The Oxford Movement: reception and perception in Catholic circles in nineteenth-century Belgium

© Cambridge University Press 2012. That the Oxford Movement aroused interest in nineteenth-century Belgium may come as a surprise. Yet our research indicates that the interest was both enthusiastic and intense, although it also requires some interpretation. This chapter consists of three sections. In the first section we outline the background in Belgian cultural and Church history to this remarkable interest. We then reflect briefly on the methodology used in our research of this reception. The third and main section explores the shifting representations of the Oxford Movement. THE BACKGROUND: THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY REVIVAL OF INTEREST IN THE UNITED KINGDOM IN BELGIUM Cultural history The revival of interest in the United Kingdom in nineteenth-century Belgium is not surprising, given the long-term, sometimes intense but often latent cultural interaction between the two countries. That interest intensified during the first half of the nineteenth century for a variety of reasons: the French Revolution and the flight of some French aristocrats to England; the tensions between Napoleon Bonaparte’s empire and Albion; and the fact that the post-Waterloo United Kingdom of the Netherlands (1815–30) was a British creation. Interest peaked after the Belgian Revolution of 1830, when the United Kingdom stood guarantor for the new independent nation, which had the most modern and liberal constitution on the Continent at the time. The highpoint was reached with the election of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha as first king of the Belgians. The widower of Crown Princess Charlotte Augusta (who had died at a young age and was the only daughter of George IV), this German-born prince was a frequent visitor to the English court and would maintain a very close relationship with Queen Victoria throughout his life. It is hardly surprising then that a sort of Anglophilia developed among the Belgian elite and that Great Britain became a source of inspiration for numerous movements, including the restoration of the aristocracy, historicism in the arts and the conservation of historical monuments.

ISBN:978 1 107 01644 6

Publication year:2012