RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Common Life
distmguished from the occasional particular chapter for the discussion of the affairs of the community) was to be held at least once a week. First the youngest brother was to kneel in the midst and accuse himself of any breaches of the statutes or customs of the house; but (with the sober common sense which characterized all the regulations) he was not to presume to go beyond two. Having asked pardon for his faults, accepted the penalty imposed by the rector, and promised amendment, he returned to his place and the next in order followed. If the penalty of expulsion were inflicted, in case of a grave offense, such as heresy, immorality, or theft, the rector decided how much the offender might take with him in addition to his clothes, which were always allowed. Besides these domestic gatherings, there were yearly meetings of representatives of a group of related houses. These, with the visitations, formed a means of keeping up an essentially united spirit in the everincreasing circle of communities; they were instituted soon after the death of Florentius, and took place on Low Sunday, first at ZwoUe and then in different places, such as Groningen, Hertogenbosch, and Emmerich.
At the very foundation of the whole life lay the moderna devotio, daily progress in communion with God, out of a spirit of love and a pure heart. The means to this were the knowledge of self, the continual struggle to conquer the baser desires, to abase pride, to despise temporal things, to break down self-will. To this end were directed all their spiritual exercises, their early rising
11. The and their hard work, their speech and "Modern their silence, their submissive obedi- Devotion." ence. The man who asked to be
received into the brotherhood could not but know that he " desired a good work." That was the purpose of the care shown in admitting new members, the time of probation, the oversight of the novice-master, before they could be added to the list of the " perpetual " or " canonical " brothers.
The life of each day was strictly organized. The bell rang at three each morning, and at half-past three all must be ready to rise and offer the firstfruits of the day to God in prayer and meditation. From that hour until nine at night, when the brothers went to bed, every hour (with the exception of the periods for meals and recreation) was divided between work and spiritual exercises. The work was varied; the educated clerics spent a good deal of time in copying manuscripts, and many of the laymen learned the art from them, but there were all kinds of other tasks. Humil-
12. Daily ity was especially insisted upon; it Life. was common for the Brethren to confess their sins not only to a priest but
to each other, a custom which gave rise among outsiders to a suspicion of their orthodoxy. The spirit of submission in which they were taught to accept reproof and chastisement from superiors was shown also in the patient bearing of sickness or suffering. A regular feature of the life was the collationes or conferences — edifying discourses, frequently diversified by question and answer, or
taking the form of a dialogue for a longer time. These were of two classes, one destined for outsiders to whom on Sundays and holidays the doors of the house were open, and always in the vernacular, the other taking place daily among the inmates of the house at the time of their midday or evening meal (the name probably coming from the use of the word collatio in the sense of a common meal).
The life of the Brethren could never, as has been seen, have been a luxurious one; but its ordinary limitations did not suffice the devotion of some, who attempted to strengthen themselves still further against temptation and increase their power of despising temporal things by accustoming themselves to specially poor and distasteful food, or by wearing a torturing hair-shirt. If they found their health was being injured by these austerities, they thought of some other way to practise mortification and abandoned what had proved excessive — though this exercise of common sense, in the spirit
of the time and especially of the relig- 13. Tend- ious life of the time, was frequently ency to As- justified by an appeal to some vision ceticism. or revelation. The spiritual life of the
Brethren was largely nourished on Holy Scripture, to the study of which a special section is devoted both in the Herford statutes and in the Reformatorium vitce clericorum. The quiet morning hours were consecrated to this, and all unnecessary running about was accordingly forbidden. Systematic meditation on spiritual things was another feature; each day had its special subject— Sunday the kingdom of heaven, Monday death, Tuesday the mercies of God, Wednesday the last judgment, Thursday the pains of hell, Friday the sufferings of Christ (which they were also to contemplate during mass), and Saturday their sins. From this practise arose many little books of written meditations, some of which, like the various Specula {monachorum, Bernardi, peccatorum), enjoyed wide popularity.
Among the great variety of trades and occupations by which the Brethren sought to provide for their own subsistence, and at the same time to have enough left over for works of charity, that of copying manuscripts held an important place. Florentius had specially commended it to his immediate associates, who were principally clerics, as the most becoming for them; and the increasing practise of it became a permanent blessing to the Christian world. A large number of manuscripts are still
extant, in private and public collections 14. The of Holland and Belgium especially. Copying of which were written in the houses of Manu- the Brethren. Those most frequently scripts. selected were liturgical books, the
Vulgate, the Fathers, and works of spiritual edification. They had the custom also of compiling collections of the most striking passages from the books they read or copied, sometimes with the addition of reflections by the compiler. These anthologies (rapiaria) are not always written throughout by the same hand. Perhaps the work was taken up by another after the death of the first compiler, or several small collections were fused into one. The most diverse authors are met with
Common Life Common Prayer