Pro Aris et Focis

   Pro Aris et Focis (For Hearth and Home) arose as a leading revolutionary committee advocating democratic government during the late 1780s and early 1790s. In early summer 1767, the committee was formed in secret by Jan-Baptist Verlooy and associates. Lawyers, including Jean-François Vonck, wholesale merchants, and bankers—individuals who played no role in governing the city—were charter members. Supporting resistance launched earlier by Henri Van der Noot and bolstered by the steadfastness of the city's residents in opposing efforts by Emperor Joseph II to impose reforms against their will, the committee called for, and then actively organized, armed resistance. Members advocated a popular revolution to create a government representative of the will of the people.

   Known popularly as Vonckists in contradistinction to Van der Noo-tists, they came to clash with the latter in calling for gradual abolition of privileges and widening of democracy against preservation of the traditional system of ancient liberties. The two groups pooled their armed forces in expelling the Austrians during the Brabant Revolution, but mutual hostility subsequently prevailed, leading to an inability to agree on a governing framework for an independent Belgium. Committee members opposed radical measures enacted during the French regime in affirming that Belgians sought freedom in their own manner. Pro Aris et Focis marked the birth of liberal nationalism in Belgium, which reemerged in the constitution of 1831.