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Geschiedenis van de Christelijke Mystiek rond personen
(22) Zestiende eeuw n.C. That spirit reappears in the sixteenth century
in Flanders in the works of the Benedictine Abbot Blosius (1506-1565); and, far
more conspicuously, in Spain, a country hardly touched by the outburst of mystical
life which elsewhere closed the mediaeval period. Spanish mysticism first appears
in close connection with the religious orders: in the Franciscans Francisco de
Osuna (ob. c. 1540), whose manual of contemplative prayer influenced the development
of St. Teresa, and St. Peter of Alcantara (1499-1562), her friend and adviser;
in the Dominican Luis de Granada (1504-1588) and the Augustinian Luis de Leon
(1528-1591). It attains definite and characteristic expression in the life and
personality of St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), the great founder of the Society
of Jesus. The concrete nature of St. Ignatius' work, and especially its later
developments, has blinded historians to the fact that he was a true mystic; own
brother to such great actives as St. Teresa and George Fox, actuated by the same
vision of reality, passing through the same stages of psychological growth. His
spiritual sons greatly influenced the inner life of the great Carmelite, St. Teresa
(1515-1582).
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