10. Third Order Convents in Western Flanders: Varieties in Tertiary Observance

Koen Goudriaan

doi:10.54195/XFRB6134

10. Third Order Convents in Western Flanders: Varieties in Tertiary Observance

Authors

Koen Goudriaan

Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54195/XFRB6134_CH10

Synopsis

This chapter investigates, with recourse to a revelatory manuscript now kept in the State Archives of Bruges (Belgium), a group of Tertiary convents in Flanders with a peculiar spirituality that tried to strike a balance between labor and liturgical life, and that in contrast with other reformist congregations in the fifteenth-century Low Countries, such as the Observant Tertiary Chapters of Utrecht and Zepperen, steered away from religious book learning. It is a case study that shows the importance of recognizing the significant varieties in spirituality that could exist between otherwise comparable Observant groups.

Author Biography

Koen Goudriaan, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam

Koen Goudriaan is Professor Emeritus of Medieval History at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. His main field of interest is the religious history of the Low Countries during the Later Middle Ages. In particular, he focuses on the Devotio moderna, paying attention to both institutional and spiritual aspects and to the wider horizon of rival religious movements such as Observant franciscanism. He has published many essays and articles on late medieval religious life in the Low Countries, and is co-editor of the volume Piety in Practice and Print: Essays on the Late Medieval Religious Landscape (Hilversum: Verloren, 2016). Over the last decade he compiled a Digital Census: Monasteries in the Netherlands until 1800 (https://geoplaza.vu.nl/projects/kloosterlijst/en/).