RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Common Life
rery, and when that grew too small in a rented bouse near-by, exchanged in 1391 for another which bad been inhabited by a community of pious women.
But even after the organization had crystallized still further there remained a fundamental difference between it and the Windesheim congregation. Both institutions sprang from the same spirit of "modern devotion"; but while some thought they could preserve this spirit only in the monasteries where they knew it to prevail, the Brethren of the Common Life felt called to help on the spread of that spirit by preaching to the people, by caring for the education of the young and
3. The Life especially those who were to be priests, of the and by the mighty influence of a godly
Brethren an life lived in the world. The asso- Active One. ciations of serious pious men which
thus began to spring up in various places, followed by the foundation of houses for the community life of women, had features of novelty which excited attention and not infrequently disapproval. As a loose and informal association, the Brethren were classed by many with the Beghards and Beguinos (see Beghards),
and thus fell under suspicion of heresy;
4. Prejudice as communities somewhat resembling and Oppo- the monastic orders, they incurred the
sition. jealousy of the latter, especially of the mendicants by the very difference that they did not beg but worked for their living; as communities of workingmen, again, they were regarded as competitors by the ordinary workingmen and women. It was some time, therefore, before they could secure general permission for the formation of their communities and the acquisition of land. Formal opinions as to the lawfulness of their position were frequently sought from the authorities, both by their friends and by their enemies. The most important of these opinions is the unprejudiced and favorable one pronounced in 1393 by Abbot Arnold of the Benedictine abbey of Dickeninge,,in the province of Drenthe (Holland), and now extant in the Royal Library of The Hague. With this may be classed another procured by the Brethren from the law faculty of the new University of Cologne, when the first was not accepted by their opponent Matthias Grabow, who had asked for it. According to both the following seem to have been regarded as the characteristic features of the new organization: (1) They wished to live a common life extra religionem ; that is, without taking the ordinary monastic vows. (2) 5- Charac- They lived by their work, rejecting teristic mendicancy. (3) They lived in com- Features. muni, men and women separately and thus without marriage, sharing freely with each other, so as to gain the advantage of mutual influence and brotherly exhortations. (4) They rendered voluntary obedience, not conditioned by a vow, to a leader chosen from their brotherhood. (5) They edified each other and people outside by the reading of the Scriptures in the vernacular. Of these points, what principally struck people in general was their living in common, whence their name; but their living thus without monastic vows was what seemed to the older relig-
ious communities dangerous, and was the chief ground of the attacks upon them up to the Council of Constance. But if they differed from the monks in feeling it unnecessary to leave the world and bind themselves by solemn vows, they had many of the characteristics of the monastic life — obedience, absolute while it lasted though not irrevocable, celibacy, poverty in the sense of common ownership; and they only seemed to stand in contrast with it because so many monasteries had fallen away from their original principles.
Nor had either founders or followers any idea of departing from the teaching of the Church. What they strove for was an ever-increasing reformation in life — the life of the Church and the life of the world. The statutes of their houses show plainly enough what was the main thing in their minds. Those of the community at Herford may be quoted: " For the promotion of our souls' salvation, as well as for the edification of our neighbor in the purity of the true Christian faith and the unity of our Mother the holy Christian Church, we will and intend to live a pure life, in harmony and community, by the work of our own hands, in true Christian religion and the service of God. We purpose to live a life of moderation, without beggary; to render obedience with reverence to our superiors; to wear a humble and simple habit; diligently to observe the canons of the holy Fathers, in so far as they are of profit; diligently to apply ourselves to the virtues and other holy exercises and studies; and not alone to live a blameless life, but to give a good pattern and example to other men."
The mother house of Deventer has an interesting history, extending to 1574; here Erasmus was a student for several years, and learned Greek from the distinguished scholar Synthis (Sinder). The next in age and importance, that of Zwolle, also founded by Groote himself, was governed with wisdom and energy from 1407 to 1456 by Diderik van Herxen, a writer of note, who made it a center of colonization. It held together 6. The until 1590. Thomas k Kempis and Various Jan Busch both probably taught in Houses, the school here, and were certainly inmates of the house, as was Wessel, the most significant precursor of the Reformation. Hoorn (1385) and Ammersfoort (1395) were the only other foundations in the lifetime of Florentius. Of importance for the history of the movement in the northern provinces where it originated are Delft (1403), Hulsbergen (1407), Gouda, Hertogenbosch, and Doesburg (1425), Utrecht (1474), and Nymwegen (1592). In the southern Netherlands Liege was the first town to receive a colony of the Brethren, and was followed by Louvain, Ghent, Brussels, probably Antwerp, Mechlin, and Cambrai. The earliest settlements in Germany were due to the labors of Heinrich von Ahaus (q.v.), who founded the three most famous German houses, those of Munster, Cologne, and Wesel, of which the second lasted on until its secularization by the French in 1802, and has an interesting connection with the early history of printing. Others were early founded at Osnabruck, Emmerich, Treves,
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