Cornelius Richard Anton van Bommel
Cornelius Richard Anton van Bommel (5 April 1790, at Leiden – 7 April 1852) was a Dutch Bishop of Liège, Belgium, from 1829 until his death. Biography Van Bommel was born in Leiden to a well-established commercial family. His mother was a French immigrant. Orphaned by the age of 13, he was educated at the college of Willingshegge near Münster, and later at the advanced school of Borght. Against strong opposition he entered the seminary of Münster and was ordained priest in 1816 by Bishop Kaspar Droste zu Vischering. After ordination he returned to the Low Countries, where the United Kingdom of the Netherlands had recently been founded. There he founded a college for young men at Hageveld, near Haarlem. The college was closed in 1825 in consequence of the royal decree that subjected all educational institutions to State control. King William I of the Netherlands offered van Bommel the presidency of another college, but met with a firm refusal. The Catholics and Liberals joined forces in opposing the arbitrary policy of the Government, and van Bommel took a prominent part in the agitation that forced the king to promulgate the Concordat concluded with Pope Leo XII. Under the provisions