WRITERS

side, whom he praised after his death in a funeral oration; having often shared counsel when he was hanging in suspense of mind and tossed by many waves of thought—as he himself confesses in an elegant homily published on the Three Magi—after consulting God through prayers, meditation, and nightly vigils, he finally felt himself called by His impulse into the Franciscan familyThe Order of Friars Minor, founded by St. Francis of Assisi.. He therefore entered it after composing this testament:

How short is life, how slippery the path,
and how uncertain is Death; what rewards for the good,
and what torments are prepared for the wicked;
these are the subjects of our meditation.
What we do, what we confirm, and what we desire
to be a lasting testament; greetings and farewell,
dear father, dear brothers, and dear sisters.
original: "Quam sit vita brevis, quàm sit via lubrica..."

Soon he began to explain the sacred scriptures to his own brothers (a province of teaching which Franciscus Titelmanus had previously held). And since he burned with an incredible zeal for God and flourished with an eloquence marvelous beyond his age, he often spoke to the Clergy in Latin and to the people in the vernacular. Witness to this are his homilies, more than thirty in number, written no less gracefully than piously, which are handled by everyone. But as nothing in human affairs is usually one's own, permanent, or lasting, in his thirty-sixth year of age and tenth of monastic life—as if only shown to the earth—he was snatched away before his time on the day of St. Benedict in the year of salvation 1553. He was buried at Louvain among his fellow companions in the Chapter house. Cornelius Musius placed this epitaph for his fellow citizen and greatest friend:

original: "ADAMUS nomen, Batavi mea patria Delfi..."

Cornelius Musius of Delft placed this for his friend.

The excavated bones of the deceased Adam were re-interred before the steps of the high altar, by the wish of the most illustrious Sasboldus Vosmerus, Archbishop of Philippi and Utrecht and Apostolic Vicar, who was the nephew of Father Adam by his sister; he kept Adam's skull for himself during the translation of the body.

Michael Vosmerus, brother of the Archbishop, sang this elegant poem on the portrait of his uncle Adam, expressed to the life:

With his father a consul of Delft twenty-five times,
and with various relatives as presiding officials:
following the rule and habit of the prophet of Assisi,
ADAM SASBOUT was of this likeness.
But his lineage, study of life, piety, and sacred
eloquence, and his tongue skilled in four sounds,
are expressed in the books which the clever world receives,
while the author's name and title sing.
Which things, if beautiful glory had not lasted for long fame,
should have complained about the brevity of life.
original: "Bis decimum, & quintum Delforum consule Patre..."

He wrote:
On the 4 books of the SentencesThe "Sentences" by Peter Lombard was the standard theological textbook of the Middle Ages..
Commentaries on the Prophet Isaiah, with a preceding treatise on the senses of the Scriptures. They begin: "Before the exposition of Isaiah."
Explanations on all the epistles of Paul. Beginning: "In the epistle which he wrote to the Romans."

In both works he most learnedly refutes the errors of heretics, but also weighs the literal sense learnedly, piously, and aptly for moral conduct, as Cornelius a Lapide testifies in the argument of his commentary on Isaiah, whom he also highly commends among the interpreters of the epistles of St. Paul. Nevertheless, such a great man did not lack a rival who attempted to obscure his fame by asserting that both these works were not by Sasbout, but by his own master Hasselius; however, the aforementioned Vosmerus fully responded to this in a learned Apology, which he published at Cologne in the year 1613 along with the life of Sasbout and the homilies he had illustrated. And indeed, Cornelius, cited in the latter place, says the work of Hasselius on the epistles of Paul exists in manuscript at Louvain, and he subjoins that of Sasbout as something distinct.
He also wrote:
On the second epistle of St. Peter. The argument of this epistle.
On the catholic epistle of the Apostle Jude. Jude taught in Asia Minor.
Three homilies on those words of Leviticus 20: "You shall be holy to me, because I am holy: I am the Lord, and I have separated you from the other peoples, that you might be mine"; for his biological brothers Sasbold and Gerard, who were soon to be initiated into the priesthood. They begin: "These Levitical homilies."
An equal number of homilies on mortality on those words of Genesis 3: "Remember, man, that you are dust, etc." Socrates in Plato's Alcibiades.
Two homilies on that passage of Joel 2: "Turn to me, etc." It begins: "With these words after the horrific things."
Two on the circumcision. "If before the years."
Homily I on the feast of the Three Kings. The history of this day.
On the feast of the Purification. The Gospel of the Lord.
On the Sundays of Septuagesima, Sexagesima, Quinquagesima, the first, second, and fourth of Lent, and Passion Sunday. Two in this sermon.
On the feast of the Annunciation on that passage of Isaiah 7: "O Lord, your mercy is in heaven, etc." Those who are skilled in the Hebrew language.
On the Assumption of the Virgin, two homilies. "I would wish, O Fathers."
One homily on that passage to the Galatians 6: "But far be it from me to glory." Beginning: "Aristotle advises after Plato."
On the 3rd and 4th Sunday of Advent. The Gospel [on] the disciples of John.
On the Nativity of the Lord, two homilies. We have three Gospels.
One homily on the day of souls, or of all the Deceased, on that prose: "Hear, O earth, hear the cloud of the great sea." Beginning: "It is now a year."
A homily on the fear of the Lord delivered to the younger students of Philosophy on the feast of St. Catherine. "When I recall with myself."
A quodlibetic orationA formal academic speech or debate on "whatever you please" (quod libet). demonstrating the true Church of Christ.
Another funeral oration on the death of Lord Tilmannus Geldropius, President of the Pontifical College in the University of Louvain, on that passage of Isaiah 57: "The just man has perished, and there is no one who considers it in his heart." It begins: "This voice of the Prophet Isaiah." He dedicated both to Joost Aesmonius, counselor to Charles V in the Senate of Brabant.
He translated the first book of Homer's Iliad into an equal number of Latin verses. "Muse, recount the wrath to me." It is found at the end of his works.
He was so remarkably skilled in poetry, and was so [skilled] in...