FRATELLI DELLA VITA COMUNE

BROTHERS OF THE COMMON LIFE. – A confraternity that arose around 1381 in Deventer (Holland) through the efforts of Florentius Radewijns of Leerdam, master of arts at the University of Prague and disciple of Gerard Groote. The latter had gathered around himself young clerics from the chapter school of Deventer as copyists, and Radewijns united them in a life of common discipline, though without vows; they lived on the proceeds of their craft and devoted themselves to serving God in chastity, obedience, and industriousness, with special practices of piety. In 1384, Groote recommended that they adopt a rule, suggesting that of the Canons Regular of St Augustine. Part of the confraternity followed this advice; Thomas à Kempis went to the convent of Eymstyn to study this rule, and between Deventer and Zwolle the monastery of Windesheim was built, where the new Augustinian Canons Regular congregated and took their name from II.
The new organization at Windesheim, approved by Boniface IX in 1395, rapidly spread, especially under the leadership of the prior John Vos from 1391 to 1424, and in a short time counted 32 male monasteries, along with 14 dependent female houses of Augustinian Canonesses Regular. As for the confraternity of the Brothers of the Common Life, it continued to exist with its own distinct regulations, which also inspired the “Sisters of the Common Life.” Both institutions produced for the Church excellent copyists and calligraphers, who played a significant role in disseminating many sacred and theological works; to them is also attributed the spiritual movement of the *devotio moderna*, which exerted a notable ascetic-mystical influence in Central Europe. After a century of great prosperity, especially from the 16th century onward, the Brothers began to depart from their original regularity and fervor, and some priests joined the Protestant “Reformation.” Gradually, the institution disappeared within the 16th–19th centuries.