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Brethren of the Common Life

Many famous men attended their schools, including Nicholas of Cusa, Thomas á Kempis, and Erasmus, all of whom studied at the Brethren's school at Deventer.

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Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa had been their pupil and so became their staunch protector and benefactor.

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Apart from some of the clergy who had studied at the universities and cathedral schools in Paris or in Cologne, there were few scholars in the land; even amongst the higher clergy there were many who were ignorant of the scientific study of Latin, and the ordinary burgher of the Dutch cities was quite content if, when his children left school, they were able to read and write the Medieval Low German and Diets.

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banded together in communities, giving up their worldly goods to live chaste and strictly regulated lives in common houses, devoting every waking hour to attending divine service, reading and preaching of sermons, labouring productively, and taking meals in common that were accompanied by the reading aloud of Scripture: "judged from the ascetic discipline and intention of this life, it had few features which distinguished it from life in a monastery", observes Hans Baron.

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He died in 1384, and was succeeded by Florens Radewyns, who two years later refounded the famous monastery of Augustinian canons at Windesheim, near Zwolle, which was thenceforth the centre of the new association.

Johannes Veghe

In 1451 he entered the house of the Brethren of the Common Life of Münster, in 1469 became first rector of the house of the Brethren at Rostock, returned to Münster in 1471, and was made rector there in 1475.

Ludwig Dringenberg

Born in Dringenberg in Westphalia, Ludwig probably attended the school of the Brethren of the Common Life, known as the Hieronymusschule in the monastery at Böddeken.

see also

Geert

Geert Groote (1340–84), Dutch preacher and founder of the Brethren of the Common Life