The monks of Mechelen were Minorite Friars, a humble order which was critical of the corruption of the established church, so much so that over the years its members had been harassed, excommunicated and burned at the stake.
[5] They were undoubtedly under suspicion by the hard-line Inquisitors of Louvain University, men such as Ruard Tapper who said of heretics, "It is no great matter whether those that die on this account be guilty or innocent, provided we terrify the people by these examples; which generally succeeds best, when persons eminent for learning, riches, nobility or high stations, are thus sacrificed.
It was possibly a unique construction for nothing has survived, but Monachus described its use in a 1524 letter from Antwerp to his patron, entitled De Orbis Situ ac descriptione ad Reverendiss.
('A very exquisite letter from Francis, a monk of the Franciscan order, to the most reverend Archbishop of Palermo, touching the site and description of the globe'.
[12] The Archbishop of Palermo was Jean Carondelet (nl:Jan II Carondelet) a Burgundian cleric, politician, jurist and one of the most important advisors to the Habsburg rulers, Philip I and his son Charles V. Such connections ensured his rapid advancement in the church hierarchy and the award of rich benefices such as the archbishopric was simply a financial perquisite.
[16] As noted by Jan Denucé, a fairly faithful image of the lost globe probably exists in Oronce Fine's map of 1531, which reflected the views of Monachus.
Indeed it is conjectured and argued that vast and extensive regions and islands lie there, but because of the distances between places and the infertile nature of the soil, they are less frequented.
In 1528, Monachus presented Carondelet a geographical globe which implied that the anti-meridian of the Tordesillas dividing line would clearly put the Moluccas in the Spanish hemisphere.