His approach was to reform the recruitment and education of the clergy, along very ascetic lines, heavily influenced by the hermit saint Francis of Paola.

He was born in Mechelen (at that time part of the Burgundian Netherlands) into extremely humble circumstances, the son of a poor cobbler.

He received his early education there but quickly transferred to Gouda, where the Brothers of the Common Life ran a famous school along monastic lines.

The education he received from the Brothers was a traditional Medieval one, including Grammar and Logic, conducted during long days, interrupted by religious devotions, and accompanied by frugal meals, cold beds and many punishments.

However, the ancient writers were not neglected—Virgil, Ovid, Horace, Cicero and Cato were much studied with a view to producing a good Latin style and many moral messages.

Jan paid for his studies, as many poor boys did, by serving in the kitchen, or attending to richer students, and performing menial tasks, such as ringing the bell.

According to the anonymous monk who was his first biographer (1519), he could not afford candles, so he read, after a hard day, high up in the bell tower by the light of the moon.

He never managed to develop a good Latin style—it was apparently always rough and full of mistakes—and he knew nothing of the Greek that was kindling the enthusiasm of so many of his contemporaries, but he never lost his love of the severe religious life learned at Gouda.

This was St Francis of Paola, founder of the Minims, who had given up all possessions, (he had walked to France from Italy), including the personal use of money, and subjected himself to severe privations in terms of food, clothing, cleanliness, heat and bedding.

He was more interested in the practical means of salvation—in his terms, a return to poverty and complete self-denial—and these he preached, in a Flemish accent, but in powerful French.

There should be free election (by fit and proper priests) of their bishops, or monks of their abbots, and all other religious positions (including teachers at the University).

In the following year, he asked the monks of Chartreux to oversee the spiritual welfare of his college, which he had set on a firmer footing, with regular rules, approved by the Chapter of Notre Dame Cathedral.

In 1498, king Manuel I of Portugal complained officially to France for the sale of Portuguese merchandise taken by French corsairs via Admiral Graville.

His message of a reformed clergy was in great demand (though he had to call for armed help from the Admiral's men to evict an Augustinian friar from the pulpit at Abbéville).

On 3 June 1496 he pushed the priest serving Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral and scattered the Hosts from the chalice before stamping all over them and declaring the idea of the real presence of Christ in them to be a superstition.

He was ceremoniously stripped of his priesthood in front of Notre Dame, and the public executioner chopped off the hand that had offensively touched the sacred chalice.

The demands for his services were so much that he had to go for help to the Brothers of the Common Life of Windesheim in the Netherlands, who agreed to send him six priests, led by Jean de Bruxelles, and including an interpreter.

The following year he got one vote in the election for Archbishop of Rheims and Jan was persuaded to use this as a challenge to the dubious methods used by the winner, the candidate of the King.

To consolidate his position, Louis divorced his wife, Jeanne, and married the widow, Queen Anne, of the late King, who had been his nephew.

He handed over direction of the College to Noël Béda and John Mair and set off to Cambrai in his native Flanders, where he was welcomed by the Bishop.

He used the time in exile to continue preaching and he founded schools, based on the rule of the Collège de Montaigu in various towns, including his hometown of Mechlin, Breda and his old University of Leuven.

There is no doubting the tremendous influence of Standonck at the time and the college founded was for centuries one of the most prestigious in the world, producing scholars and ardent reformers of all camps, including Béda, John Mair, Erasmus and later Calvin and Loyola.