[2] He went to secondary school in Turnhout and Herentals before entering the Major Seminary in Mechelen in 1897.
He was ordained to the priesthood on 20 September 1902 and studied at the Catholic University of Leuven, graduating with a doctorate in Germanic Philology on 17 July 1906.
[2] From 1912 he taught English literature at Leuven University, but spending much of the First World War in Brussels, teaching English at an evening school in Jette and studying the archive of the Old University of Leuven in the National Archives of Belgium.
[2] In 1930 he undertook a study tour of libraries and archives in Germany, Scandinavia and Switzerland, and in 1931 in Poland.
In June 1958 he was appointed a domestic prelate by Pope Pius XII.