Mercier.

  • 20 An in-depth analysis of the Union’s network and activities in 1919-1928 will be published soon in a (...)
  • 21 Semaine sociale de France, XIe session, Metz 1919. Compte rendu in-extenso, Paris/Lyon, Gabalda/Vit (...)

19This network, often nicknamed the Union de Malines, must be considered as part of the broader efforts made by Catholic intellectuals in industrialized Northern France and Belgium to update and attune the social teachings of the Church to the radically changing political, socio-economic and cultural context of post-war society20. Although the new Pope Benedict XV (1854-1922) and his Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Gasparri (1850-1934) indeed followed a less conservative course in social matters then Pius X, a new social encyclical was not in the works. On the contrary, when writing to the organisers of the French Catholic Social Weeks in 1919, Gasparri recalled that social problems were in essence moral issues and stated that Rerum Novarum was more topical than ever, as the encyclical explicitly reminded patrons and workers of their mutual rights and duties21.

20Notwithstanding this context, the leadership of the Christian Labour organisations in Western Europe strongly urged for updated guidelines and instructions. They pointed to the discontent in working-class districts and the growing popularity of socialism and even communism. A separation between the popular masses and the Church had to be avoided at all costs. Catholic teachings on social issues, so they argued, were all too often represented as antisocialist and therefore framed as conservative. Social-Catholicism needed to align itself to the social-political advancements that were realised after the Armistice, in Belgium for instance the introduction of (simple) general voting rights for men, the statutory regulation of working hours (8-hour day and 48-hour week), the lifting of the last restrictions in the Belgian Penal Code on labor strikes, the establishment of structures for social consultation and collective bargaining, a consumer price index system fostering the protection of the purchasing power of inflation-crunched wages, the introduction of a progressive and declaration-based income tax, the outline of social insurances for wage dependents etcetera (Gerard and Verleden 2017).

  • 22 Formerly known as the Union international pour l’étude du droit des gens d’après les principes chré (...)
  • 23 The Union de Fribourg (18 October 1884-1891) counted a total of 52 delegates, from Switzerland, Fra (...)

21As no action was to expected from Rome, the social-Catholic networks in Belgium and France autonomously reflected on how these and other postwar social advances should be calibrated on Catholic social teachings and tradition. With that goal in mind, Mercier would embrace a plan that had been brought before him in October 1919 by his pre-war acquaintance Eugène Duthoit. This eminent Lille jurist and social-Catholic leader was involved in different Catholic international structures, e.g. the Comité des amitiés françaises led by Rector Alfred Baudrillart (1859-1942) of the Paris Institut catholique (Grange 1992), the Union catholique d’études internationales (1920) or the Institut de droit international chrétien22 of which the Leuven priest-professor and theologian Pierre Harmignie (1885-1944) was the secretary. Building on older intentions of his mentor Henri Lorin, Duthoit convinced Mercier to revive the Union catholique d’études sociales et économiques de Fribourg, the aforementioned discussion group founded in 1884 by Gaspard Mermillod (1824-1892), bishop of Lausanne et Geneva, that had clearly influenced emerging social-Catholic teachings, the drafting of Rerum novarum (1891) in particular23.

22In April 1920 Mercier secured the participation of Maurice Defourny as the secretary of the initiative. At the first meeting of the Union internationale d’études sociales took place in Mechelen on 21-22 October 1920 (Hoyois 1964; Van Molle 1993; Bosschaert 2019). At first the group merely encompassed French and Belgian experts, both priests and laymen, many of them jurists. But over the following years also experts from the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, England and Switzerland were coopted. Mercier and his entourage, still clearly traumatized by the war and the atrocities committed in occupied Belgium and in Leuven in particular, explicitly excluded German and Austrian participants. Moreover, the membership of the Union showed a predominantly Christian Democratic profile.

23Apart from Defourny, Mercier included several other main confidents of his network in the initiative: Deploige, Rutten, Vermeersch and Legrand. The Mons lawyer and former deputy Edouard Servais (1872-1942) and the jurist and former president of the Belgische Volksbond/Union démocratique belge Alfons Verwilghen (1862-1933) would become key members of the Union too. The French delegation mainly comprised confidents of Duthoit, often linked to the French social weeks. The former deputy Jean Lerolle (1873-1962), the Dominican scholar Antonin-Gilbert Sertillanges (1863-1948), the Roubaix-born Jesuit Gustave Desbuquois (1869-1959) (Droulers 1969 and 1981), director of the Action populaire (1903), the already quoted journalist Marius Gonin of Lyon and the Lille priest Paul Six (1860-1936), a pioneer of Christian-democracy in Northern France (Lamoot 1938 and Hilaire 1991, p. 251-257), attended the first meeting of October 1920. Mercier suggested involving historian Étienne Martin Saint-Léon (1860-1934), but this did not agree with Duthoit. Conversely, he too had to strike several of candidates, e.g. philosopher Joseph Vialatoux (1880-1970) and publicist Georges Goyau (1869-1939). Amongst the coopted experts from other countries, we particularly mention the Spanish jurist Severino Aznar (1870-1959), a friend of Duthoit who had ties with the country’s Cristian-democrat Partido Social Popular (1923), and the Swiss jurist Emile Savoy (1877-1935), an alumnus of Leuven University and foreman of the Swiss farmer leagues.

  • 24 Intermediate reports on the Union’s activities: Maurice Defourny, “Union internationale d’études so (...)

24At annual meetings, the members of the Union of Mechelen discussed a series of social issues and phenomena on which they formulated concise social-ethical guidelines, called resolutions. Many of them professed a distinctly legal approach. The first resolutions of the Union focused on “professional organization and co-management” and on the “co-ownership of labour in industrial enterprise”. At the sessions of 1921-1922 discussions were held on price formation and usury, taxes, just wages, the “shareholdership of labour”, the “nationalization of enterprise”, the Christian concept of property and the right to strike in public services24. A year later, resolutions were formulated on inheritance law, family allowances and social insurances.

25In 1924, while initiating an ethical reflection on some new phenomena in international banking and business, the Union decided to publish these (and many other) social guidelines in a small booklet destined towards the general public. Mercier labelled it interchangeably as a “social catechism” or a “social synthesis”. The first edition of this Code social. Esquisse d’une synthèse sociale catholique was published in May 1927. It was edited by Duthoit and Defourny, and contained 143 instructions, neatly arranged in five sections, resp. dealing with family life, civic life, economic life, international life and -at the explicit request of Mercier- also supranatural life. Although further research on all this is warranted, the Code de Malines seems to have offered a long-awaited doctrinal basis to different Christian social movements in Western Europe and their political action during the late 1920s.

26It is, however, significant that the booklet was published under the authority and imprimatur of the archdiocese of Mechelen. Its editors made great efforts to obtain a papal approval or recommendation of their guidelines, but Rome would never formally endorse them. Despite the membership of Oswald von Nell-Bruening (1890-1991) from December 1928 onwards, the Union of Mechelen appears to have been completely left out of the drafting process of Quadragesimo anno (1931). This new encyclical, preponderantly reflecting German scholarship on social matters, articulated quite distinct or even conflicting positions. As a result, the 1934 edition of the Code de Malines was thoroughly revised (Hoyois 1964, p. 601-602).

IV – Some concluding remarks

27The Thomist revival had a huge impact on Catholic intellectual life. Although scholarly attention seems to have mainly focused on its interactions with the emerging social sciences and with psychology, the revived philosophical framework of Saint Thomas Aquinas also (and somewhat evidently) influenced legal scholarship. The Leuven neoscholastic infrastructure and networks, dominated by its Higher Institute of Philosophy and its founder Désiré Mercier, were intricately interwoven with its Law Faculty.

28As Wim Decock has rightfully underlined (Decock 2021), the many Catholic legal scholars engaged in the Thomist revival were part of one epistemic community or Diskursgemeinschaft. They shared a common vocabulary and understanding of how central (legal) concepts as “state”, “property”, “punishment”, “wage”, “fraud”, “justice”, “charity” … ought to be understood. The moldability of the Thomist framework, however, facilitated its applicability for different and even contrasting agenda’s, and in different contexts.

29The Leuven neo-Thomist movement particularly sculpted the ways in which Catholic intellectuals, legal scholars in particular, perceived the question sociale, helped to develop policy answers and mobilized civil society to counter the rise of socialism. We willingly recognize that the Belgian case is unique in many ways, and further in-depth research is required, both for this country as for other national contexts. But the prevailing literature on the topic already illustrates that the societal and legal impact of this Church-initiated philosophical movement, which extended throughout the entire Catholic world, can hardly be overestimated.

30The intricate scholarly dialogue on social issues in this period, particularly involving Catholic legal scholars and moral theologians, is essential to comprehend the evolution of Catholic social teachings and its implementation in Belgian policy. Historical research has predominantly focused on how the Thomist intellectual tradition has affected social legislation. There are, however, many other domains that offer promising perspectives for studies in that perspective: property and inheritance rights, fiscal legislation, commercial and banking practices, insurance law, family law, the legal aspects of colonial governance, … The relevance is somewhat obvious: social-Catholicism and the Thomist framework substantiating it, would have a particularly strong impact on 20th century Western European society, not only on socio-political ideas, discourses and practices, but also on its institutional and legal identity.

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Notes

1 Union internationale d’études sociales, Code social. Esquisse d’une synthèse sociale catholique, Paris, 1927. Successive language editions in Italian, Spanish, German, Polish, Dutch, English, Portuguese, Czech, Rumanian, Chinese (summary) and Japanese (1959).

2 Union nationale pour le redressement des griefs, Congrès des œuvres sociales à Liège. 26-29 septembre 1886, Liège, Demarteau, 1886.

3 Fontaine was also charged with a course of Moral Philosophy at the Arts Faculty (1890). Main work: De la sensation et la pensée, Leuven, Peeters, 1885.

4 Main works: Le conflit de la morale et de la sociologie (1911) and Saint Thomas et la question juive (1902). At the Leuven Institute he taught the courses Droit naturel, Économie politique and Histoire des théories sociales.; at the Leuven School of Agriculture: Législation rurale and Le droit social dans ses rapports avec la question ouvrière; at the Arts Faculty: Droit naturel.

5 Professor at the Antwerp Higher Institute for Commercial Studies.

6 The impact of the French Jesuit Michel d’Herbigny (1880-1957), who lectured at the Jesuit study centre in Enghien/Edingen should also be highlighted.

7 “Le Droit est trop demeuré cantonné jusqu’ici dans les sphères techniques et professionnelles. Le citoyen, qui en use, n’en connait la valeur que par ouï-dire, tandis qu’au-dessus de lui, dans les cas de crise, quelques spécialistes en manipulent à sa place les mystérieuses recettes”. N., “Revue catholique de Droit”, Revue sociale catholique, 1897-1898, 161-163.

8 Crahay would be appointed professor extraordinarious in March 1902 and full professor in July 1907. Main works: La Politique de Saint Thomas d’Aquin, Louvain, Institut supérieur de philosophie, 1896 ; La réglementation du travail en Suisse. La protection des ouvrières dans le canton de Zurich, Louvain, Impr. Polleunis et Ceuterick, 1895 ; Le remariage d’époux divorcés, Louvain, Institut supérieur de philosophie, 1906.

9 Apart from Crahay and Damoiseaux the editorial board in 1912 also comprised: Victor Denyn; Simon Deploige; Louis Dierckx; Henry Dumortier; Maurice Harmignie; Jules Helleputte; Isidore Maus; Jules Poncelet; Maurice Ranwez; canon Petrus van Messem; Cyrille Van Overbergh; Pierre Verhaegen; and Oscar Vermeersch.

10 Rutten was particularly targeted regarding a passage on the legitimacy of strikes in his speech at the French Social Week in Versailles in 1913. On the so-called “integrist” campaign against him, see several documents in KADOC-KULeuven: Archives Georges Rutten (dep. ACW), 2.

11 “Pourquoi nous sommes”, Revue sociale catholique, I (1896), 1, 1-4.

12 Main works: L’Impôt sur le capital & le revenu en Prusse. Réforme de 1891-1893, Brussels/Paris/Namur, Schepens/Pédone-Lauriel/Godenne, 1894 ; Précis d’économie sociale, Leuven/Paris, Uystpruyst/Beauchesne, 1912 (and several subsequent editions) ; Les grands courants de la sociologie catholique à l’heure présente, Paris, Spes, 1927.

13 The école d’Angers (Garriguet 1909, p. 112-113) was sometimes dubbed as the école des patrons du Nord or the école de Mouvaux, the location of the centre Notre‐Dame du Hautmont where the Catholic entrepreneurs of that region organised retreats for their workers and themselves under the guidance of Jesuits.

14 Interesting contemporary accounts on Périn: Victor Brants, “Charles Périn. Notice sur sa vie et ses travaux”, Annuaire de l’université catholique de Louvain, Leuven, Van Linthout, 1906, XLIV; Justin Fèvre, Charles Périn, créateur de l’économie politique chrétienne, Paris, Arthur Savaète, 1903; Paul Michotte, “Un économiste belge. Charles Périn”, Revue sociale catholique, June-July 1905, p. 267-93. Michotte also devoted an extensive chapter to Périn in his dissertation: P. Michotte, Études sur les théories économiques qui dominèrent en Belgique de 1830 à 1886, Leuven, Peeters, 1904, p. 368-399.

15 French publications, eagerly promoted in Belgium: Frédéric Le Play, L’organisation du travail selon la coutume des ateliers et la loi du Décalogue, Tours, Alfred Mame et fils, 1870; Léon Harmel, Manuel d’une corporation chrétienne, Tours, Alfred Mame et fils, 1877; Id., Catéchisme du patron, élaboré avec le concours d’un grand nombre de théologiens, Paris, Bureau de la Corporation, 1889; Id., Le Val-des-Bois et ses institutions ouvrières, Paris, Œuvre des Cercles catholiques d’ouvriers, 1890.

16 An interesting contemporary overview: Joseph-Louis Perrier, The Revival of Scholastic Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century, New York, Columbia University Press, 1909.

17 The first of the Belgian invitees seems to have been historian Godefroid Kurth (1847-1916). In 1907, he gave a lecture in Amiens on “L’Action de l’Église à travers l’histoire”. Carton de Wiart, who was already scheduled but detained in 1909, participated a year later in the Social Week in Rouen. Rutten was clearly corresponding with the organisers from 1908 onwards, the programmes of the Belgian social weeks were published in the proceedings of the French. Rutten and Deploige attended the Social Week of 1913 in Versailles. From 1919 (Metz) onwards the Belgian Dominican participated in nearly all the French social weeks of the subsequent decade. Deploige would again attend a session in 1925, Carton in 1927.

18 Institut catholique de Lille : Papers Duthoit 731, letter Mercier to Duthoit, 1 December 1911.

19 Gids op Sociaal Gebied, 26 July 1914, 126. On Mercier’s support for the Christian trade unions and Rutten, see Gerard 1991, p. 123-126.

20 An in-depth analysis of the Union’s network and activities in 1919-1928 will be published soon in a volume of the Bibliothèque d’histoire ecclésiastique dedicated to the life and significance of Désiré Mercier.

21 Semaine sociale de France, XIe session, Metz 1919. Compte rendu in-extenso, Paris/Lyon, Gabalda/Vitte, 1920, 7-9. The letter, dated 29 June 1919, was widely shared in the Belgian journals. See for instance : Vers l’avenir, 26 July and 9 August 1919, Journal de Bruxelles, 25 July 1919 and La Libre Belgique, 7 August 1919.

22 Formerly known as the Union international pour l’étude du droit des gens d’après les principes chrétiens, later on renamed to Institut du droit international chrétien.

23 The Union de Fribourg (18 October 1884-1891) counted a total of 52 delegates, from Switzerland, France, Austria, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Spain and Canada. Several unsuccessful attempts were made (1893, 1900 and 1903) to revive it. On its significance and roots: Lamberts 2002.

24 Intermediate reports on the Union’s activities: Maurice Defourny, “Union internationale d’études sociales” Revue catholique sociale et juridique, October-November 1921, 251-255. See also the overprint: Union internationale d’études sociales, I. Sessions de 1920 et 1921 ; II. Résolutions, Leuven, Nova et vetera, 1921; Union internationale d’études sociales sous la présidence de S.E. le cardinal Mercier, archevêque de Malines. Résolutions votées dans les sessions de 1920-1921-1922-1923. Texte révisé et codifié en exécution d’une décision du 26 septembre 1923, Charleroi, Gobbe, 1924; Maurice Defourny, “Quatrième session de l’Union internationale d’études sociales”, Revue catholique des idées et des faits, III, 41, 4 January 1924, 9-12. See also: Maurice Defourny, “L’Union internationale d’études sociales établie à Malines, sous la présidence du cardinal Mercier, primat de Belgique”, in Catholicisme et vie internationale, publié à l’occasion du centenaire du cardinal Mermillod, Fribourg, Fragnière Frères Editeurs, 1924, p. 69-89.

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Peter Heyrman, « Thomist Revival, Belgian Catholic jurists and their international networks, 1880s-1920s »Cahiers Jean Moulin [En ligne], 10 | 2024, mis en ligne le 30 décembre 2024, consulté le 22 juin 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/cjm/2815 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/13d04

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