Catholic Piety from Ruusbroec and the Devotio Moderna to the Legacy of Pierre de Bérulle

Abstract

This chapter examines some of the main figures of Catholic piety from the Low Countries and France from the fourteenth to the early seventeenth centuries. The chapter begins with the mystical theology of Jan van Ruusbroec and then considers some of the figures associated with the Devotio Moderna. Later figures such as Francis de Sales and Pierre de Bérulle are then treated. Overall, the chapter chronicles the transition from a late-medieval exemplarist Christian spirituality to a more experiential variety of mysticism as we encounter it in the Modern Devotion and early-modern French spirituality. The chapter also notes ways in which these traditions were important for the later development of Catholic spirituality.