The French Revolution was a period of far-reaching social and political upheaval in France and its colonies beginning in 1789. The Revolution overthrew the monarchy, established a republic, catalyzed violent periods of political turmoil, culminated in a dictatorship under Napoleon who brought many of its principles to areas he conquered in Western Europe and beyond. Inspired by liberal and radical ideas, the Revolution profoundly altered the course of modern history, triggering the global decline of absolute monarchies while replacing them with republics and liberal democracies. Through the Revolutionary Wars, it unleashed a wave of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the Middle East. Historians regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in human history; the causes of the French Revolution are still debated among historians. Following the Seven Years' War and the American Revolution, the French government was in debt, it attempted to restore its financial status through unpopular taxation schemes, which were regressive.
Leading up to the Revolution, years of bad harvests worsened by deregulation of the grain industry and environmental problems inflamed popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the aristocracy and the Catholic clergy of the established church. Some historians hold something similar to what Thomas Jefferson proclaimed: that France had "been awakened by our Revolution." Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals and contributed to the convocation of the Estates General in May 1789. During the first year of the Revolution, members of the Third Estate took control, the Bastille was attacked in July, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was passed in August, the Women's March on Versailles forced the royal court back to Paris in October. A central event of the first stage, in August 1789, was the abolition of feudalism and the old rules and privileges left over from the Ancien Régime; the next few years featured political struggles between various liberal assemblies and right-wing supporters of the monarchy intent on thwarting major reforms.
The Republic was proclaimed in September 1792 after the French victory at Valmy. In a momentous event that led to international condemnation, Louis XVI was executed in January 1793. External threats shaped the course of the Revolution; the Revolutionary Wars beginning in 1792 featured French victories that facilitated the conquest of the Italian Peninsula, the Low Countries and most territories west of the Rhine – achievements that had eluded previous French governments for centuries. Internally, popular agitation radicalised the Revolution culminating in the rise of Maximilien Robespierre and the Jacobins; the dictatorship imposed by the Committee of Public Safety during the Reign of Terror, from 1793 until 1794, established price controls on food and other items, abolished slavery in French colonies abroad, de-established the Catholic church and created a secular Republican calendar, religious leaders were expelled, the borders of the new republic were secured from its enemies. After the Thermidorian Reaction, an executive council known as the Directory assumed control of the French state in 1795.
They suspended elections, repudiated debts, persecuted the Catholic clergy, made significant military conquests abroad. Dogged by charges of corruption, the Directory collapsed in a coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799. Napoleon, who became the hero of the Revolution through his popular military campaigns, established the Consulate and the First Empire, setting the stage for a wider array of global conflicts in the Napoleonic Wars; the modern era has unfolded in the shadow of the French Revolution. All future revolutionary movements looked back to the Revolution as their predecessor, its central phrases and cultural symbols, such as La Marseillaise and Liberté, fraternité, égalité, ou la mort, became the clarion call for other major upheavals in modern history, including the Russian Revolution over a century later. The values and institutions of the Revolution dominate French politics to this day; the Revolution resulted in the suppression of the feudal system, emancipation of the individual, a greater division of landed property, abolition of the privileges of noble birth, nominal establishment of equality among men.
The French Revolution differed from other revolutions in being not only national, for it intended to benefit all humanity. Globally, the Revolution accelerated the rise of democracies, it became the focal point for the development of most modern political ideologies, leading to the spread of liberalism, radicalism and secularism, among many others. The Revolution witnessed the birth of total war by organising the resources of France and the lives of its citizens towards the objective of military conquest; some of its central documents, such as the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, continued to inspire movements for abolitionism and universal suffrage in the next century. Historians have pointed to many events and factors within the Ancien Régime that led to the Revolution. Rising social and economic inequality, new political ideas emerging from the Enlightenment, economic mismanagement, environmental factors leading to agricultural failure, unmanageable national debt, political mismanagement on the part of King Louis XVI have all been cited as laying the groundwork for the Revolution.
Over the course of the 18th century, there emerged what the philosopher Jürgen Habermas called the idea of the "public sphere" in France and elsewhere
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels
The Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels is an archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Belgium. It is the Primatial See of Belgium and the centre of the Ecclesiastical Province governed by the Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, which covers the whole of Belgium, it was formed in 1559 and the bishop has a seat in two cathedrals, St. Rumbold's Cathedral in Mechelen and the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula in Brussels; the current Archbishop is Jozef De Kesel, installed in November 2015. The Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels consists of the Province of Brabant in addition to eight municipalities in the Province of Antwerp, including Bonheiden, Duffel and Sint-Katelijne-Waver. In 1995, the Province of Brabant was split into three areas: A Dutch-speaking province Flemish Brabant The bilingual Brussels Capital Region A French-speaking province Brabant WallonThe Church did not form new dioceses to fit with this, instead three vicariates general were created with their own auxiliary bishop, to accommodate the three regional entities.
The name differs in the diocese's two languages. In English, Mechelen was traditionally called Malines but now it more remains being called Mechelen. Traditionally, in English, it was changed into Mechlin. Both Brussel and Bruxelles are Brussels; the duality of the Belgian archbishopric is reflected in its two active co-cathedrals: St. Rumbold's Cathedral in Mechelen and St. Michael and Gudula Cathedral in Brussels. Former Chapters in the archdiocese. Chapter of Our-Lady: Cathedral of Mechelen Chapter of Saint-Peter: Leuven Chapter of Saint John the Baptist: Diest Chapter of Saint-Sulpicius: Diest Chapter of Our-Lady: Aarschot Chapter of Saint-Leonard: Zouleeuw Chapter of Saint-Germanus: Tillemont Chapter of Saint-Michael and Gudule: Brussels Cathedral Chapter of Saint-Peter: Anderlecht Chapter of Our Lady and Saint-Martin: Aalst Chapter of Saint-Peter: Ninove Chapter of Saint-Peter: Rosmay Chapter of Saint-Hermes Chapter of Saint-Berland: Meerbeek Chapter of Saint-Paul: Nivelles Chapter of Saint-Gertrud: Nivelles In the territory of the Diocese important abbeys can be found: Averbode Abbey Affligem Abbey Bornem Abbey Forest Abbey Grimbergen Abbey Groenendael Priory Dieleghem Abbey St. Bernard's Abbey, Hemiksem Keizersberg Abbey Kortenberg Abbey La Cambre Abbey Park Abbey Rouge-Cloître Abbey Vlierbeek Abbey Sheen Anglorum Charterhouse The Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels was primate of the whole of the Low Countries following the 1559 reorganization creating fifteen dioceses.
Over time, the two other ecclesiastical provinces broke from Mechelen-Brussels' primacy. Cambrai was in France and its kings managed to annex French Flanders, Utrecht and its suffragans in the Dutch republic would long have their hierarchy suspended because the northern state was a champion of'anti-papist' Calvinism; the Napoleonic 1801 concordat re-drew the whole map again. The country, by tradition, has the Archbishop of Mechelen made a cardinal; the Archdiocese of Mechelen was renamed the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels on 8 December 1961 as part of a restructuring of the Catholic dioceses in Belgium. Two new dioceses were created. On the same day, the Diocese of Antwerp was created from areas administered by the Archdiocese of Mechelen. Six years the Diocese of Hasselt was created; this meant that the new dioceses corresponding to the provinces of Belgium. Most of the Catholic Church's presence in the Province of Antwerp was made into the Diocese of Antwerp. Archbishop André-Joseph Leonard succeeded Cardinal Danneels in January 2010.
On 22 February 2011, Pope Benedict XVI appointed: Fr. Jean Kockerols, Fr. Jean-Luc Hudsyn, Fr. Leon Lemmens as Auxiliary bishops of the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels. Upon reaching 75 years Leonard tendered his resignation, accepted. In the autumn of 2015 Pope Francis appointed the bishop of Bruges, Jozef De Kesel, as the new archbishop, created Cardinal in 2016. Cardinal Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle Joannes Hauchin Mathias Hovius Jacobus Boonen Andreas Creusen Joannes Wachtendonck Alphonse de Berghes Humbertus Guilielmus de Precipiano Cardinal Thomas-Philippe d'Alcase Cardinal Joannes-Henricus von Franckenberg Jean-Armand de Bessuéjouls Roquelaure Dominique-Georges-Frédéric Dufour de Pradt François Antoine Marie Constantin de Méan et de Beaurieux Cardinal Engelbert Sterckx Cardinal Victor-Auguste-Isidore Dechamps Cardinal Pierre-Lambert Goosens Cardinal Desiré-Félicien-François-Joseph Mercier Cardinal Jozef-Ernest van Roey Cardinal Leo Joseph Suenens Cardinal Godfried Danneels André-Joseph Léonard Cardinal Jozef De Kesel "Dioceses in Belgium ".
Catholic-hierarchy.org. 2012. Retrieved 31 July 2012. Herbermann, Charles, ed.. "Mechlin". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels Dutch-language site Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels French-language site
Bernard of Clairvaux
Bernard of Clairvaux, O. Cist was a French abbot and a major leader in the reform of Benedictine monasticism that caused the formation of the Cistercian order. "... He was sent to found a new abbey at an isolated clearing in a glen known as the Val d'Absinthe, about 15 kilometres southeast of Bar-sur-Aube. According to tradition, Bernard founded the monastery on 25 June 1115, naming it Claire Vallée, which evolved into Clairvaux. There Bernard would preach an immediate faith, in which the intercessor was the Virgin Mary." In the year 1128, Bernard attended the Council of Troyes, at which he traced the outlines of the Rule of the Knights Templar, which soon became the ideal of Christian nobility. On the death of Pope Honorius II on 13 February 1130, a schism broke out in the Church. King Louis VI of France convened a national council of the French bishops at Étampes in 1130, Bernard was chosen to judge between the rivals for pope. By the end of 1131, the kingdoms of France, Germany, Portugal and Aragon supported Innocent.
Bernard set out to convince these other regions to rally behind Innocent. In 1139, Bernard assisted at the Second Council of the Lateran, he subsequently denounced the teachings of Peter Abelard to the pope, who called a council at Sens in 1141 to settle the matter. Bernard soon saw one of his disciples elected Pope Eugene III. Having helped end the schism within the church, Bernard was now called upon to combat heresy. In June 1145, Bernard traveled in southern France and his preaching there helped strengthen support against heresy, he preached at the Council of Vézelay to recruit for the Second Crusade. After the Christian defeat at the Siege of Edessa, the pope commissioned Bernard to preach the Second Crusade; the last years of Bernard's life were saddened by the failure of the crusaders, the entire responsibility for, thrown upon him. Bernard died after 40 years as a monk, he was the first Cistercian placed on the calendar of saints, was canonized by Pope Alexander III on 18 January 1174. In 1830 Pope Pius VIII bestowed upon Bernard the title "Doctor of the Church".
Bernard's parents were Tescelin de Fontaine, lord of Fontaine-lès-Dijon, Alèthe de Montbard, both members of the highest nobility of Burgundy. Bernard was the third of seven children. At the age of nine years, he was sent to a school at Châtillon-sur-Seine run by the secular canons of Saint-Vorles. Bernard devoted himself for some time to poetry, his success in his studies won the admiration of his teachers. He wanted to excel in literature, he had a special devotion to the Virgin Mary, he would write several works about the Queen of Heaven. Bernard would expand upon Anselm of Canterbury's role in transmuting the sacramentally ritual Christianity of the Early Middle Ages into a new, more held faith, with the life of Christ as a model and a new emphasis on the Virgin Mary. In opposition to the rational approach to divine understanding that the scholastics adopted, Bernard would preach an immediate faith, in which the intercessor was the Virgin Mary, he is cited for saying that St. Mary Magdalene was the Apostle to the Apostles.
Bernard was only nineteen years of age. During his youth, he did not escape trying temptations and around this time he thought of retiring from the world and living a life of solitude and prayer. In 1098 Saint Robert of Molesme had founded Cîteaux Abbey, near Dijon, with the purpose of restoring the Rule of St Benedict in all its rigour. Returning to Molesme, he left the government of the new abbey to Saint Alberic of Cîteaux, who died in the year 1109. After the death of his mother, Bernard sought admission into the Cistercian order. At the age of 22, while Bernard was at prayer in a church, he felt the calling of God to enter the monastery of Cîteaux. In 1113 Saint Stephen Harding had just succeeded Saint Alberic as third Abbot of Cîteaux when Bernard and thirty other young noblemen of Burgundy sought admission into the monastery. Bernard's testimony was so irresistible that 30 of his friends and relatives followed him into the monastic life; the little community of reformed Benedictines at Cîteaux, which would have so profound an influence on Western monasticism, grew rapidly.
Three years Bernard was sent with a band of twelve monks to found a new house at Vallée d'Absinthe, in the Diocese of Langres. This Bernard named Claire Vallée, or Clairvaux, on 25 June 1115, the names of Bernard and Clairvaux would soon become inseparable. During the absence of the Bishop of Langres, Bernard was blessed as abbot by William of Champeaux, Bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne. From that moment a strong friendship sprang up between the abbot and the bishop, professor of theology at Notre Dame of Paris, the founder of the Abbey of St. Victor, Paris; the beginnings of Clairvaux Abbey were trying and painful. The regime was so austere that Bernard became ill, only the influence of his friend William of Champeaux and the authority of the general chapter could make him mitigate the austerities; the monastery, made rapid progress. Disciples put themselves under the direction of Bernard; the reputation of his holiness soon attracted 130 new monks, including his own father. His father and all his brothers entered Clairvaux to pursue religious life, leaving only Humbeline, his sister, in the secular world.
She, with the consent of her husband, soon took the veil in the Benedictine nunnery of Jully-les-No
Het Nieuwsblad is a Flemish newspaper that focusses on "a broad view" regarding politics, economics, lifestyle and sports. In 1929, Het Nieuwsblad was published by De Standaard for the first time. In 1939, the sports paper Sportwereld was purchased by De Standaard and turned into a daily supplement to their two main newspapers, "De Standaard" and "Het Nieuwsblad". In 1957, three other newspapers were purchased by De Standaard and kept in circulation. In 1966, the further publication of two of them, Het Nieuws van de Dag and Het Vrije Volksblad, was stopped; the same happened with the third paper, Het Handelsblad, in 1979. In 1959, two more newspapers were purchased, of which De Landwacht disappeared in 1978; the other paper, De Gentenaar, was turned into a "cover-paper" for Het Nieuwsblad around the city of Ghent. De Gentenaar still exists today and contains the same articles and columns as Het Nieuwsblad plus local news from the Ghent area. In 1962, a special supplement for children was created, the Patskrant.
In 1977, the name was changed into the Stripkrant. In 2000, the daily Stripkrant was replaced by Yo. In 1976, De Standaard went bankrupt before their newspapers were purchased by the Vlaamse Uitgeversmaatschappij. In 1996, Het Nieuwsblad started a new "cover-paper" in Antwerp, named Het Stad; this paper disappeared after just two years. In 2003, Het Nieuwsblad and Het Volk jointly started the publication of the lifestyle-magazine Catchy. In the same year Het Nieuwsblad began publishing on Sundays after nearly 75 years of publication and the newspaper created the cycling award Flandrien of the Year. On 10 May 2008 Het Volk merged; as of February 2010, the Het Nieuwsblad website, nieuwsblad.be had an average daily unique visitor count of 332,000, making it the most popular newspaper website in Flanders. The website, just like the paper edition, is characterised as populist, rather right wing, with a focus on local news, celebrity news and sensational articles; the circulation of Het Nieuwsblad in 2002 was 241,120 copies.
The following year, it had a circulation of 211,000 copies, making it the second best selling Belgian newspaper. In 2006, the paper had an average weekday circulation of 210,000 issues, according to the Centrum voor Informatie over de Media. In 2009 Het Nieuwsblad had an average market share of 27.04% in Flanders and had a circulation of 263,063 copies. In 2011 the circulation was up to 300,000 copies; the latest available certified figure, from 2015, lists print output at 264 891 copies per day. Media related to Het Nieuwsblad at Wikimedia Commons Official website Newspapers in the class room
Canons Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross
The Canons Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross called Crosiers, are a Roman Catholic religious order. The Crosiers were founded by five men attached to the household of the prince-bishop of Liege, Rudolf of Zähringen, who accompanied the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa on the Third Crusade. Upon their return, the five, led by Theodorus de Cellis, sought a new way of life, shortly before his death, their bishop appointed them to be canons of his St. Lambert's Cathedral, Liège. After efforts to renew the life and practice of the college of canons to which they belonged, the five withdrew from Liège and moved up the Meuse River to a place called Clairlieu, outside the city of Huy, began a way of life more in keeping with their ideals; this settlement of the five at Huy was the beginning of their Order, the house and small church dedicated to Saint Theobald that they established there became the Order's motherhouse. Pope Innocent III verbally approved their Order on the feast day of the Finding of the Holy Cross, 3 May 1210, Pope Innocent IV granted them full and final approval on 3 May 1248 the Feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross.
In 1410, the Crosiers' general chapter ordered the destruction of its records and decisions from the time of its foundation. The reason for this radical act is recorded to have been a thorough reformation of some sort, but it left the Order's modern historians with only fragments and clues to their Order's first two centuries, the tradition summarized above; the principal source of information about the origin of the order is in the Chronicon Cruciferorum of Henricus Russelius, Prior of Suxy. Their own sources, mention of them in non-Crosier sources call them "the Brethren of the Holy Cross," and the French and English words used for them and Crosiers, are derived from the French "croisé", one of the words used for a crusader, meaning "marked with a cross." Only one of their five founders for whom they have a name is the group's leader, that only in its Latin form, Theodoricus de Cellis, which first appears in a short history of the Order published in 1636. While Rusellius does not mention Theodore's parents, there are biographies from the 17th century that say he was the son of Walter de Beaufort and Oda de Celles, guardians of the abbatial church of Celles near Dinant during the latter half of the 12th century.
There is no record of the presence of the Crosiers at Huy until the 1240s, only in 1322 did Clairlieu become the site of a magnificent church dedicated to the Holy Cross instead of the small chapel of St. Theobald; the new institution soon extended to France, the Netherlands, to England. Because they were established in the early 13th century, they were contemporaries of the Dominicans and Franciscans, were referred to as "Brethren of the Holy Cross," they were misidentified as friars and were confused with other religious orders who identified themselves with the Cross. So, for example, there was a old tradition that Bishop Albert of Prague took several Crosiers with him to Livonia, but these were in fact members of a Bohemian order of the Holy Cross. In England, they and an Italian order of the Holy Cross were both identified as Crutched Friars, so the location of their houses and their activities are mistaken for each other. One tradition claims that Theodorus de Cellis assisted St. Dominic in his preaching to the Albigenses of southern France.
A similar tradition places Crosiers in the train of the French king St. Louis IX of France in 1248 during his crusade; the Order flourished in the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, at its greatest extent had about ninety houses scattered across northern Europe. But those in England and in parts of the Netherlands and Germany were suppressed during the Protestant Reformation, all of those that survived, notably in France and the Southern Netherlands, including the ancient motherhouse at Huy, were suppressed in the dissolution of monasteries and convents after the French Revolution. In 1794, the area west of the Rhine river fell to France. Along with other abbeys in French controlled areas, the Crosier monasteries were abolished and the monks were forced to leave. By 1840, only two Crosier houses remained, both in North Brabant, the Netherlands: that of St. Agatha, outside Cuijk, that in Uden, they seemed doomed to extinction by the decree of King William I of the Netherlands, which forbade religious houses in his realm to admit novices.
When King William II lifted his father's ban on 14 September 1840, only four elderly Crosiers remained: the youngest around sixty and the oldest, Father William Kantor, the only Crosier able to remember his Order as it had been before the Revolution. Thereafter the Order began to recover. In second half of the 19th century, the Crosiers returned to their Belgian birthplace, made an effort to transplant the Order outside Europe to the United States when their Master General sent some members to Bay Settlement, Wisconsin, in 1857; that attempt failed, it was not until the first decades of the 20th century that the Crosiers were able to establish themselves outside Europe, in the U. S. Brazil and the Congo. There are still Crosiers in all these places, the Order presently numbers about four hundred men. In the United States today, the Crosiers have a conventual priory in Phoenix, Arizona and a filial priory in Onamia, Minnesota. Crosier Father Tom Enneking was elected in 2018 as the conventual provincial of the Crosiers in the United States.
The Crosiers are an order of Canons Regular. T
St. Bernard's Abbey, Hemiksem
St. Bernard's Abbey, Hemiksem, or abbatiae S. Bernardi ad Scaldim, ordinis Cisterciensis, in dioecesi Antverpiensi known as St. Bernard's Abbey on the Scheldt, located in Hemiksem in the province of Antwerp in Belgium, was a Cistercian monastery founded in 1243 and dissolved during the French Revolution; the buildings are now the property of the municipality of Hemiksem. The establishment of the abbey at Hemiksem, named after Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, was the result of the efforts of Duke Henry I of Brabant and after his death by his son, Duke Henry II, who saw the actual foundation of the abbey in 1243, confirmed by Pope Urban IV; the monastic community at Hemiksem, like all Roman Catholic clergy in the region, came under pressure in the late 16th century and in 1578, at the height of the iconoclastic movement, the abbey stood deserted for a time. From 1570 to 1649 the position of abbot was held ex officio by the bishops of Antwerp. In 1672 most of the buildings burnt down; the impressive western facade with tower of 42m high, was completed during the abatiat of Joannes van Heymissem.
The ca 30 monks were chased out of their abbey in 1797, the community was suppressed. Their important grounds and rights were abolished during the French Revolution and the church demolished. In 1836 the surviving members of the community bought the empty premises of Bornem Abbey and leaving Hemiksem for good, re-settled it as the still-extant Bornem Abbey. From 1811 the buildings were used as a naval hospital. In 1821, the Antwerp architect Pierre Bruno Bourla converted the abbey for use as a house of correction, with large dormitories, for the accommodation of over 1500 men, 450 women and a large number of children; the use of dormitories fell out of favour, from 1867, after conversion of the large open rooms into individual cells, the premises were reused as a military depot. After World War II the building was used as an internment facility for collaborators. From 1948 to 1977 it was again used by the military, from 1977 stood empty; the building was protected from 1973 and was bought by the municipality in 1988.
After the west and east wings were restored they now accommodate the administrative centre of the municipality of Hemiksem, local police headquarters and service flats. The distinctive silhouette of the principal range has become a symbol of the town. Joannes van Heymissem Gerardus Rubens Benedict Neefs Hemiksem municipality: official website Tourism in Rupelstreek Roelants Museum De Schepper, L. 1957: Oud- en nieuw Hemiksem met de Sint-Bernardusabdij. Antwerpen: De Vlijt
Amadeus de Bie
Gerardus Franciscus Amadeus de Bie was a Belgian abbot of Bornem Abbey. He became the 74th Abbot-General of the Cistercian Order. In 1862 he entered Bornem Abbey, chose his convent name in honour of Amadeus of Lausanne, he was elected and consecrated in 1895 by Cardinal Goossens, after the death of Robertus van Ommeren. He served as abbot from 1895 to 1900. In 1900 he was elected abbot general, supreme head of the order, in succession to Leopold Wackarž, decided to take up residence in Rome in a rented apartment, he was succeeded as abbot of Bornem by Thomas Schoen. De Bie served as abbot general throughout the First World War, he died in Rome in 1920