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The Brethren of the Common Life (Latin: Fratres Vitae Communis, FVC) was a Roman Catholic pietist religious community founded in the Netherlands in the 14th century by Gerard Groote, formerly a successful and worldly educator who had had a religious experience and preached a life of simple devotion to Jesus Christ. They believed that Christianity should be practiced not only in formal religious settings, but also in everyday life, and they sought to promote a practical spirituality that emphasized personal piety and devotion.
Without taking up irrevocable vows, the Brethren or Sisters banded together in communities, giving up their worldly goods to live chaste and strictly regulated lives in common houses, devoting every waking hour to attending divine service, reading and preaching of sermons, labouring productively such as by copying manuscripts, and taking meals in common that were accompanied by the reading aloud of Scripture: "judged from the ascetic discipline and intention of this life, it had few features which distinguished it from life in a monastery", observes Hans Baron,[1] yet still interacting with the wider community to a certain extent. The Brethren were specially involved in youth education, running or chaplaining many schools and associated hostels. Priests in a brotherhouse would become confessors for the neighbouring sisterhouse.
The Brethren of the Common Life were an important religious movement of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and their emphasis on education, personal piety, and social justice had a profound influence on the religious and intellectual culture of Europe.[2] Over time, the communities took on a more conventional monastic character as observantist canons, monks and nuns.
- ^ Hans Baron, "Fifteenth century civilisation and the Renaissance", in The New Cambridge Modern History, vol. I (1957:64).
- ^ Engen, John Van (March 20, 2014). Sisters and Brothers of the Common Life: The Devotio Moderna and the World of the Later Middle Ages (The Middle Ages Series). ISBN 978-0812223071.