Aloïs Simon


Aloïs Jacques Victor Marie Simon was a Belgian historian and 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.

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. He graduated from the university in 1924. Until the Second World War, he was involved in secondary education, first as a teacher and later as 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. On 2 May 1960, he was elected as a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium.
He died in Brussels on 7 December 1964. 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 L'Eglise catholique et les débuts de la Belgique indépendante Le Cardinal Sterckx et son temps, 1792–1867 La Liberté d'enseignement en Belgique: essai historique La politique religieuse de Léopold Ier Correspondance du Nonce Fornari, 1838-1843 Documents relatifs à la nonciature de Bruxelles, 1834-1838 Le Parti Catholique belge, 1830–1945 Lettres de Pecci, 1843–1846 Le cardinal Mercier Réunions des évêques de Belgique, 1830-1867: procès-verbaux Réunions des évêques de Belgique, 1868-1883: procès-verbaux Evêques de la Belgique indépendante, 1830–1940: sources d'archives Instructions aux nonces de Bruxelles, 1835–1889 Léopold Ier
  • ''L'Église Catholique et les Droits de l'Homme''