Patrick Taylor

When planet Earth remained static

Posted October 7th, 2007

The Earth is static and the Sun, Moon and stars revolve around it. This geocentric model of the universe, which held sway from the days of Classical Greece until the 17th century, was promoted in European culture by one of my distant ancestors known as Libertus Fromondus (1587-1653), Doctor of Theology at Louvain University.

Fromondus was the brother of Marie Libert, my Belgian 9 x great grandmother. He was a leading opponent of Galileo, who proposed the heliocentric model of the universe that is accepted today. In justifying his point of view, Fromondus famously reasoned that if the Earth did indeed rotate as Galileo said it did then "the wind would constantly blow from the east" and that "buildings and the earth itself would fly off with such a rapid motion that men would have to be provided with claws like cats to enable them to hold fast to the Earth's surface." His argument relies on the existence of friction between the Earth's atmosphere and space and as far as I know, there isn't any, but he wasn't to know that. In fact he won't have known about space at all.

Wrong though he was, Fromondus was a very clever man. He existed eleven generations above mine, which according to my calculations means that, together with probably tens of thousands of other individuals, I share 1/4096 of his genes, or 0.025%. These figures allow for the fact that he was the brother of my direct ancestor.

The line to Fromondus

My Belgian mother's parents were Charles and Jeanne Wauters who married in 1908. Charles's father, Fernand Wauters, married Victorine in 1879. Fernand's father, Arsène Wauters, married Victorine Rigo in 1811. Victorine's father, Jean Nicolas, married M de Froidmont, year unknown. M de Froidmont's father, Jean Libert, married Marie Beatrice in 1781. Someone called Libert (Jean Libert's father) married Marie in 1743. Jean married Libert's mother, Agnes in 1709. Agnes's father, Henri, married Jeanne Marie, year unknown. Henri's father, also Henri, married Marie, year unknown. Henri married Marie, Henri's mother, year unknown. This Marie was the sister of Fromondus, whose real name was Libert Froidmont. The parents of Marie and Libert were Gerard Libert and Marguerite Froidmont, and Gerard's parents were Libert Froidmont, his father, and Marie Birtout, thirteen generations above mine. More here »

Libertus Fromondus (Fromundus)

Libert Froidmont, Belgian theologian and scientist

THE BROTHER OF MARIE, my Belgian great (times 9) grandmother, was Libert Froidmont, a.k.a. Libertus Fromondus (or Fromundus) 1587-1653. Amongst other things, Fromondus was a professor and Doctor of Theology at Louvain University and the Dean of the church of St. Pierre. During a time when Galileo was at odds with the Catholic Church over the question of whether the Earth moves in space (or is immobile at the centre of a Godly universe), Fromondus reasoned that, if the Earth did indeed rotate as alleged by Galileo, "the wind would constantly blow from the east" and that "buildings and the ground itself would fly off with such a rapid motion that men would have to be provided with claws like cats to enable them to hold fast to the Earth's surface."

When planet Earth remained static »

A portrait of Libert Froidmont (known as Fromondus)

Fromondus lived in an age of superstition. A student of comets, he wrote (with another theologian named Fieni) a book which promoted the view that comets were prophetic, with a moral dimension, sent by the Almighty as warnings betokening evil. Similar teachings prevailed in the Protestant Church: "The heavens are given us not merely for our pleasure, but also as a warning of the wrath of God for the correction of our lives."

And yet Fromondus did concede that "devils, though OFTEN, are not ALWAYS or even for the most part the causes of thunder." This attempt at compromise, in the face of the new scientific view of the heavens put forward by Galileo, hints at something I sometimes wonder about: the extent to which intelligent theologians, even in our time, actually believe everything they profess in the name of their religions. Science and religion are so often in conflict that it must be hard to remain loyal to a religious stance that is so obviously at odds with the laws of physics.

Fromondus (or Fromundus) in the war upon Galileo

In what became known as "the war upon Galileo" and Copernican theory, Fromondus, an oracle of his time, was a leading protagonist. In 1610, through his home made telescope, Galileo (inset) discovered three of Jupiter's four largest moons and observed that they seemed to be orbiting the planet. He also observed that Venus exhibited a full set of phases similar to those of the Moon, proving that it must orbit the Sun, and he was one of the first Europeans to observe sunspots whose apparent motion across the Sun's surface suggested its rotation in relation to the Earth.

The response from Fromondus was his treatise Ant-Aristarclius (written in Latin) in which he declared that the "Sacred Scripture fights against the Copernicans." To prove that the Sun revolves about the Earth he cited a passage from the Psalms which speaks of the Sun "which cometh forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber" and quoted a passage from Ecclesiastes that "the Earth standeth fast forever," proving the Earth stands still.

Apparently, Fromondus was also in correspondence with Descartes (1595-1650), the French mathematician, scientist and philosopher and a revolutionary figure whose ideas changed the relationship between philosophy and theology. Descartes is famous for his phrase "I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am" sometimes abbreviated to "I think, therefore I am." When he heard of the condemnation of Galileo's Copernicanism by the Catholic Church in Rome and the subsequent burning of related works, Descartes abandoned publication of Le Monde, his 'Treatise on the World' endorsing the Copernican view of the moving Earth.

An atheistic doctrine

Fromondus and others continued to argue that Galileo's theories were not only heretical but atheistic. Learned and undoubtedly sincere, they insisted on making science conform to the Scriptures. They held up the dreadful consequences for Christian theology if the heavenly bodies were proved to revolve around the Sun and not around the Earth. "If the Earth is a planet, and only one among several, it can not be that any such great things have been done specially for it as the Christian doctrine teaches. If there are other planets, since God makes nothing in vain, they must be inhabited; but how can their inhabitants be descended from Adam? How can they trace back their origin to Noah's ark? How can they have been redeemed by the Saviour?"

In spite of Galileo and Descartes, Fromondus personified scientific education in Europe in his time. His portrait by the Flemish painter Martin de Vos disappeared from Louvain University during a fire in 1914. Another portrait apparently belongs to M. Delacroix, a former Prime Minister of Belgium, and a portrait engraving of Fromondus was made by Quirin Boel d'Anvers in 1664. According to the custom of the age, Fromondus adopted the Burthout family coat of arms.

Joséphine and Alfred Deru

At Blankenberge on the Belgian coast around 1905

Alfred Joseph and Joséphine Amandine (née Houben) Deru were my great grandparents on the Belgian side. They are pictured with their daughters Germaine and Jeanne. Jeanne Deru married Charles Wauters in about 1908 – they were my Belgian grandparents. Germaine became Germaine Brooks in 1916 by marrying an Englishman, Basil Benjamin Burgoyne Brooks. Basil was killed on the Somme a few weeks later and Germaine moved to South Africa with another Englishman, called Kelly. More information about Germaine and the Kelly connection here »

Alfred and Joséphine Deru with their two daughters are also in this family photo from the mid-1890s.

Arséne Wauters

Jean Philippe Arséne Wauters (1811–1862) was my great great grandfather on my Belgian grandfather's side (Charles Wauters). Arséne's parents were Louis Joseph Hyacinthe Wauters and Marie Josephe Constance Thérèse (née Hodeige) Wauters. He was married to Marie Victoire Léonie Philippine (née Bouvy) and their son (my great grandfather) was Charles Nicolas Marie Fernand Wauters – Charles's father.

The Wauters Family (2)

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Relations with the family of Dr Schacht

As told by Françoise in the first person, January 1990.

My father being an economist, and also Bulgarian Consul in Brussels (we sometimes flew the Bulgarian flag in the garden!), was approached by Hjalmar Schacht to receive his son, Jens, in the family in Brussels, and he came to stay with us for nearly a year in 1937-38. He was 27, very clever and forceful. He used to bring me home from the Academy most days, took me to dancing classes and also to the opera – Delibes. My sister Bernadette and I stayed at the Schacht house in Berlin for seven to ten days in May 1938.

Dr Schacht (pictured with Adolf Hitler) was a stern upright man, but friendly and polite. We did not discuss politics but he took me to the Reichsbank and he told me about money. Jens took us to see the sights of Berlin, Potsdam, the Tiergarten, Hitler addressing a young people's rally in a stadium, a cabaret, a Tschaikovski ballet, Beethoven's Leonora, and the cinema and zoo. Everyone had to applaud whenever Hitler appeared on the scene.

Jens Schacht (pictured with Bernadette) was unsympathetic to the Nazis – had Jewish friends, one of whom he helped to escape to the USA. He left Belgium and eventually went to the Russian Front where he died in April 1944. We learnt this in about 1950 when Dr Schacht came to visit my mother not long before my father died. The first time he tried to visit us after the war started Bernadette met him in the garden and would not let him in. He eventually saw my mother but it was an embarrassing relationship.

Jeanne Wauters

My mother had the knack of learning languages, and knew German before the war. She learnt English at finishing school, and had learnt Dutch during a period when they were refugees in Holland in World War I. She worked for the Belgian Red Cross during the war, taking pregnant mothers to hospital during the night to give birth etc. She had frequent cause to obtain authority from the Germans in order to fulfil her Red Cross duties, and was sometimes mistaken for a German because of her fluency. I never spoke to any Germans during the war, nor did we ever have any contact with them apart from my mother through the Red Cross. Before the war my mother, having no occupation apart from instructing servants, and apparently not reading very much, seemed to be very frustrated. Her work for the Red Cross during the war gave her a new purpose in life and she changed a lot.

She probably had more personal contact with her grandchildren than she ever did with her own. She seemed very happy when she came to England to look after Patrick, Anthony, and Martin, and had to prepare meals and wash clothes etc. She developed an affectionate relationship with Ken, and got on well with other Taylors – especially 'Emmie' – and also with Joyce's husband Alex, whom she used to tease.

André Wauters (recorded by Kenneth & Françoise Taylor, 9 June 1988, updated by André's family in 2012)

After studying stage architecture at La Cambre, André lived in the Congo where he bought and sold jute for making linen for about seven years, during which time he collected a great deal of African art. He went to the US in the late 1950s and ended up in New York after periods in Los Angeles and Chicago.

He worked for the Belgian Consulate as an Art Appraiser and Cultural Attaché, and afterwards for French & Co in New York. He married Ruth Bratter in the late 1950s. They lived in Chicago until 1964 when André opened an art gallery in New York. André was an avid and gifted art collector and dealer and was devoted to the field. He was an engaging, proud, creative and strong willed person. Much of the art André collected or handled over the years is in museums or treasured private collections now.

André died on June 10th, 1983, after a triple by-pass operation from which he did not regain consciousness. He was a high energy person whose life had always been a succession of peaks and troughs.

Ruth Bratter was born in Manhattan in the late 1930s. Her parents were of German, Austrian, and Russian background. Her three sons with André were Drake born in 1960, Barnaby born in 1964 and Leif born in 1971.

Ruth was an expert computer programmer and also worked freelance from her home for many years. She is quite intelligent, belongs to Mensa, and is accomplished. She was a gifted pianist early in life. She studied languages and acting at Hunter College and Mathematics at Northwestern University. She has been an actress on and off for over 50 years and currently reads and records books for the U.S. Library of Congress.

Drake is an accomplished architect in Washington, DC and a specialist in the building and forensics field. He has been a principal in several firms over the years and has started a family with his second wife Hui.

Barnaby lived with André from 1979 until André's death. They were both in the antique and art business together. Barnaby is a graduate of the top ranked Cooper Union architectural program and has worked with many of the luminaries in the field. He also specializes in building technology and forensics. He now lives and practises in Chicago with his wife Carolyn. Barnaby and Carolyn have also started a family.

Leif is an accomplished musician and writer who has worked in the publishing field for much of his career. He is a gifted event organizer and instructor and very active in his community. He is married and lives in New Zealand.

Françoise Taylor

Françoise died at home in Bolton, England, on 24th January 2007 aged 87. Her devoted husband, Kenneth, was by her side.

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The Wauters Family

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This article was written by Kenneth and Françoise Taylor (my parents) in 1986-1990. Wauters is my mother's family name. Her parents were Charles and Jeanne Wauters.

Jeanne Deru (1888-1954)

Françoise's mother, Jeanne Deru, came from Spa and had one sister two years younger, Germaine, who married someone called Basil Burgoyne Brooks during the First World War. Three weeks after the wedding he went to France where a few days later he was killed in action on the Somme on 23rd July 1916. One of Basil's relatives, 'Auntie Mary', lived in Oxford and had a daughter – a spinster – who was a friend and next door neighbour of a Mrs Constable to whom she introduced Françoise and Ken in 1948. When Patrick was born in 1948, Ken and Françoise moved into rooms in Mrs Constable's house, 267 Banbury Road, Oxford, for one year.

Germaine later married someone called Kelly and went to live in Rhodesia, where he had a sheep farm and was known as 'The Rich Kelly'. Germaine was beautiful. They had no children but adopted a boy, Dennis, the son of a wealthy Englishman. During the Second World War Dennis came from Rhodesia as a soldier and stayed with Auntie Mary in Oxford, but has not been heard of since. He is Françoise's only cousin.

Jeanne Deru married Charles Wauters in about 1908. She had a miscarriage of a boy soon, then Jacques in 1910, followed by Jean-Luc, Anne Marie (died at three months from infected milk), Bernadette (1914 Feb), Pierre (1915 Aug), twin girls Monique and Elizabeth (born in Holland where the family went during part of the war, and both died soon after birth when their father was away in Russia on business), Gisbert (born in Holland in 1918), Françoise (born in Bressoux, Liège, 1st Jan 1920), and André (born in Liège, 1921). The family moved from Liège to Brussels in 1924 as Charles, the father, suffered from asthma in Liège.

Charles Wauters (1880-1951)

Charles Wauters was an only child and was born in Liège in 1880, exactly nine months after his parents' wedding. His father went to confession the day after the wedding night, and produced no more children. His father, Fernand Wauters of Liège, was very tall and Françoise remembers that he was very fond of walking. Charles's mother, Victoire (probably of Liège), never made an impression on Françoise. Fernand and Victoire also moved from Liège to Brussels shortly after Françoise's family, and lived at 131 Boulevard Brand Whitlock a few houses away from No. 77. Victoire died in 1930 and Fernand moved to No. 77 to live with Françoise's family, along with a nurse and Armande, the maternal grandmother.

As a boy, Charles was very lonely. He was clever and was sent to his bedroom to study, sometimes in the cold. This decided him to have a large family later. He studied at Liège University, probably Economics, and on leaving was offered three jobs – one to be a bank manager, one as a notary, and one to lecture at the University, which he accepted, becoming Professor Emeritus in (probably) Economics, where he remained until (probably) just before the Second World War.

His Uncle Joseph (the naughty uncle) had started a tannery at Taganrog in South West Russia, in which Charles also had an interest, and which he used to visit regularly up to 1916, travelling there by sea from Belgium during the war. From this he earned a very big income until all was lost in the Russian Revolution in 1917.

In 1914 the family house, then near to Verviers, was used to billet German officers who appropriated Charles's wine cellar – one of them – he being a great connoisseur of wine. The Germans did not find the other cellar. As the Germans became increasingly unpleasant, the family went to live at Zandvoort in Holland until the end of the war. After the war they returned to Belgium to live in a very big house at Bressoux, a suburb of Liège, where Francoise was born and which she still remembers.

Some time later when the family lived in Brussels, Charles Wauters became the Bulgarian Consul in Brussels. At the International Exhibition in Brussels in 1935 he was responsible for the Bulgarian stand.

He was a great believer in travel, although he only spoke French and never drove a car. In 1920 he went to visit the Chateaux de la Loire alone on his bicycle. He went several times to Venice, staying at the Danieli Hotel. He knew a great deal about art and he admired particularly the Flemish School and the Italian Renaissance. He had a special admiration for Turner, for the Pre-Raphaelites, and for Art Nouveau. Among his preferred writers were Stendhal, Flambert, and most of all Proust. He was also a devotee of Ruskin.

He was not an outstanding lover of music except for opera, which he liked very much, including Wagner (but he never mentioned Mozart), therefore Francoise attended an enormous number of operas in Brussels before the war.

Françoise Wauters at school

She had a strange education, starting at a primary school in Rue de Linthout at 5½ – a year early – the primary department of a Sacre Coeur girls' school with boarders. Everything was drab – no music, or paint, or toys, or playing – and a nasty unfeeling nun. At nine or ten in the main school she loved Geography and History. The education was designed to make eligible young ladies of Society and the pupils included the King's sister etc – more stress on posture, curtsying, and good manners, than on mathematics and science. The school was practically next door to her house.

Françoise suffered from decalcification of the bones and teeth, and was sent for nearly a year to an outdoor school – Gai Matin – at Cheziers [Chesières?] in Switzerland (left, Francoise centre), where her younger brother Andre was already a patient pupil, with his leg in plaster due to weak bones. There was very little education, some skiing, much time in the winter lying outside in the cold fresh air – diet included a lot of grated carrots. None of the family visited her for a year, but Francesco, a Roman boy, was very attached and gave her his watch.

On leaving Gai Matin, Françoise's teeth grew perfectly thenceforth. She returned to the form at school which she had left, and having missed a year, found it difficult to keep up with the others. The girls were not allowed to walk in pairs – always 'promenade a trois' – not to address one another as "tu" – always "vous" – no 'liaisons dangereuses'!

Aged about thirteen, her life was transformed by joining the Girl Guides at her Parish Church of St Henri. Here, unlike at school, she was allowed to – and did – make friends, go camping, walking a lot, cycling, study the stars, the birds, the plants, and learn morse etc.

For two terms before leaving the Sacre Coeur school at Rue de Linthout she became a boarder at her own request – for no remembered reason – although the school was across the road from the family house at 77 Boulevard Brand Whitlock.

As told by Françoise in the first person, January 1990

I never made any close friends at Rue Linthout, partly because this was discouraged for 'social reasons' as many of the girls were from the Belgian nobility – the families of Dukes, Counts, and what-not – and partly they did not seem very friendly (despite this, several of them, perhaps fifteen, came to my exhibition at Galerie Racines in 1967 and were very friendly).

In September 1935 when I was fifteen I was sent to the Sacre Coeur School at Blumenthal, where a distant cousin was the Headmistress (a member of the family Nagant, one of whom – Leon – co-invented the Mosin-Nagant rifle). Blumenthal was a German school on Dutch territory which had formerly been German, and was a bus ride from Aachen. All the staff were German Nuns and most of the pupils apart from two or three Dutch, one English, myself, and Josephine Sanchez del Campo – Spanish – who became my friend (and whose son Thomas came to Bolton in the 1960's for six months as a newly qualified doctor). Ginette Devaux (née Levis) was a French Assistante there, and our friendship has continued until the present day, with many family exchanges – she is now 78 (1990).

The German pupils included only one Nazi, all the others being from old German families who had a tradition of sending their daughters to the school on account of its high reputation. At the beginning I knew not a word of German and this was very difficult until eventually I became fluent. I was very happy there and the girls were all very friendly. I painted a lot and enjoyed games, which I seemed to be quite good at. The ball always seemed to arrive where I was!

I became very friendly with Josephine, who was very lonely as she received no news of her family during the Spanish Civil War – one of her brothers was killed and another paralysed. No money came from Spain for her school fees and she was badly treated by the school authorities. For taking her side I was put in solitary confinement for a week. We were told by the staff what the Nazis were doing in Germany, and six months after I left, the school was closed by them at short notice. Despite many friendships, when the Germans invaded Belgium they belonged to the enemy and I threw away all their addresses, which I have always regretted.

On returning to Belgium I went to the Royal Academy of Art in Brussels for four years from from 17 to 21. I had the First Prize for Drawing for each of the first three years, but in the fourth year I only won the Fourth Prize as there was a lot of life model drawing, and I had begun to distort and elongate parts of the body. I received an excellent grounding in learning to draw but there was nothing to stimulate the imagination. I then entered the exam for doing sculpture and was accepted, but my father advised me to do Book Illustration so I enrolled at the National High School of Decorative Arts and Architecture – L'Ecole de la Cambre in Brussels – where I studied for a further four years – obtaining my Diploma in Book Illustration "avec la plus grande distinction et les felicitations du Jury".

At La Cambre, a beautiful old abbey, most of my friends were progressive 'intellectuals' and a lot of them were Communists. I was stimulated to go to concerts, the theatre, and to read enormously. At the start of the second year I felt I was becoming confident in what I was doing, greatly encouraged by my tutor, Joris Minne, the engraver and Book Illustrator.

In 1945 I began to teach art in a girls' school in Antwerp, and during this time I was preparing my work to submit to a Jury in order to receive a Bourse and enter my mastery. I was the first in Belgium to be accepted, and in 1946, just before marriage (left) to Kenneth Taylor (whose Green Howards regimental beret I am wearing), I began working for the Mastery in Book Illustration, which continued in Oxford and then in Bolton until late 1949. For six months Joris Minne refused to look at my drawings because he had disapproved of my getting married. I presented my work in Brussels in October 1949 to a Jury consisting of seven of the main Art Critics in Belgium, and was awarded my Mastery in Book Illustration. The works presented were Malory – 'Le Morte d'Arthur', Coleridge – 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner', Baudelaire – Poem about Cats, Dostoievski – 'The Idiot' and 'The Basement Room', and Aesop's 'Fables'.

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Germaine Brooks

Germaine Brooks (née Deru), sister of my Belgian grandmother, Jeanne Wauters (1888-1954)

See Germaine and Basil »

Charles Wauters & Jeanne Deru

My Belgian grandparents' family tree
2021 approx.

It is not possible to keep up to date with this.

Charles Houben and Elisabeth Lejeune with their family

Photo probably taken in the mid-1890s

My sister Annik has been researching our ancestry, both in the UK and our Belgian side (our mother Françoise née Wauters was Belgian). Annik sent me this picture recently.

The couple sitting in the middle are my great great grandparents on my Belgian great grandmother's side: Charles (Karel) Houben, who came from Horst in the Netherlands, and his wife Elisabeth Lejeune. The woman standing on the left is my great grandmother Joséphine Deru (née Houben) presumably next to her husband Guillaume Alfred Deru. If so, they are the parents of the two little girls on the right of the front row who must be Germaine and Jeanne Deru – Jeanne Deru being our Belgian grandmother (family photo).

To put it another way, in the photo are at least my Belgian grandmother and her sister, their parents and their grandparents on their mother's side. Which leaves three middle-aged adults and a younger adult (the woman sitting in the centre). Joséphine had four brothers. Three are probably pictured: Guillaume Henri (born 1866), Jules (born 1869) and Alfred Guillaume (born 1862). We don't know who the two other women are.

Update from Thomas Philippe, 12/2021: the woman on the right of the photo is Berthe Rosalie Moreau (born 1869 in Cul-des-Sarts, Namur, Belgium). She's Alfred Houben's wife (1863) and the great-daughter of his 5 generation ancestor Thomas PHILIPPE (1816-1876). Her parents are Louis Moreau (1835-1891) and Marie Fedora Philippe (1847-1920).

The woman who is seated is probably Guillaume Houben's wife: Jeanne Léonie Leclerc (1868). The baby is (maybe) their son: Paul Houben (who was born in 1895, May 27th).

Many thanks from Patrick.

Charles Houben, painter

Joséphine also had a brother called Charles (1871–1931), a post-impressionist painter who was quite well-known in the 1920s. He was a son of Charles (Karel) Houben (in the photo above) and our mother's great uncle. Charles studied painting and sculpture in Liège then architecture in Brussels, where his studio was built in 1924 at 20 rue Alphonse Renard. It is now part of the city's architectural heritage. Charles Houben the painter (pictured) married Jane Kufferath, a violinist and the daughter of Maurice Kufferath, also a violinist and director of the La Monnaie theatre, now the National Opera of Belgium.