GIOVANNI di SCHOONHOVEN. – Mystical theologian, born in the village of Schoonhoven (Gouda, Netherlands) around 1335, died at Groenendaal on 22 January 1432. He studied at the University of Paris from 1370 to 1374. Around 1377–78 he entered the Canons Regular of St Augustine at Groenendaal. Appointed prior around 1410, he probably remained in this office until his death.
He took an active part in the various changes to the statutes of his Congregation, which culminated in its affiliation with the Chapter of Windesheim (1412). In view of the esteem in which he was held by his confrères, he was entrusted with delivering the chapter sermon at Windesheim. The large number of manuscripts and of his various works, and the influence he exerted on many writers, bear ample witness in his favor. His style is limpid and clear, but impersonal, abstract, conventional, overloaded with biblical and patristic quotations and allusions. Full of common sense, G. tended toward practice and well-founded asceticism, safe from every kind of illusion. His treatises set forth the principles of a spirituality very close to that of the Devotio moderna and the Imitation of Christ. G.’s asceticism is entirely traditional, somewhat rudimentary, somewhat obscure, wholly imbued with 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 be lost had it not been taken up almost in its entirety by Pomezio. G.’s controversy against Gerson, who so unfortunately attacked Ruysbroek, is certainly a title to gratitude. Combes’s recent studies, although perhaps contrary to the author’s original intention, vindicate Ruysbroek and his first apologist.