WINDESHEIM, MONASTERY OF

The Monastery of Windesheim is the former foundation of canons regular of st. augustine, west of Zwolle, the Netherlands. It was founded in 1386 (the cloister and brick church being built in 1387) by six pupils of Gerard groote (d. 1384) with florentius radewijns and Radulf de Rivo, the champion of the Old Roman liturgy and rector of Cologne University, as advisers. The leader of the founders was Johann Goswini Vos, who became the second prior (1391–1424). All six were advocates of the devotio moderna and might have written or inspired the imitation of christ (see thomas À kempis). Via the monastery of Emstein, near Dordrecht, founded in 1382, Windesheim also absorbed the tradition of Groenendals (near Brussels) and therewith much of the spirituality of Jan van ruysbroeck, who lived near Groenendals. The Windesheim congregation was established in 1393 by the amalgamation of three other Dutch monasteries with Windesheim. The congregation's constitutions, drafted in 1402, were confirmed by Pope martin v at Constance. They called for strict enclosure (many monasteries assuming the carthusian enclosure), choir obligation, nocturnal chant, fast and abstinence four times a week, and systematic meditation. The congregation was promoted by Bp. Friedrich von Blankenheim of Utrecht (d. 1423), by the general chapter that was usually held on the second Sunday after Easter every year, and also by John Busch (b. Zwolle 1399; d. Hildesheim 1479), who reformed monasteries in north Germany in 1429, 1435, and 1450, with Cardinal nicholas of cusa. It spread along the Rhine from Holland to Switzerland, and by 1430 encompassed 45 monasteries; by 1500 there were 97. Its way of life was a model for numerous houses of other orders, for the secular clergy (e.g., the Böddeken Reform), and also for the laity in its demand for Eucharistic devotion and intellectual training. Windesheim monasteries were located over the countryside, but kept in contact with universities; thus, e.g., Gabriel biel (d. 1495), the last of the scholastics in Germany and dean of Sankt Peter at Einsiedeln, near Tübingen, was a professor of the university there. Windesheim's monastic life called for manual labor, such as stonemasonry, carpentry, and stonecutting; for copying and writing books; for manuscript illumination; for correction of Biblical texts; for editions of the Fathers and translation of Latin writings into German; and for conducting a circulating library. But it did not include regular pastoral work in parishes. The congregation's decline in the 16th century was the result of the Reformation and the Revolt of the Netherlands. Windesheim itself was dissolved in 1581, its goods going to a Protestant divinity college and orphanage. The congregation was reorganized in 1573 by a bull of Gregory XIII. Headed by a prior general, it continued in Belgium and in Catholic areas of Germany until 1802. In 1728 it included 32 monasteries; today it has only one in Uden, the Netherlands. (see brethren of the common life.)

Bibliography: Acta capituli Windeshemensis, 1387–1611, ed. s. van der woude (The Hague 1953). m. heimbucher, Die Orden und Kongregationen der katholischen Kirche, 2 v. (Paderborn 1932–34) 1:424–428. l. h. cottineau, Répertoire topobibliographique des abbayes et prieurés, 2 v. (Mâcon 1935–39) 2:3459. f. rÜtten, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche ¹, ed. m. buchberger 10 v. (Freiburg 1930–38) 10:933–934. e. iserloh, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche ², ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65) 7:762–764. e. barnikol, Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart ³ 7 v. (Tübingen 1957–65) 6:1731–32.

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