The IJssel River: a cradle of spirituality

Starting a new series by Srajan, Seekers from the Low Lands: Geert Groote, Thomas a Kempis and various 14th century Christian communities in the Netherlands

1799 Clement Cruttwell Map of Holland — Detail of a 1799 map of Batavia or the United Dutch States (now the Netherlands) by the map publisher Clement Cruttwell. Click on image to see full map. Credit to commons.wikimedia.org

While spending a few days in Zutphen to look after my daughter Marita’s cat while she is camping with her husband Niels in Sweden, I am slowly, slowly being caught by the atmosphere of this old, medieval city. It enchants me, and brings up all kinds of stuff, both wondrous and disconcerting, as if I had known this place long ago.

In the eighties, shortly after taking sannyas from Osho in Poona, I visited this area several times, mainly when I lived in the Osho commune in Arnhem, the town where the IJssel River (pronounced a bit like ‘Icel’) splits off from the Rhine. In Zutphen, which lies just about 30 km upstream from Arnhem, there was a small community of sannyasins, lovers and friends of Osho. Then, Garimo’s father, Paritosh, lived in the city of Bronkhorst which was also close by. We would often gather at his place to listen to Osho’s video discourses. (Bronkhorst is the smallest city in the Netherlands, with only a few houses and a café, which can boast genuine city rights.)

I remember, when I lived at Veeresh’s place, the Humaniversity (called Grada Rajneesh at the time), I made friends with a loud, rebellious, guy, called Asmito. He had a history of drug abuse and was happy to be part of this crazy therapeutic centre. He told me he once had gotten into a fight in a bar and in a fit of insanity had grabbed a knife and killed someone, stabbing him in the back. So it came as quite a shock to me, when friends from Zutphen told me he had hanged himself there in a public park.

In Poona I had relished the Tai Chi classes in Buddha Hall with Mallika. The energy, the silence, the grace of the movements in those lush surroundings… So, after the Ranch I started training with Mallika to become a Tai Chi teacher. I taught in the Amsterdam commune, in New Age centres in other cities, and eventually also had a group here in Zutphen…

In Poona I did some computer work for Waduda of the Mystery School. There I had a vision which I put in this drawing. On one side we have a monk in a monastery copying a manuscript of Thomas a Kempis’ De imitatione Christi, on the other it’s me working on Osho’s texts. Looking at it, the image of a small monastery in Zutphen would often come to mind.

Another image that grabs me is that of a bronze statue of a monk (or was he perhaps a penniless drunkard?), which stands just outside the city walls of Zutphen. A monk in a hooded robe without a face, but staring at you. It brings up past memories of the search for salvation, seeking God in scriptures, struggling with celibacy, groping in the dark… It has definitely inspired me to dig into the history of Zutphen, of the IJssel River and the nearby cities of Deventer and Zwolle, and the Christian mystics, laymen and scholars who were authentic seekers of truth in the Low Lands, and to write about it. (Statue of Thonis van Grol Drogenap by artist Oscar Rambonnet: photo credit to the author)

The medieval town of Zutphen in the east of the Netherlands was part of the Hansa, a commercial network of market towns in Northern Europe. The magnificent church, completed in 1500, was named after the Abbess Walburgis. She had sailed over from England in the 8th century and spread Christianity through the Netherlands and parts of Germany.

Walburgis Church

Statue of St. Walburgis

Left: St. Walburgis Church – Right: Statue of St. Walburgis (photo credit: author)

The wealth from the Hanseatic League stimulated the arts, learning and the dissemination of knowledge through monasteries and Latin schools. From the 1450s on, we saw the appearance of the first printed books, and in 1560 the Walburgis Church was extended with a Library, housing a collection of precious printed books, all tied to chains, so that they would not be misplaced or stolen. ‘Chain libraries’ were fairly common all over Europe in those days, but were mainly confined to monasteries. The Zutphen Library was one of the three rare chain libraries that were open to the public, the others being in Hereford, England, and Cesena, Italy.

The Zutphen Library (photo credit: author)

One of the convents in Zutphen was the St. Agnes Convent (Agnietenconvent), founded in 1397, home of the Sisters of the Mean Life (Zusters van het Gemeene Leven); ‘mean’ in the sense of ‘common’ as opposed to monastic. The Brethren of the Common Life (de Broeders van het Gemene Leven) was a religious community in Deventer. (Also a Hansa town, Deventer lies just 15 km north of Zutphen, on the same IJssel River, one of the distributaries of the Rhine.)

St. Agnes Convent in Zutphen (photo: Stahlkocher nl.wikipedia.org)

The founder of the Brethren of the Common Life community was Geert Groote (also spelt Grote). He was born in Deventer, in 1348, where his father was mayor. At the age of ten, Geert lost both his parents to the Black Death, and was raised by his uncle. He travelled to Paris where he studied at the Sorbonne, and continued his studies in Cologne and Prague, immersing himself in the liberal arts, natural sciences, ethics and civil law. He lived in Avignon as a delegate while Pope Urban V was there, and later became a canon of the chapters of Aachen Cathedral and Utrecht Cathedral.In 1372, while visiting his family in Deventer, he fell seriously ill. He recovered from his illness after having had a religious experience. Thomas a Kempis writes in his biography of Geert Groote how Groote began to lead a more ascetic life around this time. As Kempis writes, perhaps exaggerating somewhat, the formerly well-dressed Groote caused a stir in Aachen by walking around in sober grey linen and abstaining from rich meals.

In 1379, Groote was ordained deacon in Utrecht. From that moment on, with the support of the bishop, he started railing, in many cities in the northern Netherlands, against concubinage, the clergy who lived with women, and monks who kept their personal wealth.

A group of followers started gathering around him, and he created a religious movement that considered one’s own conscience more important than the dictates of church. His movement is known as Modern Devotion (Moderne Devotie). This gave rise to the Sisters and Brothers of the Common Life and the Congregation of Windesheim. The bishop of Utrecht did not appreciate their strict views and issued a ban on preaching for deacons in the diocese of Utrecht. Geert Groote, nevertheless, managed to gather many followers through personal contacts.

Although Groote was admired by many priests and monks, he is sometimes compared to the later Dominican penitential preacher and priest Girolamo Savonarola from Florence, because of his fundamentalist stance and the opposition he faced in Utrecht. He was banned from preaching but, unlike Savonarola, he did not get burned at the stakes for his ideas! He died of the plague at the age of 43, after visiting a friend who was infected.

Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471), Grote’s biographer and a member of the Brethren, authored the most published book in Christianity after the Bible, De imitatione Christi (The Imitation of Christ). He became subprior of the Monastery of Mount St. Agnes in Zwolle, the next Hansa town on the IJssel River, 30 km downstream from Deventer. This community was part of the Congregation of Windesheim.

Thomas a Kempis at Mount St. Agnes (Agnietenberg)

Thomas à Kempis – De Imitatione Christi

Left: Thomas a Kempis at Mount St. Agnes (Agnietenberg) (commons.wikimedia.org) – Right: The original manuscript of Thomas a Kempis – De Imitatione Christi, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Brussels (commons.wikimedia.org)

The Modern Devotion movement is often regarded as a precursor to the Reformation and the conflicts with the Holy See that accompanied it. The Reformation took root particularly in much of the area where Modern Devotion was widespread, namely in the Hanseatic world in north-western Europe and the Baltic region.

As we have discovered, the IJssel cities of Zutphen, Deventer and Zwolle were important centres of religious renewal and a breeding ground for the new ideas of Humanism.

My following essays will be about the Humanist thinker Erasmus of Rotterdam and the mystic Jan van Ruusbroec, both of whom are linked to Geert Groote and the Modern Devotion movement.