The avowed cause of the dissatisfaction of the clergy, was that the King _was a protestant_, and that protection and full toleration was extended to all sects and religious communities. The genius and pretensions of the Roman Catholic church seems, down to the present hour, to have undergone less modification in Belgium than in any other country of Europe, with the single exception, perhaps, of Rome itself. It was to preserve it in all its integrity that Philip II. and the Duke of Alva for thirty years exhausted the blood and treasure of Spain in its defence, and down to the present hour, its clergy exhibit a practical gratitude for their devotion, by the uncompromising assertion of every attribute for which they contended. Belgium is, at this moment, the most thoroughly catholic country in Europe, and the recent exploits of the Archbishop of Cologne attest the power of its example and its influence even over the adjoining states. Under the dominion of Austria, the authority of the church had been recognized by the crown, in all its plenitude and power, and the subsequent union of Belgium to France in 1795, was eagerly resisted by the clergy, who naturally saw in it the subversion of their power before that of the Goddess of Reason. But even the influence of twenty years of intimate association with France, proved incapable to diminish the ardent subjection of the Belgians to their priesthood, or temper the ambition of their prelates and their clergy; and when, at length, the clasps which held together the empire of Napoleon, flew asunder in 1814, the utmost desire of the priesthood was to have Belgium again restored to her ancient masters, and _re-constructed as a province of Austria_, in which event, they calculated that the elevation of the church would follow, as of course. This, however, European policy forbade; and when, in 1814, the prelates of Flanders found themselves abandoned by their chosen sovereign, who accepted, in exchange, the more attractive provinces of Italy, and handed them over to one of the most Protestant monarchs in Europe, their consternation was unbounded, and in the extravagance of their disappointment, they had the madness to address a memorial to the Congress of Vienna, which is well worthy of being preserved as an authentic manifesto of the pretensions of the Roman Catholic church in modern times.[34]