CHAPTER SIXTEEN
THE MANUAL FOR THE YOUNG ONES BY JAN DE WAEL (1510): PASTORAL CARE FOR RELIGIOUS WOMEN IN THE LOW COUNTRIES
Sabrina Corbellini
Introduction
In 1510 Jan de Wael, or Johannes Gallicus, confessor the community of tertiaries St Agnes in Amersfoort started writing his masterpiece, the Informieringheboeck der jongen [= Manual for the Young Ones], a treatise in which the novices and the young professed sisters were “instructed and informed about how to outline a program and plan for their spiritual exercises according to the directives contained in all our other books.”1 Th e Manual for the Young Ones is a unique source which off ers a complete insight into the pastoral care and life of a female community in late medieval Low Countries. In spite of the importance of this text for the reconstruction of female spirituality under infl uence of the Modern Devotion, theManual for the Young Ones has been largely neglected by researchers until now. Th is first extensive analysis of the treatise will shed some light on the intended recipients of the treatise, the tertiaries of the convent of St Agnes in Amersfoort, and its author, Jan de Wael. Aft er a discussion of the posi- tion of the Manual in Jan de Wael’s textual production, this essay will investigate the educational project described in the Manual with a specifi c stress on the relevance of reading and writing activities for the spiritual development of the sisters.
1 Th e autograph manuscript of the Informieringhe der jongen is kept in the City Library (Stadsbibliotheek) of Haarlem (hereaft er Haarlem, SB), 187 D 11. 390 sabrina corbellini
Jan de Wael and the Convent of St Agnes in Amersfoort
Th e manuscript of the Manual for the Young Ones contains the owner- ship mark of the convent of tertiaries of St Agnes in Amersfoort and is signed on the last folio by Jan de Wael.2 Jan was confessor of the Amersfoort community in the diocese of Utrecht between 1489 and 1531. In the period when the Modern Devotion was sweeping through the diocese of Utrecht, the convent of St Agnes was founded in 1380 as a community of Sisters of Common Life and took on the Th ird Rule of St Francis in 1399. It was enclosed some years later. Th e convent was affi liated with the Chapter of Utrecht, a central organization of male and female communities following the Th ird Rule of St Francis led by a minister general, who was responsible for establishing uniformity in spiritual and practical life.3 Tertiaries did not belong to the sphere of infl uence of the Franciscans; but along with the houses of Brethrens and Sisters of Common Life and mon- asteries of Augustinian nuns, they were one of the manifestations of the Modern Devotion. Th e Chapter of Utrecht was offi cially “born” in Amersfoort in 1399: About Easter 1399 Willem Hendriksz of Amersfoort, Wermboud [van Boskoop] of Utrecht, Gijbert [Dou] of Amsterdam, Hugo [Goudsmit] of Haarlem, Pouwels Albertsz. of Medemblik and Herman of Gouda and some other priests held a gathering in Amersfoort. Th ey approved the decision of the aforementioned brothers to take the Th ird Rule of St. Francis, confi rmed by Pope Nicholas IV. Th ey also agreed to follow the statutes approved by Pope Boniface IX. Together with their profession, they were also allowed to take the vow of chastity. And in that year the Order of Penance following the Th ird Rule of St. Francis got off to its start in the diocese of Utrecht, for the glory of God and the redemption of souls.4
2 Haarlem, SB, 187 D 11, fol. 152r: “Dit informieringheboek hoert toe den besloeten susteren der derden orden sancti francisci van sanct Agnieten Convent tot Amers- foerdt. Salichlick. 1510.” Also Haarlem, SB, 187 D 11, fol. 172v: “Johannes Gallicus. Conventus sanctae Agnetis in Amersfordia.” 3 Th e history of the Th ird Order of St. Francis in the diocese Utrecht has been reconstructed in a research project at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, lead by prof. dr. Koen Goudriaan. Key publications on this subject have been published by the members of the research project in a thematic issue of Ons Geestelijk Erf 74–1/2 (2000) and Trajecta 14–2 (2005). See also Hildo van Engen, De derde orde van Sint-Franciscus in het middeleeuwse bisdom Utrecht. Een bijdrage tot de institutionele geschiedenis van de Moderne Devotie (Hilversum, 2006). 4 J. Kemperink, “Johan van Ingen: Geschiedenissen,” Archief voor de geschiedenis van het aartsbisdom Utrecht 74 (1957), 1–155, at 29–30.