Sisters and Brothers of the Common Life: The Devotio Moderna and the World of the Later Middle Ages (The Middle Ages Series)

The Devotio Moderna, or Modern Devout, puzzled their contemporaries. Beginning in the 1380s in market towns along the Ijssel River of the east-central Netherlands and in the county of Holland, they formed households organized as communes and forged lives centered on private devotion. They lived on city streets alongside their neighbors, managed properties and rents in common, and worked in the textile and book trades, all the while refusing to profess vows as members of any religious order or to acquire spouses and personal property as lay citizens. They defended their self-designed style of life as exemplary and sustained it in the face of opposition, their women labeled "beguines" and their men "lollards," both meant as derogatory terms. Yet the movement grew, drawing in women and schoolboys, priests and laymen, and spreading outward toward Münster, Flanders, and Cologne. The Devout were arguably more culturally significant than the Lollards and Beguines, yet they have commanded far less scholarly attention in English. John Van Engen's magisterial book keeps the Modern Devout at its center and thinks through their story anew. Few interpreters have read the Devout so insistently within their own time and space by looking to the social and religious conditions that marked towns and parishes in northern Europe during the fifteenth century and examining the widespread upheavals in cultural and religious life between the 1370s and the 1440s. In 'Sisters and Brothers of the Common Life', Van Engen grasps the Devout in their humanity, communities, and beliefs, and places them firmly within the urban societies of the Low Countries and the cultures we call late medieval. Cover 1 Title Page 5 Copyright Page 6 Dedication Page 7 Table of Contents 9 List of Illustrations 13 Introduction: The Devotio Moderna and Modern History 15 Chapter 1: Converts in the Middle Ages 25 Conversion as a Medieval Form of Life 28 Converts in the Low Countries 33 Circles of Converts at Strassburg and Brussels 42 Converts under Suspicion: Legislating against Beguines and Free Spirits 51 Chapter 2: Modern-Day Converts in the Low Countries 59 The Low Countries 62 Households of Devout Women 69 Societies of Devout Women 83 Modern-Day Conversion 89 Chapter 3: Suspicion and Inquisition 98 Suspicion of Devout Practices 100 Charge and Counter-Charge in the Mid-1390s 105 Sisters under Inquisition, 1396–1397: Friar Eylard Schoneveld Intervenes 117 Resisting the Inquisitor: Legal Tactics 121 Awaiting the Bishop’s Decision, 1398–1401 129 Chapter 4: From Converts to Communities: Tertiaries, Sisters, Brothers, Schoolboys, Canons 133 Tertiaries ‘‘Living the Common Life’’ 135 Sisters of the Common Life 139 Brothers of the Common Life 151 Schoolboys 158 Windesheim Canons and Canonesses 168 An Option for Enclosure: Male Canons and Female Tertiaries 171 Chapter 5: Inventing a Communal Household: Goods, Customs, Labor, and ‘‘Republican’’ Harmony 176 Living Together without Personal Property 179 House Customs and Personal Exercises 190 Obedience and Humility in a Voluntary Community 196 Labor: Living from the Work of their Own Hands 202 Communal Gatherings and a ‘‘Republican’’ Impulse 207 Chapter 6: Defending the Modern-Day Devout: Expansion under Scrutiny 214 Women’s Houses and Converting Schoolboys: Burgher Critics at Zwolle 216 Friar Matthew Grabow and the Council of Constance 226 The Sisters and the Aldermen in Conflict at Deventer: The Women’s Narrative 232 Institutionalizing under Scrutiny 238 Chapter 7: Proposing a Theological Rationale: The Freedom of the ‘‘Christian Religion’’ 252 Place in Society: Taking on the ‘‘Estate of the Perfect’’ 254 John Pupper of Goch (d. 1475) 264 Gospel Law and the Freedom of the Christian Religion 271 Chapter 8: Taking the Spiritual Offensive: Caring for the Self, Examining the Soul, Progressing in Virtue 280 Reading, Writing, and the Lay Tongue 283 Exhortation in Public and Correction in Private 295 Spiritual Guidance and Mutual Reproof 302 Modern-Day Devotion: Examining the Self, Making Progress, Experiencing Peace 308 Conclusion: Private Gatherings and Self-Made Societies in the Fifteenth Century 319 The Question of an Afterlife 329 Notes 335 Bibliography 403 Index 431 Acknowledgments 445

The Devotio Moderna, or Modern Devout, puzzled their contemporaries. Beginning in the 1380s in market towns along the Ijssel River of the east-central Netherlands and in the county of Holland, they formed households organized as communes and forged lives centered on private devotion. They lived on city streets alongside their neighbors, managed properties and rents in common, and worked in the textile and book trades, all the while refusing to profess vows as members of any religious order or to acquire spouses and personal property as lay citizens. They defended their self-designed style of life as exemplary and sustained it in the face of opposition, their women labeled "beguines" and their men "lollards," both meant as derogatory terms. Yet the movement grew, drawing in women and schoolboys, priests and laymen, and spreading outward toward Münster, Flanders, and Cologne.

The Devout were arguably more culturally significant than the Lollards and Beguines, yet they have commanded far less scholarly attention in English. John Van Engen's magisterial book keeps the Modern Devout at its center and thinks through their story anew. Few interpreters have read the Devout so insistently within their own time and space by looking to the social and religious conditions that marked towns and parishes in northern Europe during the fifteenth century and examining the widespread upheavals in cultural and religious life between the 1370s and the 1440s. In Sisters and Brothers of the Common Life, Van Engen grasps the Devout in their humanity, communities, and beliefs, and places them firmly within the urban societies of the Low Countries and the cultures we call late medieval.

"The Devotio moderna, or Modern Devout, puzzled their contemporaries. Beginning in the 1380s in market towns along the Ijssel River of the east-central Netherlands and in the county of Holland, they formed households organized as communes and forged lives centered on private devotion. They defended their self-designed style of life as exemplary and sustained it in the face of opposition, their women labeled "beguines" and their men "lollards," both meant as derogatory terms. Yet the movement grew, drawing in women and schoolboys, priests and laymen, and spreading outward toward Minister, Flanders, and Cologne." "The Devout were arguably more culturally significant than the Lollards and Beguines, yet they have commanded far less scholarly attention in English. John Van Engen's magisterial book keeps the Modern Devout at its center and thinks through their story anew. Few interpreters have read the Devout so insistently within their own time and space by looking to the social and religious conditions that marked towns and parishes in northern Europe during the fifteenth century and examining the widespread upheavals in cultural and religious life between the 1370s and the 1440s. In Sisters and Brothers of the Common Life, Van Engen grasps the Devout in their humanity, communities, and beliefs, and places them firmly within the urban societies of the Low Countries and the cultures we call late medieval."--Jacket

john Van Engen Studies The Devotio Moderna, Or Modern Devout, Within Their Own Time And Space, The Social And Religious Conditions That Marked Towns And Parishes In Northern Europe During The Fifteenth Century, And Their Challenge To Received Notions Of Religion Within The Widespread Upheavals In Cultural And Religious Life Of The Period.

Beginning in the 1380s in the east-central Netherlands and in the county of Holland, the Devotio Moderna formed households organized as communes and forged lives centred on private devotion. This book places the movement in the context of urban society in the medieval Low Countries