Cornelis Musius (; 1500–1572) was a Dutch

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

priest and

Neo-Latin Neo-LatinSidwell, Keith ''Classical Latin-Medieval Latin-Neo Latin'' in ; others, throughout. (also known as New Latin and Modern Latin) is the style of written Latin used in original literary, scholarly, and scientific works, first in Italy d ...

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 List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Western Netherlands, lo ...

patrician lineage of Muys van Holy, and Elisabeth Woudana. He was orphaned young and began a clerical career. He studied theology at Leuven University, and travelled in Flanders and France, spending time in

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and

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. 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 (born Maerten Jacobsz van Veen; 1 June 1498 – 1 October 1574), also known as Marten Jacobsz Heemskerk van Veen, was a Dutch portrait and religious painter, who spent most of his career in Haarlem. He was a pupil of Jan ...

, 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 language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...

. 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 Verstegen, anglicised as Richard Verstegan and also known as Richard Rowlands (c. 1550 – 1640), was an Anglo- Dutch antiquary, publisher, humorist and translator. Life and career Verstegan was born in East London the son of a coop ...

's ''Theatrum crudelitatum'' (Antwerp, 1587) and in book 10 of Petrus Opmeer'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 writers in Latin Dutch people of the Eighty Years' War