BUSHCH (pron. *Bösch*), JOHANNES. — The greatest monastic reformer of the Congregation of Windsheim and its principal chronicler. Born in 1399 at Zwolle (Holland), he completed his studies there at the flourishing school of Johannes Cele. Against his parents’ wishes, who wanted to send him to Erfurt to study law, he entered the convent of the Augustinian Canons Regular at Windsheim in 1417. He received the habit on 6 January 1419 and professed a year later. While still a deacon, he was sent in 1424, with three other religious, to establish a new foundation at Marienberg in Bödingen (diocese of Cologne), where he was ordained priest. Returning to Windsheim in 1428, the Chapter delegated him the following year to reform the convents of Ludingakerke (now Achlum, East Frisia) and of Sion at Beverwijk (northern Holland).
From 1431 to 1434 he served as confessor to the nuns at Bruneppe (Kampen, province of Overijssel), then for two years again at Windsheim. In 1435 the Council of Basel entrusted the monastery of Windsheim with the reform of all Augustinian convents of both sexes in the duchy of Brunswick and in the dioceses of Hildesheim, Halberstadt, and Verden. To this task B. devoted all his energies, extending his work also to Benedictine, Premonstratensian, Cistercian, Alexian, and Brothers of the Common Life monasteries. After serving as sub-prior at Wittenburg (Saxony) from 1436 to 1439, he was charged with reforming the convent of Süle, of which he became provost for eight years (1440–48). Meanwhile he visited and restored to regular observance many other monasteries. In 1448 he accepted the important provostship of Neuwerk near Halle. There, with authority over 120 parishes as archdeacon, he extended his reforming activity to the secular clergy and laity. His sphere of influence grew when Cardinal Legate Nicholas of Cusa, at the Synod of Magdeburg (1451), appointed him—together with Paul Busse, provost of St Maurice at Halle—apostolic visitor and reformer of all Augustinian convents in the dioceses of Magdeburg, Saxony, Meissen, Thuringia, Brandenburg, and Havelberg, and decreed that a general chapter should be held regularly at Neuwerk.
In 1454 B. had to resign his provostship and returned to Windsheim, continuing his reforming work. From 1459 to 1479 he was again provost of Süle, where he died in 1479 or 1480.
Besides some minor writings—*Sermones*, 2 *Epistolae*, 2 *Soliloquia*, and the *Rapiraium*, edited by D. J. M. Wüstenhoff, *De kheinere geschriften van J. B.*... (Ghent-The Hague 1890)—he left two major works:
1) *Chronicon Windsheimense*, comprising two parts: *Liber de viris illustribus de Windsheim* (written at Windsheim, 1455–58) and *Liber de origine moderna devotionis* (composed at Süle in 1464). This work is one of the principal sources for the history and spirituality of the Windsheim movement and the Modern Devotion (v.). It was edited by H. Rosweyde together with the chronicle of Mount St Agnes by Thomas à Kempis under the title: *Chronicon canonum reg. latrum ordinis sancti Augustini capituli Windsheimensis auctore I. B. canonico regulari. Accedit Chronicon montis S. Agnesti auctore Thoma a Kempis canonico regulari* (Antwerp 1621).
2) *De Reformatione monasteriorum*, written at Süle (1470–1475), offers a vivid and faithful picture of his reforming activity and is fundamental for understanding the religious situation in the Low Countries and Germany in the first half of the fifteenth century. Here we encounter B. in full: his burning zeal for the monastic ideal, psychological insight, self-assurance, and skill in handling delicate and embarrassing situations, overcoming the many difficulties and resistances that often obstructed his work.
A first, though defective, edition was issued by G. W. von Leibniz, *Scriptores rerum Brunvicensium*, II, Hanover 1707, pp. 476–506, 806–970. A good critical edition of both works was produced by K. Grube: *Des Augustinerpropstes J. B. Chronicon Windsheimense und Liber de reformatione monasteriorum* (Geschichtsquellen der Provinz Sachsen..., 19), Halle 1886.