Verkloostering in het vijftiende-eeuwse ’s-Hertogenbosch

Samenvatting

Monasticism in Fifteenth-century ’s-Hertogenbosch

In ’s-Hertogenbosch in the thirteenth and fourteenth century, monasteries functioned according to a prescribed rule within a recognized order: the Wilhelmites, Franciscans, Dominicans and Clares. Besides these four, various groups of religiously committed individuals without rule and order had settled in town, namely the Beguines, Beghards, and the Hospice Sisters. In 1335, the first Cellite Sisters or Zwesteren also came to the city, and a short time later the Cellite Brothers or Lollards followed them. Their embedding in the church hierarchy, however, was often unclear. They lived according to their own customs and regulations. Some of these communities associated with an authorized rule, indeed, the Third Order of Saint Francis proved very suitable for them. Under pressure from outside, the Beghards accepted this Third Rule between 1333 and 1335.

In the years around 1400, monastic life in the city developed in a way that had far-reaching consequences. The women who joined in new semi-religious communities were not officially incorporated into the ecclesiastical structures. Some of them lived according to the Third Rule of Saint Francis or Saint Dominic. New communities, with the principles of devotio moderna (modern devotion) as a guide, arrived in the city. A sisters’ convent was built around 1410, a brothers’ convent was built from about 1425. The first inhabitants were trained in the region of origin of this movement. The residents in these ‘Houses of the Common Life’ did not live under a religious rule but according to statutes and were not part of a major organization.

The ideas of devotio moderna spread over a wide region and affected existing monasteries by a return to the basic principles of their rule. Independent communities were brought under control of an Order or the bishop within a short time. Between 1464 and 1470 in ’s-Hertogenbosch, six communities developed into convents and monasteries as a result of accepting or strictly maintaining a recognized rule, but each went at its own pace and possibilities.

In 1470, a new and stricter rule in the Beghards’ community led to a split with the modernists, who wanted to replace the Third Rule of Saint Francis by the stricter regime of the Crosiers. They were eventually thrown out and had to establish a new monastery elsewhere in the city. The sisters, who lived in the Papenhulst at the end of the fourteenth century, chose almost immediately to live according to this rule of Saint Francis. They acquired a residence behind the Toll Bridge after a short stay at the Windmolenberg. There, they developed a real monastery in 1469 with the construction of a chapel. The tertiaries of Uilenburg experienced a similar development in that year, which culminated in the construction of a monastery in the years 1488-1491. The Dominican Third Rule sisters disappeared in the middle of the fifteenth century. The tertiaries living since 1475 on the Eikendonk were tertiaries from their very beginning.

In 1464, the Zwesteren officially chose the rule of Saint Augustine, which they already followed in practice, but so far with the permission of private property. A further move towards a monastery followed in 1477, including chapel rights in 1514. Immediately after, the Cellite Brothers also accepted the rule of Saint Augustine. While the sisters were subordinate to the bishop, the brothers were under the direct authority of the Order of the Cellites. The Mary Magdalene Sisters, who had settled around 1430 in the city, subjected themselves in 1466 to Augustine’s rule in their new enclosure at the Windmolenberg and under the name of the Sisters of Bethany. In 1488 the Vught sisters joined them. The Sisters of St. Gertrude took over the remnants of a moribund Dominican Third Order convent and from the middle of the fifteenth century formed the only monastery that from the outset lived totally according to Saint Augustine’s rule.