Bishop Servaas de Quinckere: Portrait in A. Sanderus, Flandria Illustrata, 1641-1644
Servaas de Quinckere (Bruges, April 6, 1569 - March 3, 1639) was the seventh bishop of Bruges. Lifecycle
Servaas De Quinckere was the oldest son of the carpenter Jacob de Quinckere († 1581) and of Margriete de Mol († 1575). He had another brother and two sisters. The family lived in the modest house that the couple owned in the Little Saint-Geeststraat.
He became angry with his scorn and godliness, so that he could study farmer at the expense of his pastor. During the Calvinist regime in Bruges (1578-1584) he studied secondary studies, probably with clergy who had remained clandestine in the city. In 1585 he was in poetry. He obtained his licentiate in theology in Leuven in 1594. The year before, he was devoted to the priest in this city.
In 1593, immediately after his priesthood ceremony, he became a canonist in the chapter of the Our Lady Church in Bruges and in 1596 he graduated in the chapter of the St. Donald's Cathedral. He then led a busy life and was (simultaneous or sequential): Bishop of Bruges
The Quinckere was 61 when he was appointed bishop of Brugge. He took the motto 'Benedicam Dominum in omni tempore'. (I praise the Lord at all times).
He immediately initiated a thorough reform of the entire diocese, in the spirit of the Council of Trent. He went on doing so rigidly and with a striking lack of tact, so he got a lot of enemies on the throat, both among the clergy and among the civilian population. His first actions deployed toward the clergy, which he wanted to talk about and worthy. If conditions had grown shaky, he did not hesitate to act decisively. Thus he simply scrapped the seminar, which consisted of all kinds of complaints. When the lower officials of his administration of corruption were accused, he simply thanked them.
How strict he also kept the rules, he did not stay unaware himself. In repetition, he was accused by the nuntius and also by the Archbishop of Mechelen in Rome because he had a relationship with his housekeeper Anne De Latere. Literature
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