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 a 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'Academie 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.