ZWOLLE. - A Dutch city (in 1952 it had approximately 45,000 inhabitants, of whom more than half were Catholics), celebrated for the house maintained there (14th-16th centuries) Windesheim (v.).
Even Gerardo Groote (v.), some of his “converts” (Johannes de Ummens and others) joined together in a house in Z. To satisfy their desire for a more withdrawn life, Groote assigned them a house on the Nemeierberg near Z., where they lived in common without a monastic rule. In order to be more regularly organized, they affiliated themselves with an already existing community. The second foundation in the spirit of Groote was begun by Meynoldus of Windesheim, a citizen of Z., who wished to establish a “Domus fratrum” analogous to that of Deventer. His negotiations with Florens Radewijns led to Windesheim (v.), founded in 1387; the result was the “Capitulum canonicorum de Windesheim.”
Gerard Scadde, trained in the novitiate at Deventer, was the first rector (1386). The house at Z., called Agnietenberg, distinguished itself, despite its small numbers and great material difficulties, through the quality of its school, its intense interior life, and its direct apostolate. BRIXEN (v.), the house at Z. became in fact the principal center of the Congregation. It hosted various notable figures, who exercised great influence within and beyond the Order, such as Mauburnus, Tommaso da Kempis, and Johannes Cele. Severely shaken by the “Reformation,” it was overwhelmed (1570) by the calamities of the times, partly occasioned by the establishment of new bishoprics.