Juan Luis Vives 1492-1540

The Juan Luis Vives' statue alongside the canal

near the Bonifacius Bridge.

I have often seen the small, unassuming bust of Juan Luis Vives on the canal bank close to the Bonifacius Bridge and idly wondered who he was. Although the spot is picturesque, and even historic situated as it is, in the heart of Brugge, nevertheless it is a little out-of-the way and helps to keep the statue and the man, somewhat incognito to the general public.

I am presently reading The Life of Thomas More by Peter Ackroyd, echoing the period of the super biography of Thomas Cromwell which I mentioned in my last blog. Ackroyd is a prize-winning biographer and an authority on the history of London. His More autobiography is predictably superb and reading it, I was astonished to come across the name of Vives whom More had met in Bruges during some diplomatic negotiations on Henry's behalf in 1520. More came to admire Vives for his ideas, productivity and resourcefulness. The connection was strengthened during the next five years when Vives composed a number of treatises on subjects such as good government and the education of women, areas in which More was very interested. More was instrumental in having translated and published the Vives' treatise on the education of Christian women. He was also involved in Wolsey's appointment of Vives to a readership in the newly-established Cardinal's College in Oxford in 1520.

Thomas More

It was undoubtedly through More's influence that Vives joined the little group of pious scholars around Queen Catherine whom he impressed so much that she entrusted the education of her daughter, Mary Tudor, to him.

Erasmus

 Vives’ friendship with Erasmus, another admirer, and his proximity for a while to More and the royal family is demonstrated in a letter from Vives to Erasmus. He alluded to the admiration of Henry and Catherine for Erasmus’s work, De Libero Aribitrio. He wrote, “non dubito,” they will discuss your new book “cum Moro.” The extent of the friendship which had developed between Vives and Catherine can be judged by the fact that in the Autumn of 1527, and again in the following year, Vives returned to the Queen’s side to support and counsel her during her long travail over the King's ‘grete mater’ when Henry was seeking reasons, backed by theology, to annul his marriage to her, the widow of his older brother.

Catherine of Aragon

First wife of Henry v111

After publicly supporting the validity of Queen Catherine’s royal marriage, and thus forfeiting Henry’s favour, Vives was briefly imprisoned and then he prudently withdrew from Oxford, returning to Bruges where he spent the rest of his life. He thought and wrote much on the psyche and psychology, philosophy, medicine, the education of women and state treatment of the poor and destitute. His beliefs on the soul, insight into early medical practice, and perspective on emotions, memory and learning earned him the title of ‘father’ of modern psychology. In education, Vives achieved renown through such works as De Ratione Studii Pueriis, On the Right Method of Instruction For Children, published in 1523. He advocated the principal of induction from personal enquiry and experience which Erasmus had recommended for the study of Scripture and languages. Vives’ approach to education is astonishingly modern. His ideas were influential and advanced, though he is barely remembered today, However, the Vives University College was created in 2013 with the merger of the Katholieke Hogeschool Zuid-West-Vlaanderen[KATHO] and the Katholieke Hogeschool Brugge-Oostende [KHBO]. And thus the name Vives, lives on. He 

died in 1540 aged only 47 and was buried in the Cathedral of Sint Donaas.

 Vives University College Library, Brugge Campus

Juan Luis Vives who left his native Spain after his father

had been burned at the stake by the Spanish Inquisition.