A Mediaeval Mystic Part 4

In B. John's own lifetime Gerard Groote was alarmed, and wrote once to the Canons of Groenendael of a Doctor in Theology, and of one Henry of Hesse, who had declared that the _Spiritual Espousals_ contained errors.

Twenty years after Ruysbroeck's death, John Gerson, the famous Chancellor of Paris, in a letter to one Bartholomew, a Carthusian, who had given him a copy of this treatise, praises the first two books, but declares that the third teaches a kind of pantheism. This charge brought forth a lengthy and spirited defence from a Canon Regular of Groenendael, named John Scoenhoven; and then in a second letter Gerson maintained his objections, but acquitted the holy author of all intentional error. A similar stand was taken later by Bossuet, who excuses Ruysbroeck but condemns his manner of expression. It must be remembered that these two were engaged in confuting false mystics, and naturally they would discredit the writings of even a holy man, however orthodox, which would appear to favour the erroneous tenets of their opponents. Once more, we remark that not only was Ruysbroeck manifestly free from all culpable error, but throughout in his own mind he never lost sight of the essential distinctions, though at times his language must necessarily sound exaggerated to unaccustomed ears.

On the other hand, to outweigh the unfavourable opinion of these two French critics, we have a host of writers of Ruysbroeck's own and subsequent days who not only defend the orthodoxy of his writings, but who also speak of them in terms of the deepest admiration, and regard their author almost as inspired.

We have already seen the esteem in which the holy Prior of Groenendael and his writings were held by Tauler, Gerard Groote, and the Venerable Thomas a Kempis, and the vigour with which his memory was vindicated by John of Scoenhoven, But his advocates were by no means confined to the limits of his own Order, period, or country.

Henry van Herp, a Franciscan, compiled a _Mirror of Perfection_, taken almost exclusively from the _Spiritual Espousals_; and by his means the teachings of Blessed Ruysbroeck were propagated among the followers of St. Francis, particularly of the Third Order.

Denys the Carthusian is unstinted in his praises. He calls him the _Divine Doctor_. "I name him the Divine Doctor," he writes, "because his only master was the Holy Ghost. Of this the abundance of wisdom wherewith he was gifted is a sure guarantee.... Ignorant man as I am, I confess that nowhere have I found such sublimity and such knowledge, save in the works of Denys the Areopagyte. But in his writings the difficulty arises especially from the style, whereas it is not so with the Prior of Groenendael.... As they say of Hugh of St. Victor that he is another St.

Augustin, so I will say of Ruysbroeck that he is another Denys the Areopagyte."

Thomas of Jesus, a Carmelite, in his _De Divina Oratione_, frequently quotes from Ruysbroeck and adopts his method.

The Carthusian Surius translated all the works of Ruysbroeck into Latin, and this translation has been the chief source of familiarity with the Belgian mystic for readers and writers not acquainted with his native tongue. The following extracts from the _Introduction_ to Surius's translation seem worth quoting for the sake of some who may imagine that the works of Blessed John Ruysbroeck can be of profit only to those who are far advanced in the contemplative life:

"I do not believe there is a man who can approach these magnificent and simple pages without great and singular profit. Let none excuse himself from reading this book on the plea of the inaccessible sublimity of Ruysbroeck. The great man has accommodated himself to all, and the most abandoned soul on earth may find again on reading him the path of salvation. Arrows dart from the pages of Ruysbroeck, aimed by no hand of man, but by the hand of G.o.d; and deeply they embed themselves in the soul of the reader who is a sinner. Innocent reader, reader of unstained robe, Ruysbroeck is at once most lowly and most sublime. In his description of the _Spiritual Espousals_ he surpa.s.ses admiration, he surpa.s.ses praise; all the commencement, all the progress, all the height, all the transcendent perfection of the spiritual life is there."

It was from Surius that the Benedictine Blosius, or Louis de Blois, learned to know and appreciate Ruysbroeck. His works are impregnated with the teachings of the Mystic of Groenendael, and his well-known _Consolatio Pusillanimum_ (_Comfort for the Fainthearted_) is replete with extracts taken from Ruysbroeck.

Lessius, the Jesuit Theological Professor of Louvain University, used to say that he read Blessed John Ruysbroeck daily; and he would add that if his holy works had emanated from the Society they would not have remained in obscurity so long.

In more recent times Ernest h.e.l.lo brought our Saint to France by a translation of extracts, prefaced by an anonymous contemporary life, which was first published in 1869. In his own _Introduction_, h.e.l.lo writes: "Among those who, soaring beyond the realms of human light, have sought refuge in the shadow of the great altar, the grandest, according to Denys the Carthusian, are St. Denys the Areopagyte and John Ruysbroeck the Admirable. St. Denys lays down the general laws of mystic theology, John Ruysbroeck applies them. St. Denys presents the lamp, John Ruysbroeck kindles the flame. Both are blind with excess of light, both immovable with excess of motion. Speech with them is a visit paid to men from motives of charity. Silence is their native land. The beauty of their language is the condescendence of their goodness; the sacred darkness in which they spread their eagle wings is their ocean, their booty, their glory."

Reviewing the work of h.e.l.lo, Louis Veuillot, the French Catholic publicist, remarked:

"Ruysbroeck was illiterate. He was a humble Flemish priest of the fifteenth century. None the less, in the order of genius the uncultured Ruysbroeck, as a theologian, and consequently as a philosopher and a poet, is as far above Bossuet as Dante, for instance, is above Boileau.

Face to face with the mysteries that shroud G.o.d and man, Bossuet seeks, argues, and, so to speak, gropes; Ruysbroeck knows, describes, or rather sings, and contemplates. This illiterate mystic of an obscure age finds himself at home in the sublime as in his own sphere; he speaks of what is familiar to him; the wise doctor of the world remains without. Bossuet does not enter, he does not open, he does not see. Bossuet spins words, Ruysbroeck pours out streams of light. It seems as if Bossuet were that mighty wind which was heard in the Upper Chamber; the brief words of Ruysbroeck are the tongues of fire, living and enlightening flame."

Truly has Time brought its revenge in such a comparison by a compatriot of Bossuet with Ruysbroeck.

Finally, Maeterlinck brought out his translation of the _Spiritual Espousals_ in 1891 with a characteristic appreciation of the Flemish mystic. And Maeterlinck's name has given a strong impetus to the popularity, so to speak, of Blessed Ruysbroeck in modern France. But neither of these translations can be regarded as authoritative or exact.

The real, scholarly work towards extending and encouraging the cult of Blessed John Ruysbroeck, whether among the learned or the devout, is being performed, as is seemly, in the Catholic University of his native Belgium, namely, at Louvain, where a Chair has been inst.i.tuted for the study of Old Flemish, chiefly for the sake of a correct understanding and rendering of the writings of the Holy Mystic of Groenendael.

And here we may note that while it is customary with some to speak of Ruysbroeck as illiterate, this term must be taken in a strictly limited sense. Possibly, he could not have composed in fluent and elegant Latin: he was not a cla.s.sical scholar; but certainly the Latin of the Bible and the Fathers was quite familiar to him. His writings, moreover, display an intimate knowledge of the Scriptures, the Fathers, theology, liturgy, apologetics. The natural science of the day was not unknown, as witness his applications from astronomy, and, it must be confessed, from astrology. With St. Denys the Areopagyte he shows himself very intimate, and his pages contain whole pa.s.sages borrowed or adapted from St. Anselm, St. Ambrose, St. Gregory, and especially St. Augustin. Nearer his own days St. Bernard and Hugh of St. Victor seem to have influenced him very considerably.

Experts in Old Flemish a.s.sure us that his style is most chaste, his language vigorous and clear. He was in truth a poet. When carried away by the beauty or sublimity of his subject, he indulges in a wealth of imagery, comparison, metaphor, astounding at times in boldness and originality. Occasionally even he lapsed into verse; but on the whole his verse is of less beauty and strength than his prose, as he himself seems to have been aware. On the other hand, his prose, after the manner of St.

Bernard, St. Bonaventure, the two Victors, and later Thomas a Kempis, frequently gives evidence of deliberate rhythm and rhyme. In a word, far from being illiterate in the strict sense of the word, Blessed John was well acquainted with all the rules and arts of rhetoric; he knew how to employ them; and for all the sublimity of his discourse he did not disdain the use of these aids to interest and persuasion. Finally, it is to be noted that we are expressly informed by contemporaries of Ruysbroeck that he wrote by preference in the vulgar tongue, the more readily and effectively to meet and refute the erroneous doctrines published in the language of the people by the false mystics of his day.

XIV

Last Days

Of the life of our Saint there remains little to be told save the record of the last days and the after glory. He had attained the good old age of eighty-eight, when his mother appeared in a vision to warn him to make ready for the approaching end. It must seem to us there was little need for such warning to one whose whole life had been one long preparation for the coming of the Spouse! He was taken with dysentery, accompanied by fever, and for his greater comfort, and that his lifelong friend van Coudenberg might be at hand to console and a.s.sist him, they put him to bed in the Provost's chamber. But the humble Prior besought them to treat him as any of the lowliest brethren and to bear him to the common infirmary. This was accordingly done. There he lay for a fortnight, gradually wasting away with the burning fever, and still more, doubtless, with his burning desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ, for he was constantly heard murmuring such e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns as that of the Psalmist, _Sicut desiderat cervus ad fontes aquarum_. He received all the last rites, and the end came in the greatest peace, while his weeping brethren prayed around him, on the Octave day of St. Catherine, V.M., December 2, 1381, in the eighty-eighth year of his age, the sixty-fourth of his priesthood.

That same night the Dean of Diest, watching by the holy remains, seemed to behold our Saint, clad in the priestly vestments and all radiant with glory, ascend the altar steps as if to celebrate the sacred mysteries.

The Dean had always held Ruysbroeck in the deepest veneration and, having some skill in medicine, he had come over to Groenendael on hearing of the Prior's illness to see whether he could administer any relief. His charity was rewarded by the edifying sight of his happy death, and by this consoling vision after.

And, as the Venerable a Kempis informs us, "G.o.d also revealed to Gerard [Groote] the death of this most beloved Father, which revelation he made manifest in the hearing of many of the citizens by the tolling of the bells; and more privately he made known to certain of his friends that the soul of the Prior, after but one hour of Purgatory, had pa.s.sed to the glory of Heaven." We may note here that a Kempis himself was a child of three years when Ruysbroeck was called to his reward. Gerard Groote followed his friend and spiritual father to the grave three years later.

The Groenendael Canons offered the holy Sacrifice and all the wonted suffrages for their departed Prior's repose, but they prayed with the conviction that they needed his impetration rather than he theirs. They were all eager to possess themselves of any little thing which had been his. Some cut off locks of his hair, and one managed to secure a tooth!

Appropriately enough, this relic later cured a Mechlin lady of a severe attack of toothache. However, in all simplicity the Brethren laid Blessed John to rest in the little chapel which his own hands had helped to raise.

Five years later his saintly a.s.sociate, the Provost Francis van Coudenberg, rejoined him beyond the grave. The Bishop of Cambrai, John T'Serclaes, came to a.s.sist at the obsequies. During his visit he heard so much of the heroic virtues of the late Prior that he ordered an exhumation of Ruysbroeck's body with a view to a more honourable burial by the side of the Provost in the new church, which had now replaced the little chapel. They were all filled with awe and wonder to find the entire body, save only the tip of the nose, incorrupt, and the priestly vestments intact. Also a most sweet odour exhaled from the holy remains.

To satisfy the devotion of the people, the Bishop commanded that the body should be exposed to their veneration for three days. On the third day, amid a vast concourse of the faithful, Ruysbroeck was laid to rest by the side and in the tomb of his lifelong friend van Coudenberg. Over the sepulchre was placed the following simple inscription:

_Hic jacet translatus Devotus Pater D. Joannes de Ruysbroeck I. Prior hujus monasterii Qui obiit anno Domini MCCCLx.x.xI II. Die Decembris_

"Here lies transferred the Devout Father, Dom John of Ruysbroeck, First Prior of this cloister, who departed in the year of the Lord 1381, December 2."

XV

The Cultus of Blessed John Ruysbroeck

Numerous pilgrims now wended their way to visit Ruysbroeck's tomb.

Ex-votos were suspended there in acknowledgment of favours received. His picture also was honoured in various churches. And each year on the Monday following Trinity Sunday the Chapter of St. Gudule's came over to Groenendael to a.s.sist the Canons at a Ma.s.s sung in his honour. In a word, on all sides the holy Prior was regarded and, as far as possible, treated as a Saint in glory.

Yielding to representations and entreaties from many quarters, James Roonen, Archbishop of Mechlin, ordered another translation of the remains, November 1622. This was duly performed with all the prescribed formalities. The skeleton was found entire. The bones were carefully taken and reverently washed and then placed in a new reliquary. The water used in this cleansing emitted a delicious odour, and it was afterwards instrumental in effecting many miraculous cures. The Infanta Isabella of Spain laid the foundation stone of a chapel to be erected at her expense near _Ruysbroeck's Tree_ as a suitable shrine for the relics. She also provided a magnificent sarcophagus. As this chapel was outside the monastic enclosure, ladies were now able to pay their devotions at Ruysbroeck's tomb itself, whereas. .h.i.therto they had been able to reverence the relics only from a distance.

So far, however, no authoritative recognition of the heroic virtues of John Ruysbroeck had come from Rome. In 1624 the Archbishop commissioned the learned Albert le Mire to draw up the necessary preliminary doc.u.ments to be submitted to the Sacred Congregation. These were approved, and three commissioners were appointed to Initiate the apostolic process, so called. Their labours were completed by 1627. Then, on account of the wars and other troubles which afflicted the Low Countries at the time, the Cause was suspended.

When the French overran the Netherlands in 1667, to prevent profanation of the holy relics, they were carried to a place of greater safety in Brussels; they were restored again in 1670. In 1783 the Priory itself shared the fate of so many other Religious Houses, and was suppressed by the Emperor Joseph II.; whereupon the relics were again transferred to Brussels and laid to rest in a side-chapel of St. Gudule's.

Another attempt was then made by the Chapter of St. Gudule's to obtain from Rome an authorised Office and Ma.s.s in honour of John Ruysbroeck. The pet.i.tion was favourably received; but once more there was a violent interruption, this time from the upheaval of the French Revolution.

St. Gudule's was sacked by the _sans-culottes_ in 1793, and the reliquary of Ruysbroeck was desecrated. It is said, however, that the relics were not actually dispersed, and that they were afterwards sealed up again by a Notary named Neuwens; but unhappily at the present day all trace of them has disappeared.

Finally, in 1885, the late Cardinal Goosens, Archbishop of Mechlin, approached the Sacred Congregation once more, and a tribunal was appointed to examine into the Cause, February 8, 1900. This was brought to a happy issue in 1908 by a Decree of the Sacred Congregation, dated December 1st, and approved by His Holiness, Pius X., December 9, confirming the cultus "shown from time immemorial to the Venerable Servant of G.o.d, John Ruysbroeck, Canon Regular, called the Blessed."

Later, August 24, 1909, the Congregation granted and approved an Office and Ma.s.s of Blessed John Ruysbroeck for the Mechlin clergy. The privilege of this Office and Ma.s.s has also been extended to the Canons Regular of the Lateran, who are the lineal representatives of the Canons of Groenendael and Windesheim, and therefore in a special sense the children of Blessed John.

For the moment there may seem to be but little in common between this Mediaeval Mystic and the bustling modern world, so little as to suggest the thought that Blessed Ruysbroeck can have no message to deliver to our day. On the contrary, the Solitary of the Forest of Soignes stands for a profound truth, oblivion of which is rendering Society sick unto death to-day. John Ruysbroeck preaches to the world its utter need of G.o.d.

For the Catholic he enforces his lesson in a special manner. Unlike false mystics, who invariably pretend to dispense themselves and their adherents from the chief normal means of grace, namely the Sacraments, Ruysbroeck insists upon frequent recourse to the Sacraments, but more especially to the Blessed Eucharist, as the speediest and most efficacious means of bringing each soul into true union with G.o.d. Our present Holy Father, desirous and ambitious of "restoring all things in Christ," has pointed to the same divine remedy for the renewal of our souls. May there not be seen in this a providential reason wherefore the solemn beatification of this holy Religious has been delayed six centuries, to be reserved to our own days?

The proper prayers of our Saint's Ma.s.s beautifully summarise the lessons of his life as follows:

Collect

G.o.d, Who didst vouchsafe to adorn Blessed John, Thy Confessor, with sublime holiness of life and with heavenly gifts, grant us, through his merits, and after his example, to despise the fleeting things of the world, and to desire only the joys of heaven.