ZWOLLE. - A Dutch city (in 1952 it had approx. 45,000 inhabitants, more than half of whom were Catholic), renowned for the house that the Congregation of Windesheim (q.v.) had there (14th–16th centuries).
Even during the lifetime of Gerard Groote (q.v.), some of his “converts” (Johannes de Ummen and others) had gathered in a house in Zwolle. To satisfy their desire for a more secluded life, Groote assigned them a house on the Nemelberg near Zwolle, where they lived in community without a monastic rule. To be more regularly organized, they affiliated with an existing community. The second foundation in the spirit of Groote was begun by Meynoldus of Windesheim, a citizen of Zwolle, who wished to found a “Domus fratrum” similar to that in Deventer. His negotiations with Florens Radewijns led to affiliation with the Congregation of Windesheim (q.v.), founded in 1387; the result was the “Capitulum canonicorum de Windesheim.”
Gerard Scadde, trained in the novitiate of Deventer, was the first rector (1386). The house in Zwolle, called Agnietenberg, distinguished itself despite its small numbers and great material difficulties, through the excellence of its school, its intense interior life, and its direct apostolate. Under the rector Dietrich of Herxen (q.v.), the house in Zwolle became in fact the principal center of the Congregation. It sheltered various notable figures who exercised great influence within and beyond the Order, such as Mauburnus, Thomas à Kempis, and Johannes Cele. Severely shaken by the “Reformation,” it was overwhelmed (1570) by the disasters of the age, partly occasioned by the erection of new bishoprics.