n, who practised his art for thirty years. He made, in 1446,
for the ancient church of Saint Michel at Louvain (destroyed by the
Vandals in 1914) a large bell, bearing the inscription: "Michael
prepositus paradisi quem nonoripicant angelorum civis fusa per Johann
Zeelstman anno dmi, m. ccc. xlvi."

The family of Waghemans furnished a great number of bell founders of
renown, who made many of the bells in the carillon of the cathedral of
St. Rombauld; and there was lastly the Van den Gheyns (or Ghein), of
which William of Bois-le-Duc became "Bourgeoisie" (Burgess) of Malines
in 1506. His son Pierre succeeded to his business in 1533, and in turn
left a son Pierre II, who carried on the great repute of his father. The
tower of the Hospice of Notre Dame contained in 1914 a remarkable old
bell of clear mellow tone--bearing the inscription: "Peeter Van den
Ghein heeft mi Ghegotten in't jaer M.D. LXXX VIII." On the lower rim
were the words: "Campana Sancti spiritus Divi Rumlodi." Pierre Van den
Ghein II had but one son, Pierre III, who died without issue in 1618.
William, however, left a second son, from whom descended the line of
later bell founders, who made many of the bells of Malines. Of these
Pierre IV, who associated himself with Pierre de Clerck (a cousin
german), made the great "bourdon" called Salvator.

During the later years of the seventeenth century, the Van den Gheyns
seem to have quitted the town, seeking their fortunes elsewhere, for the
foundry passed into other and less competent hands.

In Malines dwelt the Primate of Belgium, the now celebrated Cardinal
Mercier, whose courageous attitude in the face of the invaders has
aroused the admiration of the whole civilized world. Malines, although
near Brussels, had, up to the outbreak of the war and its subsequent
ruin, perhaps better preserved its characteristics than more remote
towns of Flanders. The market place was surrounded by purely Flemish
gabled houses of grayish stucco and stone, and these were most
charmingly here and there reflected in the sluggish water of the rather
evil-smelling river Dyle.

Catholicism was a most powerful factor here, and the struggle between
Luther and Loyola, separating the ancient from the modern in Flemish
architecture, was nowhere better exemplified than in Malines. It has
been said that the modern Jesuitism succeeded to the ancient mysticism
without displacing it, and the installation of the first in the very
sanctuary of