Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

BROTHERS OF COMMON LIFE

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 652 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

BROTHERS OF See also:COMMON See also:LIFE , a religious community formerly existing in the See also:Catholic See also:Church. Towards the end of his career See also:Gerhard See also:Groot (q.v.) retired to his native See also:town of See also:Deventer, in the See also:province of Overyssel and the See also:diocese of See also:Utrecht, and gathered around him a number of those who had been " converted " by his See also:preaching or wished to See also:place them-selves under his spiritual guidance. With the assistance of Florentius Radewyn, who resigned for the purpose a canonry at Utrecht, he was able to carry out a See also:long-cherished See also:idea of establishing a See also:house wherein devout men might live in community without the monastic vows. The first such community was established at Deventer in the house of Florentius himself (c. 1380); and See also:Thomas a Kempis, who lived in it from 1392 to 1399, has See also:left a description of the manner of life pursued: " They humbly imitated the manner of the Apostolic life, and having one See also:heart and mind in See also:God, brought every See also:man what was his own into the common stock, and receiving See also:simple See also:food and clothing avoided taking thought for the morrow. Of their own will they devoted themselves to God, and all busied them-selves in obeying their See also:rector or his See also:vicar. . . . They laboured care-fully in copying books, being instant continually in sacred study and devout meditation. In the See also:morning having said See also:Matins, they went to the church (for See also:Mass). . . . Some who were priests and were learned in the divine See also:law preached earnestly in the church." Other houses of the Brothers of Common Life, otherwise called the " See also:Modern Devotion," were in rapid See also:succession established in the See also:chief cities of the See also:Low Countries and See also:north and central See also:Germany, so that there were in all upwards of See also:forty houses of men; while those of See also:women doubled that figure, the first having been founded by Groot himself at Deventer. The ground-idea was to reproduce the life of the first Christians as described in Acts iv.

The members took no vows and were See also:

free to leave when they See also:chose; but so long as they remained they were See also:bound to observe chastity, to practise See also:personal poverty, putting all their See also:money and earnings into the common fund, to obey the rules of the house and the commands of the rector, and to exercise themselves in self-denial, humility and piety. The rector was chosen by the community and was not necessarily a See also:priest, though in each house there were a few priests and clerics. The See also:majority, however, were laymen, of all kinds and degrees—nobles, artisans, scholars, students, labouring men. The clerics preached and instructed the See also:people, working chiefly among the poor; they also devoted themselves to the copying of See also:manuscripts, in See also:order thereby to See also:earn something for the common fund; and some of them taught in the See also:schools. Of the laymen, the educated copied manuscripts, the others worked at various handicrafts or at See also:agriculture. After the religious services of the morning the Brothers scattered for the See also:day's See also:work, the artisans going to the workshops in the See also:city,—for the idea was to live and work in the See also:world, and not separated from it, like the monks. Their See also:rule was that they had to earn their livelihood,, and must not beg. This feature seemed a reflection on the mendicant orders, and the idea of a community life without vows and not in See also:isolation from everyday life, was looked upon as something new and See also:strange, and even as bearing See also:affinities to the Beghards and other sects, at that See also:time causing trouble to both Church and See also:state. And so opposition arose to the Modern Devotion, and the controversy was carried to the legal See also:faculty at See also:Cologne University, which gave a See also:judgment strongly in their favour. The question, for all that, was not finally settled until the See also:council of See also:Constance (1414), when their cause was triumphantly defended by See also:Pierre d'See also:Ailly and See also:Gerson. For a See also:century after this the Modern Devotion flourished exceedingly, and its See also:influence on the revival of See also:religion in the Nether-lands and north Germany in the 15th century was wide and deep. It has been the See also:fashion to treat Groot and the Brothers of Common Life as " Reformers before the See also:Reformation "; but Schulze, in the See also:Protestant Realencyklopadie, is surely right in pronouncing this view quite unhistorical—except on the theory that all interior spiritual religion is Protestant: he, shows that at the Reformation hardly any of the Brothers embraced Lutheranism, only a single community going over as a See also:body to the new religion.

During the second See also:

half of the 16th century the See also:institute gradually declined, and by the See also:middle of the 17th all its houses had ceased to exist. AUTHORITIEs.—The chief authorities are Thomas a Kempis, Lives of Groot and his Disciples and See also:Chronicle of See also:Mount St See also:Agnes (both See also:works translated by J. P. See also:Arthur, the former under the See also:title Founders of the New Devotion, 1905); See also:Busch, Chronicle of Windeslikim (ed. Grube, 1887). Much has been written on the subject in Dutch and See also:German; in See also:English, S. Kettlewell, Thomas d Kempis and the See also:Brother?of Common Life (1882) (but see Arthur in the Prefaces to above-named books) ; for a shorter See also:sketch, F. R. Cruise, Thomas a Kempis (1887). An excellent See also:article in See also:Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie (3rd ed.), " Bruder See also:des gemeinsamen Lebens," supplies copious See also:information with references to all the literature; see also Max Heimbucher, Orden and Kongregationen (1897), ii. § 123. The See also:part played by the Brothers of Common Life in the religious and educational movements of the time may be studied in See also:Ludwig Pastor's See also:History of the Popes from the See also:close of the Middle Ages, or J.

See also:

Janssen's History of the German People. (E. C.

End of Article: BROTHERS OF COMMON LIFE

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
BROTHERS OF COMMON 		[next]
BROTHERS, RICHARD (1757-1824)

Site © 2006 - Net Industries