PREFACE.

FRANCIS LOUIS OF BLOIS, more commonly known by his Latin name, Ludovicus Blosius, was born in 1506, near Beaumont in Hainaut, of the noble house de Blois et de Chatillon.

He was sent by his parents to the court of Charles V., and passed his early youth there as page to the Emperor. At the age of fourteen he left it by his own choice, and entered the Benedictine Monastery of Liesse, near Avesnes in Hainaut, where he was remarkable for his wisdom and piety. In his twenty-fourth year he was chosen Abbot, and restored the ancient discipline of the Monastery, which soon acquired a great reputation for learning and virtue.

He frequently refused both the Archbishopric of Cambrai and the Abbey of Tournai, offered him by Charles V., whose almoner he had been, and led a holy and hidden life in his own community.

He composed many spiritual works, from which the treatises contained in the following pages have been translated.

He died on the 7th of January, 1566, in the 60th year of his age.