Universities, Religion, and the Liberal State

Abstract

The conflicts of these years were religious and intellectual as well as political. New ideas generated in the universities challenged religious orthodoxy. The rise of the secular state led to conflicts with the churches over the control of higher education and degree qualifications. In Germany, regionalism allowed the coexistence of Protestant and Catholic universities. In Catholic Belgium, after independence in 1830, conflict led both to the revival of Leuven as a Catholic confessional university — a significant innovation — and to the foundation of the secular ‘free’ university of Brussels. Confessional disputes were also significant in England and in Ireland, where the rejection of the state's non-denominational policies led to the foundation of a Catholic university at Dublin with J. H. Newman as rector. In France, the ‘monopoly’ of Napoleon's University was maintained until 1875, when several Catholic universities were set up, though their powers were severely restricted once the Third Republic was securely established.