GROOTE (Groot, Groet, Groete, de Groete), GEERT (Gerrit, Gerhard): Founder of the Brethren of the Common Life (see Common Life, Brethren of the); b. at Deventer (8 m. n. of Zutphen), Holland, Oct., 1340; d. there Aug. 20, 1384.
He was educated at the cathedral school of his native place, after which he studied theology, philosophy, medicine, canon law, astronomy, magic, and Hebrew at the University of Paris. He then went to Cologne, and even to Prague (1360), and visited the papal court of Urban V. at Avignon in 1366. Two canonries and his private fortune enabled him to lead a gay and luxurious life, but while seriously ill in 1374 his early friend, Henry of Kalkar (q.v.), became the agent of his sincere and deep conversion. Groote now resigned his income, retaining only as much as was necessary for a modest living; in shabby attire he wandered about as a preacher of repentance, but he kept his books, and spent much of his time in study and prayer, associating only with his friends of like sentiments, Jan Cools, Henry of Kalkar, and Jan van Ruysbroeck, whom he had visited as early as 1377. For a time he retired to the monastery of Mbnnikhuizen, but after three years he came forward as public preacher of repentance. He declined ordination, and wished only to labor as a missionary preacher with episcopal permission. Before entering upon his work, he devoted the last part of his possessions to a dwelling for virgins and widows without monastic profession.
From place to place Groote went, preaghing in the vernacular at Deventer, Zwolle, Kampen, Amersfoort, Amsterdam, Haarlem, Gouda, Leyden, Delft, and Zutphen. The churches were too small to hold his hearers, on whom he impressed the vital question of the salvation of the soul. He revealed the iniquities of clergy and laity, preaching against avarice, simony, and unchastity, while his fiercest invectives were launched against "focaristee" (priests living in concubinage) and against here tics (the Brethren of the Free Spirit, q.v.).' His influence upon the laity and clergy was profound and lasting,. his followers including Florentius Radewyns, Johannes Voss, Johannes a Rempis (brother of Thomas), Heinrich Wilde, Berthold ten Have, Johannes Waater, and the priests Johannes Scutken, Johannes Klingerbiel, Werner Keyenkamp, as well as Hendrik van Wilson, burgomaster of Kampen, and the physician Everhard of Almelo or Eza. Groote's life and words influenced his auditors deeply. His bishop often invited him to preach, once before the General Synod, and urged him especially to inveigh against concubinage (1383). The secular clergy, on the other hand, attacked him for his castigation of their luxury, simony, and usury, while the monks assailed him on account of his diatribes against their idleness and assumed poverty. The magistrates and laymen sided with them, even accusing him of heresy, and the bishop was induced to forbid preaching by those who had not been ordained, this prohibition naturally including Groote with the rest. In refutation of the charge of heresy he wrote his Publics protestatio, while to offset the prohibition of preaching he referred unsuccessfully to the canon law. His influence was not diminished by these attacks, however, but showed itself especially in the school through which he wished to educate a better and wiser clergy, while his prestige was still more evident at Deventer and Zwolle, where the houses of the Brethren and Sisters of the Common Life and the congregation of Windesheim were founded.
In his teaching, Groote was in full accord with his Church, though his mode of life showed a certain legalistic trait. His day's work was strictly regulated. He slept seven hours, ate only once, and declined every invitation from outside. Prayer, meditation, and reading of the Bible and the Church Fathers filled the day. He heard mass each day, and also .ministered constantly to his fellow men, besides conducting an extensive correspondence. His control of the school was exercised chiefly through his devoted teachers, although he aided the pupils, whom he employed to copy manuscripts, and influenced them profoundly. He bad preached but three years and a half when! he died of the plague.
Groote's literary activity was essentially practical and pastoral. The most complete lists of his
writings, some of which are still unpublished, are
given by Bonet-Maury (pp. 91 sqq.)
and Anger (p. 272). Among his sermons special mention may be made of
the following:
De fgatrinis (reprinted in the Archief v
|
83 |
Groote's personality is reflected in his epistles. Twelve are given by Jan Busch in his Chroniaon Windeshemense (ed. K. Grubs, Halle, 1886; ed., with other letters of Groote, J. Clarisse, in Archief, iii., Leyden, 1831, supplement 2, pp. 5 sqq.; ed. J. Acquoy, Gerardi Magni epidolw XIV., Amsterdam, 1857); eight were edited by P. de Ram in Compte rendu des a6ances de la Commission . . . bdgique (Brussels, 1860), pp. 66 sqq.; seven by Nolte in TQ, 1870; one in German addressed to a nun, by W. Moll in Studien en bijdragen, iii., Amsterdam, 1876, pp. 434 sqq.; and sixteen by W. Preger in AMA, iii., class xxL, part 1 (Munich, 1894). Many of his epistles were copied as independent treatises, such as the De mainmonio and De imUtutione noviciorum (the latter ed. L. Schulze, in ZHG, xi. 577).
Groote also rendered three works of his friend Ruysbroeck from Dutch into Latin: Ornatus ap-tualium nu#iarum; De seem gradZta amoras; De duodecim virtuttbua; and translated from Latin into German for the sister houses several brief treatises (ed. W. Moll, Geert Groote's didache verWingen, Amsterdam, 1880).
The theological standpoint of Groote was that of Thomism. - Accepting the theological teachings of his time, he rejected the mystic concepts of Ruysbroeck, although he shared the ascetic doctrine of renunciation of the world, even while opposing it since the new devotion established and advocated by him was to be promoted and spread in the world. All his efforts were intended to lead souls to God, but he can be called a Reformer before the Reform ers only in a relative sense. He sought to carry out hill principles in the community of brethren and sisters, by the common life of clergy and laity, by work (especially copying), and by the rejection of mendicancy and monastic vows. He never opposed the Church, but assailed the abuses among the clergy and laity, and strongly advocated the reading of the Scripture in the monasteries and schools, and by the members of his communion, also urging the need of a translation of the Bible into the vernacular for the benefit of the laity.
Bibliography: Sources of knowledge are the writings of Rudolph Dier de Muden, in G. Dunbar, Analecta, Daven try, 1719; the writings of Johannes Busch, q.v.; and the work of Thomas 8 Kemple, The Poundem of the New Devotion, good edition in English by J. P. Arthur, London, 1905. Consult: C. Ullmann, Reformers before the Reformation, ii. 59-81, Edinburgh, 1877; G. Bonet Maury, Gerard de Groote, un pr_curseur de la rt/orme au 1.(. *WU, Paris, 1878; idem, De opera wholaetica fralrum vita; communie in Nederlandia, ib. 1889; idem, Les PTf euraeurB de la rbfmme . dams les pays Wine, Paris, 1903; A. Anger, in hfinoiree . pubii6e par l acadhnie royale . . . de Belpique, alvi. 266 sqq., Brussels, 1892; W. Preger, Geuhidhte der rdigifen Bewepung in den Nis derlanden im . . 14. Jahrhundert, Munich, 1894; M. SchOngen, Die Schule in Zwoile, vol. i., Freiburg, 1898; RL, v. 1288--89; end the literature under Common Lihe, Brethern of the..
| Calvin College. Last modified on 08/11/06. Contact the CCEL. |  |