| The Brethren of the Common Life was a religious Roman Catholic community founded in the 14th century by Geert Groote, formerly a successful and worldly educator who had had a religious experience and preached a life of simple devotion to Jesus Christ. The Brethren's Confraternity is best known for having inspired the Modern Devotion. A small band of followers attached themselves to Groote and became his fellow-workers, thus becoming the first "Brethren of the Common Life" (Dutch: Broeders des gemeenen levens). The reformer was opposed by the clergy whose lives he denounced as decadent and evil, but his opponents' cry of heresy was raised in vain against one who was as zealous for purity of the Catholic faith and for purity of morals. The best of the secular clergy enrolled themselves in his brotherhood, which in due course was approved by the Pope. Groote, however, did not live long enough to finish the work he had begun. He died in 1384, and was succeeded by Florence Radewyns, who two years later founded the famous monastery of Windesheim, near Zwolle, which was thenceforth the centre of the new association. |