the same time was disturbed by the fanaticism of the Lollards. In general their peculiar tenets were a strange admixture of pantheism, false mysticism, apparent austerity, and very real immorality. The following is one of their characteristic propositions, condemned by Clement V. in the Council of Vienna, A.D. 1311-1312: “That those who are in the aforesaid grade of perfection and in the spirit of liberty (contemplatives) are not subject to human authority and are not obliged to obey any precepts of the Church, because (as they say) where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

It so happened that contemporary with our Saint in Brussels was a prominent leader of the heretics of the Free Spirit, a woman whose name is given as Bloemardinne, a good type, to judge by the description of Ruysbroeck’s biographer, of the whole genus of such teachers in those days and in our own.^[2] So great was this creature’s reputation for sanctity that it was commonly reported that two Seraphim accompanied her to the altar when she approached to receive Holy Communion. She always delivered her teachings, whether by word or in writing, seated on a throne of silver. At her demise this chair was presented to the reigning Duchess of Brabant. After Bloemardinne’s death also cripples came to touch her body in the persuasion that they would be miraculously healed thereby. Her teaching was of the kind indicated above, concerned chiefly with the so-called liberty of the spirit; the passion of lust she had the impudence to call seraphic love. She issued numerous pamphlets remarkable for their subtlety; and by one means and another she managed to win and retain a very considerable number of disciples.

Moved by zeal and compassion on witnessing the ruin and loss of souls thus effected, John Ruysbroeck set himself to confute this heretic’s various publications point by point as they appeared. In consequence, he incurred not a little hostility and persecution. Possibly it was this opposition which finally decided Ruysbroeck and his holy companions to quit Brussels for the more peaceful retirement of the neighbouring forest of Soignes. But meanwhile he never for a moment desisted from his efforts in defence of the Faith, and in the propagation of the doctrines of sane mysticism. Of the treatises published professedly against Bloemardinne there is nothing extant. But in all his works Ruysbroeck keeps an eye on the errors of the day. He returns to them again and again, analysing their sources, describing their characteristics, indicating the mischief they work, and offering a reasoned and solid confutation. At the same time, with wondrous sureness and perspicacity, from the rich stores of his own intimate experience, he points out the safe and sure paths which lead the soul to loving union with God.

Some thirty years after Ruysbroeck’s death, in 1410, the Archbishop of Cambrai called his disciples, the Canons Regular of Groenendael, to come and aid him in preaching against the successors of the notorious Bloemardinne—a fact eloquent both of the obstinacy of this particular heresy and of Blessed John’s reputation as its most vigorous opponent.

IV
The Hermitage of Groenendael

It appears that it was on the suggestion of Francis van Coudenberg that the three holy priests resolved to abandon Brussels to seek elsewhere for themselves a refuge of greater security and retirement. It was through the influence also of van Coudenberg with John III., Duke of Brabant, that they obtained the cession of an ideal property for their purpose, the hermitage, namely, of Groenendael, with its lands and lake.

The spot had already been sanctified by the prayers and penances of holy recluses for nigh forty years. The first to retire thither had been one John Busch, of the ducal house of Brabant, who, weary of the strife, frivolities, and perils of court life, obtained from his kinsman, John II., leave to retire into the forest of Soignes, to build himself a hut and enclose a space of land there to be cultivated with his own hands for his support. The deed of gift was dated the Friday after the Assumption of Mary, 1304, and it stipulated that on the death or departure of the grantee, another hermit should take his place, and so on for ever. In effect, the noble John Busch was succeeded by one Arnold of Diest, who, on entering, made a vow never to sally forth save on festivals for the purpose of hearing Mass and receiving Holy Communion in the Parish Church of St. Clement at Hoolaert. God rewarded this generous sacrifice by a singular favour: Arnold was passionately devoted to the memory of the Holy Apostles and Martyrs of Rome, and he was transported in spirit so frequently thither that the shrines and sanctuaries of the Eternal City became as familiar to him as to a native. When in a green old age he came to die, Arnold surprised the bystanders with the request that he should be laid to rest in the hermitage grounds. They objected that the enclosure was not consecrated: he responded that one day it would be the site of a monastery, the home of saintly Religious, and the Mother-house of a holy congregation. However, he was buried in the Parish Church of Hoolaert before the altar of St. Nicholas. His successor, Lambert, the last of the Groenendael hermits, was so poor in spirit as not to be attached even to his cell. He cheerfully yielded place to John Hinckaert, van Coudenberg, and Ruysbroeck, and retired to a cell which they had procured for him at Hoetendael, the modern Uccle. Groenendael was handed over to the three companions by the Duke of Brabant on Easter Wednesday, 1343, on the condition that they should forthwith erect a house to accommodate a community of at least five, two of whom should be priests viventes religiose.

The taking of possession is recorded in the Groenendael Chronicle thus: “In 1344 the aforesaid, with the bishop’s consent, began to build a chapel in Groenendael. And the Vicars of Lord Guy, then Bishop of Cambrai, inspected the building on March 13, 1344, and decreed that it should be consecrated, together with a cemetery adjacent, two altars, and other necessary appurtenances. On the same day of the same year the said Vicars conferred on Dom Francis the cure of the brethren, the household, and the servants, appointing him their Father and Parish Priest. Then the same year, on March 17, the Venerable Lord Brother Matthias, Bishop of the Church of Trebizond (Coadjutor of Cambrai), by faculty and licence of the said Vicars of the Lord Bishop Guy, consecrated the aforesaid first church in the honour of St. James, and erected it into a Parochial Church for the same Dom Francis, his brethren and household.”

For five years Dom Francis van Coudenberg and his companions continued to live thus in community, bound by no other rule than their own profound spirit of prayer and intense desire of perfection. Nor were they long left to enjoy alone the solitude of their retreat. Many sought admission into their company; still larger numbers flocked from Brussels and elsewhere to seek spiritual aid and consolation. If he had consulted his own inclination and bent, Ruysbroeck would have denied himself to all; but van Coudenberg represented that they should not in charity refuse assistance to souls in need. And Blessed John yielded the more