GOCH (CAPUPPER), JOHANNES PUPPER da. - Moral-ascetical writer, born at the beginning of the 15th century at Goch (Lower Rhine). For many years he directed the Thabor monastery of the Sisters of S. Agostino, near Mecheln (Netherlands). Nothing is known of the studies he pursued or whether he belonged to a religious Order.
He wrote De libertate Christiana (1473); Epistola apologetica super doctrina doctorum scholasticorum; Dialogus de quattuor erroribus circa evangelicam legem exortis. After his death these writings were published with a preface by the humanist supporter of the reformers C. Grapaus. His book In divinae gratiae et Christianae fidei commendationem fragmenta aliquot was published without place or date by Martino Lutero, who praises the author in the preface as «vere Germanus et gnesios theologus».
The Index of Prohibited Books of the Council of Trent lists J. da G. among prohibited writers, undoubtedly more because of the prefaces of the editors than because of the author’s doctrine, for he wrote as a Catholic. Protestants wrongly included him among the «pre-Reformers». He seems only to have defended the idea that vows based on the evangelical counsels, although meritorious, have no foundation in Holy Scripture.