[1] He was educated at the junior seminary in Sint-Truiden and studied Philosophy at the Facultés Notre-Dame de la Paix in Namur preparatory to undertaking a law degree at Ghent University.
In Paris he frequented the salon of Monseigneur d'Hulst and met Georges Rodenbach, Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, Paul Verlaine and Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam.
He took part in the Catholic Congress in Mechelen in 1891, and cofounded the magazine Le Drapeau, as well as writing for the Christian democrat L'Avenir Social.
With the German occupation of Belgium during World War I, he wrote and lectured in favour of the Belgian cause in Egypt and Greece, where he was involved in the Armistice of Salonica.
He retired in 1929 and returned to Belgium, where he joined the board of Belgian national radio and the Revue Générale, and continued to write for newspapers, now under the pen name "Un Catholique indépendant".