Devotio Moderna
Devotio Moderna (
This movement largely believed in austerity for Christians at every level, from clergy to layman, and many followers of Devotio Moderna frowned upon such things as church-led celebrations of certain events.[3]
Origins
1300s
The origins of the movement likely stem from the Congregation of Windesheim, though it has so far proved elusive to locate the precise origin of the movement.[1] Broadly, it may be seen to rise out of widespread dissatisfaction with the Church (both in terms of the structure of the church and the personal lives of the clergy) in 14th-century Europe. Geert Groote (1340–1384) was among many in being highly dissatisfied with the state of the Church and what he perceived as the gradual loss of monastic traditions and the lack of moral values among the clergy. He sought to rediscover certain pious practices.
Devotio Moderna began as a lay movement; around 1374, Groote turned his parental house in
From this point, several different loose forms of community emerged. On the one hand, various types of life for the female Devout were formed. Especially from the 1390s under the leadership of John Brinckerinck, one of Grote's early converts, the Sisters of the Common Life spread across the Netherlands and into Germany (with eventually about 25 houses in the former and about 60 houses in the latter). There were also many homes (mostly small and needy) inspired by the movement that were never formally attached to the Sisters of the Common Life, and may eventually have become Third Order Franciscans or Augustinian nuns.[4]
Among male followers, the movement was given impetus after Groote's death in 1384 by Florens Radewyns (who had become a priest based on Groote's advice). He gathered like-minded laity and clergy into houses of communal living, eventually known as the Brethren of the Common Life, which numbered 41 by the early 16th century. The majority of members in these communities were priests or candidates for the priesthood (clerics); the few lay brothers, the familiares, usually carried out the menial tasks of cooking, cleaning and tailoring. These communities did not take vows, but led an austere life of penance, prayer, spiritual reading and work, most often the copying of manuscripts.[4] In addition, the Brethren provided pastoral care and spiritual counsel to the sister houses, and at least some of the Brethren engaged in preaching.
Groote's message of reform had also been aimed at clerics and priests, some of whom had joined the Brethren. In addition, though, under the leadership of Radewyns, in 1387 some members of the Deventer house set up a new community at Windesheim, near Zwolle, and adopted the habit and rule of St Augustine. Although living a cloistered life under vows, the new community kept many of the practices and spiritual values of the teaching of Groote and Radewyns.
1400s
From 1395, a monastic union was set up around Windesheim; this new confederation grew quickly, and was joined both by older Augustinian communities (including, famously, Groenendaal in 1413), as well as new foundations, and sometimes the conversion of some of the houses of Brothers to this new form of religious life. By the end of the 15th century, there were almost 100 houses (84 of them male) in the Chapter of Windesheim.[4]
The movement faced opposition from clergy and laity at times, both during its early years under Groote's leadership and under Radewyns' later expansion. Much of this suspicion was similar to that directed at other new forms of religious devotion developed in the period, such as
Also, the strong resemblance to the monastic life of the daily routine among the Brethren provoked accusations from the mendicant orders that the Brethren and Sisters of the Common Life were starting a new mendicant order, in violation of the
The movement was especially prominent in cities in the
Decline
In the early 15th century, even before the Protestant Revolution, Devotio Moderna was fading due to many Christians wanting more "pomp and ceremony in processions".[3]
In the wake of the Protestant Reformation, the institutions of the Devotio Moderna declined rapidly.
In Protestant territories, both the brother houses and the monasteries were dissolved. Most of the houses of the Brethren, including the founding homes of Deventer and Zwolle, had disappeared by 1600. In Roman Catholic areas, some of the brother houses and houses of the Windesheim Congregation survived until they fell victim to the secularisations of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The most important members of the Windesheim Congregation in Germany, St. Marienwolde in Frenswegen, held out until 1809 when the state officially dissolved it. The last canon, Gerhard Tobbe, left Frenswegen in 1815.[6]
Teachings
Four cornerstones of the Brethren of the Common Life and its associated devotio moderna were:
- contempt of the world and of self (Latin: contemptus mundi et sui ipsius),
- imitation of the lowly life of Christ (Latin: imitatio humilis vitae Christi),
- good-will (Latin: bona voluntas), and
- the grace of devoutness (Latin: gratia devotionis.) [7]: 283
Contempt of the world and of self
There was a widely followed movement within the Devotio Moderna traditions that frowned upon pilgrimages.[3]
The Imitation of Christ
By the late 15th century the advent of the printing press increased the reach of the movement; The Imitation of Christ was printed in several languages by the end of the century.
Techniques for prayer
The spiritual life of the Devotio Moderna followers was marked by focus on inner devotions and frequent short periods of meditation, especially before each new activity.[2]
The writings of the Devotio Moderna followers such as
Centuries earlier, Hugh of Saint Victor and Guigo II had produced structured methods for Christian meditation, but their approaches were less systematic.[13][14] The methodical approach of Devotio Moderna towards prayer and meditation found significant following within the Catholic Church, as well as later Reformed communities.[11] The manuals for methodical prayer and meditation by Florens Radewyns and Zutphen had significant influence within Europe for over a century.[15]
The concept of immersing and projecting oneself into a Biblical scene about the life of Jesus was developed by Ludolph of Saxony in his Vita Christi in 1374 and became popular among the Devotio Moderna community.[16] The methods of methodical prayer as taught by the Devotio Moderna entered Spain and were known in the early 16th century, and influenced the approaches to Christian meditation.[17]
However, the methods of "methodical prayer" taught by the Devotio Moderna and the techniques used for "self projection" into the imagery of a Biblical scene (to participate in the life of Jesus), significantly influenced the approaches to
Influence
Devotio Moderna arose at the same time as
See also
- Brothers of the Common Life
- Canons Regular of San Giorgio in Alga
- Christian Humanism
- Christian meditation
- Hendrik Mande
- Imitation of Christ (ideal)
- The Imitation of Christ (book)
References
- ^ ISBN 0-8091-2962-0pages 7–12
- ^ ISBN 978-0-664-22170-6pages 113–114
- ^ OCLC 52849131.
- ^ a b c d e McGinn 2012, p. 97.
- ^ 'Devotio Moderna', in Jill Raitt with Bernard McGinn and John Meyendorff, eds, Christian Spirituality: High Middle Ages and Reformation, (London: SCM, 1989), p178.
- ^ 'Devotio Moderna', in Jill Raitt with Bernard McGinn and John Meyendorff, eds, Christian Spirituality: High Middle Ages and Reformation, (London: SCM, 1989), p. 179.
- ^ Duffield, Samuel Willoughby (13 June 2017). The Latin Hymn-writers and Their Hymns.
- ISBN 978-90-232-4329-8
- ^ Naar een taalgeschiedenis van van Oostnederland. Hermann Niebaum, 1985.
- ^ Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse taal. Amsterdam University Press (1997), p. 155.
- ^ ISBN 0-86554-871-4pages 67–71
- ISBN 978-90-04-12984-9page 3
- ISBN 0-7102-0927-4pages 415–424
- ISBN 978-0-8091-3660-5page 88-94
- ISBN 978-1-4051-1771-5pages 107–108
- ^ ISBN 978-0-631-21281-2pages 84–87
- ^ ISBN 1-900755-96-3page 28
- ISBN 0-89870-068-Xpage 180
- ISBN 0-19-504169-0, Oxford UP page 337
- ^ "Canons of San Giorgio in Alga". Augustinians Canons. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
Sources
- McGinn, Bernard (2012). The Varieties of Vernacular Mysticism, 1350–1550. Crossroad Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-8245-9901-0.
Further reading
- Spirituality renewed: Studies on significant representatives of the Modern Devotion. Edited by Hein Blommestijn, Charles Caspers and Rijcklof Hofman (Leuven: Peeters, 2003)
- Elias H. Füllenbach, Devotio Moderna (I. Christianity), in: Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (EBR), vol. 6 (2013), col. 716–717
- Van Engen, John, Sisters and Brothers of the Common Life: The Devotio Moderna and the World of the Later Middle Ages, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008)