2 - Aspects of Life in the Convent

Summary

On 4 September 1412 an eminent company from the county of Holland arrived at the new convent in Diepenveen. Its most important members were the Lady van Heenvliet, her niece Katharina van Naaldwijk, Joost Claesz – later Johannes Brinckerinck's successor as prior of Diepenveen, but at that time still procurator of the Windesheim monastery of Rugge, near Brielle – and the Heenvliet family chaplain. The eighteen-year-old Katharina had had to travel incognito because of the very real threat of abduction. Her father, Lord Hendrik van Naaldwijk, was marshall to the count of Holland, Albrecht of Bavaria. Katharina was thus an exceptionally attractive marriage prospect. She, however, had chosen the heavenly groom, a choice which her parents, pious as they were, had approved, however much it pained them. Katharina passed up a splendid position in the world for a life of poverty, obedience and loneliness.

The conversion of the noblewoman Katharina van Naaldwijk made quite an impact at the convent of Diepenveen too. It was not just her conversion, but also the way she put her religious ideal into practice that evoked great admiration. It is partially on account of this that the biography of her and her sister Griete is one of the most detailed and thorough in the Diepenveen sisterbook. This combined biography is therefore exceptionally well suited to serve as the guide for an introduction to life in a Windesheim convent. In what follows, I offer an overview of the persons who lived there and the most important functions that had to be carried out (§2.1). Next are described the three stages that a novice nun had to complete (§2.2). Special attention is given to the education and the training of the Windesheim novice (§2.3), and finally we shall consider how life in the convent was structured temporally (§2.4).

The Inhabitants of the Convent

The thirteen nunneries that were admitted to the Chapter of Windesheim were already unique for that fact alone, but there is more reason to regard this group as an elite. The Windesheim convents boasted among their inmates a considerable number of daughters from high noble circles. This was the case, for example, at Onze Lieve Vrouw in Renkum, founded in 1405 by Reinald IV, duke of Guelders, and patronised thereafter by him and his successor, Arnold II.