Frontiers of the Reformation

Dissidence and Orthodoxy in Sixteenth-Century Europe

Auke Jelsma

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351935265
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

In this fascinating collection, Auke Jelsma explores the byways and outer reaches of the Reformation: groups and individuals who, in an age of confessional strife, eschewed the certainties of the established churches and sought religious truth in unconventional ways and across confessional boundaries. The author, one of the most distinguished Dutch Church historians of his generation, casts a humane and sympathetic light on forms of belief that in their own day attracted censure from the orthodox of both sides, and have been little considered in subsequent general treatments of the Reformation. Subjects include the Congregation of Windesheim and its influence on Protestantism; the role of women in the Anabaptist kingdom of Münster; the Devil in Protestantism; the Protestant attack on popular culture; marriage and the family; the sixteenth-century reception of St John of the Cross and Protestant spirituality.

Chapter One
Reluctant rejection: the Congregation of Windesheim and the Protestant Reformation

I

In 1938 Adrianus Jan Bemolt van Loghum Slaterus received his doctorate from the University of Amsterdam on the basis of a dissertation entitled Het klooster Frenswegen. In accordance with common Dutch practice he had added several formal theses to the conclusive part of his dissertation. The first thesis is worth quoting: 'The opinion that the Modern Devotion prepared the way for Protestantism is totally correct with respect to the Brethren of the Common Life, but incorrect with regard to the Congregation of Windesheim.'¹ This thesis satisfies the traditional academic condition that it should be contestable, It evokes a number of questions. Is it right to characterize the Brotherhood of the Common Life as having prepared the way for Protestantism? Is it possible to speak of a total opposition between the Congregation of Windesheim and Protestantism? Was the mentality of the brothers and sisters of the common life really so different from the Windesheim congregation?

To support his thesis Van Loghum Slaterus refers to the well-known study by W. J. Kühler on the history of the Mennonites.² The latter indeed notes remarkable similarities between the brothers and sisters of the common life and the Mennonites. According to him, both movements are characterized by an aversion to dogmatic Christianity, an emphasis on evangelical commandments, training in the imitation of Christ, reform of the religious and moral life, and by the restrictions of spiritual pride wrapped in humility, spiritual drills 'which suffocate much sound life' and forms of exaltation. Even in details like the aversion to the swearing of oaths and the refusal to accept positions of public service the resemblance would be visible.

The brothers and sisters of the common life were aware of this kinship, according to Kühler. When the Protestant Reformation manifested itself, many are supposed to have left the brother- and sister-houses. 'In numerous houses the Reformation had adherents.'³ However, according to Kühler, this did not hold true for the Windesheim congregation: 'Windesheim remained a bulwark of Catholicism until the end.'⁴

In light of the kinship between the various branches of the Modern Devotion, the suggestion that such a difference in reaction towards the Protestant Reformation would have existed between the monasteries of the congregation on the one hand and the brother- and sister-houses on the other, requires further evidence.

In this respect, however, Kühler is found lacking. He restricts himself to the assumption that the emergence of the Windesheim congregation will have attracted the more traditional people within the brother- and sister-houses: 'Windesheim attracted the more monastic elements from the brotherhood and thus helped it maintain the more liberal spirit among its members. The congregation itself moved ever more toward severity.' So he tries to prove what van Loghum Slaterus put into words in his thesis, namely, that there indeed was a kinship between the Modern Devotion and certain currents within Protestantism but that the Windesheim congregation stubbornly and consistently took a Counter-Reformation stand.⁵ Therefore further reflection on the relation between the Windesheim congregation in particular and Protestantism is certainly important.

There is reason to suppose that there must have been a mutual feeling of kinship, because they have several things in common. Both are a reaction to phenomena of decay in ecclesiastical and religious life. Both strove for reform. The situation of the monastic life was seen as one of the main causes of the decline of the spiritual life, of the general degeneration. Monasteries had become too rich. They possessed power, land, money. As a result they attracted characters who were not at all inclined toward the imitation of Christ.

The brothers and sisters of the common life attempted to prove in their houses that things could be different. The rise of this movement, called by the participants themselves Devotio Moderna, had already begun in the second half of the fourteenth century, as a consequence of the stimulating preaching of the deacon Geert Grote (c. 1340-84). One of his disciples, Florens Radewijns (c.1350-1400), decided to convert his house in Deventer into a community of men, following the monastic rules of poverty, chastity and obedience, but without the obligation of a formal vow. They became known as the 'Brethren of the Common Life'. In a short time all over the northern parts of The Netherlands, but also in Germany, brother- and sister-houses came into existence. In order to support themselves, they became active in every aspect of book production: writing, copying manuscripts, binding and marketing volumes, in later times, after the invention of printing, also operating their own press. A second source of income was the housing and coaching of young boys, studying at Latin schools, as in Deventer, Zwolle and Groningen.

These brothers and sisters of the common life resembled the Beguines and Beghards who several decades earlier had aroused so much suspicion in the ecclesiastical leaders. To avoid complications, soon after the death of Geert Grote, Florens Radewijns decided to set up a monastery which could offer protection, spiritual support and leadership to the houses of the adherents of the Devotio Moderna, and which could form a model for monasteries, which were suffering from decay. The monastery was founded in 1387 at Windesheim, between Zwolle and Deventer. The small group of former brothers of common life had chosen the rule of the Augustinian canons. Their constitutions were approved in 1395. Other monasteries accepted Windesheim as mother-house or domus superior, together they formed the Congregation of Windesheim. In the beginning of the sixteenth century over one hundred monasteries, in The Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland, were connected or associated with this congregation. The leadership of the congregation was held by the general chapter, with the prior superior of Windesheim as chairman. Twelve definitores were appointed to lead the deliberations during the meetings of the chapter and the examination of the reports of the visitatores.⁶

The Congregation of Windesheim was also instituted to link those monasteries which were willing to be involved in thorough reorientation and reform. Entreaties to reform went out to many other monasteries from the congregation. Abuses were dealt with thoroughly. Moreover, both the congregation and the leaders of Lutheran and Reformed Protestantism soon discovered how important the support of secular authorities was for their attempts to realize reform. Both movements did not shrink from violence, if need be, to force the people to accept the allegedly necessary reform.⁷

Although the Windesheim reform was mainly restricted to monastic life, it is not irrational to imagine that the congregation would at least have known some sympathy and a feeling of kinship with the Protestant Reformation, which aimed at a renewal of ecclesiastical life also outside the monastic realm. And yet the thesis that the Congregation of Windesheim behaved extremely negatively toward Protestantism has never really been challenged.

Of course, this relationship has been investigated before. J. G. R. Acquoy discusses it in his extensive study and concludes that 'the congregation never showed any leaning toward Protestantism'.⁸ R. R. Post, too, gives a negative answer to the question whether there was any relationship between the ideas and the piety of the Windesheimers and those of Protestantism: 'There was rather a contrast between the spirituality of the Windesheimers and that of Luther.'⁹

In the analysis of the data, however, it seems important to me to distinguish between the attitude of the general chapter of the congregation and the possibilities within the various monasteries. The monasteries were certainly not identical, although they were part of this one union. Attention should also be given to the diversity of the factors which formed a threat to the monasteries associated with the chapter; there were other reasons besides the influence of Protestantism why some monasteries were doomed to disappear. Only in this way can we obtain a reliable picture of the relationship between these two reform movements.

II

The general chapter did not hesitate to resist any form of Protestantization. This is not really remarkable. For Protestantism was a serious threat to monastic life. From the outset it was clear that the spokesmen of the Protestant Reformation would not ignore monastic life, for medieval monasticism had become too entangled with Catholic tradition.

Protestantism was opposed to the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church, pleaded for the priesthood of all believers, appreciated ordinary life in marriage, family and work as the best and, in fact, only possibility to put the Christian faith into practice, rejected obligatory celibacy of the clergy and, finally, negatively assessed that which it regarded as idolatry. With monastic pilgrimages to holy places, prayer to the saints, prayer and masses for the dead and the liturgy of holy mass, Protestantism regarded the monastery as a threat, even more, regarded it as the source of all degeneration.

It was precisely from this monastic tradition that the obligation of celibacy had spread to the whole clergy, including the secular priesthood, within Latin Christendom, as distinct from Eastern Orthodoxy. Monasteries had been founded along the way to the holy sites in order to give shelter to the pilgrims. Others served as burial grounds for the nobility who in this way hoped to receive a guarantee of daily prayers and masses. The mendicant orders had come into being to sustain the papal authority and thus the whole hierarchical structure. A real transformation of the church, as the Protestant spokesmen envisaged, could only be brought about by undermining monasticism. The Windesheim congregation, which sought to improve the monastic life of which Protestantism wished to rid itself, was therefore obliged to oppose this Protestantism.

From the acts of the general chapter it is obvious how alert the Windesheim congregation was to Protestantizing tendencies within the monasteries.¹⁰ There was reason for the leadership of the congregation to be worried. After it had flourished in the second half of the fifteenth century, a process of decline began around 1515. A dwindling number of people appeared willing to take the lifetime vows, partly because of the influence of critical humanistic writings. Initially some monasteries lowered the requirements for admission, despite the negative consequences for the quality of the monastic life, with the result that, as early as 1518, a number of monasteries were forbidden to accept admission of novices.¹¹

These were also the years in which a growing number of monastics regretted their former vows. It is important to realize that within the Congregation of Windesheim those vows varied according to the class to which one belonged. Reflection on the Bible and the writings of the ancient church fathers raised doubts in many circles as to whether ecclesiastical authorities had the right to interfere to such a high degree in the lives of believers.

The core of the congregation consisted of canons and canonesses who generally came from more prosperous families and who, therefore, were scholars, the men of whom were usually ordained priests. Their main duty was to pray the hours. Besides this they devoted most of their time to copying books. They were the only members of the community who had a seat on the chapter. Although they were a minority within the community it was they more than others who determined the character of the Windesheim monastery.

From the lay brothers or conversi there were different requirements. They too took vows for life, but they had more supporting tasks – in the kitchen, in the fields, in the smithy or brewery. In most monasteries there were also a number of so-called donati, people who, usually towards the end of their active life, in view of their preparation for death, donated their possessions to the monastery and in exchange received food and shelter. They also had to submit to certain rules, but they did not take vows. This held...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: competing concepts of reformation
• 1 Reluctant rejection: the Congregation of Windesheim and the Protestant Reformation
• 2 The Devil and Protestantism
• 3 A 'Messiah for women': religious commotion in north-east Switzerland, 1525–26
• 4 The king and the women: Münster 1534–35
• 5 Women martyrs in a revolutionary age: a comparison of books of martyrs
• 6 Why the Reformation failed
• 7 The attack of Reformed Protestantism on society's mentality in the northern Netherlands during the second half of the sixteenth century
• 8 'What man and woman are meant for': on marriage and family at the time of the Reformation
• 9 Believing in darkness: a Protestant view of St John of the Cross
• 10 The reception of John of the Cross within Protestantism
• 11 Without a roof over one's head: Stephen Gardiner (1483?–1555) and some characteristics of Protestant spirituality
• Index