of a regular society. At length Florentius Radewins, the young vicar of Deventer, and one of his most intimate friends, addressed him in this wise: "Dear master, what harm would it do, were I and these clerks here copying with me, to put our weekly earnings into a common fund, and live together?" "Live together!" exclaimed Gerhard, "the monks would never let us. They would do all they can to prevent us." "But what is to hinder us from trying?" rejoined Florentius. "It may be that God will grant us success.' "Well, then," said Gerhard, "in God's name begin. I will be your advocate, and faithfully defend you against all who rise up against you." In the attempt which was made the Brotherhood of the Common Lot took its rise. The principle on which it was based was that of the community of goods. The brethren were to be supported by their own labour. Like the primitive Church at Jerusalem, they were to have all things in common. The aim they set before them was the cultivation and spread of a purer and more enlightened Christianity. Their bond of union was mutual affection and identity of aim. For its permanency the Brotherhood depended simply and solely on the continuance among its members of brotherly love and mutual agreement. Ullmann has compared it to the philosophical and ascetical societies of antiquity. Points of similarity certainly exist. But in one thing the Brotherhood was essentially different. The good it sought was not its Its primary and distinctive aim was to do good to others. "In doing good," said Florentius Radewins, its second president, and the one by whom Gerhard's mind was more clearly reflected, "do it without self-seeking-simply for the glory of God." Along with the fraternities Gerhard also instituted the female societies of the Common Lot. Their character and aim were the same as those of the fraternities. The only difference lay in their occupations. He intended likewise to establish a Monastery of Regular Canons. By means of this he hoped to illustrate the kind of life he deemed the best, and to secure for his male and female societies a centre of co-operation and counsel. But this, in some respects the most cherished of all his plans, he was destined never to carry out. In the year 1384, when attending one of his friends who had been seized with the terrible scourge known as the Black Death, he was evidently smitten with the plague, and a few days afterwards breathed his last, exhorting the brethren who stood around him to confidence in God, and recommending his friend, Florentius Radewins, to them as their head. As on another and greater occasion, immediately after the removal of its founder, Gerhard's society received an access of life. The plan he was obliged to leave unfinished was taken up by Florentius, and in the year 1386, being approved of even by Wevelinchoven, it assumed a definite and tangible shape in the monastery of Windesheim. The relations in which the brethren stood with the various classes of society were, as a rule, of the best. By the people they were highly esteemed. To the magistrates they were frequently indebted for support. When they went to open their institutions in a city or district hitherto unoccupied, they would find both people and magistrates waiting to give them a cordial reception. At their settlement in Utrecht, for instance, they were presented with a house, priestly vestments, a silver-gilt cup, and money to the amount of three hundred Rhenish guilders. The consequence was the brethren spread and multiplied with remarkable rapidity. From Deventer, their centre and home, they went to Windesheim and Zwoll. Thence they spread to all the leading towns and cities of the Netherlands, to Gouda, Ghent, Brussels, Amsterdam, &c. Within less than a century brother-houses and sister-houses had been thickly scattered throughout Northern Germany. Southward they were to be found as far as Suabia; and eastward to the city of Merseberg. Nor was the number of their establishments represented by the number of towns in which they were located. In many towns and cities there were two or more-as in Windesheim, Deventer, and Wesel. That this progress was altogether smooth or unhindered must not, however, be supposed. At times it was retarded from within. While the great majority of the brethren exhibited a piety and zeal of the purest and most exemplary kind, a few now and again proved to be false. Such was the case with a brother who was sent to Liege to open a school. Instead of devoting himself to his mission, he gave himself up to drunkenness and gambling, and became a corrupter of the young. As a result the institutions of the Brotherhood in Liege were speedily suppressed by the order of the bishop. On the other hand, as Gerhard had many enemies, so had his societies. Chief among them were the mendicant monks. During the a scriptuarius, having charge of the copying, a director of novices, &c. These offices existed, however, more for the sake of convenience and order. Equality as well as fraternity existed in each of the houses. The brethren were likewise divided into priests, clergy (clerici), and laymen. The number of priests was originally exceedingly small. Gerhard used to say, "I would not undertake the care of souls even for a single night for all the gold of Arabia." For a time the same feeling pervaded the society. As it wore away the number of priests increased. In each house there were usually four, twice as many clergy, with whom were counted the novices, and as many laymen as chose to share the brethren's mode of life. first years of the Brotherhood's existence their persecutions were continued. At Kampen they induced the magistrates to drive all the friends and adherents of the fraternity out of their city, and to prohibit Werner Keyncamp, rector of the school, from entering their jurisdiction for ten years. The chief cause of their hostility was the fact that the brethren were taking the education of the young almost entirely out of their hands, and in this and other ways diminishing their revenues. The charge they usually brought against them was that they were neither a true order nor recognised by law, but that ecclesiastically they were illegitimate. At the Council of Constance they put forth all their energies to procure their ruin. Under the leadership of Matthew Gabow, a preaching monk of the diocese of Merseberg, they submitted a bill of complaint against them, charging them with being ecclesiastical monstrosities, a sort of genus tertium, a class of beings who ought not to exist, and demand-bation, during which they were not allowed ing their entire suppression. Of external organization the brethren had little or none. The nearest resemblance they had to it was the meeting of their rectors. Year by year these met in two assemblies, according as they came from the Netherlands or from Germany, and consulted together on the affairs of the communities in general. But any executive power they do not seem to have had. While keeping up a regular correspondence with each other, all the establishments were self-governed. Each had its own forms and customs, and was entirely independent of the rest. As we have seen, the members of the association divided themselves into three classes: canons, brethren, sisters. Of the three, the canons were the least numerous. The number of their monasteries was never large. The intention of their founder they seem rarely to have fulfilled. After a brief period of activity most of them fell into the usual style of monastic life. The canons of Windesheim were at first remarkably zealous, executing many copies of the Scriptures, and even venturing on criticism. But with the increase of their wealth came the abatement of their zeal. Latterly they had sunk so far from the ideal and spirit of their founder that the first question they asked of a candidate was, whether he was good at eating, sleeping, and obeying. A brother-house usually consisted of about twenty members. At the head was a rector, or president. Along with him was his assistant, the sub-rector, a steward, a librarian, From proselytizing, or from soliciting donations, the brethren carefully abstained. Applications for admission were entertained only after being repeatedly renewed. Candidates were required to pass a year of pro to visit their relatives. The probation being ended, those who wished to proceed became clerks, when they were expected to resign their patrimony or possessions for the common use. Having attained the full status of brethren, they now took their place and duties with the rest. If any one grew dissatisfied, he was at liberty to leave. All he had to do was to settle his accounts with the brethren, leave a sum of money in their hands, and go his way. In matters of dress the greatest latitude, though rarely practised, was always allowed. The costume usually worn was Gerhard's after his conversion, a grey cloak, grey coat, and grey breeches. The head was generally covered with a cowl of the same colour, on account of which the brethren were called cucullati.* Their mode of life was exceedingly methodical. Dividing the day into several parts, they devoted one to spiritual exercises, another to writing, a third to manual or other labour. A peculiar and distinctive feature of their spiritual exercises was the practice, instituted by Gerhard, of confessing their sins to each other. The labour in which the brethren engaged depended partly on their peculiar aptitudes, and partly on the character of the district in which they lived. The duties of some were, of course, purely domestic. Others were engaged in trades or in commerce. The convent of St. Mary at Beverwijk traded in parchment, honey, wax, salt-fish. At Hilders Other names by which they were known were Hieronymites, Gregorians, Brothers of Good Will, Collation-brothers (Colloatsiebroeders), Devoti Clerici. heim the brethren made mass-books, vest- But that to which the brethren devoted ments, and other kinds of ecclesiastical their principal energies was the education of furnishings. The brethren at Hattem were the young. The age and country in which at first farmers and weavers. Afterwards they originated were neither dark nor illiterate. they became prosperous and rich, able to Schools were established in all the larger maintain a large school. towns of the Netherlands. Yet their influence was exceedingly great. They fell upon opportune times. The desire for knowledge was beginning to be widely felt. When Gerhard was studying in Monckhuysen, Petrarch was living at Vaucluse, inaugurating the revival of letters. John of Ravenna was itinerating about Italy, arousing in the minds. of the young a passion for the ancient classics. Before the Brotherhood had reached the zenith of its activity, the enthusiasm awakened in Italy had crossed the Alps. In the south the revival had taken a secular, if not a decidedly atheistical turn. Labouring in the spirit of Gerhard, the brethren tried to make it subservient to the development of the spiritual life. In the numerous schools they opened they took great pains to inculcate a knowledge of the Bible. Where schools existed already they gave their services as teachers, or gathering the pupils around them, instructed them by their conversation and example. Nor was it by teaching alone that they laboured for the young. How to promote their intellectual and spiritual welfare seems to have been their continual thought. The poorer scholars they took almost entirely beneath their charge, paying their school fees, providing them with books procuring gratuitous entertainment for them in honourable and pious families. Not the least of their services was the introduction of the use of the classics and better grammar. One species of labour, the copying of books, was common to every house and to all the brethren. This, as we saw, originated in Gerhard's love for beautiful manuscripts. Next to him, those who gave it the strongest impetus and raised it almost to the position of a monopoly were Florentius Radewins and Gerhard Zerbolt. Though no great penman, what Florentius lacked in skill he made up in zeal, inciting the brethren to his utmost, preparing the parchment, marking extracts, revising the MSS. Zerbolt's passion for books was equal to Gerhard's. A fine codex gave him greater pleasure than a sumptuous feast. Among the most beautiful and accomplished penmen was the celebrated author, Thomas à Kempis. His delight in well-executed MSS. was intense. The works copied were, besides the Scriptures and books of devotion, Anselm's Monologium, Bernard's Meditationes, and various treatises from the Latin and Greek fathers, also books used in the schools. Extracts were likewise made from pious authors in the shape of tracts. To transcribing the brethren were indebted for a large part of their income, though many of these books went to increase their own libraries whence they were lent, while others were given away, one hour being set apart each day to writing for the poor. Another way in which the brethren sought to enlighten the people was by means of preaching. Their extant sermons are in Latin; but there is good reason to believe that when addressing the people they followed the practice of Gerhard, and spoke in the popular tongue. Their addresses were of two kinds-sermons and collations. A feature of the former, not without parallels elsewhere, was their remarkable length. As we mentioned above, Gerhard's sermons sometimes lasted for three hours. Those of John of Gronde often lasted for six. Collations were a more popular kind of ad- Their decay was chiefly due to three dresses, delivered in each of the brother-causes-their inability to adapt themselves houses on Sunday afternoons and on saint to the changing times, the invention of days. Apparently they were similar to a printing, and the progress of the ReformaScotch "exposition." A passage being read tion. In most institutions there is a natural from the Gospels, it was explained and ap- element of decay. Ministering to certain plied. The meetings at which these addresses wants which are more or less peculiar to the were delivered became exceedingly popular. period of their origin, as these change or Numerous bequests were made for their disappear they also must change or pass institution and support. away. Against the printing press the brethren Reformers ostensibly the brethren were not, though they denounced the corruptions of the Church continually; the idea of instituting a "reformation" they never entertained. Yet, in reality, the whole spirit and tendency of their work were thoroughly reforming. More than any other agency of their times, they contributed to produce that intellectual and spiritual atmosphere without which the Reformation of Luther would have been impossible. for a time struggled with zeal. But the conflict to God," he on one occasion writes, "that was unequal. The fraternities of Gerhard were no match for the ever-increasing fraternities of Gutenberg and Faust. Their monopoly was broken for ever. By completing what for nearly two centuries the brethren had indefatigably, though unconsciously, laboured at, the Reformation gave the most effectual impetus to their downfall. Three times Luther stood forth in their defence. "Would disappeared. all monastic institutions were like them! Clergymen, cities, and countries would then be better served and more prosperous than they now are." But even his advocacy could not save them. Their time was come, and in the course of the seventeenth century, or after an existence of about two hundred and fifty years, the societies of Gerhard entirely W. M. METCALFE. A PICTURE. ONE picture fair within my heart I carry, The houses clustered on the water's border, The bridge, the road-delicious is the dream!. Each nook recalls fond thoughts, and memories soften I think of those that wandered with me often- Long years have rolled, and other children gladly And yet it lives, and sheds a wondrous sweetness Like "darkened chamber," when the bright rays fall: A home of beauty, where the past is cherished, W. P. BLACKMORE. "The heart is the true 'Camera Obscura,' in the lowliest making pictures that can never be painted."-SCHMIDT. |