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Gerard Groote
Netherland, 1340 –1384

13th Century Spiritual leader and Reformer before Luther

Founder of the ‘‘Brethren of the Common Life’ and the Modern Devotion [Devotio Moderna]
movement of the 14th Century.
The movement established hundreds of Houses for penitent and devout laity and also Monasteries and
Sister Houses from 1374 onward throughout northern Europe. The movement also established
Christian schools all over Netherlands and brought a great revival of true religion in Holland and
Germany.

Early Life
Gerard Groote (1340 –1384), (Gerrit or Gerhard Groet) was born at Deventer, Overijssel province,
Netherlands in October 1340. His father Werner die Groote was well-to-do businessman of Deventer
who later became Mayor of Deventer.
Losing both his parents, 1347-1351
The Black Plague epidemics swept Europe from1347 to 1351 killing an estimated 30 to 60 percent of
Europe’s population. Both his parents died due to the black plague when Gerard was young. [The
fourteenth century in Western Europe Netherlands was being plagued by floods, failed harvests, grain
speculation and continuous famines. It was followed by Black Plague epidemics 1347 to 1351]
University
He was raised by his uncle. At the age of 15 (1355) he was sent to Paris University where he
completed magister atrium (master of the liberal arts) in 1358. These included grammar, rhetoric,
logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. He then graduated in law, theology, medicine and
alchemy, completing all the courses that were offered.
Return to home, 1362
In 1362, he returned home to Deventer. The same year he was appointed teacher at the Deventer
chapter school. He was offered teaching jobs in many schools and Universities. He became a visiting
lecturer at the new University of Prague and Cologne. He also procured for himself the position of
Canon at St. Maarten Church in Utrecht and another in Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk in Aachen. These
two positions provided him a regular stipend of two hundred pounds a year which was a big sum in
those days. Groot now began to live a luxurious, secular and selfish life. For fourteen years, from his
twentieth to thirty-four years old, he lived the life of a wealthy and ambitious scholar. Groot say about
this period of his life ‘I had a wild and lawless life as a youth’.
Conversion, and Renunciation 1374
In1374, he became severely ill. At this point his fellow-student of Paris University, Henry Æger of
Calcar who was the prior of the Carthusian monastery in Monnikhuizen [near Arnhem] visited him
and convinced him that he should leave everything and serve Christ. Groot was deeply convicted and
decided to leave everything and follow Christ. At this point he had a Conversion experience (Born
again). Groot immediately gave up everything he possessed and began to follow Christ. He threw
away all his degree and honours. He gave up his two big stipends from the 2 churches. He then began
to live a penitential life (Life of repentance).
Giving up his house for widows, 1374
He gave his big house ( in 1374) he had inherited from his father at Deventer as a home for widows
and unmarried women. The women were encouraged to serve God without taking any religious vows.
Groot begins to seek God at a Monastery, 1374
Groot took the call of Jesus to the utmost seriousness. Many of his friends derided him but Groot was
determined to follow Christ at all cost. In 1374, he left all his teaching positions and moved to the
Carthusian monastery of Munnikhuizen near Arnhem. Here he stayed as a monk doing all the work
and duties as any other fulltime monk for three years 1374 until 1377. He paid for his boarding and
lodging. He not just fasted and prayed but spends whole nights in a kneeling or standing position,
under his robe on his bare body he will wear a 'hairy garment, full of knots and buttons', which he
would not take off until his death.

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Groote’s Resolutions and Rule for life
In a document that has been preserved: Conclusa et proposita, non vota, in nomine Domini a magistro
Gerardo edita (Resolutions and intentions, no vows, drawn up by Master Geert in the name of the
Lord), we can see his rule of life.
1. From now on no scientific titles and academic disputes for him, away with everything that strives
for honor and property.
2. From now on a life of fasting and self-denial, study of the Bible and the great Fathers of the
Church and the insight that "the science of all sciences is to know that one knows nothing."
Return to Deventer, 1377
In 1377, Geert Groote settled back in Deventer in the Bagijnenstraat. He made a trip to Paris only to
buy theological books for study and also with the aim of publishing them. His great vision was to
collect every good book which was very costly and rare in that age and to publish them with the aim
of making them available to the common people. On the trip back, he visited the Flemish mystic Jan
van Ruysbroec and established a relationship that would shape his own teachings on the devotional
life.
Groot begins his work as a public preacher,1379
At the age of 40, Groote began preaching in public. Crowds of people gathered to hear him in the
churches and churchyards where ever he preached. His meeting was advertised through posters and
the entire population of villages and towns came to his meetings without any thought of work or food.
His message was focussed on repentance and living a penitent life. People listened intently for two,
sometimes three consecutive hours to his preaching on repentance, and, when a second sermon was
announced on the same day, many waited so as not to lose their place, He called on people to repent
and learn about Jesus Christ. Thousands of people came to a personal relationship with Christ through
his preaching. Groote laboured in Deventer, Zwolle, Kampen and Zutphen , Amersfoort , Amsterdam,
Haarlem , Leiden , Delft , Gouda and Utrecht and other chief towns of the Netherlands. The next four
years saw him traveling and preaching regularly throughout the diocese.
Thousands of people get converted
Briefly formulated, the core of his message was as follows: Oh, sinful human being, you need to
mortify in this world, and live a dying life. Thousands of lives were completely changed through his
ministry.
Conversion of Knight Herman Sticken
Herman Sticken a prominent and mediating civilian of the small city Groenlo in “de Achterhoek”.
After a conversation with Geert Groote, probably in 1379, he repented, and started to live a new life.
He renounced his knighthood. Herman slept separate from his wife and did severe repentance for his
sins. He dressed in some kind of mail shirt with a hairy undergarment, walked barefoot, and scourged
himself often like he had seen others do it so many times during his youth. All his daughters went on
to serve God full time.
Groote’s core message
1. Groot called people to return to the Gospel of Matthew which he summarised as (1) Imitating the
example of Jesus (2) answer the call of Jesus to leave everything behind and choose for Him with
determination – (3) like Jesus, being prepared to endure persecution and suffering.
2. "Let the root of thy study," said Groote, "and the mirror of thy life be primarily the Gospel, for
therein is the life of Christ portrayed."
3. Every faithful person must always attempt to meet the word of the Gospel to live in poverty and
to fast in order to live a virtuous life in which one can make their own choices without
restrictions.
4. True religion consists of Evangelical simplicity and free will and not honor and coercion. External
piety combined with pompous church attendance and gifts are only illusion
Groot comes down heavily on wicked pastors, 1383
Groot attacked the pastors who were living in adultery and sin publicly calling them filthy dogs. Many
priests complained to the bishop about the attacks on them by Groote. Four years after Groote had
begun his public preaching a ban was promulgated forbidding him from preaching in Public.
Prominent Converts of Geert Groote
Florens Radewyns

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Florens Radewyns the canon of St. Peter's, Church Utrecht led a life of pleasure. He heard a , a
sermon of Gerard Groote and was Converted. Thereupon he resigned his canonry, placed himself
unreservedly under Groote's direction. He gave accommodation to a number of poor clerical scholars
of Deventer, and in his house the first community of the Brethren of the Common Life was formed.
They lived on the income of their book copying.
Hendrik Mande
Hendrik Mande was born in Dordrecht, Holland. While serving as a copyist in the court of Count
Willem, he heard the preaching of Geert Groote. Mande became a convert and joined Groote. About
1382, he moved to Deventer and then Zwolle, centers for the Brethren of the Common Life. In 1395
he joined the Congregation of Windesheim near Zwolle and became a canon, remaining there the rest
of his life.
The best of the young men join Groote and form a community
Hundreds of godly and devout people who were converted through Groote’s preaching. They gave up
everything joined Groote and banded themselves together into community which became the Brethren
of the Common Life. Like their founder they remained unmarried and Served God full time through
the Brethren of the Common life.
Groot devotes himself to writing and publishing books, 1383
In 1383, Groote settled down at Deventer, spending much time in the large house of Florens
Radewyns. (One of Groote closest disciple) Groot employed a number of young priests to copy
manuscripts. This work provided a good income to support a large number of young priests and his
followers.
Groot and his followers ministers to School boys staying in hostels
There were a number of school boys living in hostels and as paying guests in Deventer town. Many of
these boys struggled to pay their fees and maintain themselves. Groot ministred to largte number of
these boys by giving them manuscript copying work and providing them with cash which was
extremely useful for them to buy some necessities. He preached to these boys and a large number of
them became Priests and Church workers. Florens Radewyns and Henry Vopponis or
Voppenszn, a native of Gouda received a number schoolboys into his house in Zwolle. Thus
the main mission of Gerard Groot and his followers was to minister to the Spiritual and
physicals needs of School boys who were staying in Hostels in Deventer city for University
education. In 1391 the Brethren built the first Hostel to accomdate 20 boys in
Engelstraat.Later hundreds of Hostels were built. [Indeed, from the very beginning, he and
his confraters displayed a particular interest in the pupils of the city school, and immediately
devoted great care to them. Presently we shall examine more closely of what this care
consisted.]
The formation of the Brethren of Common Life
Florentius Radewyn Grootes closest disciple who had given his house for the work of God suggested
that the brothers should be united into a community. The brothers agreed to throw their earnings into a
common fund. Thus began the brethren of Common life.
The work of the Brethren
The main work which the brethren took up was copying books and manuscripts. At this age printing
was not yet invented and books had to multiplied by copying them by hand. The second main work
which the brethren took up was taking care of the thousands of school boys who came from various
villages and towns of Netherlands to Deventer city for higher studies. They cared for these school
boys as their own children arranging board and lodgings and even teaching and training for some
schoolboys. Like their founder, they renounced worldly goods and remained unmarried. They
supported the houses by their own toil. They also did gardening, making clothes and other
occupations pertaining to the daily life. Other societies were established after the model of the
Deventer house, at Zwolle, Delft, Liége, Ghent, Cologne, Münster, Marburg and Rostock, many of
them continuing strong till the Reformation.
Taking care of school boys and Building Hostels for them
There were thousands of school boys who came from various villages and towns of Netherlands to
Deventer city for higher studies The brethren found lodgings for many of the pupils of the city schools
with private individuals and received others into their own houses or, subsequently, hostels.

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According to Rudolf Dier in Florens Radewijns' time nearly every citizen of Deventer lodged a poor,
pious schoolboy and gave him a bed, beer and stew for the will of God. A tailor, Lambert of Galen,
who worked for the Brothers had always eight poor scholars in his house, sent to him by the Brethren
of the Florens' house, as were those in the other houses in the town. Lambert van Galen built a room
for these poor lads to eat in. And yet this Lambert had almost nothing but his house and the work of
his hands! Apart from these poor scholars he also took in three or four rich and paying young men.
The tailor now and then spoke words of encouragement to the boys, and the priest-brothers (fratres
presbiteri) of the Florens' house also ate sometimes with the poor. The noble lady Bye of Dussen
constantly had eight poor pious scholars in her house, sent from the Florens' house. She offered beds,
food and drink for the morning and in addition an evening meal (prandium) once a week. She had a
very devoted helper who entered the Master Geerts' house after the death of the noble lady. Rembert,
dean of St. Lebuin, took in six boys, sent to him by the Brethren. He provided complete board and
lodgings and in addition outer clothing. They did not eat at table with the dean but there was reading
aloud.
Lambert of Tielt who dedicated his whole life for school boys
At the age of 23, Lambert of Tielt (of Flanders, † 1466) abandoned his studies and offered himself to
the Lord and to the Brothers, in order to serve the schoolboys in the new house ( A Hostel built by the
brethren exclusively for the school boy) , by instructing them in school subjects and good morals and
by providing them with the necessary bedding and other things. He cared for these boys like a mother,
and especially for the poor and sick.
The spread of the sister houses
In 1374, Gerard Groot gave his large house in Deventer city to be a home for Widows and single
women to live in dignity and Serve God without taking any vows. They were support themselves by
working. About 16 women lived in this house and it evolved into a Community of the Sister of
Common life.
John Brinckerinck, who had been appointed by the Magistrates to succeed John van de Gronde in
1392, attracted many girls to the Master Geert's house by his goodness and austerity, by his preaching
Groote's house soon proved too small to contain all the aspirants. There was only room for 16 sisters,
8 in the back premises and 8 in the stone house. He advised those who could not be accommodated to
go and live together somewhere in the city and thus constitute the beginnings of a new House.
Through Groote’s preaching hundreds of women were converted in various places. Many women left
their false and evil life and turned to the Lord. Besides many chaste widows wanted to serve God as
Nuns. These were people from all classes of society: aristocratic young widows like Zwedera von
Runen, Jutte von Ahaus and Asebe Hasenbroecks of Oldenzaal, alongside daughters of poor mothers.
For the Aristcartic ladies ladies the first women’s monastery with rule was founded in 1400 in
Diepenveen. A new Home outside Deventer was built occupied by sisters of the Master Geert's house
and others, and for another 6 years a house for Sisters of the Common Life. It became in 1407 a
convent of Regular Canonesses and was incorporated in the congregation of Windesheim.
At the end of the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries such houses, congregations of
women who ultimately became Sisters of the Common Life, sprang up from the ground like
mushrooms. At the death of John Brinckerinck, however, in 1419, the numbers had already risen to
150, In the middle of the century it housed 500 Sisters, so that an annex had to be built at Vught,
intended for 200 persons. This movement expanded rapidly. It counted 40 to 50 houses in 1424, 70
in1439 with a total of 3,000 monastics, and by 1470 there were no less than 82.
Second branch of the brethren the Canons Regular
At the close of his life he was asked by some of the clerics who attached themselves to him to form
them into a religious order and Groote resolved that they should be Canons Regular of St. Augustine.
Groote was greatly attracted by the rule and life of the Augustinian Canons. No time was lost in the
effort to carry out the project, but Groote died before a foundation could be made. His successor
Florence Radwyn carried out this project and it grew into largest order with about 100 monasteries all
over Netherlands and Germany. The first monastery was built in Windsheim, Zwolle on the Issel in
1386. It grew rapidly under Johann Vos, the second prior (1391-1424), under whom the number of
religious was greatly increased and many foundations were made. By 1407 the congregation
numbered twelve monasteries. When the Windsheim Congregation reached the height of its prosperity

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towards the end of the fifteenth century, it numbered eighty-six houses of canons, and sixteen of nuns,
mostly situated in what is now the kingdom of Holland, and in the ecclesiastical Province of Cologne.
Groote dies at the prime of his life
On August the 20th, 1384, Gerrard groot passed away in his house of birth due to a Black Plague-
related infection. He caught this disease during visiting an ill friend. Geert was only 44 years old.
Making books available to the common people
One of the major work of the Brethren of common life was helping people to learn. In the 13 th century
it was very hard for common people to buy books. The brethren of common life built libraries and
made costly and precious Christian books available so that the common people can have their own
religious works to read and learn off.
Starting schools and teaching at school
The brethren of Common life took up the work of conducting schools as their main mission. Jan
Cele, Gerard's personal friend, founded the first "secondary school" organised on modern principles:
Not only did the Brothers, have their own schools. They labored also in schools already established.
Long lists of the teachers are still extant. Their school at Herzogenbusch had at one time 1200
scholars, and put Greek into its course at its very start, 1424. The school at Liége in 1524 had 1600
scholars. The school at Deventer acquired a place among the notable grammar schools of history, and
trained Martin Luther, Nicolas of Cusa, Thomas à Kempis, John Wessel and Erasmus, who became an
inmate of the institution, 1474, and learned Greek from one of its teachers, Synthis. By the start of the
sixteenth century, almost everyone in that part of Europe had gone to a school that was created by the
Sisters and Brethren of the Common Life (Dr. Sunshine).
Public preaching
The priests of the Brethren engaged in public preaching in the vernacular, and the collations, or
expositions of Scripture, given to private circles in their own houses. Groote went to the Scriptures, so
Thomas à Kempis says, as to a well of life. Of John Celle, d. 1417, the zealous rector of the Zwolle
school, the same biographer writes: "He frequently expounded to the pupils the Holy Scriptures,
impressing upon them their authority and stirring them up to diligence in writing out the sayings of
the saints.
His message
‘What I always preach almost everywhere is that we must constantly remember the suffering of our
Lord Jesus Christ and live it in our life, and not only through contemplation, but through surrendered
imitation of his penance, reproach and sorrows’. For Groote, the focus of the imitation is not in
humbly accepting the fate that has been imposed on us, but in the imposition of penances and,
austerities and chastisements.
Groote on suffering and punishment
Groote message to people was that insult, scorn, injustice, and sorrow must be endured out of love
and veneration to and imitation of Jesu Christi, without thinking of merit and reward. We must take
up suffering and punishment all our lives in wholesome penitence out of love and desire to make
amends for the divine justice that we have offended in so many things and that leaves no sin
unpunished. And that miraculously helps to deliver punishment, especially those which God permits
and sends upon us can discharge a great punishment in purgatory where we are forced to suffer. But
they are more profitable when they are accepted to carry out divine justice and the divine will than
when they are borne merely as a remission of punishment. "
His teachings on Marriage
According to Groote there are two lawful motives for marriage: the procreation of children and the
avoidance of fornication. But Groote’s says that marriage is an insufficient means of quenching the
fires of lust. The struggle remains; but no matter what, marriage for the avoidance of fornication
remains a sin, albeit venial sin. Also, he says that other motives, such as the desire for an heir or to
preserve the family name conflict with this strict intention and so render the marriage unlawful. In the
procreation of children for its own sake there is the inherent danger of bringing a number of bad
children into the world. Marriage for the gratification of the senses is mortal sin since in this manner
the sacrament is misused. The man must certainly abstain from the marriage act if the woman is
pregnant or barren.
His clothing and lifestyle

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He slept on a handful of straw or on the bare planks of wood, wore shoes without soles and patched
clothes and underneath a hairy garment or even an iron armor, and whipped himself and at times his
children to kill the sin in them. He was always driven by "divine fear," "the fear of the Lord."He was
accustomed to eat once a day; to take seven hours sleep, not to eat away from the house, to invite the
poor to his table and sometimes one or two lonely burghers. Groote wore grey, hard, old and worn-out
clothes and a patched cloak like the beggars; a scandal for the rich but an example for the devout and
a holy memory for those who came after. Groote did all this in penance for wearing luxurious clothing
in his former life.