Jean-Théodore Laurent

[1] During this period the Cologne church controversy was escalating, in which he was involved through his own writings, and in which he took the side of the founder of the Aachener Priesterkreis and ultramontanist, Leonhard Aloys Joseph Nellessen, arguing against the tenets of Hermesianism.

The Leuven Professor Karl Möller and the Nuntius in Brussels, Raffaele Fornari, were friends with Laurent, and on 17 September 1839 he was appointed Apostolic Vicar of the Nordic Missions and titular bishop of Chersonesus in Crete.

As Laurent was rejected by the Prussian government due to his position during the church controversy, his appointment was untenable, and he asked to be relieved of his office on 15 November 1840.

On 1 December 1841 he was appointed successor to the outgoing Apostolic Vicar of Luxembourg, Johann Theodor van der Noot, who formally retired on 20 February 1842.

Laurent, more reckless than diplomatic, made efforts to establish a seminary, a regulated parish system, and to strengthen church influence in the schools.

In Aachen, he lived with his brother, the city archivist and librarian Josef Laurent, and was involved in the foundation of several monasteries, specifically that of the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus, of which he was the spiritual director and in whose church he often preached.