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Piebenga Gozewijn Comhaer, Carthusian and Modern Devout

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Piebenga Gozewijn Comhaer, Carthusian and Modern Devout WESSEL GANSFORT (1419-1489) AND NORTHERN HUMANISM EDITED BY F. AKKERMAN, G. C. HUISMAN AND A.J. VANDERJAGT RG • BIBL - ANTW IIIIIII II IIIIII IIII IIII IIII IIII IIII IIII II IIIIII Ill l/1111 03 05 0004085 9 I. Portrait of Wessel Gansfort in Effig;i,es & vitae Professorum Academiae Groningae & Omlandiae, Groningen 1654. EJ. BRILL LEIDEN · NEW YORK · KOLN 1993 The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. CONTENTS Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wessel Gansfort (1419-1489) and northern humanism/ edited by F. Plates vu Akkerman, G. C. Huisman, and A. J. Vanderjagt. Preface : . ix p. cm. - (Brill's studies in intellectual history, ISSN Contributors xiii 0920-8607 ; v. 40) Selection of papers presented at a conference convened at Groningen in the summer of I 989. Includes bibliographical references and index. PART ONE ISBN 9004098577 I. Gansfort, Wessel, 1419-1489-Congresses. 2. Devotio moderna• WESSEL GANSFORT AND HIS FAM.E -lnfluence-Congresses. 3. Humanism-Congresses. I. Akkerman, Fokke. II. Huisman, Gerda C. III. Vanderjagt, Arie Johan. 1. Wessel Gansfort's rise to celebrity IV. Series. C. AUGUSTIJN . 3 B785.G254W47 1993 2. A commemorative mass for Wessel Gansfort 189'.4-dc20 93-12963 CIP F. BAKKER ······················································································· 23 3. Gansfort between Albertism and Nominalism H.A.G. BRAAKHUIS ······································································ 30 4. Wessel Gansforts Stellungnahme zum vita Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme activa - vita contemplativa-Problem: De stabilitate meditationum et modo figendi meditationes, Buch 1 Wessel Gansfort (1419-1489) and Northern humanism/ ed. by (mit kritischer Textausgabe von Scala meditationis, F. Akkerman. - Leiden; New York; Kain: Brill, 1993 Buch 1, capp. 1- 7) (Brill's studies in intellectual history ; Vol. 40) ISBN 90-04-0985 7- 7 K.A.E. ENENKEL ··········································································· 44 NE: Akkerman, F. [Hrsg.]; GT 5. Albertistae, thomistae und nominales: die ·philosophisch- historischen Hintergrunde der Intellektlehre des Wessel. Gansfort (tl489) MJ.F.M. HOENEN ······································································· 71 6. Wessel Gansfort: Magister contradictionis ISSN 0920-8607 ISBN 90 04 0985 7 7 H.A. OBERMAN ············································································· 97 7. Wessel Gansfort and Cornelis Hoen's Epistola © Copyright 1993 by E.]. Brill, Leiden, 1he Netherlands christiana: 'The ring as a pledge of my love' BJ. SPRUYT ····················································································· 122 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in 8. Among the good teachers: Melanchthon on a retrieval system, or transmitted in any farm or by any means, electronic, Wessel Gansfort mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publisher. D. VISSER ························································································· 142 Authorization to photocopy items far internal or personal use is granted by E.]. Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to Copyright Clearance Center, 2 7 Congress Street, Salem .MA 01970, USA. Fees are subject to change. PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS d1BU0Tt1EEK VAN HET GOZEWIJN COMHAER 181 G.A. PIEBENGA GOZEWIJN COMHAER - CARTHUSIAN AND MODERN DEVOUT1 ~oil Some years ago the writer of this article was astonished to read in a book on the history of Iceland in the late Middle Ages, that one of the bishops on this remote island in the fifteenth century, Gozewijn Comhaer, was of Dutch origin. That the two sees of Iceland - Skalholt in the south and H6lar in the north - were not always occupied by Icelanders but often by Danes or Nor• wegians and occasionally by a Swede or an Englishman was well• known. New, however, was the fact that a Dutchman had filled the post of bishop. It was unexpected moreover, because in Gozewijn Comhaer's time - the first half of the fifteenth century - there was surely no contact between Iceland and the Low Countries worth mentioning. Amazement generally breeds curiosity, and in turn curiosity • Zelem provides a motive to set up an investigation. The investigation uncovered the fact that there was no question of a discovery. It appeared that others had been surprised before that the Carthu• sian monk Gozewijn Comhaer from Deventer had been bishop • Grande Chartreuse of Skalholt for about nine years. Some, to wit W. Moll, a well• known church historian, and HJ J. Scholtens, an expert on the Carthusian order, had even made a study of him.2 This did not necessarily mean that things could be left as they were and that Gozewijn need not be brought into the limelight once more. After all, articles are like so many other things: as time passes they age and require a face-lift. Certain errors can be corrected and newly acquired knowledge can be added. Moreover, there can be a shift of emphasis and subjects of secondary importance in previous studies can be highlighted. This article will give special consideration to the question of how II. Gozewijn Comhaer's Europe. it happened that Gozewijn - judging by a letter of indulgence that he granted in the later years of his life - felt such a strong sympathy for the ideas of the Modern Devotion. 1 2 I wish to thank Mieke van der Leij for the English translation of this paper. Moll, 'Gozewijn Comhaer' (1880); Scholtens, 'Gozewijn Comhair' (1926). 182 G.A. PIEBENGA GOZEWIJN COMHAER 183 Deventer, ea. 13 75 -1400 of Gozewijn's father, Gerrit Comhaer. Gerrit himself, however, was not a member of the movement, but he was sympathetic to Gozewijn Comhaer was born in about 1375 in Deventer.3 His it and several times gave it financial assistance. father, Gerrit Comhaer, was a goldsmith and banker by profes• Besides meeting Johan ter Poerten, Gozewijn certainly came sion, and he ranked as one of the leading citizens of Deventer. into contact with other followers of the Modern Devotion. He This Gerrit Comhaer also had municipal duties for a while. At may have attended the Brothers' meetings on Sundays or on the end of the fourteenth century he had been commissioned weekday evenings. These edifying meetings were especially in• by the bishop of Utrecht, Frederik van Blankenheim, to handle tended for the students who stayed at the boarding schools run the financial administration of Salland, the region to the north of the river IJssel. by the Brothers, but others were welcome. It was of course the Brothers' concern to spread the message.4 We do not know how Gozewijn spent his boyhood, but we may The movement must have influenced Gozewijn considerably. assume that as a child of wealthy parents he was given a good This we can conclude from the fact that he chose to apply for education. In his spare time he certainly must have played with a place in the monastery at Windesheim instead of continuing friends in the inner city of Deventer and wandered about on the his studies or taking over his father's business. So it must have banks of the IJssel river. He will have watched the ships sailing been a disappointment for him to have had his application turned by with interest. Deventer was in his youth a major junction on down. The reason why Gozewijn was refused admittance was his both the east-west and the south-north trade routes. There was wealthy background. There was nothing left for him to do but a brisk trade especially with Germany and the Scandinavian to return home! countries, so the boy Gozewijn will have heard several other languages spoken besides his native tongue. Deventer in the fourteenth century was a flourishing city not Z' elem, 1400-1415 only in the material sense but also in the cultural. Young men Gozewijn did not stay long in Deventer, for in 1400 we meet him came from far and wide to the city on the IJssel to be educated again in a monastery of the Carthusian order in Zelem near Diest at the Latin school. One of them was Thomas a Kempis, who, in Belgian Limburg. He may have tried to apply for a place in we assume, was the author of De imitatione Christi. He was born a monastery closer to home first, but it is possible that he went in 1379 or 1380 and so was about the same age as Gozewijn, but directly to Zelem. It was common knowledge that the monastery there is no record that the two were acquainted. there accommodated monks from well-to-do families. So Gozewijn Gozewijn was growing up as the movement of the Modern had no reason to fear a rejection of the kind he had undergone Devotion appeared on the scene. Geert Grote, who was most at Windesheim. effective in getting the movement going, died in 1384, but his There is another reason why Gozewijn turned to a Carthusian ideas were further propagated by his followers. These followers, monastery, when the possibility of entering Windesheim was no the so-called Devouts, pursued a devout and virtuous life. Some longer open. This was the close affinity the Carthusians had to of them - the Brothers and Sisters of the Common Life - lived the Modern Devouts. Geert Grote had developed the ideas that in communal houses. Others led a more contemplative life in became characteristic of the Modern Devotion during a stay in the monastery at Windesheim which was intended for men or a Carthusian monastery. When his followers founded the in the one at Diepenveen for women. monastery at Windesheim, they based their code of order on the Gozewijn must have often seen the Brothers and Sisters walking Carthusian one. about in their simple and rather sober clothing, and at his parents' In the years following his profession, Gozewijn led a secluded house he certainly met Johan ter Poerten, one of their leaders. life. He spent most of the day in his cell or apartment.
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