The Reformation also counted numerous friends beyond the limits of this family. The most faithful evangelist of Louvain was Jan van Ousberghen. His was not a spirit restless with rash zeal. The bookseller Jerome Cloet, who was well acquainted with him, called him ‘the quietest man in Louvain.’[[843]] He appears to have been well educated, and to have read the Latin works on the faith which were published in Germany and elsewhere. He let no opportunity slip of making the Gospel known, and souls were enlightened by his private conversation. ‘To the instructions of Jan van Ousberghen,’ said a pious woman, Catherine, the wife of the sculptor Beyaerts, ‘I am indebted for the sentiments which I profess.[[844]] Still more frequently Ousberghen spoke at meetings held in private houses, in the farms of the neighborhood, and in the open air. There were also at Louvain a small number of priests who, although they acted with less freedom than Ousberghen, nevertheless exercised a powerful influence. Among them was one man of sixty, feeble in body, his head hoary with age, modest, but very learned. His name was Paul van Roovere. He possessed many hymns, psalms, and other writings in the vulgar tongue (Flemish), besides the Holy Scriptures, in the study of which he spent his time.[[845]] He was a poet and was very skilful in versification; he was likewise a musician and player on the flute. The evangelicals of Louvain frequently accosted him when they saw him in the street, at church, or in the cathedral of Louvain, where he appears to have discharged some ecclesiastical functions. The sculptor Jan Beyaerts, one day in Lent, entered into conversation with him in St. Peter’s church, opposite to the altar of St. Ann. They spoke of the communion, and Master Paul, setting transubstantiation aside, said that the holy supper was simply a pledge which Christ had left to us of his passion by which we are saved. Master Paul had established a charitable fund for the poor reformed Christians; and when he went to the house of Catherine Sclercx, the wife of Rogiers, he used frequently to give her money to distribute to the poor, ‘because he knew that she liked to visit the houses of the needy.’[[846]] This pious priest was at the same time an agreeable man, and his conversation ‘turned upon entertaining subjects.’ He was a handsome old man, always kindly and good-humored. ‘Sincere convictions,’ it has been observed, ‘do not exclude the love of the fine arts or the graces of wit.’[[847]]
Master Paul had a friend, Matthew van Rillaert, with whom ‘he often talked about the word of God and the sacrament of the Eucharist, and discussed the questions whether communion should be in both kinds and whether priests ought to marry.’ ‘Ah,’ said Matthew, ‘better take a wife than commit the sin of fornication.’ He often went to the shop of the bookseller Jerome Cloet, and ‘there religious subjects were talked of, the councils of the Church and justification by faith.’[[848]] But among the believers, of Louvain the most eminent was Master Peter Rythove, school-master of St. Gertrude, who, in this capacity, was entrusted with the education of young men intended for the ministry. He was a well-informed man, and the most learned of the theologians. He was a frequent visitor at the bookseller Cloet’s, and used even to buy books on botany, medicine, and other sciences.[[849]]
An Innocent Walk.
One of the most noteworthy personages of the evangelical band at Louvain was Jacques Gosseau, bachelor of the Civil and Canon Laws, and formerly dean of the Drapers’ Guild. He lived on his fortune. He had married Mary, the niece of Antoinette van Roesmals. One day, at vintage-time, when Antoinette, her daughter Gudule, and other friends were at his house, Mary said that she had a great longing to eat some grapes, and proposed to go to Rosselberg to the vineyard of her sister Martha. The Rosselberg is a line of hills which takes its name from the ferruginous color of the soil. Extensive vineyards existed there till the seventeenth century. ‘With all my heart,’ said Antoinette. The company rose to depart. It was in the afternoon. When they came to the ramparts, near the gates of the city, they met the evangelist Van Ousberghen, Jan Beyaerts and his wife Catherine. They walked on together towards the Rosselberg; and on the way Jan van Ousberghen, began to read in the New Testament. They arrived at the vineyard. The porter, said one of the accused, was ‘a believer.’ They ate some grapes; and then on their way back the party took the road to Boschstrathen, and sat down for a while in the fields. Jan van Ousberghen again took his precious volume and read in the New Testament. Many persons were afterwards prosecuted for this innocent walk.[[850]]
But the conferences on matters of faith, as they used to call them, were chiefly held at the house of Antoinette, either at Bollebore or at the black Lys, where she afterwards took up her abode.
There were present both men and women of various ranks, who freely conversed with one another. It is probable that Alasco attended these meetings, especially those held at Antoinette’s house, in which he often resided. His name, however, does not appear in the interrogatories. Jan Schats often read the Bible there. There is no purgatory, said he; the soul, when it escapes from the body, rests until the day of judgment in a place which God knows.[[851]] Jan Vicart, the haberdasher of the Golden Gate, said—‘There are two churches, the Christian church and the church of Rome. It is enough for us to make confession to God, because from Him cometh all salvation. I receive the sacrament in remembrance of Christ, and I bring up my daughters in these sentiments.’[[852]]
Boldness Of Beyaerts.
The faith of some of these disciples was not steadfast and pure. The sculptor Beyaerts was one of the frequenters of these meetings; but he held some views which were more ardent than profound, and had more enthusiasm than steadfastness in his faith. In each of the churches of St. Peter and St. James there was a picture intended to impress the parishioners and induce them to come forward to the help of souls detained in purgatory. Beyaerts devoted himself to the task of putting an end to the scandal which these pictures occasioned among his friends. One evening he went by stealth into St. Peter’s church, near the tower, under the bells, by the side of a crucifix. He was alone in the church; he took down the picture, concealed it under his gown, and went quickly away. Meeting Catherine Sclercx, she saw the picture and said to him, ‘Well done.’ Beyaerts did the same with the picture in St. James’s church, and all his friends were pleased, and said that these pictures were ‘wicked cheats.’ But this same man, now so bold, displayed lamentable weakness when brought before the judges.
But there was something more than weakness. The Spirit of God was carrying on His work at Louvain and in the Netherlands, but the evil one was not idle. A black sheep had crept into the fold. George Stocx, a member of a chamber of rhetoric, and author of various songs and poems, appears to have belonged to the party of the libertines. While he was a devout speaker at the meetings he denied his doctrine by his manner of life. He sought after opportunities of luxurious living, sang verses which excited laughter, danced and drank. One evening after attending a feast at Gempe, he was so drunk when the time came for returning to Louvain that they had to throw him into a wagon.[[853]]
It was otherwise with Jan van Ousberghen. With respect to him there was but one testimony. He was a holy man, people said, who had suffered much for the glory of God.[[854]] He had strong faith in Christ, great piety, singular modesty, and marvellous steadfastness. He was the soul of the meetings held in the house of Antoinette. But two calamities successively occurred to waste the little Christian flock. An epidemic broke out in Louvain, apparently in 1539. It attacked especially the household of Antoinette, and carried off her husband and several of her children. The disconsolate widow took refuge, with Gudule, who was spared to her, in one of the towers of the town. These towers looked over the country, and the plague-stricken were compelled to resort to them, to prevent contagion spreading in the town. This epidemic, which took from Antoinette the objects of her tenderest affections, made a change also in her condition of life. She was henceforth ‘a poor old woman, laden with poverty and sufferings, having lost all that she possessed, even her very means of subsistence.’[[855]] But the Gospel remained to her.