Aloïs Simon Explained

Aloïs Jacques Victor Marie Simon (1897–1964) was a Belgian historian, professor at the University Faculty of Saint-Louis in Brussels, with a particular interest in 19th-century Belgian Church history from the perspective of Church–State relations and international diplomacy.^[1]

Life

Simon was born in Antwerp on 25 November 1897. He received his education at the Institut Sainte-Marie, Schaerbeek, and the Major Seminary, Mechelen. He was ordained to the priesthood on 1 January 1922, and was sent to the Catholic University of Leuven for further study in history.^[1] He graduated from the university in 1924. Up until the Second World War he was involved in secondary education, as a teacher and later the head of the Institut Saint-Boniface, Ixelles. In 1942 he was asked to take over the teaching of undergraduate history at the Institut Saint-Louis. This was an emergency appointment, but he remained in the position for the next 20 years.^[1] On 2 May 1960 he was elected as a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium.^[2]

He died in Brussels on 7 December 1964.^[1] A memorial volume was published in 1975, L'Église et l'État à l'époque contemporaine: Mélanges dédiés à la mémoire de Mgr Aloïs Simon, edited by Gaston Braive and Jacques Lory.

Publications

Simon was a member of the editorial committee of the Biographie Nationale de Belgique, and contributed a number of articles to the series.

His other works include:

• L'archiduchesse Isabelle: son temps et son âme (Brussels, Éditions universitaires, 1946)
• L'Eglise catholique et les débuts de la Belgique indépendante (Wetteren, Scaldis, 1949)
• Le Cardinal Sterckx et son temps, 1792–1867 (Wetteren, Scaldis, 1950)
• La Liberté d'enseignement en Belgique: essai historique (Liège, La pensée catholique, 1951)
• La politique religieuse de Léopold Ier (Brussels, Goemaere, 1953)
• Correspondance du Nonce Fornari, 1838-1843 (Brussels, Institut historique belge de Rome, 1956)
• Documents relatifs à la nonciature de Bruxelles, 1834-1838 (Brussels, Institut historique belge de Rome, 1958)
• Le Parti Catholique belge, 1830–1945 (Brussels, La renaissance du livre, 1958)
• Lettres de Pecci, 1843–1846 (Brussels, Institut historique belge de Rome, 1959)
• Le cardinal Mercier (Brussels, La renaissance du livre, 1960)
• Réunions des évêques de Belgique, 1830-1867: procès-verbaux (Leuven, Nauwelaerts, 1960)
• Réunions des évêques de Belgique, 1868-1883: procès-verbaux (Leuven, Nauwelaerts, 1961)
• Evêques de la Belgique indépendante, 1830–1940: sources d'archives (Leuven, Nauwelaerts, 1961)
• Instructions aux nonces de Bruxelles, 1835–1889 (Brussels, Institut historique belge de Rome, 1961)
• Léopold Ier (Brussels, La renaissance du livre, 1963)
• L'Église Catholique et les Droits de l'Homme (Brussels, La renaissance du livre, 1963)

Notes and References

1. [Roger Aubert]
2. Web site: Monseigneur Aloïs Jacques Victor Marie Simon . academieroyale.be . Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique.