1 - Introduction

Summary

When Women apply themselves devoutly they often receive more grace and stand in greater favour with God than men do.’ Johannes (or Jan) ‘Brinckerinck (†1419), whose words these are, knew what he was talking about. He devoted his entire life to the pastoral care of women. Brinckerinck was one of the pioneers of the Modern Devotion (Devotio Moderna), the spiritual reform movement which flourished in the late medieval Low Countries and which profoundly influenced religious life in northwestern Europe. The Modern Devotion provided an opportunity for a large number of women who wished to adopt a spiritual lifestyle. They found in Johannes Brinckerinck one of their most fervent advocates. Brinckerinck did his utmost to teach the numerous female followers of the Modern Devotion how they could give expression to the communal life that his movement advocated. The acquisition of such Christian virtues as obedience and humility was, in his view, their most important task. The sisterbooks kept by the sisters that have survived from a number of institutions under his leadership show, via the lives or viten of dozens of pious sisters, how this spirituality of humility – ootmoed was the term preferred by the Modern Devout – was to be put into practice. These viten lead one to suspect that the spiritual ideal which Johannes Brinckerinck held up to them was very much in keeping with the needs shared by many women.

Brinckerinck urged the nuns to apply themselves in their youthful years to keeping a book of virtues, so that they might read from it later in life. This practice is a characteristic one, not only because followers of the Modern Devotion stressed virtuousness, but also because books and writing played an important role in their spiritual life. Some female members of the movement followed Johannes Brinckerinck's advice literally. They applied themselves to writing spiritual texts in which the theme of virtuousness was often discussed. Most of these authors followed closely the lead provided by their founder. Only Alijt Bake of Ghent consciously departed from this path. She had personal experience of the divine blessing which according to Johannes Brinckerinck fell more often to women than to men, and she wrote candidly about it.