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The Brethren of the Common Life was a religious community founded in the 14th century by Gerard Groote, formerly a successful and worldly educator who had had a religious experience and preached a life of simple devotion. A small band of followers attached themselves to Groote and became his fellow-workers, thus becoming the first "Brethren of the Common Life". The reformer, of course, was opposed by the clergy whose evil lives he denounced, but the cry of heresy was raised in vain against one who was as zealous for purity of faith as for purity of morals. The best of the secular clergy enrolled themselves in his brotherhood, which in due course was approved by the Pope. Groote, however, did not live long enough to finish the work he had begun. He died in 1384, and was succeeded by Florence Radewyns , who two years later founded the famous monastery of Windesheim which was thenceforth the centre of the new association. The Confraternity of the Common Life resembled in several respects the Beghard and Beguine communities which had flourished two centuries earlier and were then decadent. The members took no vows, neither asked nor received alms; their first aim was to cultivate the interior life, and they worked for their daily bread. The houses of the brothers and sisters occupied themselves exclusively with literature and education, and priests also with preaching. When Groote began, learning in the Netherlands was rare; the University of Louvain had not yet been founded, and the fame of the schools of Liège was only a memory. Apart from some of the clergy who had studied at Paris or Cologne, there were no scholars in the land; even amongst the higher clergy there were many who were ignorant of Latin, and the burgher was quite content if when his children left school they were able to read and write.
Groote determined to change all this, and his disciples accomplished much. Through their unflagging toil in the scriptorium and afterwards at the press they were able to multiply their spiritual writings and to publish them widely. Amongst them are to be found the choicest flowers of fifteenth-century Flemish prose. The Brethren spared no pains to obtain good masters, if necessary from foreign parts, for their schools, which became centres of spiritual and intellectual life; amongst those whom they trained or who were associated with them were men like Thomas à Kempis, Dierick Maertens , Gabriel Biel , and the Dutch Pope Adrian VI.
Before the fifteenth century closed, the Brethren of the Common Life had placed in all Germany and the Netherlands schools in which the teaching was given for the love of God alone.
Gradually the course, at first elementary, embraced the humanities, philosophy, and theology. The religious orders looked askance at these Brethren, who were neither monks nor friars, but the Brethren found protectors in Pope Eugenius IV, Pope Pius II, and Pope Sixtus IVSixtus IV born Francesco della Rovere ( July 21, 1414 August 12, 1484) was Pope from 1471 to 1484, essentially a Renaissance prince, the Sixtus of the Sistine Chapel where the team of artists he brought together introduced the Early Renaissance to Rome wi. The great Cardinal Nicholas of CusaNicholas of Cusa (ca. 1400 August 11, 1464) was a cardinal of the Catholic Church, a philosopher, and an astronomer. He was born in Kues, Germany (hence "of Cusa") to a merchant family, and received his doctorate in canon law from the University of Padua had been their pupil and became their stanch protector and benefactor. He was likewise the patron of Rudolph Agricola, who in his youth at ZwolleZwolle is a municipality and the capital city of the province of Overijssel, Netherlands, 50 miles northeast of Amsterdam. Zwolle has about 110,000 citizens and is one of the most important cities in the northern and eastern parts of the country. History had studied under Thomas à Kempis; and so the Brethren of the Common Life, through Cusa and Agricola, influenced ErasmusThis article deals with the Erasmus, the theologian. For other meanings, see Erasmus (disambiguation). Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (also Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam ( October 27, probably 1466 July 12, 1536) was a Dutch humanist and theologian. and other adepts in the New Learning. More than half of the crowded schools -- in 1500Events Europe's population was ~60 million. Spielvogel January 5 Duke Ludovico Sforza recaptures Milan, but is soon driven out again by the French. April 22 Portuguese navigator Pedro Alvares Cabral officially discovers Brazil and claims the land for Port, DeventerDeventer is a municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands in the province of Overijssel on the east bank of the IJssel river. Population centres Deventer Colmschate Diepenveen Lettele Okkenbroek Schalkhaar The city of Deventer Deventer was probably had over two thousand students -- were swept away in the religious troubles of the sixteenth century. Others languished until the French Revolution, while the rise of universities, the creation of diocesan seminaries, and the competition of new teaching orders gradually extinguished the schools that regarded Deventer and Windesheim as their parent establishments.
Christian history
Roman Catholic Church History
