A MEDIÆVAL MYSTIC

A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF BLESSED JOHN
RUYSBROECK, CANON REGULAR OF
GROENENDAEL A.D. 1293-1381

BY
DOM VINCENT SCULLY, C.R.L.

(Permissu Superiorum)

LONDON
THOMAS BAKER
MCMX

PRINTED BY
HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD.,
LONDON AND AYLESBURY.

TO
THE RIGHT REV. AUGUSTIN H. WHITE, C.R.L.
LORD ABBOT OF WALTHAM

CONTENTS

Page

INTRODUCTION ix

I. EARLY YEARS AND EDUCATION 1

II. AS A SECULAR PRIEST IN BRUSSELS 6

III. FALSE MYSTICS 10

IV. THE HERMITAGE OF GROENENDAEL 17

V. THE CANONS REGULAR OF GROENENDAEL 25

VI. PRIOR OF GROENENDAEL 33

VII. RUYSBROECK’S TREE 43

VIII. A DIRECTOR OF SOULS 47

IX. RUYSBROECK AND GERARD GROOTE 50

X. RUYSBROECK AND WINDESHEIM 58

XI. THE WRITINGS OF RUYSBROECK 67

XII. THE TEACHING OF RUYSBROECK 93

XIII. SOME APPRECIATIONS 105

XIV. LAST DAYS 118

XV. THE CULTUS OF BLESSED JOHN RUYSBROECK 124

INTRODUCTION

The object of the following unpretentious little volume is to give a simple and readable account in English of the life and writings of a remarkable Flemish Mystic of the fourteenth century, a contemporary of our own Walter Hilton. Though his memory and honour have never faded in his own native Belgium, and though France and Germany have vied with each other in spreading his teaching and singing his praises, the very name of Blessed John Ruysbroeck is practically unknown this side of the water. We are acquainted with only one small work in English dealing directly with the Saint or his work at all, viz. Reflections from the Mirror of Mystic,^[1] giving the briefest sketch of his life and some short extracts from his writings as translated from the French rendering of Ernest Hello.

The original authorities for the history of Ruysbroeck are practically reduced to one, the biography by Henry Pomerius, a Canon Regular of Groenendael, entitled De Origine monasterii Viridisvallis una cum vitis B. Joannis Rusbrochii primi prioris hujus monasterii et aliquot coaetaneorum ejus, re-edited by the Bollandists, Brussels, 1885. It is certain that a disciple of John Ruysbroeck, John of Scoenhoven, also of Groenendael, who undertook the defence of Blessed John’s writings against Gerson, composed a short biography, but this was embodied in the work of Pomerius, and thereby as a separate volume fell out of use and memory. Pomerius had Scoenhoven’s MS. to work upon, and some of Ruysbroeck’s contemporaries were still living at Groenendael when he composed his biography there. The brief references by the Venerable Thomas à Kempis in his Vita Gerardi Magni are likewise of great interest and intrinsic worth.

For the purposes of this brief biography, which lays no claim whatever to original research, the compiler has made very great use of the labours of Dr. Auger, De Doctrina et Meritis Joannis van Ruysbroeck, Louvain, and Willem de Vreese, Jean de Ruysbroeck, an extract from the Biographie Nationale, published by l’Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique, Brussels, 1909. This indebtedness is especially true of the summarised analysis of the various works of Ruysbroeck.

Later it may be possible to give a complete and faithful English rendering of all Ruysbroeck’s Works from the critical edition which is at present preparing in Louvain; where there is an active revival of interest in this great and holy Mystic of the Netherlands.

For the judgment of competent witnesses as to the permanent value and extraordinary sublimity of B. John’s writings the reader is referred to the body of this work under the heading, Some Appreciations.

The usual protest is made according to the Decrees of Urban VIII. concerning alleged miracles, etc., recorded in these pages.

St. Ives, Cornwall,

Feast of Our Lady’s Nativity, 1910.

A Mediæval Mystic

I
Early Years and Education

Blessed John Ruysbroeck, surnamed the Admirable and the Divine Doctor, by common consent the greatest Mystic the Low Countries have ever produced, was born, A.D. 1293, at Ruysbroeck, a village some miles south of Brussels, lying between that city and Hal. According to the fashion of those days, especially with Religious, he was named after his birthplace, John van Ruysbroeck, or John Ruysbroeck. The Venerable à Kempis, the Latinised form of van Kempen, is a case in point; Thomas was so named after his native town, Kempen, though his patronymic