ZWOLLE. - Dutch city (in 1952 it had about 45,000 inhabitants, of whom more than half were Catholics), famous for the house that the Congregation of Windesheim (v.) had there (14th-16th centuries).
Already while Gerard Groote (v.) was alive, some of his "converts" (Johannes de Ummens and others) joined together in a house in Z. To satisfy their desire for a more retired life, Groote assigned them a house on the Nemeierberg near Z., where they led a common life without a monastic rule. In order to be organized more regularly, 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 found a "Domus fratrum" analogous to that of Deventer. His negotiations with Florens Radewijns led to affiliation with the Congregation of Windesheim (v.), founded in 1387; from this resulted the "Capitulum canonicorum de Windesheim."
Gerard Scadde, trained in the novitiate of Deventer, was the first rector (1386). The house of Z., called Agnietenberg, asserted itself despite its small number and great material difficulties, through the value of its school, its intense interior life and its direct apostolate. Under the rector Theodore of Herxen (v.) the house of Z. became in fact the principal center of the Congregation. It hosted various celebrated men, who had much influence within the Order and outside it, such as Mauburnus, Thomas a Kempis, Johannes Cele. Strongly shaken by the "reformation," it was overwhelmed (1570) by the calamities of the times, in part occasioned by the erection of new bishoprics.