GIOVANNI of Schoonhoven. - Mystical theologian, born in the village of Schoonhoven (Gouda, Netherlands) ca. 1335, died at Groenendaal on 22 January 1432. He studied from 1370 to 1374 at the University of Paris. Around 1377-78 he entered the Canons Regular of St Augustine at Groenendaal. Appointed prior around 1410, he remained in that office probably until his death.
He took an active part in the various changes in the statutes of his Congregation, which culminated in affiliation to the Chapter of Windesheim (1412). Given the esteem in which he was held by his confreres, he was entrusted with delivering the chapter sermon at Windesheim. The large number of manuscripts and his various works, as well as the influence he exerted on many writers, bore strong witness in his favour. His style is clear and lucid, yet impersonal, abstract, conventional, overburdened with quotations and biblical and patristic allusions. Full of common sense, G. tends toward practical and well-founded asceticism, shielded from any illusion. His treatises set forth the principles of a spirituality very close to that of the *Devotio moderna* and the *Imitation of Christ*. His asceticism is entirely traditional, somewhat rudimentary, somewhat obscure, steeped in a spirit of self-denial and contempt, as indicated by the title of one of his works, *De contemptu mundi*, in which everything strangely recalls the *Imitation*. The *Life of Ruysbroek*, certainly written by G., would have been lost had it not been almost entirely reproduced by Pomey. G.’s controversy against Gerson, who so unfortunately attacked Ruysbroek, is certainly a title to gratitude. Recent studies by Combes, though perhaps contrary to the author’s original intent, vindicate Ruysbroek and his first apologist.