ADRIANESZ (ADRIANSSEN), CORNELIUS. — Distinguished theologian, b. at Dordrecht in 1521, d. at Bruges on 14 July 1581. He studied at Bruges under Cassander, whose successor he became. Having entered the Franciscan Order in 1548, he was guardian of the convent at Ypres in 1563 and of that at Bruges in 1556; in 1578–79 he endured the persecution of Rhyove and his followers who, having taken the city, devastated the convent. A renowned orator, he fought strenuously against Cassander, Erasmus, and the nascent Protestantism.
He wrote: *Den Spiegel van den thien geboden* (“The Mirror of the Ten Commandments”; Bruges 1554); *De seven sacramenten nyghteleyt ende openbaerlyck te Brugge ghepreckt by Br. C. van Dordrecht* (Sermons on the Seven Sacraments Preached at Bruges). Two volumes of ridiculous and obscene sermons were attributed to him in an attempt to defame him; he was, however, universally recognized as a man of the utmost integrity and piety. His body, transferred in 1615 to the church of the Friars Minor, was found incorrupt.