The Catholic University of Belgium (), generally referred to as the Catholic University of Mechelen, was a university that was founded in Mechelen (), Belgium, on 8 November 1834 by the bishops of Belgium, who aimed to create a university "to accommodate any doctrine from the Holy Apostolic See and to repudiate anything that does not flow from this august source". The first and only rector was the priest and historian Peter de Ram. The university was short-lived in Mechelen, as the bishops already moved the university to Leuven on 1 December 1835, where it took the name "Catholic University of Leuven". This outraged Belgian liberal opinion, which depicted it as an attempt to usurp the past of the former Old University of Leuven. It also reinvigorated demands for the foundation of a secular university in Brussels which would lead to the foundation of the Free University of Brussels.