Joseph Jean De Smet (1794–1877) was a priest and historian who took part in the Belgian Revolution of 1830.
Life
De Smet was born in Ghent, in what was then the County of Flanders in the Austrian Netherlands, on 11 December 1794. His secondary and seminary education was in Ghent.[1] At the age of 25 he became professor of rhetoric at the minor seminary of St Barbara, and shortly afterwards at the diocesan college in Aalst. While teaching he wrote new textbooks on Belgian history, world geography and Latin rhetoric, adapted to the needs of Catholic education in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands which had come into being in 1815. These books, with some revisions, remained widely used in Belgian schools up to the middle of the century.[1]
In 1825, William I's education policy led to the closure of the diocesan schools. De Smet became a polemical writer against the policy, particularly contributing to his friend Adolphe Bartels's Le Catholique des Pays-Bas.[2] In 1830 he was delegated to the National Congress of Belgium, where he was outspoken on behalf of the independence of the Church.
