Windesheim
An Augustinian monastery situated about four miles south of Zwolle on the Issel, in the Kingdom of Holland. The congregation of canons regular, of which this was the chief house, was an offshoot of the Brethren of the Common Life and played a considerable part in the reforming movement within the Catholic Church in Holland and Germany during the century which preceded the Reformation. The Brethren of the Common Life, who did not form an order or congregation strictly so called, had become obnoxious to the mendicant friars, and the object of their attacks. To remedy this, Gerard Groot, when on his deathbed (1384), advised that some of the brethren should adopt the rule of an approved order (Chron. Wind., 263). His successor, Florence Radewyns, carried this advice into effect. Six of the brethren, carefully chosen as specially fitted for the work, among them John, elder brother of Thomas a Kempis, were sent to the monastery of Eymsteyn (founded 1382) to learn the usages of the Augustinian Canons. In 1386 they erected huts for a temporary monastery at Windesheim, and in March of the following year commenced the building of a monastery and church, which were consecrated by Hubert Lebene, titular Bishop of Hippo and auxiliary of Utrecht, on 17 Oct., 1387. At the same time the six brethren took their vows. The real founder of the greatness of Windesheim was Johann Vos, the second prior (1391-1424), under whom the number of religious was greatly increased and many foundations were made. The first of these were Marienborn near Arnheim and Niewlicht near Hoorn (1392). These two houses with Eymsteyn and the mother-house were the first members of the congregation or chapter (capitulum) as it was then called. It was approved and received certain privileges from Boniface IX in 1395. The constitutions added to the Rule of St. Augustine were approved by Martin V at the Council of Constance. An annual general chapter was held at Windesheim “after the fashion of the brethren of the Carthusian Order”, at which all the priors proffered their resignation. The prior of Windesheim was the superior prior, or head of the congregation, with considerable powers. After 1573 a prior-general was elected from among the priors of the monasteries. The choir Office at first followed in general the Ordinarium of Utrecht (for the reform of the Windesheim liturgical books by Radulfus de Rivo, Dean of Tongres, see Mohlbeg, op. cit. infra). The Windesheim Breviary was printed at Louvain in 1546.
The life of the canons was strict, but not over-severe; we are told that a postulant was asked if he could sleep well, eat well, and obey well, “since these three points are the foundation of stability in the monastic life”. The constitutions exhibit in many points the influence of the Carthusian statutes. The canons wore a black hood and scapular, with a white tunic and rochet; the lay brothers were dressed in gray.
By 1407 the congregation numbered twelve monasteries. In 1413 it was joined by the seven Brabant houses of the Groenendael congregation, of which the famous mystic Ruysbroek had been a member, and in 1430 by the twelve houses of the Congregation of Neuss in the Archdiocese of Cologne. When the Windesheim Congregation reached the height of its prosperity towards the end of the fifteenth century, it numbered eighty-six houses of canons, and sixteen of nuns, mostly situated in what is now the kingdom of Holland, and in the ecclesiastical Province of Cologne. Those which survived the Reformation (they still numbered 32 in 1728) were suppressed at the end of the eighteenth or beginning of the nineteenth century. Uden in Holland is the only survivor at the present day (Heimbucher, 11, 43). The destruction of Windesheim itself began in 1572, when the altars in the church were destroyed by the people of Zwolle; the suppression came in 1581. There are now practically no remains of the buildings. The last prior of Windesheim, Marcelllus Lentius (d. 1603), never obtained possession of this monastery.
The Windesheimers numbered many writers, besides copyists and illuminators. Their most famous author was Thomas a’ Kempis. Besides ascetical works, they also produced a number of chronicles, of which we may mention the “Chronicle of Windesheim” by Johann Busch. An emendation of the Vulgate text and of the text of various Fathers was also undertaken. Gabriel Biel, “the last German scholastic”, was a member of the congregation. A number of books were translated into German, and, besides the regular monastic library, a library of German works was established in each house for lending to the people. The chief historical importance of the Windesheim Canons lies in their reforming work. This was not confined to the reform of monasteries, but was extended to the secular clergy and the laity, whom they especially sought to bring to greater devotion toward the Blessed Sacrament and more frequent communion. The chief of the Windesheim monastic reformers was Johann Busch (b. 1399; d. 1480). This remarkable man was clothed at Windesheim in 1419. At the chapter of 1424 Prior Johann Vos, who knew his own end was near, especially entrusted Busch and Hermann Kanten with the carrying out of his work of reform (Chron. Wind., 51). Grube gives a list of forty-three monasteries (twenty-seven Augustinian, eight Benedictine, five Cistercian, and three Pre-monstratensian), in whose reform Busch had a share; perhaps his greatest conquest was the winning to the side of reform of Johann Hagen, for thirty years (1439-69) Abbot of Bursfeld and the initiator of the Benedictine Congregation known as the Union of Bursfeld. In 1451 Busch was entrusted by his friend Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, legate of Nicholas V, with the reform of the North German monasteries, and with such labours he was busied till shortly before his death.
Similar work on a smaller scale was carried out by other Windesheimers. Some Protestant writers have claimed the Windesheim reformers as forerunners of the Protestant Reformation. This is a misapprehension of the whole spirit of the canons of Windesheim; their object was the reform of morals, not the overthrow of dogma. The conduct of the communities of Windesheim and Mount St. Agnes, who preferred exile to the non-observance of an interdict published by Martin V, exemplifies their spirit of obedience to the Holy See.
———————————–
BUSCH, Chronicon Windesemense and Liber de reformatione monasteriorum, ed. GRUBBE in Geschichtsquellen der Provinz Sachsen, XIX (Halle, 1886); Onbekende Kronijk van het Klooster te Windesheim, ed. BECKER in Bijdragen en Mededeelingen van het Historisch Genootschap. (Utrecht); THOMAS A’ KEMPIS, Chronicle of the Canons Regular of Mount St. Agnes, tr. POTT (London, 1906); THOMAS A’ KEMPIS, Founders of the New Devotion, tr. POTT (London, 1905); Regula B. Augustini cum constitutionibus Canonicorum regularium capituli Windesemensis (Utrecht, 1553); Regula et Constitutiones . . . Congregationis Windesemensis (Louvain, 1639); ACQUOY, Klooster te Windesheim (Utrecht, 1880); GRUBE, Johannes Busch (Freiburg im Br., 1881); CRUISE, Thomas a’ Kempis, pt. II (London, 1887); SCULLY, Life of the Ven. Thomas a’ Kempis (London, 1901); KETTLEWELL, Brothers of the Common Life (2 vols., London, 1882); HEIMBUCHER, Orden u. Kongregationen, II (Paderborn, 1907), 38; MOHLBERG, Rudulph de Rivo (Louvain, 1911).
RAYMUND WEBSTER Transcribed by Thomas M. Barrett Dedicated to the Poor Souls in Purgatory
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XVCopyright © 1912 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, October 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Windesheim
(or Windesen), a Dutch monastery of the order of Regular Canons, celebrated as the center of a somewhat extensive congregation of reformed convents, flourished in the former half of the 15th century. It was intimately connected with the association of Brethren of the Common Life, having been established by Radewin, the pupil and successor of Gerhard Groot, to serve as a rallying-point for its members. Berthold ten Have, a citizen of Zwoll, in Zealand, and one of Groot’s converts, donated his homestead property of Windesen, worth above three thousand florins, to the prospective monastery on the inception of the plan, and other donations followed, so that the convent became an accomplished fact in 1386. Six brothers constituted its original congregation. The church was dedicated, and the investing of the brothers with the robes of their order was performed October 16. 1387, Henry of Huxaria being made temporary superior, with the title of rector. Vos von Huesden, who succeeded to the government of the convent as prior, four years afterwards, became the real founder of its importance.
During thirty-three years he was zealous in the promotion of its internom prosperity, as well as in the erection of its buildings and the extension of its influence. Its riches became immense under his administration, and the number of monasteries, and also of nunneries, connected with it, increased remarkably. Among these the monastery of St. Agnes, near Zwoll, became chiefly famous, through Thomas a Kempis and Johann Wessel, who were its inmates. In 1402 the first convocation of the general chapter was held at Windesheim. In 1435 the Council of Basle directed Windesheim to undertake the reformation of the convents of Regular Canons in Germany. This reformatory work extended in time even to the convents of other orders, and continued until the general reformation of the 16th century brought it to a close. The convent of Windesheim itself continued to exist luntil the end of the 16th century, and a chapter of Windesheim even until the 18th century. Its members were bound only by the three substantialia of monasticism, the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and they employed themselves, particularly during the earlier period, with the copying of manuscripts and industrial pursuits. Their reformatory labors aimed merely at a re- establishment of the earlier monastic discipline by reducing ascetical requirements to a tolerable degree. See Busch, Chronicon Windesemense (Antwerp, 1621); De Rel. Maonaster. quorund. Saxoniae, in Leibnitz, Scriptores Brunsvic. c. 2; Delprat, Over d. Brmoderschap van G. Groote (2d ed. Arnhelm, 1856; Germ. ed. by Mohnike, Leipsic, 1846); Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s.v.