Catholic University of Mechelen
The Catholic University of Belgium, usually said Catholic University of Mechelen, was a university that was founded in Mechelen, Belgium, on November 8, 1834 by the bishops of Belgium.
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 first and only rector was the priest and historian Peter de Ram.
The announcement of the bishops' founding of the University in Mechelen provoked serious riots in the cities of Ghent, Leuven and Liege as it was feared that the State education system would be destroyed by the bishops.
The university was short-lived, as the bishops already moved the university headquarters to Leuven on 1 December 1835, where it took the name Catholic University of Leuven. This led to further consternation among the Belgian liberal society, which was afraid to see this new university 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.
