He was educated in Tournai, first at the city's college and then at the major seminary.

Appointed bishop of Tournai in 1835, he was required to subscribe to the encyclical Mirari vos before being installed in the see.

[1] A proponent of the freedom of education, he established a normal school in his diocese in 1839, and encouraged the work of the De La Salle Brothers.

[1] In 1843 he had a diocesan catechism published, based on that of Cambrai.

[1] He travelled to Rome in 1854 for the promulgation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception and in 1869-1870 for the First Vatican Council.