8 - Alijt Bake, a Woman with a Mission

Summary

If there was any nun in the Chapter of Windesheim who made a iconscious choice for this order in particular, it was Alijt Bake (†1455). She entered the convent of Galilea in Ghent at a relatively late age, and once there began to have serious doubts about the wisdom of her decision. Ultimately the religious atmosphere of the Modern Devotion and the Windesheim lifestyle must have seemed ideal in her eyes for realising a deep interior spiritual life. Bake remained at Galilea and was elected prioress by her fellow sisters in 1445. It was then that the path lay open to her to expand opportunities for the mystic life – which to her represented the highest ideal – at Galilea. But in 1455 the Chapter General of Windesheim intervened heavy-handedly: Bake was deposed and banished. Ultimately, then, the Chapter of Windesheim did not meet Bake's expectations at all; it would not give her the space she demanded.

To Bake reading, and later writing, was almost a matter of life and death. Even in her early years she was capable of intense concentration when it came to religious works. Books were for her the means to learn about the experiences of her great spiritual predecessors. As Bake gained greater insight into spiritual matters and her own special vocation, she began writing herself. At first her notes were meant just for herself. They helped her understand what was going on around her and God's intentions for her. Once she had become prioress, Bake began to write down her spiritual doctrine for the benefit of her fellow sisters. That Bake wrote so exhaustively concerning her interior life was clearly not well received by the authorities of the Chapter of Windesheim. It was in the year of her death that the ‘prohibition against writing’ was issued, forbidding nuns to write down visions and similar experiences.

This chapter is primarily concerned with the role spiritual literature played in the life of Alijt Bake, and only analysis of her teachings, relevant in that context, will be brought into the discussion. The chapter begins with a sketch of Bake's life; this is brief, as this is widely available in other places (§8.1). Following this we shall examine the way Bake approached the literary tradition (§8.2). Her personal contribution to spiritual literature will receive the greatest attention.