THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
the freedman Eclectus and remained at the court of Pertinax. "When he in turn, together with Eclectus, had been murdered by the prctorian guards, the new Emperor Didius Julianus, yielding to their demands, ordered Marcia's execution.
Victor Schultze.
Bibliography: B. Aube, Les Chretiens dans V empire Romain, pp. 1 sqq., Paris, 1881; T. Keim, Rom und das Christentum, pp. 634 sqq., Berlin, 1881; H. Schiller, Geschichte der riimischen Kaiserzeit, I. ii. 660 sqq., Gotha, 1883; Neander, Christian Church, vol. i. passim; Moeller, Christian Church, i. 166; Schaff, Christian Church, ii. 56; DCB, i. 611.
COMMON LIFE, BRETHREN OF THE.
Geert Groote. The First Community (§1).
Busch's Account Inaccurate (§ 2).
The Life of the Brethren an Active One (§ 3).
Prejudice and Opposition (§ 4).
Characteristic Features (§ 5).
The Various Houses (§ 6).
The Houses for Women (§ 7).
Different Names (§ 8).
Dress (§ 9).
Organization and Discipline (§ 10).
The " Modern Devotion " (§ 11).
Daily Life (§ 12).
Tendency to Asceticism (§ 13).
The Copying of Manuscripts (§ 14).
Their Influence and Importance (§ 15).
Their Limitations (§ 16).
Their Influence on Education, Literature, and Art (§17).
The Brethren of the Common Life (Fratres communis vitce) were a religious association of a semimonastic nature which flourished in the transition period between the Middle Ages and the Reformation. It dates from the second half of the fourteenth century, when the northern Netherlands were the scene of constant conflicts of the nobility among themselves, with their vassals, and with the towns, which had notably increased in wealth and power since the Crusades. This increase in power had given rise to a lively interest in political, social, and ecclesiastical questions, and the growing love of liberty had shown itself in a wide-spread antagonism to the clergy, which was fostered by the development of scientific study, and still more by the mysticism which was then so popular, in contrast with the hard and unbending scholasticism of an earlier period. Two men especially represented this warmer and more earnest religious feeling — Jan van Ruysbroeck (q.v.), a priest of Brabant, and Geert Groote (q.v.), a citizen of Deventer, who was the founder not only of the influential congregation of Windesheim (q.v.) and the monastic reform that proceeded from it, but also of the Brethren of the Common Life.
Groote makes his appearance in the time of the great "Western Schism (see Schism) and of the " Babylonish exile " of the popes (see Avignon). By the counsel of Ruysbroeck, then eighty-four years old, and with the bishop's license, he began to preach repentance throughout the
I. Geert diocese of Utrecht. Crowds flocked to Groote. The hear him from all classes, at Deven- First Com- ter, ZwoUe, Leyden, Delft, Gouda, and munity. Amsterdam. But when he attacked the sins of the clergy and the lazy beggary of the monks the bishop forbade his preaching after four years, and he retired to his native town of Deventer. Here he matured his
plan, already conceived, for enabling those who had been converted to a pious Christian life to carry out I)ractically their desire for perfection. He gathered a few friends around him, who regarded him as their head until his death, after which the leadership was taken up by Florentius Radewyns (q.v.). It was not originally a quasimonastic community separated from the world, with a definite system of common life and work. This is evident from the fact that several of Groote's friends, such as Jan Brinckerinck (q.v.), belonged to the circle without deserting their own monastic associations. It was only after the founder's death that the community was shaped by Florentius in a direction that promised greater stability and growth.
This view, as put forth and justified by Gerretsen in his biography of Florentius (Nymwegen, 1891), differs in not a few important particulars from that previously held by such writers as Acquoy, Hirsche, and Grube. According to their view, which rests mainly on the Liber de origine devotionis modernce by Jan Busch (q.v.), Groote sought to create a better type of clergy by educational influence upon the young, and supported many poor students at the cathedral school of Deventer by giving them manuscripts to copy for his library. After a while he handed over the care, both temporal and spiritual, of these youths to his younger friend Florentius, who took them into his own house and had them work under his direction. Then one day, according to Busch's account, Florentius suggested that it would be more economical, as times were hard, if they should all combine their resources and live in common. Groote at first feared that the jealousy of the mendicant orders would be aroused, but finally bade him go on in the name of the Lord.
Busch, however, reads into the earliest history the practise of later times, which even then was casual and not of primary importance. It 2. Busch's is true that Groote, and still more Account In- Florentius, cared for poor scholars;
accurate, but these were not a part of the brotherhood, and left when their education was completed. There are other inaccuracies in Busch's account. Relating that Groote on his death-bed answered the question of his adherents by saying that Florentius should be their head, he understands this of the Deventer house and brothers, while it is clear that Groote meant the movement as a whole. The final choice of a head for the Deventer house was long delayed; the deed for its purchase in 1391 indicates a joint rule by Florentius, Brinckerinck, and Gronde, and Florentius was not made sole head until later — probably between 1391 and 1396, by which time a more definite organization had been rendered necessary not only by the growth of the brotherhood and the foundation of new houses, but as a means of protection against external attacks. As long as Groote lived his influence was a sufficient shield for his converts; but soon after his death so great hostility showed itself among the citizens that the Brethren scarcely dared to appear in the streets, and a municipal official converted by Groote was obhged to interpose. Yet Florentius succeeded in carrying on the work — at first in his own presby-