Cornelis Musius (1500–1572) was a Dutch

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

priest and

Neo-Latin New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy ...

poet. He was the last rector of the Sint Agathaklooster in

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

, until hanged without due process on 10 or 11 December 1572. Although never officially canonised, he has long been regarded as a martyr by Dutch Catholics.

Life

Musius is thought to have been born in Delft on 11 June 1500 (although the sources are not unanimous, some giving alternative dates or locations). He was the son of Johannes Pietersz Muys, a descendant of the

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a city and municipality in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the province's fifth-largest city after R ...

patrician lineage of Muys van Holy, and Elisabeth Woudana. He was orphaned young and began a clerical career. He studied theology at

Leuven University KU Leuven (or Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. It conducts teaching, research, and services in computer science, engineering, natural sciences, theology, humanities, medicine, l ...

, and travelled in Flanders and France, spending time in

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Arras Arras ( , ; pcd, Aro; historical nl, Atrecht ) is the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, department, which forms part of the regions of France, region of Hauts-de-France; before the regions of France#Reform and mergers of ...

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and

Poitiers Poitiers (, , , ; Poitevin: ''Poetàe'') is a city on the River Clain in west-central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and the historical centre of Poitou. In 2017 it had a population of 88,291. Its agglomerat ...

. He then became rector of the Sint Agathaklooster in Delft, a post he held for 35 years, while writing Latin verse and corresponding with numerous scholars he had met on his travels. He commissioned paintings for the convent from

Maarten van Heemskerck Maarten van Heemskerck or ''Marten Jacobsz Heemskerk van Veen'' (1 June 1498 - 1 October 1574) was a Dutch portrait and religious painter, who spent most of his career in Haarlem. He was a pupil of Jan van Scorel, and adopted his teacher's Itali ...

, a close personal friend.Ilja M. Veldman, "Maarten van Heemskerck and Hadrianus Junius: The Relationship between a Painter and a Humanist", ''Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art'' 7:1 (1974), pp. 35-54 After the rebel takeover of Delft in 1572, Musius remained in place, a well-regarded intellectual. On contravening a curfew for members of the Catholic clergy and religious orders, leaving the city to bring church treasures to safety, he was hunted down by the Lord of Lumey and transported to

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

. There, despite having a letter of safeguard from William of Orange, he was beaten, tortured and hanged. His sufferings were described in

Richard Verstegan Richard Rowlands, born Richard Verstegan (c. 1550 – 1640), was an Anglo-Dutch antiquary, publisher, humorist and translator. Verstegan was born in East London the son of a cooper; his grandfather, Theodore Roland Verstegen, was a refugee fro ...

's ''Theatrum crudelitatum'' (Antwerp, 1587) and in book 10 of

Petrus Opmeer Petrus Opmeer (1526–1594) was a Dutch Catholic historian and controversialist. According to his biographer Valerius Andreas, Opmeer was a friend of "painters, sculptors and architects", including Maarten van Heemskerck, Pieter Aertsen, Willem Dan ...

's ''Historia martyrum Batavicorum'' (Cologne, 1625).

Works

*''Institutio foeminae christianae ex ultimo capite Proverbiorum Salomonis'' (1536) *''Solitudo sive Vita Solitaria laudata'' (Antwerp, Christopher Plantin, 1566)
Available on Google Books

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Musius, Cornelis 1500 births 1572 deaths People from Delft Old University of Leuven alumni 16th-century Dutch Roman Catholic priests 16th-century Latin-language writers Dutch people of the Eighty Years' War