on of Orange Free State, Bloemfontein was chosen as the seat of
the Supreme Court of South Africa. Its growth as a business centre after
the close of the war in 1902 was very marked. The rateable value
increased from L709,000 in 1901 to L2,400,000 in 1905.

BLOET, ROBERT (d. 1123), English bishop, was chancellor to William I.
and Rufus. From the latter he received the see of Lincoln (1093) in
succession to Remigius. His private character was indifferent; but he
administered his see with skill and prudence, built largely, and kept a
magnificent household, which served as a training-school even for the
sons of nobles. Bloet was active in assisting Henry I. during the
rebellion of 1102, and became that monarch's justiciar. Latterly,
however, he fell out of favour, and, although he had been very rich, was
impoverished by the fines which the king extorted from him. Perhaps his
wealth was his chief offence in the king's eyes; for he was in
attendance on Henry when seized with his last illness. He was the patron
of the chronicler Henry of Huntingdon, whom he advanced to an
archdeaconry.

Henry of Huntingdon and W. Malmesbury (_De Gestis Pontificum_) are
original authorities. See E.A. Freeman's _William Rufus_; Sir James
Ramsay, _The Foundations of England_, vol. ii. (H. W. C. D.)

BLOIS, LOUIS DE (1506-1566), Flemish mystical writer, generally known
under the name of BLOSIUS, was born in October 1506 at the chateau of
Donstienne, near Liege, of an illustrious family to which several
crowned heads were allied. He was educated at the court of the
Netherlands with the future emperor Charles V. of Germany, who remained
to the last his staunch friend. At the age of fourteen he received the
Benedictine habit in the monastery of Liessics in Hainaut, of which he
became abbot in 1530. Charles V. pressed in vain upon him the
archbishopric of Cambrai, but Blosius studiously exerted himself in the
reform of his monastery and in the composition of devotional works. He
died at his monastery on the 7th of January 1566.

Blosius's works, which were written in Latin, have been translated into
almost every European language, and have appealed not only to Roman
Catholics, but to many English laymen of note, such as W.E. Gladstone
and Lord Coleridge. The best editions of his collected works are the
first edition by J. Frojus (Louvain, 1568), and the Cologne reprints
(1572, 1587). His best-known works are:--the _Institutio