'To Draw and Assemble All People Unto God': The Spiritual Journey of Maria Van Oisterwijk (1470/80-1547) 9789042949263, 9042949260

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Fiery Arrow

‘TO DRAW AND ASSEMBLE ALL PEOPLE UNTO GOD’ THE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY OF MARIA VAN OISTERWIJK (1470/80-1547) Lieve UYTTENHOVE with John Arblaster and Ursula Lawler

PEETERS

‘To Draw and Assemble All People unto God’ The Spiritual Journey of Maria van Oisterwijk (1470/80-1547)

The Fiery Arrow Collection Editors: Hein Blommestijn and Jos Huls of Titus Brandsma Institute Advisory Board: Elizabeth Dreyer, Silver Spring, U.S.A. Christopher O’Donnell, Dublin, Ireland Helen Rolfson, Collegeville, U.S.A. V.F. Vineeth, Bangalore, India John Welch, Washington, U.S.A. The Fiery Arrow series aims at the publication of books which connect their readers with the legacy of great teachers of spirituality from the distant and more recent past. Readers are offered a language and conceptual framework which can lead them to a deepened understanding of the spiritual life. The treasures of the spiritual tradition form a veritable “school of love”, which is accessible to all who in contemplation desire to be touched by the fire of divine love. In 1270 A.D. Nicholas of France, former prior general of the Carmelites, wrote a letter bearing the title Fiery Arrow to his fellow brothers to urge them to call to mind again the fire of the beginning in which, in silence and solitude, they were consumed by the inescapable claim of the One. Based on the Carmelite tradition, this series seeks to share this spiritual legacy – which presents itself in a multiplicity of cultures and traditions – with all those who in a great variety of ways are in search of interior life and the fire of love. The series, which is grounded in scientific research, is aimed at a broad public interested in spirituality. The Titus Brandsma Institute is an academic center of research in spirituality founded in 1968 by the Catholic University of Nijmegen and the Carmelite Order. Titus Brandsma, who from 1923 on was a professor of philosophy and the history of mysticism, especially that of the Low Countries, died in 1942 as a martyr in the Nazi death camp of Dachau and was beatified in 1985. The Institute continues his research in spirituality and mysticism with a staff of assistants and in collaboration with other researchers. In addition to this and other series, the Institute publishes the international periodical Studies in Spirituality and the series Studies in Spirituality Supplement (Peeters, Louvain). Already published in this series: 1. K. Waaijman – The Mystical Space of Carmel. An Interpretation of the Carmelite Rule 2. E.A. Van den Goorbergh, T.H. Zweerman – Light Shining Through a Veil. On Saint Clare’s Letters to Saint Agnes of Prague 3. H. Blommestijn, J. Huls, K. Waaijman – The Footprints of Love. John of the Cross as Guide in the Wilderness 4. J.M. Malham – By Fire into Light. Four Catholic Martyrs of the Nazi Camps 5. C. Dölle – Encountering God in the Abyss. Titus Brandsma’s Spiritual Journey 6. F. Maas – Spirituality as Insight. Mystical Texts and Theological Reflection 7. C. Dumont – As a Consuming Fire, Wisdom 8. T.H. Zweerman, E.A.C. Van den Goorbergh – Saint Francis of Assisi: A Guide for our Times. His Biblical Spirituality 9. J. Huls – The Minne-Journey. Beatrice of Nazareth’s “Seven Ways of Minne”. Mystical Process and Mystagogical Implications 10. I. Brandsma – In Search of Living Water. Essays on the Mystical Heritage of the Netherlands 11. C. Dumont – Contemplate the Gentleness of God 12. James A. Wiseman – Ruusbroec’s Mystical Vision in Die gheestelike brulocht, Seen in the Light of Minne

‘TO DRAW AND ASSEMBLE ALL PEOPLE UNTO GOD’ THE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY OF MARIA VAN OISTERWIJK (1470/80-1547) WITH A

FOREWORD BY ROB FAESEN by Lieve UYTTENHOVE

with John Arblaster and Ursula Lawler

PEETERS

LEUVEN – PARIS – BRISTOL, CT 2022

A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-90-429-4926-3 eISBN 978-90-429-4927-0 D/2022/0602/70

©2022 – Peeters, Bondgenotenlaan 153, B-3000 Leuven No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form by print, photoprint, microfilm or any other means without permission from the publisher.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations .....................................................................

vii

Foreword by Rob Faesen ..................................................

ix

Preface and Acknowledgements ..................................... xiii

Chapter One Maria van Oisterwijk in a Network of Kindred Spirits 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

A Hidden Contemplative Life....................................... The Oisterwijk House of Virgins .................................. A Life in the Spirit of St. Francis .................................. In the Tradition of the Devotio Moderna?...................... Bond of Friendship with the Cologne Carthusians ....... Maria van Oisterwijk’s Influence on the Jesuits............. Maria van Oisterwijk’s Spirituality Propagated by Carthusians and Jesuits .................................................

1 7 19 22 30 37 42

Chapter Two Maria van Oisterwijk’s Works Published in Cologne 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Publications by the Cologne Carthusians ...................... Language and Style ....................................................... Maria van Oisterwijk and the Bible .............................. Maria van Oisterwijk’s Works ....................................... Maria van Oisterwijk’s Treatises in the First Book, The Straight Road .................................................................

47 52 55 59 60

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table of contents

6. The Second Book, The Paradise .................................... 7. The Third Book, Nine Rungs of Simplicity ....................

72 79

Chapter Three The Author’s Spiritual Life Introduction .................................................................. 85 1. A Journey to God ......................................................... 93 2. A Journey ‘from God’ to All People .............................. 115 Summary....................................................................... 124

Chapter Four Maria van Oisterwijk and the Western Spiritual Tradition

1.

2. 3. 4. 5.

Introduction .................................................................. Major Mystical Authors from the Low Countries in the Twelfth to Fourteenth Centuries: William of SaintThierry, Hadewijch, John of Ruusbroec ........................ Acquainted with the Tradition through the Devotio Moderna? ....................................................................... Sixteenth-Century Revival of the Tradition ................... Continued Effect in Sixteenth-Century Spain............... Traces in the Following Centuries up to the Present Day ............................................................................... Conclusion ....................................................................

127

130 136 137 141 145 153

General Conclusion......................................................... 155 Appendix One. Structure of The Treatise ‘The Straight Road’ ............................................................................ 157 Appendix Two. Overview of Maria van Oisterwijk’s Letters......................................................................... 159 Bibliography ...................................................................... 161

Abbreviations

AC CMO Dw. Pl. St. LP P RW

Apostles’ Creed (Symbolum Apostolorum) Maria van Oisterwijk’s version of the Creed Dwelling place (see Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle) Stanza (see John of the Cross’ Spiritual Canticle, The Dark Night) Lord’s Prayer Dat paradijs der lieffhebbender siele[n], vol inniger oeffeninge[n] des geests, in gebetswijse (’s-Hertogenbosch: G. van der Hatart, 1535) Der rechte wech zo der evangelischer volkomenheit. Durch eynen erluchten frundt gotz, noch im leven. Gefuecht up die articulen des heiligen gelouvens, und up dat Pater noster, gedruckt tzo Coellen vp der Burchmuren (Melchior von Neuss) (1531)

Foreword

Maria van Oisterwijk is an author who deserves to be better known. Beatrice of Nazareth, Hadewijch, John of Ruusbroec, and Hendrik Herp are famous names in the history of Dutch mystical literature, but that is not the case for Maria van Oisterwijk. She nevertheless occupies an important place in the history of this mystical tradition. But she lived in a period which, specifically with respect to mystical literature, is currently undervalued and far too little researched. This is, of course, primarily related to the fact that she lived in the turbulent period of the early Reformation. In the crucial year 1520, when the papal bull Exsurge Domine was promulgated by Pope Leo X, condemning forty-one of Martin Luther’s statements, Maria van Hout was forty or fifty years old. By that time, she probably already had close contacts with the Carthusians in Cologne, who were very aware of the increasing polarisation and ecclesiastical storm in which the faithful of northern Europe found themselves. Indeed, Cologne was not far from the eye of this storm. Current research has a strong tendency to privilege the development of doctrinal and political positions in this period. What were the points of contention? And who advocated or opposed which of these controversies? Maria van Oisterwijk, on the other hand, belonged to a network of people who refused to engage in these polemics, though they were well aware of the relevant problems. Their activities and concerns were of an entirely different nature. And this proved to be exceptionally fruitful. The network produced numerous beautiful spiritual texts, such as the Evangelical Pearl, the Temple of Our Soul, the Institutiones Taulerianae, etc. These texts and their (often anonymous) authors are all spiritually akin to one another. This network, of which the silent white monks of the Cologne

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foreword

Charterhouse formed the beating heart, was also the sphere of activity of other great figures whose names we do know, such as Nicholas Esschius and Jan Pullen. This is the circle to which Maria van Oisterwijk belonged. All these people cherished the conviction that it was not polemics that would breathe new life into the Church, but only the encounter with the living God. In this respect, they were true heirs to John of Ruusbroec, who likewise lived in a period of conflict and who was fundamentally convinced that the revival of the Church could only be accomplished through a deeper, more authentic, more personal, and more inward encounter with God. The network to which Maria van Oisterwijk belonged resolutely took this fundamental conviction to heart. A memorable passage from the Institutiones Taulerianae poignantly describes how the ‘friends of God’ support Christendom and yet remain entirely unknown. The description contains numerous allusions to Ruusbroec’s common person (living in communion with God): These people constantly maintain a free inward inclination to God and a union with God in true, unhindered love. Many people sadly neglect themselves on this point, in a multiplicity of superfluous things and concerns. Whoever loses their inward vision of God and the loving inclination to him for one hour loses more than if one were to lose the authority over an entire kingdom. More still, if we were to have insight into all the Scriptures, if we were to be teachers who could form others and guide them to everlasting life, if we were to possess sufficient riches to ban all poverty from the world, it would all be of little use if we were to lack God, if we were to cling to our own self-sufficiency and thus to impose an obstacle and a hindrance to God to enter us and for us to abandon ourselves entirely to him and to work to his honour. The entire teaching of the Scriptures consists in offering ourselves to him unceasingly, living for him, abandoning ourselves to him inwardly, and never separating ourselves from him (c. 37).

Maria van Oisterwijk’s network attempted to orient itself to this form of life, to propagate the literary treasures that described this life over the course of the centuries, and to continue this

foreword

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tradition for the future. Maria’s own writings attest to this endeavour. Her works are not accessible in modern critical edition, but this fine study by Dr. Lieve Uyttenhove offers the interested reader access to the content of Maria’s writings and the historical context in which they were written. It is to be hoped that this little-known author in the Dutch mystical tradition, and the entire spiritual network of which she was a part will garner the increased attention that they deserve. Indeed, they offer us insight into a more profound undercurrent in that conflictful and polemic period, and reveal something of the spiritual adventure upon which people in that period also ventured to embark. This undoubtedly had far more impact on the religious culture of that time than one might spontaneously presume. Rob Faesen SJ

Preface and Acknowledgements

The present book is a revised and translated version of the Dutch publication Ontvangen om te geven. De spirituele weg van Maria van Hout (Averbode: Altiora, 2016), commissioned by the Sisters of the Convent of Bethlehem in Duffel, Belgium. The sisters intended the work to introduce their first mother (superior), the sixteenth-century mystic Maria van Oisterwijk (†1547), to a wider audience and to stimulate interest in her spirituality. Convinced of the importance of Maria van Oisterwijk’s spiritual life, they consider it an ongoing source of inspiration for both religious and laypeople today. In writing the book, I sought to honour the intention of the sisters and to awaken the reader’s interest with an attractive presentation of Maria van Oisterwijk’s life, her works, and her spirituality. With these purposes in mind, the book begins with a presentation of Maria van Oisterwijk’s life story, set in its religious and historical context. The reader’s attention is then directed to her writings and the history of their publication. This is followed by a discussion of ‘The Straight Road to Evangelical Perfection’, Maria van Oisterwijk’s first treatise in the book with the same title The Straight Road to Evangelical Perfection, in which we find a well-structured presentation of her spiritual life. Finally, I demonstrate how Maria van Oisterwijk’s spirituality, which continues to be lived out in the Convent at Duffel today, is embedded in a long and rich tradition that continues to inspire many spiritual authors in our own time. Although this book was not intended to offer either a critical edition or a complete translation of Maria van Oisterwijk’s works, the text nevertheless provides extensive quotations from her writings. Each of these was carefully selected to accentuate the details

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of her life, her works, and her spirituality. A first introduction to Maria van Oisterwijk’s central thoughts and sayings – as this work is – cannot, of course, convey the full richness of her writings. To become really acquainted with her spiritual journey, it would be necessary to embark upon an exploration of all her work. The book does, however, equip the reader to take the first steps in such an exploration, with the citations functioning as gateways to the broader meaning of her texts. In this way, the book’s citations enable us to discern Maria van Oisterwijk’s spiritual journey to God as it unfolds through the entire body of her work. When reading her treatises, I became fascinated by the direct and spontaneous manner of Maria van Oisterwijk’s inner communicating with God. I was particularly drawn to her insight that one cannot possess God’s love without returning this divine love to all people. In this regard, Maria van Oisterwijk speaks of a ‘life in communion with God’ (gemeine leven). This means that from within her inner union with God, she contemplated God and at the same time, with God’s love, guided all other people in their search for God. With this book and its many carefully chosen passages from her work, I attempt to usher interested readers into Maria van Oisterwijk’s spiritual world. The Sisters of the Convent of Bethlehem have now decided that a revised version of the book should be published in English in order that Maria van Oisterwijk’s spirituality be accessible to an even wider reading audience, for which I am very grateful. I offer heartfelt thanks to the Sisters. I wish to thank them for their encouragement and their support throughout this translation project, and the joyful and friendly atmosphere that characterized our working relationship. This book is therefore dedicated to all the members of the Convent of Bethlehem and to their beloved (founding) mother, Maria van Oisterwijk. The English translation of all the quotations from Maria van Oisterwijk’s works is based on the original publications of her treatises. For the translation of quotations taken from Maria van Oisterwijk’s treatises in a first book with the English title The

preface and acknowledgements

XV

Straight Road to Evangelical Perfection, my point of departure was the sixteenth-century book, Der rechte wech zo der evangelischer volkomenheit (Cologne, 1531). Similarly, Dat paradijs der lieffhebbender siele[n] (‘s Hertogenbosch, 1535), a sixteenth century Early Modern Dutch edition of the original ‘German’ publication Dat Paradys der lieffhavender Sielen (Cologne, 1532), served as the basis for the English translation of quotations taken from a second book, with the English title The Paradise of the Loving Soul. The translation of the text ‘De simplicitate’ (‘On Simplicity’) in a ‘third book’, with the English title Nine Rungs of Simplicity (Neun Stufen der Einfacheit), was made from Dom Gérard Kalckbrenner. Mélanges de Spiritualité (Salzburg, 1999). These translations attempt to capture the sense and nuances of meaning in Maria van Oisterwijk’s texts, rather than the strictly literal meaning, though they endeavour as much as possible to retain Maria’s original idiom. To translate in this way has its limits; an older idiom must not obscure the enduring relevance of the text. Quotations from her works have therefore been rendered in contemporary English, in order that readers would more easily grasp the timelessness of her message and its universal appeal. For her valuable assistance in proofreading my English text, I wish wholeheartedly to thank Ursula Lawler, PhD Student, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven. Working with her has been a pleasure and a great privilege. I am very grateful for the input and ideas she offered in proofreading the volume, and for her entirely constructive cooperation. The publication of this book would not have been possible without the cooperation of Prof. Dr. John Arblaster, Ruusbroec Institute, University of Antwerp and Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven, who not only thoroughly edited and revised the entire text – and especially all the translations of the primary sources – but also guided the book through all the stages of its publication. Finally, I would like to express a special word of thanks to Prof. Dr. Rob Faesen, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies,

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KU Leuven, Ruusbroec Institute, University of Antwerp, and Tilburg School of Catholic Theology, for his willingness to write the informative foreword to the book. Lieve Uyttenhove

CHAPTER ONE

Maria van Oisterwijk in a Network of Kindred Spirits 1. A Hidden Contemplative Life Little is known about the life of the mystical author Maria van Oisterwijk (also known in Dutch as Maria van Hout). She was probably born in the Dutch village of Udenhout, sometime between 1470 and 1480.1 At that time, Udenhout belonged to the city of Oisterwijk, near ‘s-Hertogenbosch, in the Duchy of Brabant.2 From the Ephemerides ordinis Cartusiensis – the collection of biographies relating to monks, nuns, and other people connected with the Charterhouse of St. Barbara in Cologne – it appears that the Oisterwijk mystic began to lead a monastic style of life without taking religious vows while still living in her 1  J. van Oudheusden, e. a., eds., Brabantse biografieën. Levensbeschrijvingen van bekende en onbekende Noordbrabanders, 4 (Boom: Meppel. 1996), 1. In Maria van Hout. Het paradijs van de minnende mens (Leuven: Acco, 1991), 3, 1470 is suggested as the year of Maria’s birth; in Maria van Hout (†1547). Begijn en mystica. De rechte weg naar authentiek evangelisch leven (Antwerp: Halewijn, 2003), 12, the year of her birth is 1480. 2  Oisterwijk was founded in 1231, under Duke Henry I of Brabant. Udenhout lay within its jurisdiction. Initially, Oisterwijk belonged to the Diocese of Liège; since 1559, however, it has belonged to the diocese of ‘s Hertogenbosch. G. Berkelmans, “Oisterwijk – vier tot vijf eeuwen geleden,” ed. G. Berkelmans and H. G. J. C. M. van Heesewijk (Oisterwijk: De Kleine Meijerij, 1991), 3; Siebe Thissen, “‘Tegen die verdoolde blinde lutherse menschen’. Oisterwijkse mystici tussen orthodoxie en ketterij (1500-1550),” De Kleine Meijerij 42 (1991), 84; Marga Arendsen, “Maria van Hout: Begijn in Oisterwijk,” (unpub. work Church History, Tilburg Theological Faculty, 1998), 2, 7-8.

2

CHAPTER ONE

parents’ house.3 Moreover, the fact that she was known by the Dutch toponym ‘van Hout’ suggests that she may have lived the greater part of her life in Udenhout.4 Historiographical sources confirm that Maria eventually became the first mother (superior) of a house of virgins (maeghdenhuys)5 in Oisterwijk but they do not tell us the exact date or year when she moved from Udenhout to Oisterwijk. To date, Maria van Oisterwijk’s surname has also been a matter of speculation; the two possibilities that have been proposed are ‘Maryken’ (Maria), daughter of Lenaert Beyen(s),6 or ‘Maria 3  ‘[E]tiam in domo paterna extra omnem professionem monasticam vitam agens’, in Ephemerides ordinis Cartusiensis nunc primum a monachis eiusdem ordinis in lucem editae, vol. III, ed., Leon Le Vaseur (Mostrolii: Typis Cartusiae S. Mariae de Pratis, 1891), 448. 4  Johann Baptist Kettenmeyer, “Uit de briefwisseling van eene Brabantsche mystieke uit de 16e eeuw,” Ons geestelijk erf 1 (1927), 278; Willibrord Lampen, “Maria van Oisterwijk, Tertiaris van S. Franciscus,” Bijdragen voor de Geschiedenis van de Provincie der Minderbroeders in de Nederlanden 26 (1957), 219; E. MoebsBayer, “Maria van Oisterwijk, een begaafde vrouw: Mystieke kring in Middeleeuws Brabant,” Nieuwsblad van het Zuiden 155 (1961), 7; Albert Ampe, “Marie d’Oisterwijk,” Dictionnaire de spiritualité 10 (1980), 519. 5  Venerabilis Nicolai Eschii. Vita et opuscula ascetica, ed., P. F. X. De Ram (Leuven: Vanlinthout, 1858), 43; Het leven van den eerweerdighen vaeder mynheer Nicolaus Van Esch oft Esschius, eertyds pastoir van het begynhoff van Diest genaemt, S. Catarinen-hoff. Eerst beschreven in de latynsche tale door Arnoldus Janssen, ed., Gillis Denique. In het Nederlands vertaald door G. G. (Leuven: Gillis Denique, 1713), 59-60; Kettenmeyer, “Uit de briefwisseling van eene Brabantsche mystieke,” 278. 6  Cf. a notarial act of sale of the Oisterwijk house of virgins in 1542. G. Berkelmans, “Het Oisterwijkse archief over Maria Lignana,” De Kleine Meijerij 15 (1961-1962), 14-5; Van Oudheusden, Brabantse biografieën, 1. In addition to ‘Maryken’, the notarial act mentions another resident, Yda, daughter of Joerden die Greve (also called ‘Yda van Graeve’, ‘Yda Comitis’, or ‘Yda Jordanis’). Other historical sources likewise indicate that Yda van Graeve lived in the same house as Maria van Oisterwijk. Venerabilis Nicolai Eschii, 44; Het leven van den eerweerdighen vaeder mynheer Nicolaus Van Esch, 60. See also Vita S. Beggae, dvcissae Brabantiae Andetennensivm, Begginarvm, et Beggardorvm fvndatricis, ed. Josephus Geldolphus a Ryckel (Leuven: Coenesteyn, 1631), 277-8, a work which also offers interesting information on the Oisterwijk house of virgins.

MARIA VAN OISTERWIJK IN A NETWORK OF KINDRED SPIRITS

3

Schoenmaker’.7 The earliest sources, however, ascribe titles alluding only to Udenhout or Oisterwijk. The Dutch name ‘Maria van Hout’ makes its first appearance in the eighteenth-century Dutch translation of the Latin biography of Nicholas van Essche (Esschius), where it is used to translate ‘Maria de Ligno’ (Dutch ‘Hout’ and Latin ‘Lignum’ both meaning ‘wood’).8 The original Latin biography with its reference to ‘Maria de Ligno’, dates back to the beginning of the 1580s and was written at the request of John (Johannes) van Oisterwijk, then prior of the Charterhouse of St. Barbara in Cologne.9 In Latin documents originating from the Cologne Charterhouse, where Maria van Oisterwijk was well-known, we find both ‘van Hout’ and ‘van Oisterwijk’, either Latinized or not. The Chronologia Cartusiae Coloniensis (Chronicles of the Cologne Charterhouse) refer to Maria as ‘Maria de Hout’ and ‘Maria de Osterwick’,10 while the Ephemerides ordinis Cartusiensis refer to her variously as ‘Maria de Ligno Osterwicana’ and ‘Maria de Osterwick’.11 Other Cologne sources refer only to ‘Maria de

7

 ‘There [in Oisterwijk] is a community that has at most thirteen, and at least nine, poor daughters, who in our memory, (…) only through the generosity of its present (praesentis) mother, Maria Schoenmaker, have all become companions’. Vita S. Beggae, 277. It is not clear from the text whether ‘present mother’ refers to the ‘mother’ at the time being recalled by the author (‘in our memory’), or the ‘mother’ at the time of writing (1631). From Timmermans we learn, however, that a certain Maria Peynenborgh ‘Schoenmaekers’, was the mother of the Oisterwijk house of virgins in the beginning of the 17th century. Ruth Timmermans, Het Convent van Betlehem: een half millennium vrouwelijke spiritualiteit en bedrijvigheid, KADOC-Diversen 30 (Duffel, Convent van Betlehem – KADOC, 2000), 66. 8  Het leven van den eerweerdighen vaeder mynheer Nicolaus Van Esch, 60. 9  Venerabilis Nicolai Eschii, 43. See also A. Stracke, “Over Nicolaas van Essche (†1507-1578),” Ons geestelijke erf 25 (1951), 63-4. The Latin version of Esschius’ biography was probably still unpublished in 1713, the year in which the Dutch translation appeared. Ibid., 67. 10  Chronologia Cartusiae Coloniensis 1334-1743, Archives de la Grande Chartreuse 6, col 4 (2014), 183-4, 186. 11  Ephemerides ordinis Cartusiensis, 447-8.

4

CHAPTER ONE

Osterwick’.12 George Garnefeld, the monastery’s early seventeenthcentury librarian, writes of ‘Maria Lignana itidem Oostervicana’.13 In his note on Maria’s book The Paradise (which we will consider in more depth in the next chapter), Garnefeld refers simply to ‘Maria Oisterwick’.14 In his correspondence, Peter (Petrus) Canisius15, the well-known Jesuit and spiritual companion of Maria, uses titles referring only to Oisterwijk: ‘Maria Oestruijch’, ‘Maria ex oersteruijk’, and ‘mother of Oesterwick’ (matre de Oesterwick).16 We can ascertain from the historical sources that Maria was already living in Oisterwijk by 1532 because according to the Chronologia, the Carthusians invited three ‘Oisterwijk virgins’ to come to Cologne in that year, one of whom was Maria van

12  See their collection of notes and texts, in Analecta ad conscribendis chronicum domus Santa Barbara 1334-1649, ed. Michael Mörckens, Kölner Stadtarchiv, Geist. Abt. 136a, 292; their yearbooks, in Annales Cartusiae Coloniensis 13341728. Abschrift von vor 1749 durch Johann Bungartz, später im Besitz von Dr. Freiherr von Mering, dann von J. H. Kessel, von diesem der Kartause Hain, Düsseldorf-Unterrath, geschenkt, heute im Besitz der Kartause Marienau, Seibranz, Bad Wurzach (Eintrag im Findbuch gez. Deeters 15.6.1978), 190; their historical records about the Cologne Charterhouse, in Origo et series priorum domus S. Barbarae (1676-1686), ed. Joannes Lottley, Kölner Stadtarchiv, Geistl. Abteil. 135a, 22 (135b, 53), and their sanctuary of Agrippina, in Erhardus Winheim, ed. Sacrarium Agrippinae (Cologne: Bernhardi Gualteri, 1607), 210-1; (Cologne: Ottonis Josephus Steinhauss, 1736), 168. 13  Vita S. Beggae, 278. Concerning Garnefeld, see Johann Baptist Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” Annalen des historischen Vereins für den Niederrhein, insbesondere das alte Erzbistum Köln 114, (1929), 10, nn. 28 and 11. 14  Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 11, n. 29. 15  In 1543, Peter Canisius (1521-1591), son of the mayor of Nijmegen, was the first in Germany to join the Society Jesus. See also Joseph Greven, Die Kölner Kartause und die Anfänge der katholischen Reform in Deutschland: Aus dem Nachlasse des Verfassers mit seinem Lebensbilde, ed. Wilhelm Neuss, Katholisches Leben und Kämpfen im Zeitalter der Glaubensspaltung, 6 (Münster: Aschendorff, 1935), 4, 91-3. 16  Beati Petri Canisii, Societatis Iesu, Epistulae et acta I: 1541-1556, ed. Otto Braunsberger (Freiburg: Herder, 1896), 209, 214, 258.

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Oisterwijk.17 This invitation is again mentioned to in the chronicles of 1545, the year Maria and two other virgins took up residence in Cologne.18 The Cologne Carthusians greatly admired Maria van Oisterwijk. Peter (Petrus) Blomevenna, prior of the Cologne Charterhouse in the beginning of the sixteenth century, called her a ‘virgin of wonderful holiness’.19 After her death, she is described in Carthusian sources as a second Catherine of Siena, ‘a virgin adorned with divine charisms and profoundly experienced in the contemplative life’.20 Maria van Oisterwijk’s ‘contemplative’ life is to be understood in the monastic sense of the term. Deriving from the Latin contemplare (to be understood as an equivalent of the Greek theáomai), ‘contemplative’ means ‘to behold with admiration’.21 In monastic spirituality, contemplatio or ‘contemplation’ is the fourth and most sublime aspect of the inner or spiritual life. Whereas the first three aspects – lectio, meditatio and oratio – include an emphasis on human activity, contemplatio is, by contrast, constituted by a gift of God. God the Father reveals himself so that the person who contemplates God does not depend on their own effort in  Chronologia Cartusiae Coloniensis, 169.  Ibid., 183-4. 19  ‘Maria illa Osterwick, … virgo mirae sanctitatis’, Ephemerides ordinis Cartusiensis, 448. Peter Blomevenna (1466-1536), also known as Blommeveene, Bloemevel, Bloemevenne, and Petrus a Leydis, was a compatriot of Maria van Oisterwijk, from Leiden, in the Low Countries. His priorate from 1506 to 1536 was a period of flourishing for the Cologne Charterhouse. Bruno Kammann, Die Kartause St. Barbara in Köln (1334 bis 1953): Kontinuität und Wandel: Ein Beitrag zur Kirchen- und Stadtgeschichte Kölns, Libelli Rhenani 33 (Cologne: Erzbischöfliche Diözesan- und Dombibliothek Köln, 2010), 295-8, 307-9. See also Greven, Die Kölner Kartause und die Anfänge der katholischen Reform, 12-26; Rita Wagner, “Eine kleine Geschichte der Kölner Kartause St. Barbara,” in Die Kölner Kartause um 1500: Eine Reise in unsere Vergangenheit, ed. Werner Schäfke (Cologne: Kölnisches Stadtmuseum, 1991), 42. 20  ‘Altera sui saeculi Catharina Senensis, virgo divinis exornata charismatibus et in vita contemplativa plurimum exercitata’. Ephemerides ordinis Cartusiensis, 447. See also Chronologia Cartusiae Coloniensis, 169; Venerabilis Nicolai Eschii, 43. 21  Cf. Rob Faesen, Jan van Ruusbroec. Contemplatief theoloog in een moeilijke tijd (Kampen: Kok, 2007), 31-2. 17 18

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reading God’s word (lectio), meditating upon God’s Word (meditatio), or inner communication with God (oratio). Thus, in monastic spirituality, ‘contemplation’ and ‘meditation’ are quite distinct, and this distinction is sometimes obscured nowadays. The term ‘contemplative’, however, may be considered co-extensive with ‘mystical’, when the latter is understood in the sense indicated by Jean Gerson, chancellor of the University of Paris, at the beginning of the fifteenth century. In his lectures on mystical theology contained in his De theologia mystica, Gerson associates the mystical knowledge of God with awareness of God,22 that is, a profound inner experience of God’s presence. We can speak of the mystical life of Maria van Oisterwijk from the moment at which she felt herself to be inwardly united with God in love.23 Her personal experience of this mystical union especially shines through in one

22  De theologia mystica lectiones sex, I, Secunda consideratio. J. Gerson Oeuvres complètes, introduction, texte et notes Palémon Glorieux, vol. III (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1962), 252. See also Rob Faesen, “What is a Mystical Experience? History and Interpretation,” Louvain Studies 23 (1998), 231. This experience illumines the deepest ground of human existence, the place where the human being is united to God. Human beings live mostly unaware of the immediacy and intimacy of this union, but Maria van Oisterwijk, from a certain moment onwards, lived fully from the experience of God’s presence in the human spirit. 23  ‘And then the Lord comes (…) he takes her [‘the bride’ i.e. Maria van Oisterwijk] by the hand and leads her with himself into the earthly paradise. That means, he unites her with himself in [affectionate] love and makes her abide in him and he in her, so that they become one and no one can separate or distinguish them from each other. For she is so bound to God, with his love and affection, that neither devil nor human being, nor any creature can move her away or separate her from him. (…) They now abide so much in one another, in love, that the one desires nothing else than the other’ (RWD6r-D6v; D7v). Letters and figures prefaced with RW (italic) refer to Der rechte wech zo der evangelischer volkomenheit. Durch eynen erluchten frundt gotz, noch im leven. Gefuecht up die articulen des heiligen gelouvens, und up dat Pater noster, gedruckt tzo Coellen vp der Burchmuren (Melchior von Neuss) (1531). RW with letters and figures followed by ‘r’ refer to the recto page of the manuscript; RW with letters and figures followed by ‘v’ to the verso page. For the quotation, see also chap 2, p. 63-4, and chap 3, p. 113-4.

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of her letters that was included in the publication The Straight Road to Evangelical Perfection (hereinafter, The Straight Road ).24 2. The Oisterwijk House of Virgins Invited to Piety Maria van Oisterwijk lived in a historically fascinating period that was marked by significant movements for spiritual reform within the Church. She was a contemporary of both Desiderius Erasmus, that most important representative of Christian Humanism,25 and of Martin Luther, who became the catalyst for the Protestant Reformation.26 The Council of Trent, moreover, 24  ‘Indeed, I am completely deprived of myself and united in God, as if I were not a human person any more, and as if it were not me who lives but the Lord in me. And God has imprinted so intensely this union in me, a sinful creature, on the feast of Corpus Christi, and has given so graciously a new spirit, that since then this has not been taken away from me’ (RWQ4r). Trans. Rob Faesen, “Maria van Hout. Two Letters,” in Late Medieval Mysticism of the Low Countries, eds., Rik Van Nieuwenhove, Rob Faesen, and Helen Rolfson, The Classics of Western Spirituality (New York, NY: Paulist Press, 2008), 369, who, for his translation, made use of De brieven uit ‘Der rechte wech’ van de Oisterwijkse begijn en mystica Maria van Hout (†Keulen, 1547). Toegelicht, uitgegeven en vertaald door J. M. Willeumier-Schalij, Miscellanea Neerlandica, 6 (Leuven: Peeters, 1993). See also chap 3, n. 6. 25  Erasmus (1466/9-1536) received his schooling from the Deventer ‘Brothers of the Common Life’, a semi-religious community within the wider spiritual reform movement of the Devotio Moderna which began in the Northern Low Countries in the second half of the 14th century (with respect to Devotio Moderna, see also main text along with n. 96 below). In 1495, Erasmus commenced theological studies in Paris. Later, during his stay in England, he became acquainted with other Christian humanists, including Thomas More, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. As a Christian humanist, Erasmus defended a renewed ethical and spiritual Christianity, central to which was a return to the sources of Christianity, i.e. Scripture and the study of Scripture in its original languages. 26  Luther (1483-1546) first studied at the Latin schools in the German cities of Mansfeld, Magdeburg, and Eisenach. During his stay in Magdeburg, he lived in a house of the ‘Brothers of the Common Life’. In 1501, he enrolled at the University of Erfurt in Germany, with the intention of becoming a lawyer. In 1505 he entered the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt, where he began his study

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opened just two years prior to her death. On the political stage, the Oisterwijk mystic lived through the reign of Charles V who, as Holy Roman Emperor27 from 1519 to 1556, fought against the advance of Islam and the spread of the Protestant Reformation. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Oisterwijk enjoyed a vibrant religious atmosphere. Traditionally, the city had a Fraternity of Our Lady and a pilgrimage chapel, and this special devotion to Mary with its daily singing of the praises of the Holy Virgin, provided the opportunity for the people of faith to become deeply involved in Oisterwijk’s religious life.28 Neither the emergent Protestant Reformation nor the numerous religious struggles then afflicting the Holy Roman Empire appear to have disturbed this life. In addition, the local clergy seem to have been welltrained by the standards of the time. Between 1230 and 1648, the Oisterwijk parishes were led by Augustinian canons from the renowned Abbey of St. Gertrude in Leuven.29 In the first half of the sixteenth century, at least one third of the Oisterwijk parish priests received an academic training in Leuven, the only city in the diocese of Liège to have a university at that time. Despite the frequent absences of the parish priests, the spiritual care of souls in Oisterwijk was not neglected: temporary parish priests, exercising their functions with great pastoral care, stood in for the absent canons. With respect to Oisterwijk, the critique of contemporary scholars and historians concerning the shortcomings of the system of absenteeism and temporary parish priests in the Low Countries must be nuanced. This likewise applies to the often excessively of theology, and became Doctor of Holy Scripture in 1512. The publication in 1517 of his theses against indulgences is generally considered the beginning of the Reformation. 27  Timmermans, Het Convent van Betlehem, 24. Concerning Charles V, see also below and nn. 138 and 228. 28  Herman Lenting, “Ich anfangen eyn neuwe leven. Spirituele omvorming in de brieven van Maria van Hout,” (unpub. PhD Diss., Faculty of Theology, University of Tilburg, 1995), 19. 29  Thissen, “‘Tegen die verdoolde blinde lutherse menschen’,” 83. See also Berkelmans, “Oisterwijk – vier tot vijf eeuwen geleden,” 3.

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critical statements alleging the intellectual incompetence of the lower clergy in the Low Countries and the questionable moral life of its higher clergy.30 Under the guidance of the local parish priests, Maria van Oisterwijk and her community found fulfilment in their ‘endeavour for religious perfection’.31 For decades, the Oisterwijk house of virgins was the centre of a deep spiritual life. It is not clear if Maria’s arrival in Oisterwijk coincided with the actual foundation of a formal group of virgins in Oisterwijk.32 We do know, however, that the region of Oisterwijk provided fertile soil for religious life. Like other places in the Low Countries, many of Oisterwijk’s inhabitants were filled with a deepened religious awareness, while others fervently longed for union with God.33 In the seventeenth century, historians still had the highest regard for the Oisterwijk house of virgins: ‘A house of exceptional piety, like nowhere in the Province of Brabant’, wrote Geldolphus of Ryckel, abbot of St. Gertrude’s Abbey in Leuven. And he emphasized: ‘[H]ere I use no imagery or hyperbole to enlarge or exaggerate the holiness of the place’.34 His contemporary, Augustine Wichmans, wrote: ‘The said virgins live there [in the house of virgins], to be sure, free from vows, but not without regular discipline, which is so strict that according to the aforementioned abbot [Geldolphus], very few 30  Timmermans, Het Convent van Betlehem, 25-6. Before the rise of the Reformation, several bishops in the then Duchy of Brabant had already attempted to implement changes in the organization of their dioceses, in the training of the clergy and on the level of faith practice. 31  Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 32. See also L. Reypens and J. Huyben, “Nog een vergeten mystieke grootheid,” Ons geestelijk erf 2 (1928), 4. 32  Lenting, “Ich anfangen eyn neuwe leven,” 81. See also Moebs-Bayer, “Maria van Oisterwijk,” 7. 33  Cf. Moebs-Bayer, “Maria van Oisterwijk,” 7. 34  Vita S. Beggae, 277. Having studied philosophy at the University of Leuven, Geldophus a Ryckel (1581-1642), who was from the city of Tienen near Leuven, entered the Abbey of St. Gertrude in Leuven. He was parish priest of Oisterwijk from 1616 to 1626. In 1626 he became abbot of St. Gertrude’s Abbey.

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monasteries in Brabant, with respect to piety, silence, abstinence and charity, can be compared with it, and none surpasses it. Those who enter seem already invited to piety by the walls themselves, behind which the virgins live as though enclosed’.35 Esschius: Founder of the House of Virgins? As we know from the Cologne biographies, Maria was already living in Oisterwijk in 1532. The community of virgins in the Oisterwijk house, however, was ‘founded’ only around 1539.36 Nicholas van Essche (Esschius) has generally been considered its ‘founder’37 but the earliest sources present a more nuanced picture. A patent of 1549 gives the impression that Esschius purchased the house around 1539 for the spiritual life of some devout, unmarried women (virgins). The patent states that ‘Reverend Nicholas van Essche, priest, living in our city of Diest, would have bought a certain house … for eight or nine poor or honest virgins to live in’.38 The eighteenth-century Dutch translation of Esschius’ Life 35  Augustinus Wichmans, ed. Brabantia Mariana tripartita (Antwerp: Cnobbaert, 1632), 427. Wichmans (1596-1661) entered the Premonstratensian Abbey of Tongerlo in the Southern Low Countries. In 1644, having been parish priest in Mierlo and Tilburg (cities in the Northern Low Countries), Wichmans became abbot of Tongerlo Abbey. 36  Berkelmans suggests 1541 as the date of the community’s foundation. Berkelmans, “Het Oisterwijkse archief over Maria Lignana,” 12-3. 37  Nicolaas van Essche (1507-1578), born in Oisterwijk, was known as ‘a man of great piety and great authority’. Wichmans, Brabantia Mariana, 427. In 20th-century literature, Esschius is identified as the ‘holy’ chaplain of the beguinage in Diest. Kettenmeyer, “Uit de briefwisseling van eene Brabantsche mystieke,” 278. See also J. P. W. A. Smit, “Het Begijnhof van Oisterwijck,” Bossche Bijdragen 3 (1919-1920), 40, 42; L. J. M. Philippen, “Begijnhoven en spiritualiteit,” Ons geestelijk erf 3 (1929), 182-3; De brieven uit ‘Der rechte wech’, 5-6. 38  Smit, “Het Begijnhof van Oisterwijck,” 46. See also the transfer of property by Esschius of 1550, in ibid., 50. According to Axters, Nicholas van Essche was a friend and ‘benefactor’ of the house of virgins but did not found it. Stephanus G. Axters, Geschiedenis van de vroomheid in de Nederlanden, III. De moderne devotie 1380-1550 (Antwerp: De Sikkel, 1956), 385.

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claims that Esschius himself ‘founded’ and ‘built’ the house, and that he ‘partly contributed’ to it.39 According to Wichmans, the house had as its ‘benefactors’ the abbots of St. Gertrude’s Abbey in Leuven, and the Cologne Carthusians.40 In his historical report on Oisterwijk, John (Joannes) Gramaye states that Nicholas van Essche ‘bought’ the house.41 The nineteenth-century Northern Dutch historians Joseph Coppens and Ludovicus Schutjes, writing on the history of the diocese of ‘s Hertogenbosch, considered the Cologne Carthusians to be the ‘founders’ and Nicolaas van Essche to be the ‘benefactor’ of the house.42 It is not clear whether Esschius exercised spiritual leadership for the newly founded house of virgins. Based on Maria van Oisterwijk’s letters, Johann Baptist Kettenmeyer concludes that before 1531 – and thus before the foundation of the house of virgins – Nicholas van Essche was her confessor, and Philip of Hosden, then parish priest of Oisterwijk, her spiritual director. Because Hosden was often in Leuven and away from Oisterwijk, Kettenmeyer infers that, during this absence, Hosden temporarily appointed Esschius as spiritual director.43 However, even if from 1539, the parish  Het leven van den eerweerdighen vaeder mynheer Nicolaus Van Esch, 59. Cf. ‘fundavit’, ‘extruxit’, and ‘pro parte dotavit’, in Venerabilis Nicolai Eschii, 43. See also Vita S. Beggae, 277, 913; Wichmans, Brabantia Mariana, 427. 40  Wichmans, Brabantia Mariana, 427. 41  J. B. Gramaye, ed., Taxandria (Brussels: Rutger Velpius, 1610), 133. Joannes Gramaye (ca. 1579-1625) was a historian and humanist from Antwerp. 42  J. A. Coppens, ed., Nieuwe beschrijving van het bisdom van ’s-Hertogenbosch. Naar aanleiding van het katholijk Meijerijsch memorieboek van A. van Gils, vol. III, 2 (‘s Hertogenbosch: Boek- en Steendrukkerij J. F. Demelinne, 1843), 283; Lud. Henr. Christian Schutjes, ed., Geschiedenis van het bisdom ’s-Hertogenbosch, vol. 5 (Sint-Michiels-Gestel: Snelpersdrukkerij van het bisdom ’s-Hertogenbosch, in het Instituut voor Doofstommen, 1876), 394. 43  Kettenmeyer, “Uit de briefwisseling van eene Brabantsche mystieke,” 281; Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 23-5. See also Vita S. Beggae, 277. In 1539, however, the Oisterwijk virgins professed obedience to Godefridus Boest (†1556), who succeeded Hosden as parish priest. Arendsen, “Maria van Hout. Begijn in Oisterwijk,” 10. Hosden was parish priest from 1530 to 1538. Like Hosden, Boest was a canon regular of St. Augustine in the Abbey of St. Gertrude in Leuven, and often absent from Oisterwijk. 39

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priests of Oisterwijk (and their surrogates) exercised authority over the house of virgins, contrary to what Kettenmeyer suggests, it does not necessarily follow that they also acted as spiritual directors.44 Siebe Thissen assumes Esschius was neither temporarily the chaplain of the house of virgins nor the spiritual director of Maria van Oisterwijk,45 a stance not incompatible with the assertion that her letters imply that she considered the Carthusian prior Blomevenna to be her spiritual father.46 Perhaps Nicholas van Essche was Maria van Oisterwijk’s spiritual disciple rather than her spiritual director. While the Vita S. Beggae suggests that Esschius was associated with the Oisterwijk house of virgins,47 it would appear from a collection of pious exercises and notes compiled by the Carthusian Gerard Kalckbrenner of Hamont (Blomevenna’s successor as prior in Cologne), that the Oisterwijk mystic actually inspired Esschius’ writings.48 Esschius, a native of Oisterwijk, probably became an important link in the contacts between the Oisterwijk house of virgins and the Cologne Carthusians.49 Following his priestly training in Leuven and ordination in Oisterwijk, Esschius taught law and philosophy in Cologne from 1531 to 1538. There he formed a strong friendship 44  Kettenmeyer, “Uit de briefwisseling van eene Brabantsche mystieke,” 281. See also Venerabilis Nicolai Eschii, 43; Het leven van den eerweerdighen vaeder mynheer Nicolaus Van Esch, 59. 45  Thissen, “‘Tegen die verdoolde blinde lutherse menschen’,”108. 46  RWO2r-O3r. 47  Vita S. Beggae, 277-8. Indeed, Kettenmeyer suggests that Esschius may have drawn great benefit from the spiritual direction of Maria van Oisterwijk. Kettenmeyer, “Uit de briefwisseling van eene Brabantsche mystieke,” 281-2. 48  Ms. 1204. Collectanea quaedam V.P. Gerardi Hamontani, kept in the Hessische Landes- und Hochschulbibliothek Darmstadt, Germany, published in James Hogg, Alain Girard, and Daniel Le Blévec, eds., Dom Gérard Kalckbrenner. Mélanges de Spiritualité, Texte établi, traduit et présenté par Augustin Devaux. Analecta Cartusiana, 158 (Salzburg: Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universität Salzburg, 1999), 104, note a. Gerard Kalckbrenner of Hamont (1499-1566) was procurator of the Cologne Charterhouse from 1523 to 1536; he was prior from 1536 to 1566. Cf. Kammann, Die Kartause St. Barbara in Köln, 335. 49  Dom Gérard Kalckbrenner. Mélanges de Spiritualité, 7-8.

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with Kalckbrenner. Along with Kalckbrenner and other Carthusians, Esschius dedicated himself to the publication of several books on the spiritual life,50 and like the Carthusians, he too was a major source of inspiration in the general movement for Catholic reform that was so characteristic of the period. After his appointment as chaplain to the beguinage in Diest in 1538, Esschius resided alternately in Cologne and Diest. It is not implausible that in 1539 Esschius would have ‘founded’ the house of virgins in Oisterwijk at the request of the Cologne Carthusians. The circle of friends around Esschius in Cologne included the aforementioned Jesuit, Peter Canisius.51 Canisius was at that time a student in Cologne and resided in the house of Andreas Herrl, a native of Baardwijk, a village near Oisterwijk. Herrl’s house in Cologne was home to several students from the Low Countries, and Esschius was their spiritual director.52 It is quite probable that Esschius introduced Canisius to the Cologne Carthusians, thereby beginning a lifelong friendship between Kalckbrenner and Canisius, and between Kalckbrenner and the newly founded Society of Jesus in Germany. It is not clear how Maria and Canisius came to know each other. The initial encounter may have been through Esschius, or through the Cologne Carthusians, or indeed may have arisen independently of both. In his ‘confessions’, written around 50  Esschius, among others, wrote an introduction to The Great Evangelical Pearl, a work by an anonymous author from the Low Countries, published in 1542. He also took care of the publication of The Temple of Our Soul by the same anonymous author. Reypens and Huyben, “Nog een vergeten mystieke grootheid,” 61, 189. See also Axters, Geschiedenis van de vroomheid in de Nederlanden III, 385-6, 387; Kees Schepers, “Wat zeggen de vroegste edities over de auteur van Die evangelische peerle?” Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse taal- en letterkunde 129 (2013), 43-9. 51  A. J. Brekelmans, “Maria van Hout: biografische gegevens over een Oisterwijkse mystieke,” (unpub. article kept in the community archives of the Convent of Bethlehem in Duffel, 1965), 4-5. See also n. 15 above. 52  Greven, Die Kölner Kartause und die Anfänge der katholischen Reform, 91-2; Kammann, Die Kartause St. Barbara in Köln, 337-8. See also Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 6; L. Reypens and J. Huyben, “Nog een vergeten mystieke grootheid,” Ons geestelijk erf 3 (1929), 151.

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1570, Canisius hints that during his travels as a young man to Arnhem, Nijmegen, ‘s Hertogenbosch, Oisterwijk, Diest and Leuven, he met many people who guided him in his spiritual life. Maria van Oisterwijk may have been among them.53 Undoubtedly, the friendship between Esschius, Canisius, and Maria van Oisterwijk was instrumental in the formation of an enduring relationship between the Oisterwijk mystic and many Jesuits in Cologne and Leuven. A Convent Named Bethlehem In terms of its physical structure, the house acquired by Esschius for the virgins in Oisterwijk was a detached house. This is evident from several historical documents. Indeed, the sixteenthcentury historical records variously mention, a ‘house for twelve virgins’, a ‘house of virgins founded for twelve virgins’, and ‘a congregation’ of poor women.54 Other official Brabantine documents – the aforementioned patent of 1549, a 1550 transfer of ownership, a 1637 land agent’s justification, two resolutions of 1681 and 1722, and a 1732 transfer of ownership – all refer either to ‘a house’ for eight or nine poor and sincere virgins, or to a ‘house of virgins’.55 We first encounter ‘Bethlehem’ as the name of the house of virgins in 1632 in the work of Wichmans, where it is claimed that Esschius ordered the building of the House of Bethlehem in Oisterwijk, next to the existing Third Order Franciscan Convent of St. Catharinenberg.56  Beati Petri Canisii, 21. See Brekelmans, “Maria van Hout: biografische gegevens,” 4. 54  See respectively, ‘domus duodecim virginum’, in Analecta Gijsberti Coeverincx II, unpub. manuscript collection (1609?), Abbey of Berne, Heeswijk (NL), edited textual fragments in Analecta Gijsberti Coeverincx, ed. G. van den Elsen and W. Hoevenaars (‘s-Hertogenbosch: Provinciaal genootschap van kunsten en wetenschappen in Noord-Brabant, 1907), f. 67v; ‘Parthenone 12. Virginum instituta’, in Gramaye, Taxandria, 133; ‘congregatio’, in Vita S. Beggae, 277. 55  Smit, “Het Begijnhof van Oisterwijck,” 45-55. 56  ‘Domus Bethleemitica’. Wichmans, Brabantia Mariana, 427. Coppens, Nieuwe beschrijving van het bisdom van ’s-Hertogenbosch, 283, Axters, Geschiedenis 53

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Contrary to what the majority of the contemporary literature suggests, it seems very unlikely that the house belonged to a beguinage in Oisterwijk.57 The original Latin edition of Esschius’ Vita, which appeared immediately after his death, in 1578, refers to a ‘convent’ or a ‘college’ for pious women, and to a ‘house of virgins’ – but there is no reference to a ‘beguinage’.58 Yet, in his introduction to the 1858 publication of the Latin text, the editor Pierre De Ram states that Nicholas van Essche founded a ‘beguinage’ in Oisterwijk.59 In this, De Ram, then rector of the re-founded Catholic University of Leuven, was presumably influenced by the eighteenth-century historian from the Southern Low Countries Jean François Foppens, who appears to have been the first to propose the idea of a ‘beguinage’ with respect to the Oisterwijk house of virgins.60 It may be that Foppens mistook the Third Order Franciscan Convent of St. Catharinenberg that was adjacent to the house of virgins for a beguinage.61 Furthermore, Foppens’ comment regarding the loss in 1721 of a beguinage in Oisterwijk, seems to refer to the house of virgins, which, according to the aforementioned resolution of 1722 was by now deserted, and, according to the aforementioned transfer of property, sold at a public auction in 1732.62 van de vroomheid in de Nederlanden III, 231, and Anton Huijbers, Oud Oisterwijk (Oisterwijk: Katholieke Kunstkring, 1923), 17, suggest 1440, as the date of the foundation of St. Catharinenberg. However, in Huijbers, Oud Oisterwijk, 124, the year 1451 is mentioned. See also Smit, “Het Begijnhof van Oisterwijck,” 42; Arendsen, “Maria van Hout. Begijn in Oisterwijk,” 11. Besides Franciscan convents of the ‘first’ and ‘second’ order, for male and female religious respectively, there were convents of the ‘third’ order, for Franciscan lay sisters and lay brothers. 57  See among others, Berkelmans, “Het Oisterwijkse archief over Maria Lignana,” 12; De brieven uit ‘Der rechte wech’, 5. 58  ‘Conventum seu collegium’ and ‘domus virginum’, in Venerabilis Nicolai Eschii, 43. 59  Ibid., xxxv. 60  Franciscus Foppens, ed., Historia episcopatus Silvaeducensis, continens episcoporum et vicariorum generalium seriem, et capitulorum abbatiarum, et monasteriorum fundationes (Brussels: Foppens, 1721), 309. 61  Cf. n. 56 above. 62  Smit, “Het Begijnhof van Oisterwijck,” 53, 54-5. Cf. n. 55 above.

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Ever since, Foppens’ designation of the house of virgins as a beguinage has been repeated in historical scholarship.63 Since 1919, the literature has taken the existence of a beguinage in Oisterwijk for granted.64 We are nevertheless certain that the house of virgins was not (part of) a beguinage during Maria van Oisterwijk’s time, since nothing in the earliest sources suggests there ever was a beguinage in Oisterwijk. Moreover, on the architectural level, there are no similarities between the Oisterwijk house of virgins and the traditional beguinages in the Low Countries.65 The name Bethlehem and the term convent, used by Maria van Oisterwijk’s spiritual descendants in the present-day religious congregation in Duffel, Belgium, are not inconsistent with the sources, even if the full name Convent of Bethlehem as such is not recorded in the historical sources. The Residents The fact that the house of virgins did not belong to a beguinage, does not preclude the possibility that the residents themselves were regarded as beguines. Pious women in the tradition of medieval mulieres religiosae (lit. ‘religious women’), like the thirteenthcentury mystical writer Hadewijch, were often typified as beguines by later historians.66 ‘Beguine’, however, appears nowhere in the 63  Coppens, Nieuwe beschrijving van het bisdom van ’s-Hertogenbosch, 283; Schutjes, Geschiedenis van het bisdom ’s-Hertogenbosch, 394. 64  Smit, “Het Begijnhof van Oisterwijck,” passim; Huijbers, Oud Oisterwijk, among others, 17-8, 124, 131; Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 8, 19, 24-6. See also A. Möllmann, “Maria von Oisterwijk und ihre Schrift ‘Der rechte Weg zur evangelischen Vollkommenheit’,” Zeitschrift für Aszese und Mystik 2 (1927), 320, and all later literature based on Smit and Kettenmeyer. 65  Timmermans, Het Convent van Betlehem, 60. 66  Originally, scholars believed Hadewijch was leader of a beguine movement in the city of Nivelles, having about two thousand virgins under her leadership. Jozef Van Mierlo, “Uit de geschiedenis onzer middeleeuwsche letterkunde. Hadewijch (Vervolg en slot),” Dietsche Warande en Belfort (1922), 84. See also Stephanus G. Axters, “Hadewijch als voorloopster van de zalige Jan van

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writings of Maria van Oisterwijk, nor in the earliest sources.67 In relation to her companions, Maria uses only the term ‘virgins’; and this is the term we find in a letter she addresses to a Cologne Carthusian and his fellow brothers.68 Furthermore, in all the Cologne documents, Maria van Oisterwijk is presented only as a ‘virgin’ (virgo) and her spiritual sisters in Oisterwijk as ‘virgins’ (virgines).69 Although Canisius ocassionally refers to Maria as

Ruusbroec,” in Dr. L. Reypens- Album. Opstellen aangeboden aan Prof. Dr. L. Reypens s.j. ter gelegenheid van zijn tachtigste verjaardag op 26 februari 1964, ed. A. Ampe. Studiën en tekstuitgaven van Ons geestelijk erf, 16 (Antwerp: Ruusbroecgenootschap, 1964), 60. She is also referred to as ‘beguine’ in Paul Verdeyen, “De invloed van Willem van Saint-Thierry op Hadewijch en Ruusbroec,” Ons geestelijk erf 51 (1977), 3ff; J. Reynaert, “Ruusbroec en Hadewijch,” Ons geestelijk erf 55 (1981), 193; Paul Mommaers with Elisabeth Dutton, Hadewijch: Writer, Beguine, Love Mystic (Leuven: Peeters, 2004), 21-2; 39-57. Hadewijch’s status as a beguine is disputed, however, in Rob Faesen, Lichaam in lichaam, ziel in ziel. Christusbeleving bij Hadewijch en haar tijdgenoten (Ghent: Carmelitana; Baarn: Ten Have, 2003), 23. In his article, “Was Hadewijch a Beguine or a Cistercian? An Annotated Hypothesis,” Cîteaux 55 (2004), 63, Faesen argues: ‘It is quite possible … that Hadewijch may have spent a period of her the life as a beguina. It is equally possible, however, that she later transferred to a community of Cistercian nuns. Was she installed as the first abbess of the young community of aristocratic ladies at Valduc [in Hamme-Mille, near Leuven]? (…) While the image of Hadewijch as a beguine fits well in the context of the currently fashionable antithesis ‘mystic versus official church’, that of Hadewijch as abbess is perhaps a little less appropriate’. Faesen is not the only one to doubt Van Mierlo’s hypothesis. The later literature also suggests that Hadewijch may have been a recluse, living in the parish church of St. Remacle, near Liège, or she may have been a hermit and relative of the abbot of the Abbey of Villers. Frank Willaert, “Dwaalwegen. Recente hypotheses over Hadewijchs biografie,” Ons geestelijk erf 84 (2013), 154, 175, 179-180, 181-4. Willaert however, considers it only a remote possibility that Hadewijch was an abbess, recluse or hermit. Ibid., 179, 180-1, 184, 186. 67  See also Timmermans, Het Convent van Betlehem, 60. 68  RWO3r. 69  Analecta ad conscribendis chronicum domus Santa Barbara, 292; Annales Cartusiae Coloniensis, 190; Chronologia Cartusiae Coloniensis, 169, 183-4, 186; Ephemerides ordinis Cartusiensis, 447-8; Origo et series priorum domus S. Barbarae, 22 (532), and Sacrarium Agrippina, 210-1 (1682).

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‘mother’, he otherwise speaks of her as a ‘virgin’.70 The sixteenthto eighteenth-century official documents from Oisterwijk listed above likewise only mention ‘virgins’, with no mention of the term ‘beguine’.71 This convention is consistent with the earliest Brabantine sources. In the Vita S. Beggae, for example, Maria van Oisterwijk and her companions are described as ‘virgin’ and ‘virgins’ respectively.72 Virgin’ is likewise the only term Wichmans employs for the residents of the House of Bethlehem.73 The same applies to the original Latin version of Esschius’ Vita.74 The Dutch translation of Esschius’ biography, in general, refers to the members of the community in Oisterwijk as ‘virgins’, although there is no specific ascription of either ‘virgin’ or ‘beguine’ to Maria van Oisterwijk.75 If Maria van Oisterwijk and her spiritual sisters had been ‘beguines’, the 1580 Latin text of Esschius’ Vita and its eighteenthcentury Dutch translation by Arnoldus Janssen would doubtless have referred to ‘beguine virgins’.76 Indeed, ‘beguine virgins’ was the term used for the residents of the beguinage of Diest, the main foundation of Nicolas van Essche dating from around the same time as the house of virgins. In keeping with his initial positing of the existence of a beguinage in Oisterwijk, Foppens was also the first historian to use the term ‘beguine’.77 In fact, he was the only one to suggest – somewhat too hastily – that there was a foundation for three hundred beguines in Oisterwijk. Perhaps Foppens’ misconception arose from a notice in the Vita S. Beggae that Esschius ‘founded many houses in different places for consecrated virgins, but especially on his native soil: there, three hundred virgins frequently  Beati Petri Canisii, 38. See also, ibid., n. 1, on the same page.  Smit, “Het Begijnhof van Oisterwijck,” 45-55. Cf. n. 55 above. 72  Vita S. Beggae, 277-8. 73  Wichmans, Brabantia Mariana, 427. 74  Venerabilis Nicolai Eschii, 43-4. 75  Het leven van den eerweerdighen vaeder mynheer Nicolaus Van Esch, 59. 76  ‘Beghinas virgines’, Venerabilis Nicolai Eschii, 45. ‘Begyntiens’, Het leven van den eerweerdighen vaeder mynheer Nicolaus Van Esch, 61. 77  Foppens, Historia episcopatus Silvaeducensis, 309. Cf. n. 60 above. 70 71

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stretched out their hands to God for the Cologne Charterhouse that supported them with generous alms’.78 The number three hundred, of course, refers to the total number of residents in all the houses Esschius founded.79 Moreover, the Vita S. Beggae does not refer to three hundred ‘beguines’, but three hundred ‘virgins’.80 Since the publication of Foppens’ Historia episcopatus Silvaeducensis, the association of ‘beguine’ with Maria van Oisterwijk has taken on a life of its own. Later authors followed Foppens in adopting the term ‘beguine’.81 The trend has continued to the present, and the description of Maria van Oisterwijk as a beguine is generally not questioned in the literature.82 3. A Life in the Spirit of St. Francis The spirit animating the community around Maria van Oisterwijk was more likely to have been Franciscan.83 Difficulties with Church authorities who were suspicious of religious groups operating without a formal rule led some of these groups, which included beguines and lay sisters, to transfer to Third Orders, notably the Franciscan Third Order.84 Following in their footsteps, the  Vita S. Beggae, 278.  Smit, “Het Begijnhof van Oisterwijck,” 41. Smit does, however, also refer of 300 beguines in Oisterwijk. 80  ‘300. Virgines’, Vita S. Beggae, 278: According to Lenting, the number 300 is certainly a mistake. The descriptions of the house of virgins in the aforementioned patents, indeed, point to its very modest size. Lenting, “Ich anfangen eyn neuwe leven,” 1. 81  Coppens, Nieuwe beschrijving van het bisdom van ’s-Hertogenbosch, 283; Schutjes, Geschiedenis van het bisdom ’s-Hertogenbosch, 394. 82  See e.g. Smit, “Het Begijnhof van Oisterwijck,” passim; Huijbers, Oud Oisterwijk, 18, 124; Möllmann, “Maria von Oisterwijk und ihre Schrift,” 320; Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 13, 20, 23, 30-1. See also Greven, Die Kölner Kartause und die Anfänge der katholischen Reform, 90-2, and all other secondary literature with respect to Maria van Oisterwijk. Finally, see Kammann, Die Kartause St. Barbara in Köln, 330, n. 758, who does raise a question regarding Maria van Oisterwijk’s status as a beguine. 83  Brekelmans, “Maria van Hout: biografische gegevens,” 6. 84  De brieven uit ‘Der rechte wech’, 6. 78 79

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Oisterwijk virgins may indeed have joined the Franciscan Tertiary Sisters, adopting the Third Rule of Saint Francis.85 Historian Wichmans believes the House of Bethlehem was dedicated to St. Francis. In his Brabantia Mariana, which dates from the beginning of the seventeenth century, he states: ‘The famous town [Oisterwijk] has two colleges of virgins, both dedicated to the order of St. Francis, whose rule they follow. In the larger [the Third Order Convent of St. Catharinenberg], a solemn service in honour of the Blessed Virgin is sung each week. Next to this convent is the House of Bethlehem, which recognizes as its founder the Reverend Nicholas Eschius [sic] from Oisterwijk’.86 Maria van Oisterwijk and her companions’ Franciscan spirituality might also have been supported by familiarity with the writings of the fifteenth-century Franciscan mystic Henry (Hendrik) Herp.87 His Mirror of Perfection (Spieghel der volcomenheit) circulated more widely in the Southern Low Countries than in the north. Nevertheless, the work could have reached Maria van Oisterwijk’s community (in the north) through Oisterwijk’s parish priests who often travelled to Leuven (in the south).88 Besides, 85

 Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 20; Lampen, “Maria van Oisterwijk, Tertiaris van S. Franciscus,” 220. Cf. n. 56 above. 86  Wichmans, Brabantia Mariana, 427. See again n. 56 above. 87  Henry Herp (†1477), also known as Herpius or Harphius, was rector of the Brothers of the Common Life in Delft (1445) and in Gouda (1446), both in the Northern Low Countries. Around 1450 he became a Friar Minor and in 1454, guardian (superior) in the convent of Friars Minor in Mechelen, near Brussels. Between 1470 and 1473 he was provincial of the Cologne Province. He died as guardian in Mechelen. The main source of inspiration for Herp’s mystical theology was the 14th-century Brabantine mystical writer John (Jan) of Ruusbroec (see n. 105 below). It comes as no surprise therefore that Herp has been called ‘Ruusbroec’s herald’. Guido De Baere, “De Middelnederlandse mystieke literatuur en de Moderne Devotie,” Trajecta 6 (1997), 13-5; Paul Verdeyen, Ruusbroec and His Mysticism, trans. André Lefevere (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1994), 94. 88  Maria van Oisterwijk herself may have been acquainted with Herp’s work through Esschius, whose writings carry Herp’s (and Ruusbroec’s) stamp. Thissen, “‘Tegen die verdoolde blinde lutherse menschen’,” 110.

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Herp’s typically Franciscan spirituality was intended not just for regular religious but also for the semi–religious and laypeople.89 Another possible channel of Franciscan spirituality is through the inspiration of Maria van Oisterwijk’s spiritual father Blomevenna, who in his youth was himself deeply influenced by Herp’s mystical piety.90 Alternatively, the Oisterwijk mystic may have encountered Herp’s Mirror of Perfection through the charterhouse of ‘s Hertogenbosch, near Oisterwijk. Maria van Oisterwijk’s teachings reveal many points of similarity with St. Francis of Assisi.91 In line with typical Franciscan Third Order piety, she is especially drawn to the nuptial imagery from the Song of Songs, and to Christ as the centre of the religious life.92 Like St. Francis, the Oisterwijk mystic also possessed a simple childlike love for God.93 According to Kettenmeyer, her poverty of spirit also aligned her with Franciscan 89  Thom Mertens, “Mystieke cultuur en literatuur in de late middeleeuwen,” in Grote lijnen. Syntheses over Middelnederlandse letterkunde, ed. Frits van Oostrom, J. Goossens, Paul Wackers, e. a., Nederlandse literatuur en cultuur in de Middeleeuwen, 11 (Amsterdam: Prometheus, 1995), 133. 90  Greven, Die Kölner Kartause und die Anfänge der katholischen Reform, 14; Marion Grams-Thieme, “Die Kölner Kartause und ihre Beziehungen zu den Niederlanden,” in Die Kölner Kartause um 1500: Eine Reise in unsere Vergangenheit, ed. Werner Schäfke (Cologne: Kölnisches Stadtmuseum, 1991), 363; Kammann, Die Kartause St. Barbara in Köln, 297. See also James Hogg, “Die Kartause, Köln und Europa. Gelehrte Kartäuser zwischen Reform, Reformation und Gegenreformation,” in Die Kölner Kartause um 1500. Eine Reise in unsere Vergangenheit, ed. Werner Schäfke (Cologne: Kölnisches Stadtmuseum, 1991), 170, 173. 91  Lampen, “Maria van Oisterwijk, Tertiaris van S. Franciscus,” 236; Willibrord Lampen, “Maria van Oisterwijk,” Brabantia 8 (1959), 40-1. 92  Axters, Geschiedenis van de vroomheid in de Nederlanden III, 233. 93  Cf. her way of speaking to God: ‘O beloved Father, I am your child and you my Father. I pour out my troubles to you. You know what I need. I ask you, please take care of me’ (RWA8r), and: ‘I cannot get to know your incomprehensible image, in which all joy lies, unless you, dear Father, draw me into you’ (PU3v). Letters and numbers prefaced with P refer to Dat paradijs der lieffhebbender siele[n], vol inniger oeffeninge[n] des geests, in gebetswijse (‘s Hertogenbosch: G. van der Hatart, 1535). P with letters and numbers followed by ‘r’ and ‘v’ refer to the manuscript’s recto and verso pages, respectively. See also Lampen, “Maria

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spirituality.94 Contrary to what some of the literature suggests, however, Maria did not bear the stigmata.95 Whatever the case concerning the sources of her Franciscan spirituality may be, a glance at her first treatise ‘The Straight Road to Evangelical Perfection’ (hereinafter, ‘The Straight Road’), taken from the book with the same title The Straight Road to Evangelical Perfection, immediately reveals that Maria van Oisterwijk considered St. Francis’ life the exemplar for a truly Christian spiritual life: Here in this [earthly] time, we must walk in faith, adorned with love, as our Holy Father St. Francis did. And most especially with these five virtues, namely sincere obedience, sincere humility, sincere meekness, sincere mercy, and true love. These are the highest and greatest virtues with which we can serve the Lord here most completely. St. Francis kept these as perfectly as Christ demonstrated for us (RWF1r).

4. In the Tradition of the Devotio Moderna? Geert Groote and the Foundation of Sister-Houses There is a further possibility that the house of virgins was inspired by the Sisters of the Common Life, a religious association (parallel to the Brothers of the Common Life) which had its origins in the Devotio Moderna, a movement of spiritual reform that emerged in the second half of the fourteenth century in the Northern Low Countries. The Devotio Moderna was primarily a movement of laypeople who lived together in semi-religious communities without a formal religious rule or profession. From the initial form, however, a regular monastery in the tradition of the Canons Regular under the Rule of St. Augustine was subsequently established in 1387 at van Oisterwijk, Tertiaris van S. Franciscus,” 236; Lampen, “Maria van Oisterwijk,” 41. 94  Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 21. See also RWL5r-M6r. 95  Lampen, “Maria van Oisterwijk,” 36; See also Lampen, “Maria van Oisterwijk, Tertiaris van S. Franciscus,” 235-6.

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Windesheim near Zwolle in the Northern Low Countries. The movement had its greatest reach in the second half of the fifteenth century and, following the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, ceased to exist as an independent movement in the early sixteenth century.96 The Devotio Moderna as a reform movement began with Geert Groote around 1374.97 The core of its inspiration rested on a renewed, personal, interiorized life of faith, in reaction to an external formal faith with a less animating inner spirit.98 Following a spiritual conversion in 1372, in which he turned from a life of vanity and ambition to a life of repentance and asceticism, Groote spent time in the Monnikhuizen Charterhouse near Arnhem in the Northern Low Countries, to deepen his new-found spiritual life.99 Here he formed a lifelong friendship with the Carthusians; the Constitutions of the Windesheim monasteries also include Carthusian observances.100 Initially, Groote put his house in Deventer 96

 De Baere, “De Middelnederlandse mystieke literatuur en de Moderne Devotie,” 4. With respect to the Devotio Moderna, see also n. 25. 97  Geert Groote (1340-1384) was born into a prosperous family in Deventer in the Northern Low Countries. He attended the University of Paris and, at the age of 18, became magister artium. Later, he followed courses in the natural sciences – natural philosophy, astronomy, astrology, medicine and mathematics – and, with a view to an ecclesiastical career, he also studied canon law. See also De Baere, “De Middelnederlandse mystieke literatuur en de Moderne Devotie,” 7. In 1372, Groote underwent a spiritual conversion, leading him to adopt an ascetic way of life. 98  De Baere, “De Middelnederlandse mystieke literatuur en de Moderne Devotie,” 4. See also Faesen, Jan van Ruusbroec. Contemplatief theoloog, 126. ‘Devotion’ with respect to the movement of the Devotia Moderna is related to one’s inner dedication to Christ. 99  De Baere, “De Middelnederlandse mystieke literatuur en de Moderne Devotie,” 7; A. G. Weiler, “Geert Grote en begijnen in de begintijd van de Moderne Devotie,” Ons geestelijk erf 69 (1995), 114. 100  Axters, Geschiedenis van de vroomheid in de Nederlanden III, 198; GramsThieme, “Die Kölner Kartause und ihre Beziehungen zu den Niederlanden,” 360. For discussion of the influence of the Carthusians on the movement of the Devotio Moderna, see also Hogg, “Die Kartause, Köln und Europa,” 169; Greven, Die Kölner Kartause und die Anfänge der katholischen Reform, 8. Conversely, in the

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at the disposal of unmarried women without means, who wished to dedicate themselves to God.101 Thus, Groote’s family home became the first house of the Sisters of the Common Life; other SisterHouses soon followed. Groote’s houses were not convents. There were no binding vows and the women did not wear religious habits. Theirs was a life of love for God, lived out in simplicity, often accompanied by voluntary poverty, chastity, and obedience.102 From a religious and organizational perspective, the house of virgins in Oisterwijk had much in common with the Sister-Houses. Central to the Oisterwijk house of virgins, just as to Groote’s Sister-Houses, was a life of personal devotion to God. Alongside this, the Oisterwijk virgins, like the Sisters of the Common Life, lived by their own manual labour. In each case, the communities themselves were responsible for organizing their own common way of life, their common holding of property, and their common religious exercises. As with the house of virgins, however, Groote’s communities of laypeople were under the general jurisdiction of local parish priests.103 Thus, like the Sisters of the Common Life, the Oisterwijk virgins lived within the structure of the Church, though their life was not regulated by a monastic rule.104 beginning of the 16th century, the Cologne Carthusians displayed great interest in the works of the Devotio Moderna. Hogg, “Die Kartause, Köln und Europa,” 173. This interest was not confined to the writings of the Devotio Moderna. Many of the artworks in the Cologne Charterhouse were also inspired by the movement’s spirituality. Grams-Thieme, “Die Kölner Kartause und ihre Beziehungen zu den Niederlanden,” 367. 101  C. C. de Bruin, De Statenbijbel en zijn voorgangers. Nederlandse Bijbelvertalingen vanaf de reformatie tot 1637, bewerkt door F. G. M. Broeyer (Haarlem: Nederlands Bijbelgenootschap, 1993), 29. 102  Weiler, “Geert Grote en begijnen in de begintijd van de Moderne Devotie,” 122, 131; De Baere, “De Middelnederlandse mystieke literatuur en de Moderne Devotie,” 7. 103  Concerning Groote’s Sister-Houses, see Weiler, “Geert Grote en begijnen in de begintijd van de Moderne Devotie,” 124-6. 104  Cf. Thissen, “‘Tegen die verdoolde blinde lutherse menschen’,” 104-5 (with respect to the Pearl-writer). See also Maria van Hout (†1547). Begijn en mystica, 39.

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A Life in Communion with God Maria’s writings reveal the Oisterwijk virgins’ close spiritual affinity with the movement of the Devotio Moderna. In her treatise ‘The Straight Road’, Maria van Oisterwijk presents the culmination of the spiritual life as a ‘life in communion with God’ (gemeine leven). At first glance, the Middle Dutch expression ‘gemeine leven’ (usually translated in English as ‘common life’ but which the present author believes is more accurately translated as ‘life in communion with God’) appears to be borrowed from Groote. After all, it represents the fundamental spiritual disposition of his first Sister-House in Deventer and of the movement of the Sisters (and Brothers) of the Common Life in general. Probably, however, Groote found the inspiration for his concept of gemeine leven or ‘life in communion with God’ in the writings of the fourteenthcentury Brabantine mystic John (Jan) of Ruusbroec.105 Ruusbroec’s influence on Groote’s life and work should not be underestimated.106 After his time in the charterhouse of 105  Cf. Faesen, Jan van Ruusbroec. Contemplatief theoloog, 126-7. Before becoming an Augustinian Canon in the priory of Groenendaal, in Brabant, Jan van Ruusbroec (1293-1381) was a chaplain at the collegiate Church of St. Gudule in Brussels. Along with several letters, Ruusbroec authored eleven books on the mystical life, the two most widely known of which are The Spiritual Espousals (Die geestelike brulocht), ed. J. Alaerts, Opera omnia, 3; Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio Mediaevalis, 103. Tielt: Lannoo; Turnhout: Brepols, 1988, and The Spiritual Tabernacle (Van den geesteliken tabernakel), ed. Th. Mertens, Opera omnia, 5-6; Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio Mediaevalis, 105-106 (Tielt: Lannoo; Turnhout: Brepols, 2006). 106  Groote translated into Latin and ‘edited’ three of Ruusbroec’s treatises: The Spiritual Espousals, A Mirror of Eternal Blessedness (Een spieghel der eeuwigher salicheit), ed. G. De Baere, Opera omnia, 8; Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio Mediaevalis, 108 (Tielt: Lannoo; Turnhout: Brepols, 2001), and The Seven Rungs (Van seven trappen), ed. R. Faesen, Opera omnia, 9; Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio Mediaevalis, 109 (Tielt: Lannoo; Turnhout: Brepols, 2003). He also had a spiritual kinship with Ruusbroec’s mystical life and was familiar with Ruusbroec’s The Twelve Beguines (Vanden XII beghinen). Text and Apparatus, ed. M. M. Kors, Opera omnia, 7A; Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio Mediaevalis, 107A (Tielt: Lannoo; Turnhout: Brepols, 2000), The Christian Faith (Vanden kerstenen ghelove), ed. G. De Baere, Th. Mertens, and H. Noë, Opera omnia, 10;

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Monnikhuizen, where he had the opportunity to read Ruusbroec’s works, Groote even visited Ruusbroec, who was then prior of the Canons Regular in Groenendaal near Brussels.107 Nevertheless, the Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio Mediaevalis, 110 (Tielt: Lannoo; Turnhout: Brepols, 1991), and The Spiritual Tabernacle. Ruusbroec’s Little Book of Explanation (Boecsken der verclaringhe), trans. Phayre Crowley and Helen Rolfson, in The Complete Ruusbroec: English Translation with the Original Middle Dutch Text, eds. Guido De Baere and Thom Mertens, Corpus Christianorum Scholars version, Vol. I (Turnhout: Brepols, 2014), is nowhere explicitly mentioned by Groote, and we do not know for certain whether he read the work. The Little Book, however, forms part of a manuscript collection of five of Ruusbroec’s works that were copied by Brother Gerard of Saintes at the Carthusian priory in Herne, in the Duchy of Brabant; presumably, copies of this manuscript became available in other Carthusian monasteries. Cf. De Baere, “De Middelnederlandse mystieke literatuur en de Moderne Devotie,” 9-10; Guido De Baere, “Het “ghemeine leven” bij Ruusbroec en Geert Grote,” in De Letter Levend Maken. Opstellen aangeboden aan Guido De Baere sj bij zijn zeventigste verjaardag, ed. Kees Schepers and Frans Hendrickx, Miscellanea Neerlandica, 39 (Leuven: Peeters, 2010), 37-45. With respect to Brother Gerard of Herne, see Jan van Ruusbroec, Dat boec van den Gheesteleken Tabernacule. Inleiding en glossarium van J. B. David, ed., Maetschappy der Vlaemsche bibliophilen, II, 1 (Ghent: Annoot-Braeckman, 1858) VI-XIV; “The Prologue by Brother Gerard of Saintes,” trans. John Arblaster, in A Companion to John of Ruusbroec, ed. John Arblaster and Rob Faesen, Brill’s Companions to the Christian Tradition, 51 (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2014), 378-383; Geraert van Saintes. Hendrik Utenbogaerde. De twee oudste bronnen van het leven van Jan van Ruusbroec door zijn getuigenissen bevestigd. Uit het Middelnederlands en uit het Latijn vertaald door de Benedictinessen van Bonheiden. Ingeleid door P. Verdeyen. Mystieke teksten met commentaar, 4 (Bonheiden: Abdij Bethlehem, 1981), 15-29. Ruusbroec’s Middle Dutch manuscripts were frequently copied and preserved by the members of the Devotio Moderna. Given the widespread admiration for the Groenendaal mystic in Devotio Moderna circles, his writings were preserved in their communities. Several disciples of Groote, including Gerlach Peters (ca. 1378-1411) and Thomas a Kempis (13801471), made their own notes on his thought. Verdeyen, Ruusbroec and His Mysticism, 92-4. For the spiritual kinship between Ruusbroec and Gerlach Peters, see Anthony Dupont and Lieve Uyttenhove, “Deiformity as the Ultimate Human Freedom. Gerlach Peters’ Soliloquium ignitum cum Deo,” Studies in Spirituality 24 (2014), 206, n. 4; 207, n. 7-8; 208, n. 10; 209, n. 13; 210, n. 16; 211, n. 19; 213, n. 22. 107  De origine monasterii Viridisvallis una cum vitis B. Joannis Rusbrochii, primi prioris hujus monasterii, et aliquot coaetaneorum ejus opusculum Henrici Pomerii,

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spirituality of the Devotio Moderna does not entirely reflect Ruusbroec’s notion of ‘life in communion with God’.108 Maria van Oisterwijk, on the other hand, does adopt the concept in its full meaning. Both Ruusbroec and Maria are convinced that life in communion with God is a gift from God, flowing naturally from mystical union with God.109 The core of a life in union with God is the conviction that one does not receive the gift of participation and transformation in God’s love exclusively for oneself. Rather, it is given to one for the redemption and the salvation of all people.110 The Rule of St. Augustine Although it is possible to discern a considerable influence of the Sisters of the Common Life on Maria van Oisterwijk’s spiritualiy, it must also be remembered that in the sixteenth century, Groote’s Sister-Houses were unlikely still to have existed in the way outlined above. At the end of the fourteenth and in the fifteenth centuries, the Devotio Moderna evolved towards the foundation of

Analecta Bollandiana 4 (Brussels: Société belge de librairie, 1885), 88-9; “De Middelnederlandse vertaling van Pomerius’ werk ‘De origine Monasterii Viridisvallis’,” ed. P. Verdeyen, Ons geestelijk erf 55 (1981), 144-5; Geraert van Saintes. Hendrik Utenbogaerde, 105-6. See also De Baere, “De Middelnederlandse mystieke literatuur en de Moderne Devotie,” 8; Faesen, Jan van Ruusbroec. Contemplatief theoloog, 125-7. 108  Cf. Mertens, “Mystieke cultuur en literatuur in de late middeleeuwen,” 120-1, 132. 109  Cf. ‘And from this wealth [union with God in love] derives the life in communion with God’. Jan van Ruusbroec, The Sparkling Stone (Vanden blinkenden steen), ed. G. De Baere, Th. Mertens, and H. Noë, Opera omnia, 10, Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio Mediaevalis, 110 (Tielt: Lannoo; Turnhout: Brepols, 1991), 779-780 (our translation). 110  ‘I cannot but (…) stand completely at the service of other people and lead a life in communion with God’ (RWN6v). See also: ‘He [Christ] wants her [the bride] (…) to lead a life in communion with God amidst all people, as shown by Christ, to draw and assemble all people unto him’ (RWE8v-F1r).

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convents.111 This semi-religious life evolved into canonical religious communities, which together formed the Chapter of Windesheim.112 For their rule, Groote chose to follow the regular Canons of St. Augustine. In this regard, Groote was again inspired by Ruusbroec and his community in Groenendaal.113 As early as circa 1382, Geoffrey (Godfried) van Wevel, a Canon of Groenendaal, helped to found a convent in Eemstein, in the Northern Low Countries.114 When the first candidates arrived for the convent in Windesheim in 1387, they first went to Eemstein for initial formation.115 Several of Groote’s Sister-Houses evolved into convents of the Franciscan Third Order, as well as into convents of the Windesheim Augustinian observance.116 The foundation of 111  Weiler, “Geert Grote en begijnen in de begintijd van de Moderne Devotie,” 131-2. 112  De Baere, “De Middelnederlandse mystieke literatuur en de Moderne Devotie,” 7. Around 1450, many followers of Devotio Moderna, opted for a life of monastic spirituality. They did so after the example of many semi–religious communities that increasingly took over elements of monastic life, eventually becoming regular convents, and organizing themselves into chapters. Mertens, “Mystieke cultuur en literatuur in de late middeleeuwen,” 128, 129. 113  De Baere, “De Middelnederlandse mystieke literatuur en de Moderne Devotie,” 7-8. Adopting the rule of St. Augustine, in that period, however, was not accidental; the Augustinian rule was a standard alternative to the rule of St. Benedict. 114  In 1402, the priory of Groenendaal itself desired to join the Chapter of Windesheim. Pierre d’Ailly, Bishop of Cambrai, under whose jurisdiction the priory fell, refused permission. Pierre d’Ailly acknowledged the anti-pope from Avignon, while Windesheim was loyal to the pope of Rome. Later, in 1411, the Groenendaal community was permitted to join the Windesheim Chapter, as the Dutch-speaking part of the diocese of Cambrai, to which Groenendaal belonged, no longer recognized the pope of Avignon. Verdeyen, Ruusbroec and His Mysticism, 87. 115  Mertens, “Mystieke cultuur en literatuur in de late middeleeuwen,” 120. 116  See again Weiler, “Geert Grote en begijnen in de begintijd van de Moderne Devotie,” 131-2. For example, the second community of the Sisters of the Common Life in Arnhem, at some time between 1420 and 1458 – but probably after 1428 – joined the Franciscan Order and became Third Order Sisters, as an intermediate step to becoming a regular convent community. In 1459, they

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the Windesheim convents provided a particularly secure basis to ‘the constantly criticized and endangered’ semi-religious life of the Sisters (and Brothers) of the Common Life.117 Several years later, numerous convents of the Franciscan Third Order also began to adopt the Rule of St. Augustine.118 On this basis, it is plausible that the Oisterwijk house of virgins, which we assume was initially dedicated to St. Francis, later adopted the Rule of St. Augustine, as the Sisters of the Common Life and the Franciscan tertiaries did. Nowhere does Maria van Oisterwijk directly state this, but both St. Augustine and St. Francis are important figures in her work. For example, when she urges her contemporaries to die to themselves119 and to abandon their will to God, she underpins her exhortation with a quotation from Augustine. Maria shares the Augustinian conviction that to reach eternal salvation, human beings, in co-operation with God’s beatific grace, must make spiritual efforts themselves:

were given permission to join the Regular Order of St. Augustine and to associate themselves with the Chapter of Windesheim. Kees Schepers, “Het verborgen leven van de zusters Agnieten. Mystieke cultuur te Arnhem in de zestiende eeuw,” Ons geestelijk erf 79 (2008), 287-9. See also Bernard McGinn, The Varieties of Vernacular Mysticism (1350-1550). The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism, 5 (New York, NY: Crossroad, 2012), 143. Several of Groote’s disciples would have advocated the creation of houses for tertiaries. Axters, Geschiedenis van de vroomheid in de Nederlanden III, 225. These houses emerged in the Netherlands, beginning in the 14th century and became very numerous in the first years of the 15th century. Ibid., 226. Their rapid spread was thanks to the support of Groote’s friends in the diocesan clergy. Ibid., 228. 117  Cf. De Baere, “De Middelnederlandse mystieke literatuur en de Moderne Devotie,” 7. 118  Koen Goudriaan, “Het Sint-Agnesklooster en de Moderne Devotie,” Ons geestelijk erf 81 (2010), 22. See also M. De Vroede, “Kwezels” en “zusters”: de geestelijke dochters in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden, 17de en 18de eeuw. Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België. Klasse der Letteren 152 (Brussels: Paleis der Academiën, 1994), 81-2. 119  ‘To die to oneself’ means that one is no longer concerned with his or her own life. One starts to live for God and to love God, for the sake of God alone.

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Saint Augustine says: ‘God has made you without you from nothing. But he never makes you blessed without you’.120 You must not think that God wants to make you from wondrous signs, in the way God allows a beautiful rose to bloom for us. That he could well do. But he desires that all things should take place in accordance with his design (RWI2v-I3r).

It is possible that Maria van Oisterwijk wrote this in response to Luther, who, emphasizing God’s grace, focused too little on human beings’ free will, which is granted so that humans would surrender themselves ‘voluntarily’ to God’s merciful actions. 5. Bond of Friendship with the Cologne Carthusians Moving to Cologne In 1545, Maria van Oisterwijk moved to Cologne along with two companions, Yda Jordanis and another whom we know only as ‘Eva’.121 As we saw above, they had already been invited to Cologne by the Carthusians in 1532, at which time the prior Blomevenna and the community had agreed to support them  Augustinus, Sermo 169, 13 (PL38, 923).  Maria’s departure from the house of virgins in 1545 was preceded by that of Anna Oirschot, who in 1542 moved to Leuven. Another virgin, Joanna, followed her later, although we do not know the exact date. After the death of Maria van Oisterwijk in Cologne, Yda Jordanis (see n. 6 above) also moved to the Southern Low Countries and became a recluse in the beguinage of Diest. By 1545, Helwigis, another of the virgins, was probably also deceased. Timmermans, Het Convent van Betlehem, 58-9. This loss of its first residents, along with changed political and religious circumstances heralded the decline, from 1550 onwards, of the first period of flourishing of the Oisterwijk house of virgins. Ibid., 59. There was a second bloom in the early years of the 17th century. Ibid., 61. However, in 1725, the house of virgins closed for good. The remaining virgins went to live with relatives or acquaintances. Ibid., 73. Earlier – around 1650 – five of the virgins had already been sent to the then Southern Low Countries. Ibid. 70. In 1652, they settled in Duffel by common consent of the parish priest and the city’s mayor. Ibid. 79. For the further course of development from the first foundation to the present Convent of Betlehem in Duffel, Belgium, see ibid., 79 ff. 120 121

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should they settle there.122 According to the Chronologia, the women were ‘exhausted by their spiritual exercises and no longer in a position to look after themselves’.123 The author of Esschius’ Latin biography, however, explains their move to Cologne as arising from a great spiritual empathy with the Carthusians.124 The Paradise, for its part, suggests that Maria herself made the decision to leave Oisterwijk in the belief that God was calling her to this course of action, and it was not self-evident to her that she should leave her home and her country: Behold, dear God, now that I have found within myself, for so many years, great peace and joy and an inner happiness that I cannot express, [and] now you desire something else for me. Oh, now you come and speak in my heart: Leave your country where you have lived in peace for so long, which I have given you, and of which no one has been able to deprive you. Leave it now and forget the house of your father, where your beloved remains, and move into the country that I will show you. There I will reveal my will to you. Oh, see what great exile is this that I will depart from here and forget all former things (PY7r).

Maria van Oisterwijk’s time in Cologne led her into a deeper relationship with God and deeper prayer for the needs of the Charterhouse and the city.125 In Cologne, she lived a life of hidden holiness.126 Notwithstanding her solitary life and modest education, her influence on the spirituality of the Carthusians was of great significance.127 By her prayers and her own deep living of the 122  Chronologia Cartusiae Coloniensis, 169, 183-4. See also Ephemerides ordinis Cartusiensis, 447; Venerabilis Nicolai Eschii, 43-4; Het leven van den eerweerdighen vaeder mynheer Nicolaus Van Esch, 60. See in addition, nn. 17 and 18 above. 123  Chronologia Cartusiae Coloniensis, 183-184. See also Vita S. Beggae, 278. 124  Venerabilis Nicolai Eschii, 43-4. 125  Chronologia Cartusiae Coloniensis, 183-4. 126  Cf. Annales Cartusiae Coloniensis, 190; Chronologia Cartusiae Coloniensis, 186; Ephemerides ordinis Cartusiensis, 448; Origo et series priorum domus S. Barbarae, 22 (532); Sacrarium Agrippina, 211 (1682). 127  Kammann, Die Kartause St. Barbara in Köln, 308. See also Lenting, “Ich anfangen eyn neuwe leven,” 17.

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Christian spiritual life, she supported the Church and its work for spiritual reform through the Council of Trent. The Cologne Carthusians also noticed how individuals, who entrusted their ‘souls’ to her, progressed daily in their spiritual lives.128 Unfortunately, just two years after her arrival, Maria van Oisterwijk died in Cologne on 30 September 1547,129 and was buried in the chapel of Our Lady in the Cologne Charterhouse.130 The prior of the charterhouse, John (Johannes) Reckschenkel of Trier, ordered the following epitaph:131 ‘Maria van Oisterwijk, an admirable virgin, great in virtues and hidden holiness, was buried in the year 1547. This Maria, outstanding among virgins, and whose mother [city] was Oisterwijk, rests in this coffin’.132 First Contacts with the Carthusians Thanks to Gerard Kalckbrenner of Hamont (who would eventually succeed Blomevenna) we are well-informed about the 128  Ephemerides ordinis Cartusiensis, 448. ‘Soul’ refers to the deepest ground of the human being. 129  Analecta ad conscribendis chronicum domus Santa Barbara, 292; Annales Cartusiae Coloniensis, 190; Chronologia Cartusiae Coloniensis, 186; Origo et series priorum domus S. Barbarae, 22 (532); Sacrarium Agrippina, 211. Vita S. Beggae, 278, as well as Venerabilis Nicolai Eschii, 44, n. 1, and Ephemerides ordinis Cartusiensis, 447, however, mention 1557 as the year of her death. This was corrected on the following page, 448. 130  Annales Cartusiae Coloniensis, 190; Chronologia Cartusiae Coloniensis, 186. The chapel was built in 1427 under Theodoricus of Morsa, then Archbishop of Cologne. Ephemerides ordinis Cartusiensis, 448; Sacrarium Agrippina, 210-1 (1682). 131  Johannes Reckschenkel was prior of the Cologne Charterhouse from 1580 to 1596. With respect to the epitaph, see Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 12-3; Wagner, “Eine kleine Geschichte der Kölner Kartause,” 48. 132  Ephemerides ordinis Cartusiensis, 448: ‘Maria de Osterwick, virgo admirabilis, magna meritis et occultae sanctitatis, anno 1547 sepulta fuit. Virginibus virgo praefulgens illa Maria. Cujus erat genitrix Osterwick, hac cubat urna’. See also Annales Cartusiae Coloniensis, 190; Chronologia Cartusiae Coloniensis, 186; Sacrarium Agrippina, 211 (1682); Maria van Hout (†1547). Begijn en mystica, 30.

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contacts between the Carthusians and Maria van Oisterwijk.133 During his time as procurator economist of the Cologne Charterhouse, Kalckbrenner often travelled through Oisterwijk to the Charterhouse of St. Sophia in ‘s Hertogenbosch134 to settle business matters concerning young men from the Low Countries who had entered the Cologne Charterhouse.135 The good relations between the two Carthusian monasteries may be traced to efforts by the Cologne Carthusians to publish the works of Dionysius of Ryckel (better known as Dionysius the Carthusian), the first abbot of the St. Sophia Charterhouse.136 It is not surprising that the Cologne Carthusians should have launched this endeavour around 1530. Through his writings, Dionysius engaged in a lifelong battle against both the representatives of Islam and opponents of Catholic doctrine. The publication of his works commenced at a time when the Turks (Islamic Ottomans) had reached the gates of Vienna and only a few short years after Martin Luther had published his theses against indulgences.137 Due to the pressure from the Turkish threat, Pope Clement VII had granted Emperor Charles V and his younger brother Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, permission to collect taxes for the war against the Turks.138 Religious houses were also subject to the ‘Turks’ tax. Hence, Kalckbrenner was sent to ‘s Hertogenbosch in 1530 and commissioned to sell some of the charterhouse’s 133  Concerning Kalckbrenner, see n. 48 above; concerning Blomevenna, n. 19 above. 134  See Maria van Hout (†1547). Begijn en mystica, 14; RWA2r. See also Kettenmeyer, “Uit de briefwisseling van eene Brabantsche mystieke,” 288; Möllmann, “Maria von Oisterwijk und ihre Schrift,” 321; Greven, Die Kölner Kartause und die Anfänge der katholischen Reform, 89-90; Lenting, “Ich anfangen eyn neuwe leven,” 31. 135  Maria van Hout (†1547). Begijn en mystica, 14. 136  Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 30; Wagner, “Eine kleine Geschichte der Kölner Kartause,” 45-6; Kammann, Die Kartause St. Barbara in Köln, 335. Dionysius of Ryckel (ca. 1402/3-1471) founded the St. Sophia Charterhouse in 1466. 137  Wagner, “Eine kleine Geschichte der Kölner Kartause,” 46. 138  Kammann, Die Kartause St. Barbara in Köln, 301-302, 331.

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valuables to raise the necessary funds. While in ‘s Hertogenbosch, the monastery’s business matters brought Kalckbrenner into contact with Martin de Greve (Grevius), treasurer of the charterhouse. Grevius was a pious and righteous man, highly esteemed by many nobles and by Emperor Charles.139 The meeting between Kalckbrenner and Grevius was perhaps a happy reunion of a ‘disciple’ and his ‘master’.140 As a student in ‘s Hertogenbosch, the young Kalckbrenner had probably lived in Grevius’ house, in which case Grevius very likely introduced him to the ‘s Hertogenbosch House of the Brothers of the Common Life and to the spirit of the Devotio Moderna.141 Kettenmeyer and others further suggest that it was through the deeply pious Grevius that Kalckbrenner became acquainted with Maria van Oisterwijk and the residents of the Oisterwijk house of virgins.142 Kalckbrenner’s contact with Maria van Oisterwijk and her community may also have come through John (Johannes) Lanspergius, who joined the Cologne Carthusians in 1509 and lived there until 1530 when he became prior of the Vogelsang Charterhouse, near the Duchy of Jülich.143 Troubled by the spiritual decline in ecclesiastical life and by the rise of numerous reformers, Lanspergius 139  Martin de Greve (Martinus Grevius) (ca.1485/90-1562), a city clerk of ‘s Hertogenbosch from 1514 to 1515, and alderman from 1540 until 1541. Greven, Die Kölner Kartause und die Anfänge der katholischen Reform, 88-89; Kammann, Die Kartause St. Barbara in Köln, 335-6. 140  Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 31; see again Kammann, Die Kartause St. Barbara in Köln, 335-6. 141  Greven, Die Kölner Kartause und die Anfänge der katholischen Reform, 88-90; Albert Ampe, “Kanttekeningen bij de ‘Evangelische Peerle’,” Ons geestelijk erf 40 (1966), 242. See also Grams-Thieme, “Die Kölner Kartause und ihre Beziehungen zu den Niederlanden,” 363. 142  Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 31. With respect to Kalckbrenner’s acquaintance with Oisterwijk, see also Ampe, “Kanttekeningen bij de ‘Evangelische Peerle’,” 242; Kammann, Die Kartause St. Barbara in Köln, 331, 338. 143  Johannes Justus Lanspergius (ca. 1489/90-1539) entered the Cologne Charterhouse during the priorate of Blomevenna. He held the office of vicar from 1520 to 1530, when he became prior of a charterhouse situated in the surroundings of Jülich. Kammann, Die Kartause St. Barbara in Köln, 311. The Duchy of

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both manifested and sought to spread the piety of the Cologne Carthusians and the traditional Catholic spirit of prayer.144 From the Vita S. Beggae we know that the prior of Vogelsang was wellknown to some residents of the Oisterwijk house of virgins. His admiration for the virgin Helwigis was renowned and, just before his death, he expressed the hope that Helwigis herself would commend him to God in her prayers. Such was his esteem for Anna Oirschot, another resident of the house of virgins, that he requested the Cologne Charterhouse to hold a collection for her.145 Maria van Oisterwijk too, was known to Lanspergius, as is evident from one of her letters to the Carthusians in Cologne in which she sends him her greetings.146 Other Cologne texts touch upon Lanspergius’ passing away and Maria’s vision of his soul being carried up to heaven by angels.147 The fact that Lanspergius recorded Maria’s treatise ‘The Five Wounds’ in his work Quiver of Divine Love (Köcher der göttlichen Liebe) is further evidence of his regard for the Oisterwijk mystic.148 We also know that the ascetic spirit of the Devotio Moderna and its special attention to the Gospel

Jülich covered the region between the then Archdiocese of Cologne and the Diocese of Liège. 144  Greven, Die Kölner Kartause und die Anfänge der katholischen Reform, 27, 36, 47. See also Wagner, “Eine kleine Geschichte der Kölner Kartause,” 46. 145  Vita S. Beggae, 277. See also n. 121 above. 146  RW08r. See also Kettenmeyer, “Uit de briefwisseling van eene Brabantsche mystieke,” 291, 380-1; Reypens and Huyben, “Nog een vergeten mystieke grootheid,” 63. 147  Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 3. 148  Kettenmeyer, “Uit de briefwisseling van eene Brabantsche mystieke,” 287. See also Reypens and Huyben, “Nog een vergeten mystieke grootheid,” 63. Concerning Maria van Oisterwijk’s treatise ‘The Five Wounds’, see RWM6r-N5r. The title refers to the beginning of a letter which precedes Maria van Oisterwijk’s treatise ‘A Meditation Revealed by God’ (‘Ein oiffunge by Got offenbairt’). However, her treatise became known by the opening words of that letter. Cf. Maria van Hout (†1547). Begijn en mystica, 41. Lanspergius’ Köcher der göttlichen Liebe has been translated into Latin and published as Pharetra divini amoris. Greven, Die Kölner Kartause und die Anfänge der katholischen Reform, 29, 31.

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inspired Lanspergius’ piety.149 It may thus have been through Lanspergius that the house of virgins had contact with both Kalckbrenner and the (works of the) Devotio Moderna. Maria van Oisterwijk’s letters indicate that she was already in communication with Kalckbrenner and other Cologne Carthusians before 1531 – and thus some years before the foundation of the Oisterwijk house of virgins. Even if she does not name him, it is clear that she corresponded with Blomevenna during his time as prior. He is considered to have been her spiritual father (director), and she his spiritual daughter.150 Around the same time, the Oisterwijk mystic was also writing to a spiritual son. This was undoubtedly Kalckbrenner.151 In his commentary on the aforementioned treatise, ‘The Five Wounds’, Kalckbrenner testifies to his first encounter with the author (Maria van Oisterwijk). From this testimony it would appear that Maria, on seeing Kalckbrenner’s dedication to her spiritual doctrine, was filled with God’s grace,152 while Kalckbrenner for his part was drawn to God by

 Greven, Die Kölner Kartause und die Anfänge der katholischen Reform, 41.  Ephemerides ordinis Cartusiensis, 448: ‘Maria illa Osterwick, in Christo filia mea’; Kettenmeyer, “Uit de briefwisseling van eene Brabantsche mystieke,” 289; Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 9, 16. See also n. 46 above. 151  ‘[F ]ilius eiusdem spiritualis’, Origo et series priorum domus S. Barbarae, 22 (532); Kettenmeyer, “Uit de briefwisseling van eene Brabantsche mystieke,” 288292; Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 3, 14-6. For Kalckbrenner’s exceptional spiritual relationship with Maria van Oisterwijk, see ibid., 18, 29. See also Kammann, Die Kartause St. Barbara in Köln, 350. 152  ‘When the said person communicated the above-mentioned meditation to me, her spiritual son, so that I would set out on it, and when she noticed that I took it down and assumed it with great desire, she was inwardly so pleased, that, in my presence, she was drawn into God. And when she came back to her outer senses, she spoke to me as follows: When I noticed (she said) your benevolent attitude towards this meditation, God filled my heart with such an abundant grace, because of you, that I could hardly bear it, because, through this exercise and with the love of God, I received a new brother’ (RWN1r). 149 150

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what Maria van Oisterwijk had written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.153 6. Maria van Oisterwijk’s Influence on the Jesuits Peter Canisius Maria van Oisterwijk’s time in Cologne coincided with the beginning of the newly founded Jesuit order in Germany. She had close contacts with the first Jesuits in Germany and her piety influenced them considerably.154 Her good relations with the young Order possibly stemmed from her spiritual friendship with Peter Canisius, who joined the Jesuits in 1543, and who, as we saw above, studied in Cologne and seems to have been familiar with Maria van Oisterwijk before her arrival in the city.155 Along with other pious people in the Low Countries, his ‘most faithful mother’, as Canisius referred to Maria, likely inspired him on his spiritual

153  ‘Not long ago, when I had to deal with some of our monastery matters outside this city, the Almighty God (who has mercy upon all his works) acquainted me, poor sinner, with some of his hidden friends, who (as strong pillars) in these bad times, help to support the Holy Church with their prayers. Among other persons, I met an enlightened woman, who was particularly inwardly united with God, to the extent that it was noticeable in her acts and in her words. As a guide for my life, she gave me some books and notebooks, which she herself, inspired by the Holy Spirit (as she is not learned), had made and written. Much should have to be said about the life and the experience of that person. But the time has not come yet. One thing, however, I cannot conceal from you, Reverend. Never, in my whole life have I been more powerfully moved inwardly towards God than by her presence, and afterwards, by her books and notebooks, and by her prayer’ (RWA2r-A2v). 154  Lenting, “Ich anfangen eyn neuwe leven,” 17-8; Kammann, Die Kartause St. Barbara in Köln, 334. 155  Beati Petri Canisii, passim; Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 3-5; Möllmann, “Maria von Oisterwijk und ihre Schrift,” 320-1.

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journey as a young man.156 Canisius’ friendship with the Carthusian Laurentius Surius, another disciple of Esschius and resident in Herll’s home, also provided him (Canisius) with the opportunity to meet the prior Lanspergius. Lanspergius may in turn have introduced Canisius to the pious circle around Maria van Oisterwijk.157 Whatever the circumstances of their first encounter, the Oisterwijk mystic appears regularly in Canisius’ correspondence with fellow-Jesuits and Carthusians.158 Canisius confided to Leonard (Leonardus) Kessel,159 the first superior of the Cologne community of Jesuits, and to other Cologne Jesuits, that he was conscious daily of Maria van Oisterwijk’s prayer; and he firmly believed that after her death, the Oisterwijk ‘mother’ was praying for him in heaven.160 Like Canisius, Kessel too had great admiration for Maria’s writings, as did the Leuven Jesuits Adrianus Adriani and 156  Beati Petri Canisii, 21, n. 3; 38, n. 1; 229, n. 5; 249, n. 1; 251; 258. See further Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 3-4. See also main text along with n. 53 above. 157  Kammann, Die Kartause St. Barbara in Köln, 338. Laurentius Surius (†1574), who became a Carthusian c. 1540, was an important representative of Christian humanism. Greven, Die Kölner Kartause und die Anfänge der katholischen Reform, 5. There is great appreciation for his translations of spiritual and mystical writings. Thanks to Surius’ translation of Ruusbroec’s work, the Brabantine mystical author, remained a figure of significant stature in the background of much mystical literature. Thom Mertens, “‘Ghescreven waerheit blivet staen’. De receptie van Ruusbroecs werken,” in Een claer verlicht man. Over het leven en werk van Jan van Ruusbroec (1293-1381), ed. E. P. Bos and G. Warnar (Hilversum: Verloren, 1993), 80. 158  Beati Petri Canisii, 209, 229, 249, 251, 258. 159  Leonardus Kessel (1518-1574) (also known as Kesselius, Kessellius, Kessellus), a native of Leuven, was already a priest when he joined the Leuven Jesuits in 1543. In 1544 he went to Cologne and became the first superior of the Jesuit Community in Cologne. Siegfried Schmidt, “Das Gymnasium Tricoronatum unter Regentschaft der Kölner Jesuiten,” in Libelli Rhenani. Schriften der Erzbischöflichen Diözesan- und Dombibliothek zur rheinischen Kirchen- und Landesgeschichte sowie zur Buch- und Bibliotheksgeschichte. Herausgegeben von Heinz Finger, vol. 17 (Cologne: Erzbischöfliche Diözesan Dombibliothek, 2006), 74, n. 10. 160  Beati Petri Canisii, 251, 258.

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Cornelius Wischaven – the latter also a disciple of Esschius in Cologne.161 There can be little doubt that Maria van Oisterwijk’s interpretation of a revivified Christian spiritual life flourished through Canisius’ efforts to incorporate it into the faith-life of Catholics. The Carthusians and Jesuits in Cologne The first links between the Cologne Carthusians and the Cologne Jesuits were most likely forged through Maria van Oisterwijk’s friendship with both Kalckbrenner and Canisius, and her friendship with Canisius’ spiritual director, Esschius,162 while Canisius’ contacts with the Carthusians may have been further reinforced through his friendship with Surius.163 In later interactions between both Orders, Kalckbrenner – now prior of the Cologne Charterhouse – and Canisius were the primary bridgebuilders.164 In 1542, Canisius set out to meet the French Jesuit Peter Faber,165 motivated no doubt by the Spanish Jesuit novice, Alvarus 161

 Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 5-6. See also Lampen, “Maria van Oisterwijk, Tertiaris van S. Franciscus,” 221; Ampe, “Marie d’Oisterwijk,” 520; Lenting, “Ich anfangen eyn neuwe leven,” 17; Faesen, “Maria van Hout. Two Letters,” 365. 162  Concerning Canisius’ close relations with Esschius and the Cologne Carthusians, see Reypens and Huyben, “Nog een vergeten mystieke grootheid,” 148. 163  For the friendship between Surius, Esschius and Canisius, see Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 13. See also main text along with n. 157. 164  Thanks to Kalckbrenner, among others, the Jesuit Order flourished in Germany. Hogg, “Die Kartause, Köln und Europa,” 170. For more on Kalckbrenner and the first community of Jesuits in Cologne, see also Greven, Die Kölner Kartause und die Anfänge der katholischen Reform, 87ff; Andreas Schüller, “Die Volkskatechese der Jesuiten in der Stadt Köln (1586-1773),” Annalen des Historischen Vereins für den Niederrhein insbesondere das alte Erzbistum Köln 114 (1929), 34-86; Wagner, “Eine kleine Geschichte der Kölner Kartause,” 47-8. 165  During his period of study in Paris, Peter Faber (Pierre Lefèvre) (15061546), met Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), the founder of the Society of Jesus, and became one of Ignatius’ first companions. Faber was in Germany almost

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Alphonsus, another resident in Herll’s House.166 Upon his departure to meet Faber in Mainz, Canisius took with him a letter from Kalckbrenner inviting Faber to come to Cologne. The Carthusian prior was convinced that the new Jesuit Order could be of great value in the pursuit of a renewed spiritual life in the Church, based on the mystical tradition of the Low Countries as promoted by Maria van Oisterwijk. Faber accepted the invitation and during his stay in Cologne, he and Kalckbrenner formed a fruitful friendship. The mystically inclined Faber felt at home in the Cologne Charterhouse, and under his guidance, the Carthusian prior and monks even practised the Ignatian spiritual exercises.167 Faber maintained his friendship with the Cologne Charterhouse until his death in 1546.168 Following Faber’s death, Kalckbrenner contacted Ignatius directly,169 and after Ignatius’ own death in 1556, Kalckbrenner maintained his relationship with the Jesuits for the remaining ten years of his life.170 This relationship was not limited to the financial support the Cologne Charterhouse offered to the young Society of Jesus.171 Each Order found in the other the same ideal,172 namely zeal for a renewed and vigorous spiritual life in the Church. Kalckbrenner enlisted the help of the Jesuits because he recognized

continuously from 1540 to 1544, the last two years of which were in Cologne. Dom Gérard Kalckbrenner. Mélanges de Spiritualité, 8-9. See also ibid., 147, n. 1. 166  Alvarus Alphonsus was Faber’s companion in the then Low Countries and Germany, from 1542 to 1545. 167  Greven, Die Kölner Kartause und die Anfänge der katholischen Reform, 94-7. See also De brieven uit ‘Der rechte wech’, 66; Dom Gérard Kalckbrenner. Mélanges de Spiritualité, 9. 168  Concerning the bond uniting Canisius, Faber and Kalckbrenner, see Kammann, Die Kartause St. Barbara in Köln, 338-340. 169  Greven, Die Kölner Kartause und die Anfänge der katholischen Reform, 104-5. 170  Ibid., 109. See also Kammann, Die Kartause St. Barbara in Köln, 344. 171  Kammann, Die Kartause St. Barbara in Köln, 344, 346, 349. 172  Greven, Die Kölner Kartause und die Anfänge der katholischen Reform, 113-4.

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the fundamental spiritual attitude of his own Order in the ethos of the Society of Jesus.173 Although at a cursory glance there are many differences between the two Orders, closer inspection reveals significant convergences. Carthusian life is based on a monastic pattern characterized by solitude, a combination of solitary and community life, and liturgy; it does not include the exercise of any outside apostolate. The characteristic mark of Ignatian spirituality is the conviction that God is active in the world. Focused on the inner spiritual life of human beings as it shapes and is shaped by the activities of ordinary life, the active apostolate is intrinsic to the Jesuit vocation.174 Of central importance for both Carthusians and Jesuits, however, is attentiveness to the divine. It may be said, therefore, that the relationship that evolved between the Carthusians and Jesuits was rooted in Carthusian mystical piety – a mystical piety which, at the same time, ushered in the irresistible call for a spiritual reform of Catholic life and practice. From their former contacts with the Devotio Moderna, the Jesuits had an affinity for the Middle Dutch mystical tradition so cherished by the Carthusians. This shared interest in the medieval Dutch mystical tradition provided the foundation for a mutual pursuit of spiritual reform in the Church. On the spiritual and religious levels, the Carthusians provided enormous benefit to the Jesuits.175 At the same time and under the influence of Canisius, Kalckbrenner sought to relate Carthusian piety, then embedded in medieval mysticism, to the needs and concerns of militant spiritual reform in the Church.176 The Jesuits thus implemented an ideal that they shared with the Carthusians, but through their active apostolate they did so in

173

 Ibid., 87.  Cf. ibid., 86; Kammann, Die Kartause St. Barbara in Köln, 350. 175  Greven, Die Kölner Kartause und die Anfänge der katholischen Reform, 1134. See also ibid., 87. 176  Ibid., 109-110. 174

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a way not open to the Carthusians, due to the latter’s monastic vocation.177 7. Maria van Oisterwijk’s Spirituality Propagated by Carthusians and Jesuits Maria van Oisterwijk’s close friendship with the Cologne Carthusians and with the Cologne Jesuits was no doubt closely connected to a shared zeal for a newly interiorized spiritual life in the Church. Maria, the Carthusians, and the Jesuits all found the ‘nourishment’ for the renewal of this interiority in their contacts with the medieval Christian mystical tradition of the Low Countries – a tradition promoted by the Devotio Moderna and by the publications of the Cologne Charterhouse.178 The Carthusians and Jesuits, as well as Maria van Oisterwijk, appear, however, to have been inspired primarily, either directly or indirectly, by the writings of the Middle Dutch mystical writer John of Ruusbroec. It was probably through the manuscript of Brother Gerard of Saintes of the Charterhouse in Herne, near Brussels, that Ruusbroec’s works came to be frequently read and distributed across many Carthusian monasteries.179 It is not surprising therefore that Ruusbroec’s views on the spiritual and the mystical life resonate in various Carthusian writings.180 Ruusbroec, moreover, had a considerable influence on Dionysius the Carthusian whose works were published by the Cologne Carthusians as a ‘weapon’ against the Reformation. Dionysius greatly admired Ruusbroec and was the first to call him Ruusbroec the Admirable.181 177  See again ibid., 113-4. For the connection between Carthusians and Jesuits, see again Kammann, Die Kartause St. Barbara in Köln, 337-348. 178  Cf. Gods tempel zijn wij. Door de schrijfster van de Evangelische peerle. Een liturgiebeleving uit de XVIde eeuw, Mystieke teksten met commentaar, 3. (Bonheiden: Abdij Bethlehem, 1980), 18. 179  Verdeyen, Ruusbroec and His Mysticism, 69-71. 180  Cf. n. 106 above. 181  ‘Doctor admirabilis’. Verdeyen, Ruusbroec and His Mysticism, 94. See also n. 136 above.

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Ruusbroec likewise had a considerable influence on the founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius of Loyola, albeit through representatives of the Devotio Moderna. Ignatius became acquainted with the new spiritual movement in Spain through García Jiménez de Cisneros, abbot of the monastery of Montserrat, whose Exercitatorio de la vida espiritual was inspired by the writings of two of the movement’s devotees, Gerard Zerbolt of Zutphen and John (Jan) Mombaer.182 The acquaintance deepened when Ignatius became a student in Paris. There he lived in the Collège Montaigu where, under the leadership of the Mechelen canon, John (Johannes) Standonck, life was organized in accordance with the spirituality of the Brothers of the Common Life.183 Interestingly, Ignatius’ own spirituality, understood as ‘contemplation in action’, harks back through the Devotio Moderna184 to what Ruusbroec understands as a gemeine mensche or a ‘person living in communion with God’. Like the Carthusians and Jesuits, Maria van Oisterwijk followed in the spiritual and mystical footsteps of the Brabantine mystic.185 182  In 1475 Garcia Jiménez de Cisneros (1456-1510), nephew of Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, entered the monastery of St. Benedict of Valladolid. From 1493 until his death, he was abbot of Monserrat. Gerard Zerbolt of Zutphen (1367-1398), a Middle Dutch mystical author, was one of the first to join the Brothers of the Common Life in the Low Countries. John Mombaer (1460-1501) (also known as Johannes Mauburnus and Johannes of Brussels), who studied at the Congregation of Augustinians in Utrecht in the Northern Low Countries, entered the Congregation of Windesheim around 1477. Mombaer, who died in Paris, is known for his Rosegarden of Spiritual Exercises and Sacred Meditations (Rosetum exercitiorum spiritualium et sacrarum meditationum) which in part inspired Ignatius of Loyola’s own spiritual exercises. For further detail on Ignatius’ acquaintance with the Devotio Moderna in Monserrat, see Faesen, Jan van Ruusbroec. Contemplatief theoloog, 127-8, who, additionally informs us that Ignatius got to know the spirituality of this reform movement, during his travels in the Low Countries, and that it influenced him considerably. 183  Faesen, Jan van Ruusbroec. Contemplatief theoloog, 127. 184  Cf. ibid., 128. 185  In fact, it is claimed that through the work of Maria van Oisterwijk, the Middle Dutch mystical tradition enjoyed a revival. Jozef Van Mierlo, Beknopte

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She not only adopted terms and expressions from Ruusbroec’s work, she also shared his insights on mystical union with God and his understanding of a ‘life in communion with God’.186 We do not know whether Maria van Oisterwijk ever read Ruusbroec’s work. His name does not appear in any of her writings.187 However, through the Carthusians, Maria may have had contact with representatives of the Devotio Moderna and particularly with those who lived in the House of the Brothers of the Common Life in ‘s Hertogenbosch, near Oisterwijk. In this case, she may have had geschiedenis van de Oud- en Middelnederlandsche letterkunde, 4e bijgewerkte en verbeterde druk (Antwerp: Standaard-Boekhandel, 1942), 212. In this context, recent literature speaks of a ‘mystical renaissance’. Another leading centre of spiritual and mystical revival, in the second and third quarters of the 16th century was the aforementioned St. Agnes Convent in Arnhem in the Northern Low Countries (see n. 116 above). It too was inspired by the 14th-century mysticism of the Low Countries. Schepers, “Het verborgen leven van de zusters Agnieten, 285-6; Kees Schepers en Ineke Cornet, “The Arnhem Mystical Sermons in context,” Ons geestelijk erf 81 (2010), 5. Thus, Maria van Oisterwijk’s writings, like those of the nuns in the Convent of St. Agnes, aligned directly with the Middle Dutch mystical tradition – a tradition which had appeared to have faded in the 15th century. Cf. Mertens, “Mystieke cultuur en literatuur in de late middeleeuwen,” 117-8. 186  Cf. ‘life in communion with God’, p. 27, above (n. 109-110). 187  Owing to the ‘critique’ of The Spiritual Espousals, it is possible that Ruusbroec’s works were passed down anonymously. An objection came from Jean Gerson (1363-1429), appointed chancellor of the University of Paris by Pope Benedict XIII in 1395. In his letter to a Carthusian in Herne by the name of Bartholomeus Clantier (Epistola Joannis Gersonii Doctoris et Cancellarii Parisiensis ad fratrem Bartholomaeum Carthusiensem super tertia parte libri Joannis Ruysbroeck, De ornatu, spiritualium nuptiarum), Gerson expressed his disapproval of the third part of Ruusbroec’s Espousals. Rob Faesen, “Anonieme teksten in een Ruusbroechandschrift (Averbode, Archief IV 101, olim Bibliotheek 101 F3),” Ons geestelijk erf 74 (2000), 204, n. 47; André Combes, Essai sur la critique de Ruysbroeck par Gerson. I. Introduction, critique et dossier documentaire. Études de théologie et d’histoire de la spiritualité, 4 (Paris: Vrin, 1945), 615-635. Gerson may indeed be held responsible for the ‘black page’ in the reception of Ruusbroec. Loet Swart, De articulatie van de mystieke omvorming in ‘Die geestelike Brulocht’ van Jan van Ruusbroec (Nijmegen: Uitgeverij Vantilt, 2006), 23. Geert Groote, too, did not always agree with Ruusbroec. He later had Ruusbroec’s Espousals appear in a slightly reworked version. See Weiler, “Geert Grote en begijnen in de begintijd van de Moderne Devotie,” 129-130.

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access to (anonymous) passages of Ruusbroec’s work in the sermons, rapiaria, and other writings of members of the Devotio Moderna. It is also possible that Maria van Oisterwijk became familiar with some of Ruusbroec’s ideas and expressions through Herp’s Mirror of Perfection since, as noted above, the mystical theology of the Franciscan Herp was indebted to that of John of Ruusbroec.188 By way of this chapter’s conclusion, it may be noted that Maria van Oisterwijk’s understanding of the Christian spiritual life as ‘life in communion with God’ was a source of inspiration for Canisius and Kalckbrenner in their pursuit of a spiritual revival in the Catholic Church. Both found in her writings the right disposition for proclaiming to the world a ‘life in communion with God’, in Christ’s spirit and with God’s grace. Many belonging to the Carthusian and Jesuit Orders praised Maria van Oisterwijk both during her lifetime and after her death. She led religious and secular people to a renewed piety and a true Christian spiritual life. It is said that she even inspired married men and women to a life resembling that of monks and nuns, more than that of worldly people.189 But above all, Maria van Oisterwijk encouraged many people to dedicate themselves ardently to Christ, and she endeavoured to lead all people to God’s ‘sheepfold’.190 The publication of Maria van Oisterwijk’s writings by the Cologne Carthusians and the dissemination of her ideas by the Cologne Jesuits no doubt promoted her spirituality and propagated it far across the Low Countries and Germany. 188

 Cf. n. 87 above.  Venerabilis Nicolai Eschii, 44; Het leven van den eerweerdighen vaeder mynheer Nicolaus Van Esch, 60. This corresponds to Blomevenna’s belief that all people, also those living in the world, are called to mystical life. Hogg, “Die Kartause, Köln und Europa,” 174. 190  ‘He [Christ] wants her (…) to lead a life in communion with God amidst all people, as shown by Christ, to draw and to assemble all people unto him. When all are assembled, good and bad people, he wants all together to rise above the sensuous flesh and to lead them to eternal life. And when we have accompanied our fellow human beings, accordingly, we will all together live in the heavenly Jerusalem, in eternity, and enjoy the true love of the Lord’ (RWE8v-F1r). 189

CHAPTER TWO

Maria van Oisterwijk’s Works Published in Cologne 1. Publications by the Cologne Carthusians At the beginning of the sixteenth century, many of the monks at the Cologne Charterhouse came from the Low Countries.1 Peter Blomevenna from Leiden in the Northern Low Countries and Gerard Kalckbrenner from Hamont in the south, headed the Cologne community for more than half a century between them, and under their leadership the monks devoted themselves to the editing of important spiritual texts aimed at renewing the spiritual life of the Church. The Carthusian Derek (Dirk) Loër, also from the Low Countries and his countryman Nicolas van Essche (chaplain of the beguinage in Diest) were significant contributors to these publications. If the sixteenth-century Cologne Charterhouse is noted for its significance in the history of mystical and spiritual writings, the honour was due in large part to the efforts of people from the Low Countries.2 Kalckbrenner became prior on the death of Blomevenna in 1536 and during his priorate (1536–1566), he was the principle driving force behind the Cologne Carthusians’ publications.3 The Carthusians, known for their dedication to spiritual and mystical 1  Kees Schepers, “Het verborgen leven van de zusters Agnieten. Mystieke cultuur te Arnhem in de zestiende eeuw,” Ons geestelijk erf 79 (2008), 303. 2  Cf. L. Reypens and J. Huyben, “Nog een vergeten mystieke grootheid,” Ons geestelijk erf 2 (1928), 391-2. 3  L. Reypens and J. Huyben, “Nog een vergeten mystieke grootheid,” Ons geestelijk erf 3 (1929), 69-70. With respect to Kalckbrenner see also chap 1, n. 48.

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works, believed the circulation of these works would lead people to a revivified life of faith. The Carthusian urge for the reform of the Church from within was considerable, and in their mission to spread the Word of God, the copying of books traditionally played a major role. After all, the Carthusian monks, bound to silence and enclosure, could not accomplish their apostolic mission by means of preaching.4 From the early sixteenth century onwards, thanks to their printing presses, they succeeded in publishing translations of prominent spiritual writings on an even larger scale.5 In the Carthusian reform endeavour, which began with the publication of the works of their fellow Carthusian Dionysius,6 the writings of Maria van Oisterwijk also figured prominently in countering what was considered the widespread spiritual ignorance among the general population. In fact, Maria’s works exercised a great influence on the spirituality of the monks themselves,7 who quickly came to appreciate the descriptions of her own personal experiences as an important source of spiritual nourishment. For this reason, they began without delay to publish her writings and

 Stephanus G. Axters, Geschiedenis van de vroomheid in de Nederlanden, III. De moderne devotie 1380-1550 (Antwerp: De Sikkel, 1956), 206. See also Rita Wagner, “Eine kleine Geschichte der Kölner Kartause St. Barbara,” in Die Kölner Kartause um 1500: Eine Reise in unsere Vergangenheit, ed. Werner Schäfke (Cologne: Kölnisches Stadtmuseum, 1991), 37; Maria van Hout (†1547). Begijn en mystica. De rechte weg naar authentiek evangelisch leven (Antwerp: Halewijn, 2003), 26. 5  Cf. Axters, Geschiedenis van de vroomheid in de Nederlanden III, 224. See also Bruno Kammann, Die Kartause St. Barbara in Köln (1334 bis 1953): Kontinuität und Wandel: Ein Beitrag zur Kirchen- und Stadtgeschichte Kölns, Libelli Rhenani 33 (Cologne: Erzbischöfliche Diözesan- und Dombibliothek Köln, 2010), 349; Wagner, “Eine kleine Geschichte der Kölner Kartause,” 37. 6  See again, Wagner, “Eine kleine Geschichte der Kölner Kartause,” 45-6; James Hogg, “Die Kartause, Köln und Europa. Gelehrte Kartäuser zwischen Reform, Reformation und Gegenreformation,” in Die Kölner Kartause um 1500. Eine Reise in unsere Vergangenheit, ed. Werner Schäfke (Cologne: Kölnisches Stadtmuseum, 1991), 173, 179; Kammann, Die Kartause St. Barbara in Köln, 335. See also chap 1, n. 136. 7  See again Kammann, Die Kartause St. Barbara in Köln, 308. 4

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letters.8 The Oisterwijk mystic wrote in the vernacular, which was of great advantage to ordinary people. This affinity between the Carthusians and Maria van Oisterwijk, rooted in the mystical tradition of the Low Countries, proved to be an enormous power for good in the general spiritual reform of the Church.9 By drawing on medieval mystical spirituality, the Carthusians sought further to resist the rise of the Reformation. In this context, they published many other spiritual treatises, among which were two works by an anonymous author from the Low Countries: The Temple of Our Soul and The Great Evangelical Pearl.10 The publication of Maria van Oisterwijk’s works, like the publication of the Temple and the Pearl, was the result of an ongoing search by Blomevenna and Kalckbrenner for sources of spiritual inspiration. According to Greven, Blomevenna laid the foundations for the mystical piety in the Cologne Charterhouse.11 After his profession in the monastery of St. Barbara in 1490, he devoted himself to the study of the writings of the Franciscan mystic Henry

 Maria van Hout. Het paradijs van de minnende mens (Leuven: Acco, 1991), 7.  On the relationship between the Oisterwijk community and the Cologne Carthusians, see Joseph Greven, Die Kölner Kartause und die Anfänge der katholischen Reform in Deutschland: Aus dem Nachlasse des Verfassers mit seinem Lebensbilde, ed. Wilhelm Neuss, Katholisches Leben und Kämpfen im Zeitalter der Glaubensspaltung, 6 (Münster: Aschendorff, 1935), 90-1; Reypens and Huyben, “Nog een vergeten mystieke grootheid,” 62. 10  Jozef Van Mierlo, Beknopte geschiedenis van de Oud- en Middelnederlandsche letterkunde, 4e bijgewerkte en verbeterde druk (Antwerp: Standaard-Boekhandel, 1942), 211-2; Gods tempel zijn wij. Door de schrijfster van de Evangelische peerle. Een liturgiebeleving uit de XVIde eeuw, Mystieke teksten met commentaar, 3. (Bonheiden: Abdij Bethlehem, 1980), 10; Siebe Thissen, “‘Tegen die verdoolde blinde lutherse menschen’. Oisterwijkse mystici tussen orthodoxie en ketterij (1500-1550),” De Kleine Meijerij 42 (1991), 88; Kees Schepers, “Het verborgen leven van de zusters Agnieten,” 302; Hans Kienhorst, “Mystiek op schrift in vrouwenkloosters uit de traditie van de Moderne Devotie. Een oriënterende vergelijking van drie collecties: Arnhem, Geldern en Maaseik,” Ons geestelijk erf 81 (2010), 49. 11  Greven, Die Kölner Kartause und die Anfänge der katholischen Reform, 26. 8 9

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Herp, and translated Herp’s Mirror of Perfection into Latin.12 Blomevenna’s Latin version of the Mirror became foundational for the spiritual life of the Cologne Charterhouse.13 Meanwhile, outside the charterhouse, esteem grew for Blomevenna’s gifts as a spiritual director. Spiritual direction was not formally part of his mission, but it eventually became necessary to set up a house along the wall of the monastery for women who increasingly sought Blomevenna’s spiritual advice.14 It is possible that the existence of this house facilitated the approval by the Cologne Charterhouse, in 1532, for providing accommodation to the Oisterwijk virgins. Through his publishing work, Kalckbrenner most likely intended to make available literary accounts of authentic Christian spiritual life that would provide alternatives to Protestant works such as Luther’s On the Freedom of a Christian (Von der Freiheit eines Christenmenschen) (1520). It is thus to Kalckbrenner that we owe the preservation of the writings of Maria van Oisterwijk. In 1531, he translated and published four of her treatises in the book entitled The Straight Road,15 and in the following year, The Paradise, which comprises one complete work by Maria van Oisterwijk.16 It 12

 Schepers, “Het verborgen leven van de zusters Agnieten,” 303. In 1538, Derek Loër van Stratum (ca. 1495-1554) published Herp’s collected works in Latin translation, under the title, Theologia Mystica Cvm Specvlativa, Tvm Praecipve Affectiua. Kienhorst, “Mystiek op schrift in vrouwenkloosters, 49. See also chap 1, main text along with n. 90. 13  The work was considered a summary of medieval mystical thought. See also Greven, Die Kölner Kartause und die Anfänge der katholischen Reform, 16; Kammann, Die Kartause St. Barbara in Köln, 297. 14  Wagner, “Eine kleine Geschichte der Kölner Kartause,” 44. Already in 1525, Blomevenna had constructed a building for some visitors, outside the enclosure, but within the walls of the charterhouse. Maria van Hout (†1547). Begijn en mystica, 26. 15  The complete German title is: Der rechte wech zo der evangelischer volkomenheit. Durch eynen erluchten frundt gotz, noch im leven. Gefuecht up die articulen des heiligen gelouvens, und up dat Pater noster, gedruckt tzo Coellen vp der Burchmuren (Melchior von Neuss) (1531). Concerning extant copies, see Maria van Hout (†1547). Begijn en mystica, 32. 16  The complete German title is: Dat Paradys der lieffhavender Sielen, vol inniger Oiffingen des Geistz, in Betrachtungen und Gebetz wyse, van den Leven und

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is generally assumed that another work by Maria van Oisterwijk, Nine Rungs of Simplicity (Neun Stufen der Einfacheit), has been lost,17 though the beginning of that work, or at least part of it, appears to have been discovered in a manuscript of Kalckbrenner’s.18 In none of these publications is Maria van Oisterwijk mentioned by name. The Oisterwijk mystic seems to have insisted her works be published anonymously. The Paradise, however, contains a note by Garnefeld, the librarian of the Cologne Charterhouse, which states that the text was written by the virgin Maria van Oisterwijk and published by Kalckbrenner. Garnefeld gleaned this information from ‘The Straight Road’, where it is mentioned that the treatise was written by the same virgin who first lived in (near?) ‘s Hertogenbosch together with other virgins, and who later came to Cologne and lived along the walls of the charterhouse; this virgin died on 30 September 1547 and was buried in the Chapel of the Virgin Mary.19 Given all these details, Garnefeld is in no Lyden unsers Heren, van den Hilgen Sacrament und van gotlicher Lieffden, in dryerely Wyse […] gedeylt (Cologne, 1532). For more on a copy that has been preserved, see Maria van Hout (†1547). Begijn en mystica, 32. 17  See on the work considered to be lost (but found, at last), Johann Baptist Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” Annalen des historischen Vereins für den Niederrhein, insbesondere das alte Erzbistum Köln 114, (1929), 9-10; Maria van Hout. Het paradijs van de minnende mens, 8-9; Maria van Hout (†1547). Begijn en mystica, 32-3; 51-2; August Keersmaekers, “Maria van Oisterwijk en de ‘simplicitas’,” Verslagen en Mededelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde 113 (2003), 196-7. 18  See Ms. 1204. Collectanea quaedam V.P. Gerardi Hamontani, kept in the Hessische Landes- und Hochschulbibliothek Darmstadt, Germany, published in James Hogg, Alain Girard, and Daniel Le Blévec, eds., Dom Gérard Kalckbrenner. Mélanges de Spiritualité, texte établi, traduit et présenté par Augustin Devaux, Analecta Cartusiana, 158 (Salzburg: Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universität Salzburg, 1999), 5. Keersmaekers, “Maria van Oisterwijk en de ‘simplicitas’,” 197. This is an anonymous manuscript by Kalckbrenner, but it is not an autograph. It was probably copied by a scribe. Maria van Hout (†1547). Begijn en mystica, 52-3; Dom Gérard Kalckbrenner. Mélanges de Spiritualité, 5; Keersmaekers, “Maria van Oisterwijk en de ‘simplicitas’,” 199. 19  Venerabilis Nicolai Eschii. Vita et opuscula ascetica, ed. P. F. X. De Ram (Leuven: Vanlinthout, 1858), 43-44. See also Het leven van den eerweerdighen

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doubt that the treatises in the first book and the writings in the second book were written by Maria van Oisterwijk. The Carthusians’ encounter with the residents of the Oisterwijk house of virgins, and particularly the publication of Maria van Oisterwijk’s works, were significant factors in adding impetus to the renewal of spiritual life in the Church, and in countering Lutheran ideas. For this reason, Kalckbrenner set out to make her writings accessible to the broadest possible readership, in the hope of encouraging many to a renewed interiority. 2. Language and Style In his translations of Maria van Oisterwijk’s works from sixteenth-century Early New Dutch into the German language of the time and region (the Lower Rhine-Cologne dialect), Kalckbrenner retained the mystic’s language and style, adapting the writing only to accommodate the typical Cologne German forms and sounds.20 Kalckbrenner also left the content of her texts unaltered, even though he considered the Oisterwijk mystic to be vaeder mynheer Nicolaus Van Esch oft Esschius, eertyds pastoir van het begynhoff van Diest genaemt, S. Catarinen-hoff. Eerst beschreven in de latynsche tale door Arnoldus Janssen, ed. Gillis Denique. In het Nederlands vertaald door G. G. (Leuven: Gillis Denique, 1713), 60; Ephemerides ordinis Cartusiensis nunc primum a monachis eiusdem ordinis in lucem editae, vol. III, ed. Leon Le Vaseur (Mostrolii: Typis Cartusiae S. Mariae de Pratis, 1891), 448; Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 9-10. 20  Herman Lenting, “Ich anfangen eyn neuwe leven. Spirituele omvorming in de brieven van Maria van Hout,” (unpub. PhD Diss., Faculty of Theology, University of Tilburg, 1995), 28. See also Kurt Ruh, “Altniederländische Mystik in deutschsprachiger Überlieferung,” in Dr. L. Reypens-Album. Opstellen aangeboden aan Prof. Dr. L. Reypens s.j. ter gelegenheid van zijn tachtigste verjaardag op 26 februari 1964, ed. Albert Ampe. Studiën en tekstuitgaven van Ons geestelijk erf, 16 (Antwerp: Ruusbroecgenootschap, 1964), 359. It concerns adaptations to the Ripuarian language (a term for the idiom of the Ruhr Area and the region of Cologne-Aachen), a West Middle German (Lower Rhine-Cologne) dialect, bearing close resemblance to the 16th-century Early New Dutch of Kalckbrenner, who was from Hamont.

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‘unlettered’.21 In his use of this latter term, Kalckbrenner possibly hoped to emphasize the authenticity of Maria’s divine inspiration. The power of Maria van Oisterwijk’s expressiveness consisted neither in finely tuned literary language, nor in carefully nuanced meanings of words and phrases. Rather, companions and contemporaries were struck by her spontaneous, sober, sincere and tender way of formulating her thoughts and beliefs. All her treatises testify to this quality – a quality particularly evident in those passages in which she speaks about God, about herself, and about others. Her language always conveys sincerity and tenderness; it is never condemnatory. She writes freely and without hesitation, from a selfconfidence grounded in God’s mercy and oriented to the salvation of all people: O beloved Father, I am your child and you my Father. I pour out my troubles to you. You know what I need. I ask you, please take care of me. Therefore, trust him steadfastly. He will dispel all doubts, as soon as he deems it time (RWA8r).22 Oh, dear Father, I confess that I have dishonoured you so often with my great sins, shortcomings and omissions. This has caused you, high Majesty, to yearn for me and to wait for me for so long. Consequently, I am not worthy that the earth should bear me. Therefore, I call for mercy and not for justice because, if justice came to pass on me, hell would not be large enough to punish me. Therefore, I know well that your kingdom will not be mine by my merits, but only by your unfathomable goodness and mercy (RWB4v-B5r).

21

 ‘Unlettered’ referred to the fact that Maria van Oisterwijk did not know Latin. At that time, the term was also used to indicate that someone, usually a female author, was inspired by God. Cf. J. M. Willeumier-Schalij, “Maria van Houts gehoorzame ongehoorzaamheid,” Ons geestelijk erf 66 (1992), 135-6; De brieven uit ‘Der rechte wech’ van de Oisterwijkse begijn en mystica Maria van Hout (†Keulen, 1547). Toegelicht, uitgegeven en vertaald door J. M. WilleumierSchalij, Miscellanea Neerlandica, 6 (Leuven: Peeters, 1993). 29. See also Kirsten M. Christensen, “Maria van Hout and Her Carthusian Editor,” Ons geestelijk erf 72 (1998), 121. 22  Cf. chap 1, quotation in n. 93.

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Now someone may say: How shall I reach this perfection? It is much too high for me. I do not see how I can get there. (…) Noone should be discouraged, even if it seems distant and strange to him. Let us always begin or commence by praying to the Lord that he will help us to succeed through him. If we believe and trust in him, he will certainly do so. I do not doubt it. For he has such great love and compassion for those who would like to undertake the straight road of the virtues, and who are not able to reach it by themselves (RWE7v-E8r).

Maria van Oisterwijk’s style is highly direct, clear, short and powerful – qualities that shine through in each of the three books mentioned above. In giving advice for a true Christian spiritual life, she often, suddenly and spontaneously, switches to various personal prayers, confessions of sin, sighing, apologies, and descriptions of her own personal spiritual ‘transformation’.23 Her texts, furthermore, are replete with explanations, exclamations, rhetorical questions, (implicit) biblical references, exhortations, justifications, appeals and requests for advice.24 In all these ways, the author sought to nurture the spiritual welfare of others: You are also right to have been angry about my sins. I fear therefore, dear Father, that I am a reason why the world is thus punished. I therefore want to call on you as long as I live, and say: O Holy God, O almighty God, O immortal God, have mercy on us, because now is a time of mercy (PA6v). I thank you, dear Lord, for your holy birth and your great poverty. And I ask you, dear Lord, that you would wish to be born in me spiritually and that I would bear you in my heart forever, and that you should be born of me in such a way that my thoughts, words and works may be adorned with your divine mercy, so that all people may become better through me, and no longer aggravated by my bad example (PB4v). 23  Maria van Oisterwijk’s ‘transformation’ refers to a change in the deepest ground (fundament) of her being, which, through God’s grace, had taken on the ‘form’ of God’s love. She was being ‘transformed’, inwardly, to have God’s will done in her, and to be able to love God as Christ loved the Father. 24  See also Lenting, “Ich anfangen eyn neuwe leven,” 27.

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O consider now whether you are also working to be perfect, for whoever is good desires nothing else in heaven or on earth. That is because the noble soul has drawn God within itself. Just as the rays of the sun shine in the air, so the soul is illuminated and filled with God, and remains immutable in this state, just as heaven and earth are filled with it. O my soul, therefore are you so satisfied and satiated and at rest in God, for you have God in you. Whoever believes and feels that God alone can satiate his soul and that he is perfectly united with him – he has drawn into himself everything that God contains in himself (PU5r-U5v).

Her sober and direct style do not imply that Maria van Oisterwijk put her thoughts and beliefs on paper without much ado. All the treatises in The Straight Road, written with a view to the spiritual guidance of others, are carefully structured. Her letters likewise display a definite structure, following closely the form of the late medieval spiritual letter.25 Maria van Oisterwijk begins each letter with a title and a greeting to the reader, usually expressed with a biblical verse or saying that is connected with the letter’s subject matter. In keeping with medieval custom, she then asks for the reader’s goodwill (benevolentiae captatio) in receiving the letter. The body of the letter then follows either in the form of a story (narratio) or request (petitio). In conclusion, the writer makes some general comments, gives thanks for services rendered and sends greetings to other acquaintances (peroratio, conclusio).26 3. Maria van Oisterwijk and the Bible The Oisterwijk mystic was well acquainted with the Bible. In her treatises, letters, and other writings, she frequently paraphrases passages of Scripture. In doing so, she may have taken her cue from the Protestant reformers, who increasingly emphasized the importance and value of the Bible. However, Maria rarely if ever refers explicitly to the books and verses of the scriptural passages 25

 Lenting, “Ich anfangen eyn neuwe leven,” 56.  Ibid., 48-9.

26

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that she quotes.27 Nevertheless, in ‘The Straight Road’, for example, it is very clear that she drew both on the Old and New Testaments. We find clear allusions to the Psalms, Proverbs, Prophets, and the four Gospels. She also frequently refers (although not by name) to the Letters of St. Paul, particularly his Letters to the Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Hebrews, as well as the letters to Timothy and to Titus. Her style of paraphrasing also puts the reader in mind of the First Letter of Peter, the First Letter of John, and the Book of the Apocalypse. It is not clear which biblical translations Maria van Oisterwijk used. Likely sources of inspiration were the Old and New Testament translations produced by the Windesheim convents. At the end of the fourteenth century, and under the inspirational influence of Gerard Groote, many (fragmentary) Bible translations were made,28 and Groote himself translated an existing Book of 27  Maria van Hout (†1547). Begijn en mystica, 45. For the sake of convenience, the present author has added references to (NRSV) Bible verses in quotations taken from her works, in footnote, where relevant. 28  C. C. de Bruin, De Statenbijbel en zijn voorgangers. Nederlandse Bijbelvertalingen vanaf de reformatie tot 1637. Bewerkt door F. G. M. Broeyer (Haarlem: Nederlands Bijbelgenootschap, 1993), 29. The first 14th-century ‘History Bibles’ (Historiebijbels) – vernacular translations based on the Latin Vulgate – emerged from the milieu of the Devotio Moderna. By the last quarter of the 15th century, they made their way into convents, including those of the Franciscan Third Order. Wim François, “Middelnederlandse Bijbelvertalingen,” Schrift 38 (2006), 93. Maria van Oisterwijk could have had contact with these Bibles through the Oisterwijk Third Order Convent of Catharinenberg. On the role of the Devotio Moderna in the spread of the Bible in the vernacular up to the beginning of the 16th century, see Wim François, “Erasmus’ Plea for Bible Reading in the Vernacular. The Legacy of Modern Devotion?” Erasmus of Rotterdam Society. Yearbook 28 (2008), 91-120; Wim François, “Die volkssprachliche Bibel in den Niederlanden des 16. Jahrhunderts. Zwischen Antwerpener Buchdruckern und Löwener Buchzensoren,” Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 120 (2009), 188-190; Wim François, “The Antwerp Printers Christoffel and Hans (I) van Ruremund, Their Dutch and English Bibles, and the Intervention of the Authorities in the 1520s and 1530s,” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte. Archive for Reformation History 101 (2010), 8-9; August Den Hollander, “Early Printed Bibles in the Low Countries (1477-1520),” in Infant Milk or Hardy Nourishment? The Bible for Lay People and Theologians in the Early Modern Period, ed. W. François and A. A. den

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Hours into Dutch. Groote’s book contained many biblical verses, including several Psalms in Middle Dutch29 and was produced for ordinary people (including the sisters of Groote’s house in Deventer and others within the Devotio Moderna movement) who were not familiar with Latin. Maria van Oisterwijk could well have encountered Groote’s Book of Hours through the Franciscan Tertiaries, as the Book enjoyed great popularity in the Northern Low Countries until the fifteenth century. It is also possible that through the Carthusian Lanspergius (see Chapter One), the Oisterwijk mystic had contact with other Devotio Moderna writings that would have further nurtured her use of biblical allusions. One thinks, for example, of the movement’s rich devotional literature in the vernacular (either originally written in Dutch or translated from Latin), their Psalterium, and their translations of the Epistles and Gospels based on the Vulgate, which later evolved into full translations of the New Testament, complete with glosses.30 It should come as no surprise that Maria van Oisterwijk’s spiritual treatises point to an intensive reading of Scripture. In this regard, she was a woman of her time. The Bible was the main source of inspiration for the spiritual life of two other well-known, erstwhile ‘disciples’ of the sixteenth-century Devotio Moderna, namely Erasmus and Luther, in whose lives and work Dutch translations and commentaries specifically played an important role. As a former disciple of the Brothers of the Common Life, Erasmus initially defended the use of the Bible in the vernacular, believing Hollander. Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium, 221 (Leuven: Peeters, 2009), 57; Suzan Folkerts, “De Noord-Nederlandse vertaling van het Nieuwe Testament (eind veertiende eeuw),” in Bijbelvertalingen in de Lage Landen: Elf eeuwen van vertalen, ed. P. Gillaerts et al. (Heerenveen: Jongbloed, 2015), passim. 29  Wim François, “Middelnederlandse Bijbelvertalingen,” 92; De Bruin, De Statenbijbel en zijn voorgangers, 30-1. 30  Cf. de Bruin, De Statenbijbel en zijn voorgangers, 31-2. Translations intended for lay people of the houses of the Brothers and Sisters of the Common Life reached other laypeople leading a spiritual life in the world. François, “Middelnederlandse Bijbelvertalingen,” 92.

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it would enable ordinary people to acquire better insight into its message. Later, as he gradually distanced himself from Luther, Erasmus to some extent withdrew this defence, becoming more cautious and declaring ‘good teachers’ were needed to explain the Bible. Moreover, Erasmus opposed the ‘reforming’ nature of some Bible translations,31 which were said to mould the biblical message to their own hand. Luther, like Erasmus and Maria van Oisterwijk, was also inspired by the Bible translations produced and used by the Brothers and Sisters of the Common Life. Luther set to work on translating the New Testament from Greek into German – his first step towards making the Bible into a book for all people. His Germanlanguage New Testament was first published in 1522,32 with the final edition appearing about 1546.33 As with Maria van Oisterwijk, Luther’s interest in the Bible was closely connected with the life of faith. He held that the Gospel of John, the Letters of St Paul and the First Letter of Peter (the core of his first Bible for ordinary people), treat of ‘faith in Christ’, which overcomes sin, death, hell, and offers life, righteousness and salvation.34 Luther also believed Scripture explicitly expresses God’s will to save sinners,35 and Christ is therefore in the first place, ‘Saviour’.36 Opponents of the Reformation claimed, however, that Luther had misrepresented the intent of the Bible in 3000 places,37 and in their judgement his German-language Bible was therefore ‘heretical’.

 De Bruin, De Statenbijbel en zijn voorgangers, 44-6.  The first print, entitled The New Testament in German Wittemberg (Das Newe Testament Deutzsch Vuittemberg), also called The September Testament, however, appeared without Luther’s or the printer’s name. Cf. de Bruin, De Statenbijbel en zijn voorgangers, 52. 33  Ibid., 55. 34  Ibid., 53. 35  Ibid., 57. 36  Ibid., 57. 37  Ibid., 58. 31 32

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It is plausible that Maria van Oisterwijk knew of these ‘heretical’ Bible translations which, following the Bill of 1529 by Charles V, were prohibited.38 She would probably have been aware that Luther had a personal way of reading and translating the Bible, and that his writings had been widely circulated in Germany. In fact, a letter from Canisius in 1547 to Leonard Kessel and other members of the Cologne Society of Jesus, reveals that, towards the end of her life, Maria van Oisterwijk asked for a dispensation to read the ‘books of heretics’.39 4. Maria van Oisterwijk’s Works Maria van Oisterwijk’s works indicate nothing of her stance regarding the so-called ‘heretical’ translations. Her focus is on living the Christian spiritual life, not on debates about orthodoxy, and with the publication of her works, Kalckbrenner aimed to inspire and strengthen the spiritual life of her companions and contemporaries. This applies particularly to her treatises in The Straight Road. While not originally intended for widespread circulation, they were nevertheless written with the aim of teaching others about the spiritual life. The Paradise, by contrast, resembles a personal spiritual journal more than a treatise. Nevertheless, it is also a rich source of inspiration for others. And it was probably for this reason that it too was published. The recovered text from Nine Rungs of Simplicity (which was meant only for Kalckbrenner’s personal use), like the treatises in The Straight Road, has no purpose other than that of guiding readers on their spiritual journey. 38  Wim François, “Die ‘Ketzerplakate’ Kaiser Karls in den Niederlanden und ihre Bedeutung für Bibelübersetzungen in der Volkssprache: Der ‘Proto-Index’ von 1529 als vorläufiger Endpunkt,” Dutch Review of Church History 84 (2004), 198-9, 217-8. The Bills of Charles V were targeted at Bible editions containing Reformation-inspired introductions, summaries and/or glosses, and not offering ‘orthodox’ translations. Ibid., 231. 39  Beati Petri Canisii, Societatis Iesu, Epistulae et acta I: 1541-1556, ed. Otto Braunsberger (Freiburg: Herder, 1896), 251.

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Given their inclination for mystical writings, the Carthusians appreciated the contemplative component in Maria van Oisterwijk’s works. The goal of teaching others about the mystical life does not mean that Maria was seeking to train others in a ‘mystical’ or ‘contemplative’ life. The mystical life, after all, is a gift from God and not attained by human effort.40 As a matter of fact, all Maria van Oisterwijk wanted was to explain to others how to live a true ‘spiritual’ life and in The Straight Road, her first treatise (also called ‘The Straight Road’) may be considered especially suited for this purpose. 5. Maria van Oisterwijk’s Treatises in the First Book, The Straight Road The Straight Road is a German-language version of a collection of original sixteenth-century Late Middle Dutch texts written by Maria van Oisterwijk and others, and (probably) compiled by Kalckbrenner. It includes four of Maria van Oisterwijk’s treatises – ‘The Straight Road’,41 ‘The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit’, ‘A Divine Text on Poverty of Spirit’, ‘A Meditation Revealed by God’ – as well as fifteen of her letters, in addition to four treatises

40

 Cf. chap 1, main text along with nn. 21 and 22.  As mentioned above, the first treatise ‘The Straight Road’ takes its title from the book The Straight Road. In our work, The Straight Road (italics) refers to the book, and ‘The Straight Road’ (between inverted commas) to the treatise. This convention is employed for all treatises taken from The Straight Road. See also Albert Ampe, “Kanttekeningen bij de ‘Evangelische Peerle’,” Ons geestelijk erf 40 (1966), 245, who entitles the first treatise of The Straight Road: ‘An Inner Meditation and Excercise on Faith, together with the Lord’s Prayer (‘Ein innige Betrachtung vnd oeffung vp dat geloeue myt dem Pater noster’). According to the present author, however, Ampe’s ‘title’, should be taken as an introductory statement to ‘The Straight Road’. 41

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by other spiritual authors.42 A modern Dutch translation has been available since 2003.43 First Treatise, ‘The Straight Road’ The first treatise, ‘The Straight Road’, provides an insight into Maria van Oisterwijk’s personal intimacy with God.44 In structure, it resembles the medieval homily, which would have explained a biblical passage, by commenting on it sentence-by-sentence, or word-by-word.45 In similar fashion, ‘The Straight Road’ works through the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer, commenting on them sentence by sentence.46 The first two chapters, for example, start as follows: 42  Ampe, “Kanttekeningen bij de ‘Evangelische Peerle’,” 244-7. See also Axters, Geschiedenis van de vroomheid in de Nederlanden III, 386; Willibrord Beati Petri, “Maria van Oisterwijk, Tertiaris van S. Franciscus,” Bijdragen voor de Geschiedenis van de Provincie der Minderbroeders in de Nederlanden 26 (1957), 223-5; Willibrord Lampen, “Maria van Oisterwijk,” Brabantia 8 (1959), 34-6. For the authorship of Maria van Oisterwijk, see Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 11, 12-9, 32-3; A. Möllmann, “Maria von Oisterwijk und ihre Schrift ‘Der rechte Weg zur evangelischen Vollkommenheit’,” Zeitschrift für Aszese und Mystik 2 (1927), 322. 43  For the full title see n. 4: Maria van Hout (†1547). Begijn en mystica. De rechte weg naar authentiek evangelisch leven. 44  See RWA7r-F2v. 45  See Appendix One: Structure of ‘The Straight Road’. In the structure, Maria van Oisterwijk is possibly following John of Ruusbroec. The structure of ‘The Straight Road’ is similar in many respects to Ruusbroec’s The Realm of Lovers (Dat rijcke der ghelieven), ed. J. Alaerts, Opera omnia, 4; Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio Mediaevalis, 104 (Tielt: Lannoo; Turnhout: Brepols, 2002), and The Spiritual Espousals (Die geestelike brulocht), ed. J. Alaerts, Opera omnia, 3; Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio Mediaevalis, 103 (Tielt: Lannoo; Turnhout: Brepols, 1988), which he builds up respectively around a (slightly modified) quotation from the Book of Wisdom (Wis 10:10), and a line from the Gospel of Matthew: ‘See, the bridgrooom comes, go out to meet him’ (Matt 25:6). 46  Maria van Oisterwijk divides the Creed into 14 articles, instead of the usual 12 articles in the Apostles’ Creed (AC). This format may have better fitted her

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I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. O, who is this noble Father? He is ‘Our Father, [as] we say in the pater noster, Our Father. Oh children, is this our Father? Do we want to believe and to consider that he is almighty? Why then do we want to worry? (RWA7r-A7v). And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord. O my soul, consider how the Son of God from all eternity has been born from the paternal heart and how he desires to be with the children of human people. Therefore, we may rightly say: Hallowed be Thy name (RWB1v).

The structure of the treatise may strike the contemporary reader as strange, but for Maria van Oisterwijk’s readers, who were familiar with these prayers, it was unlikely to pose any difficulty.47 This literary construction enabled her to highlight, in step-by-step fashion, and following the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer, the development of the spiritual life.48 This is not to suggest that the spiritual life itself unfolds in this step-by-step fashion. The composition is to be understood simply as her way of clarifying that life to her readers. ‘The Straight Road’ comprises fourteen chapters, corresponding to Maria van Oisterwijk’s division of the Creed into fourteen articles. These fourteen chapters elaborate two movements that together characterize the fullness of the spiritual life: the movement of our journey to God and the movement of our journey from God to our fellow human beings. Chapters one to seven (first part of ‘The Straight Road’), dealing with our movement into God, attend to the nature of a true presentation of the spiritual life. She did not add two articles of faith. In Maria van Oisterwijk’s version of the Creed (CMO), four articles (3rd, 4th, 5th and 9th art. AC) are divided into two. Two articles are then merged (2nd part of 9th art. AC is added to the 13th art. CMO; the 11th and 12th art. AC have become the 14th art. in CMO). 47  De brieven uit ‘Der rechte wech’, 36. 48  The treatise is therefore not intended as an explanation of the Apostles’ Creed (AC) and the Lord’s Prayer (LP), contrary to the suggestion in Lampen, “Maria van Oisterwijk, Tertiaris van S. Franciscus,” 225.

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love relationship between God and the human being.49 Chapter one deals with a firm trust in God’s omnipotence.50 The subject of chapter two is absolute hope in God’s mercy.51 In chapters three to seven, Maria van Oisterwijk invites us to adopt Christ’s virtuous life, focusing our attention respectively on Christ’s virtues of obedience,52 humility,53 inner peace,54 mercifulness,55 and true love.56 Here Maria seeks to open to the reader the climax that results from following Christ: the awareness of being united with Christ in God’s love. Here one has followed Christ’s love for the Father to the limit: And then the Lord comes (…) and he takes her [the bride] by the hand and leads her with him into the earthly paradise. That is, he unites her with himself in love57 and makes her abide in him and he in her, so that they become one and no-one can separate or distinguish them from each other. For she is so bound to God, with his love and affection, that neither devil nor human being, nor any creature can detach or separate her from him. (…) And thus they

49

 Cf. 1st to 7th chap, 1st to 7th art. CMO and all lines LP (without ‘Amen’).  Cf. 1st chap, 1st art. CMO and 1st l. LP (RWA7r-B1v). 51  Cf. 2nd chap, 2nd art. CMO and 2nd l. LP (RWB1v-B2r). 52  Cf. 3rd chap, 3rd art. CMO and 3rd l. LP (RWB2r-C1v). Maria van Oisterwijk dedicates ‘obedience’ to Christ’s words, ‘your will be done’ (Matt 26:42). See also: ‘not my will but yours be done’ (Luke 22:42). 53  Cf. 4th chap, 4th art. CMO and 4th l. LP (RWC1v-C4v). ‘Humility’ is to be understood in a relational sense. Maria van Oisterwijk has the term refer to Christ who surrendered himself to God’s will and permitted God’s will to be fulfilled in him. 54  Cf. 5th chap, 5th art. CMO and 5th l. LP (RWC4v-C8v). ‘Inner peace’ in Maria van Oisterwijk’s treatises refers to Christ’s peacefulness, inner rest, and kind-heartedness whenever harm was done to him. 55  Cf. 6th chap, 6th art. CMO and 6th l. LP (RWC8v-D5v). For Maria van Oisterwijk, the Christian virtue of being merciful to others is motivated by awareness that in loving God, one is often more inadequate than the other for whom one begs forgiveness. 56  Cf. 7th chap, 7th art. CMO and 7th l. LP (RWD5v-D7v). 57  The union, indeed, is to be understood with repect to love. It refers to an experience of being transformed, together with Christ, in God’s love. 50

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now abide with one another in love that the one desires nothing else than the other (RWD6r-D6v; D7v).

This spiritual union with Christ in God’s love was a personal experience for Maria van Oisterwijk, and her descriptions of that experience add a contemplative or mystical dimension to the treatise. Maria herself never uses the terms, ‘contemplative’ or ‘mystical’ but writes rather of ‘being united with the Lord’ and ‘bound to God’. Kalckbrenner, in a letter dated 9 September 1531 to Arnold of Tongeren, canon of the Church of the Virgin Mary in Cologne, refers to the contemplative or mystical life as ‘inner beholding life’,58 and he describes Maria van Oisterwijk as an ‘enlightened woman, filled with God’s spirit and united with God’.59 In the second part of ‘The Straight Road’, Maria van Oisterwijk discusses ‘a life in communion with God’ (gemeine leven), that is, a life which, through mystical union with God, is oriented to the salvation of all.60 Each of the seven chapters deals with one aspect of this life.61 ‘The Straight Road’ will be dealt with more comprehensively in the next chapter of this book; it is the work which, more than any other, enables us to trace Maria van Oisterwijk’s understanding of the Christian spiritual life. Second Treatise, ‘The Seven Gifts of The Holy Spirit’ The second treatise reinforces Maria van Oisterwijk’s description of the spiritual life set out in ‘The Straight Road’.62 As the title suggests, the spiritual life in this treatise is presented under 58  Translation of the Middle Dutch: ‘inwendigen schouwelichen leuen’ (RWA2v). 59  Cf. RWA2r. 60  Cf. chap 1, main text along with n. 110. 61  See 8th chap, 8th art. CMO and ‘Amen’ LP (RWD7v-E2r), and 9th to 14th chap, 9th to 14th art. CMO (RWE2r- F2v). 62  The second treatise’s original title is: ‘Van den .vij. gauen des heilgen geists’ (RWF5r-L5r).

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the aspects of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.63 The author deals successively with the gifts of wisdom (wyßheit), 64 intellect (verstant),65 counsel (raet),66 fortitude (starckheit),67 knowledge (wyssenheit off kunst),68 benevolence (gudertierenheit),69 and true fear or awe of God (gerechtiger vreesen gotz).70 The treatment of each gift follows a similar pattern. Maria van Oisterwijk begins by calling on the Holy Spirit, whom she implores for insight into her personal shortcomings with respect to his gifts. She reflects first on her personal failings, and then on humanity’s general sinfulness against the gifts of the Holy Spirit. She exhorts the reader to convert to the Holy Spirit by following the exemplary life of Christ. The Holy Spirit is again invoked as Maria van Oisterwijk repeatedly begs the Spirit to show her how she is falling short vis-a-vis the seven gifts. As in the following passage on the ‘gift of wisdom’, the exposé of each gift ends with a final plea for the Spirit’s assistance or grace: I pray you, grant me grace and insight to know how unwisely I often used my wisdom, when I trusted my own senses and relied on myself. (…) O dreadful wilfulness, how you blind so many a poor wicked creature who cannot come to recognition of his own failings, because he is so arrogant that he is unwilling to become humble in his deepest ground. (…) Oh children, children, if you wish to come to knowledge about true wisdom, you should first become foolish to the world. If you want to save yourselves, you should first lose yourselves. This is taught to us by the eternal Wisdom, Jesus Christ. 63  In contrast to Ruusbroec’s structure in his Realm of Lovers and in part of his Spiritual Espousals, in her listing, Maria van Oisterwijk follows the reverse order of the seven gifts (starting with the gift of wisdom). Her list of gifs, of course, refers to the fruits of the Spirit from Paul’s letter to the Galatians (Gal 5, 22-23). 64  RWF5r-G1r. 65  RWG1r-G5r. 66  RWG5r-H1v. 67  RWH1v-H5v. 68  RWH5v-K1v. 69  RWK1v-K6v. 70  RWK6v-L3v.

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(…) O Holy Spirit, I pray you, enkindle my heart with your wisdom and your love so that I may know the great folly in which I have lived hitherto. (…) May the eternal wisdom of God who is blessed in eternity so help me (RWF5r-F6v; G1r).

If ‘The Straight Road’ provides an account of what the Christian virtuous life entails, ‘The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit’, by contrast, emphasizes what impedes a life of virtue and how this is to be overcome. For example, the person who calls on the Spirit’s gift of wisdom will understand that pride and wilfulness hinder the virtues of obedience and humility. Drawing on her own experience, the author counsels that in this case, one should allow oneself to be guided by God’s wisdom and place oneself under the authority of superiors and others. The instructions for the virtuous life that the Oisterwijk mystic delivers by means of reflection on each of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is then briefly recapitulated in the last chapter of the treatise.71 Third Treatise, ‘A Divine Text on Poverty of Spirit’ In the third treatise, Maria van Oisterwijk discusses the experience of spiritual poverty,72 which she presents as an essential attitude for a true Christian spiritual life. ‘Poverty of spirit’ means an attitude whereby one is no longer absorbed in oneself but surrenders oneself to God.73 Maria van Oisterwijk further highlights the treasure hidden in a true experience of spiritual poverty: the poor  See RWL3v-L5r.  The third treatise’s original title is: ‘Ein gotlich sermoin van armoit des geists’ (RWL5r-M6r). 73  See RWL7r-L7v. Maria van Oisterwijk already explained spiritual poverty in the first and second treatise. In the first treatise, ‘The Straight Road’, she connects the deepest form of mercy with poverty of spirit, forbearance and denial of the self whereby the person grows in the virtue of true love and is gifted with a mystical union with God. ‘Poverty of spirit’ is also referred to in the second treatise, ‘The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit’. Regarding the gift of spiritual fortitude, the author here explains that the journey to true love for God and inner peace is through spiritual poverty, forbearance and humility. 71 72

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in spirit will discover that they are united with Christ in God’s love. The Lord indeed desires to unite Himself with the poor in spirit, so that they become ‘one spirit of love with God’: And then these poor become one spirit with God, they with God and God with them. And thus, they begin to relate to each other as two lovers in true peace, since the one does not want anything except the other. Thus, two wills are one and can be neither separated nor distinguished from each other. Not according to divinity: God remains in essence as he is, and the creature remains creature. (…) Then they abide in each other, and I may say once more, in humble simplicity, that they possess one will and one desire, and pursue only one single thing [i. e. this union] (RWM1r-M1v).

Maria van Oisterwijk finally assures her readers that, even when they recognize that they are not poor in spirit, they should not dispair; the possibility of becoming poor in spirit is always open to them. Therefore, she recommends that with God’s grace they uproot all personal wilfulness, follow God’s will and that of their superiors, and take on the simplicity of a child. The treatise, ‘A Divine Text on Poverty of Spirit’ addressed to ‘my worthy mother and sisters’, must have left a deep impression, for Kalckbrenner writes that, because of this treatise, people with a ‘frozen’ heart recognized their spiritual aberrations and afterwards reformed their lives in remarkable fashion.74 Fourth Treatise, ‘A Meditation Revealed by God’ The fourth treatise echoes ‘The Straight Road’ and ‘The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit’.75 It comprises three meditations, each on the central theme of Christ’s suffering on the cross. The meditations are to assist in developing the right dispositions for the virtuous life, which were previously discussed in ‘The Straight Road’. In each meditation, Maria van Oisterwijk calls on her readers to  See RWL6r.  The fourth treatise’s original title is: ‘Ein oiffunge van Got offenbairt’ (RWM6r-N5r). It is known today as ‘The Five Wounds’, cf. chap 1, n. 148. 74

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pray to God, that they may withdraw from vice, and become filled with the virtues of obedience, humility, inner peace, mercy, and true love, and she links this prayer with her desire that each human person be drawn to God and united in God’s love. At the end of the first meditation, Kalckbrenner adds a personal note, from which it would appear that he witnessed Maria van Oisterwijk’s union with God. We have already seen this note in the previous chapter but it bears repetition here, along with the response evoked in Maria van Oisterwijk by Kalckbrenner’s wholehearted diligence in following her counsel: ‘When the said person communicated the above mentioned meditation to me, her spiritual son, so that I would set out on it, and when she noticed that I took it down and assumed it with great desire, she was inwardly so pleased, that, in my presence, she was drawn into God’. Coming back to her outer senses, Maria van Oisterwijk offered the following explanation to Kalckbrenner: ‘When I noticed (she said) your benevolent attitude towards this meditation, God filled my heart with such an abundant grace, because of you, that I could hardly bear it’.76 Maria van Oisterwijk’s Letters In addition to the aforementioned treatises, The Straight Road also includes fifteen letters by Maria van Oisterwijk.77 Letters one and two are addressed to ‘a (spiritual) sister’, letters three and four to ‘a reverend mother and (spiritual) sisters’.78 The next nine letters seem intended for Cologne Carthusians – letters five and eight through thirteen addressing ‘a spiritual father’, who is also the 76

 RWN1r. Cf. chap 1, n. 152.  RWN5v-Q7r. See Appendix Two. Overview of the Letters of Maria van Oisterwijk. Johann Baptist Kettenmeyer, “Uit de briefwisseling van eene Brabantsche mystieke uit de 16e eeuw,” Ons geestelijk erf 1 (1927), 278, argues that most of her letters have probably not been preserved. According to WilleumierSchalij, “Maria van Houts gehoorzame ongehoorzaamheid,” 134, they are a great rarity in Middle Dutch literature. 78  RWN5v-O2r. 77

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prior of a monastery,79 with letters six and seven written for a ‘spiritual son’.80 There can be little doubt that the spiritual father is Blomevenna, the prior of the Cologne Charterhouse,81 while the ‘spiritual son’, no doubt, is Kalckbrenner himself.82 The final two letters are addressed respectively to a ‘dear mother in God’ and a ‘spiritual sister’.83 The latter is a matter of some speculation. On grammatical-syntactic grounds, it cannot be determined with certainty from the heading, whether it was written by Maria van Oisterwijk to a ‘spiritual sister’ or by a ‘spiritual sister’ to Maria van Oisterwijk.84 The present author believes the former to be more likely because letter fifteen is followed by another written communication, this time composed by a ‘venerable prior’ in which the contents of all the letters are explained.85 In general, the letters, only two of which are dated, cannot be traced to their year(s) of origin. However, they must have been written either before or during 1531, the year in which The Straight Road was published.86 Whether or not it was Kalckbrenner’s intention to do so, the inclusion of the letters in The Straight Road demonstrates that Maria van Oisterwijk’s spiritual reflections had a relevance extending across national borders, and they bridged  RWO2r-O3r and RWO8v-Q5r.  RWO3r-O8v. 81  Cf. main texts along with chap 1, nn. 46 and 150. 82  Cf. main text along with chap 1, n. 151. 83  RWQ5r-Q7r. 84  Cf. The title of the fifteenth letter (RWQ5v): ‘The Following Letter of the Said Person sent to a Spiritual Sister’. Kettenmeyer suggests that the ‘fifteenth’ letter was sent by a spiritual sister to Maria van Oisterwijk, and the spiritual sister could have been the anonymous author of the Evangelical Pearl. The content of the letter substantively and linguistically matches the 16th chapter of the Evangelical Pearl. Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 28; Gods tempel zijn wij, 15. Against this, however, it has recently been suggested that one of Maria van Oisterwijk’s letters is directly addressed to the author of the Evangelical Pearl. Kees Schepers and Ineke Cornet, “The Arnhem Mystical Sermons in Context. Introduction,” Ons geestelijk erf 81 (2010), 5. 85  RWQ7v-R2v. 86  See also Möllmann, “Maria von Oisterwijk und ihre Schrift,” 330. 79 80

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a divide between the spirituality of her spiritual companions and that of regular religious orders. The letters’ content reveals themes and topics consistent with her treatises and meditations, and possibly Kalckbrenner was trying to demonstrate a close cohesion amongst the various motifs, themes, thoughts and expressions. Each letter does after all reflect something of what Maria van Oisterwijk details in her treatises concerning the spiritual life. Moreover, in his effort to give insight into her spiritual development, Kalckbrenner may have arranged the letters logically rather than chronologically.87 Letters one to four suggest that Maria van Oisterwijk, under God’s guidance, grew into the spiritual life portrayed in her treatises. At one point in the first letter she writes: ‘And all I have said to you has been accomplished in me’.88 A few lines further down she is even more explicit: ‘And what my booklet [The Straight Road’] in the end states about faith, I now fully experience’.89 What Maria van Oisterwijk experienced was ‘life in communion with God’, as the fulfilment of the spiritual life.90 This fulfilment comes to the fore even more clearly in the third letter, in which she describes how, through the experience of life in communion with God, her ‘old’ life has been cast off, and a new (spiritual) life embarked upon.91 The series of letters to her spiritual father and spiritual son appear to highlight this ‘new’ spiritual life. Letter five (the first addressed to her spiritual father) expresses gratitude to the 87  In his article, Kettenmeyer proposes an original chronological order. Kettenmeyer, “Uit de briefwisseling van eene Brabantsche mystieke,” 279-280, and ff. See also Maria van Hout (†1547). Begijn en mystica, 217-33; Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 21-2. For a contrasting opinion, see De brieven uit ‘Der rechte wech’, 52, and Lenting, “Ich anfangen eyn neuwe leven,” 29, two works which show that Kalckbrenner deliberately avoided a chronological order. 88  RWN6r. 89  RWN7r. 90  RWN6v. Cf. main text along with chap 1, n. 110. 91  RWO1r. See quotation chap 3, n. 8.

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Carthusians, who contributed significantly to her renewed spiritual life. Through their influence her early inclination for outward forms of penance gave way to a desire to love God inwardly. Letters eight to twelve, also addressed to her spiritual father, further explain Maria van Oisterwijk’s personal spiritual journey, and once again confirm the new foundation of her spiritual life: For I see that I must win and take along my fellow people with great diligence before I may receive God (RWP4r).

The final letter to her spiritual father (letter thirteen) underlines, once more, that the union with God described in ‘The Straight Road’ was something she genuinely experienced: Indeed, I am completely deprived of myself and united in God, as if I were not a human person any more, and as if it were not me who lives but the Lord in me. And God has imprinted so intensely this union in me, a sinful creature, on the feast of Corpus Christi, and has given so graciously a new spirit, that since then this has not been taken away from me (RWQ4r). (See chap 1, n. 24)

The letters to her spiritual son (letters six and seven), with instructions for his spiritual life, reflect the features of Maria van Oisterwijk’s own spiritual life. In ‘The Straight Road’, Maria emphasizes God’s guidance in her own life, and the fact that God has made her inwardly ‘poor and empty’, unconcerned with herself and her own spiritual perfection. Thus, her most important advice to Kalckbrenner is: Dear son, though you have not yet overcome the obstacles and hindrances (which come between you and God) to have free access to God, you should not despair. Pray to God and let him deal with you tenderly. And follow him with an obedient and gentle heart. (…) And keep yourself [inwardly] empty. For our bridegroom also fulfilled all his works in obedience. And do not be concerned. Everything will be achieved by itself, when God deems the time to have come (RWO7v-O8r).

In the penultimate letter, Maria van Oisterwijk points out that the time has come, to which she has looked forward for so long

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and finally, in the concluding letter she draws attention again to some conditions for a full Christian spiritual life. Treatises of Other Spiritual Authors In addition to the works written by Maria van Oisterwijk, The Straight Road contains four additional – anonymous – spiritual treatises. The title of the first treatise ‘A Meditation on the Seven Days of the Week’,92 suggests the greater part of the meditations are the work of the enlightened, pious and erudite Dionysius the Carthusian. We do not know whether this is also true for the following three treatises: ‘Meditations on the Holy Sacrament’,93 ‘A Treatise on the Precious Treasure of Virginal Purity’,94 and ‘Many Fine Points for Achieving a Perfect life’.95 Whatever their authorship, these four additional treatises most probably served to underline that Maria van Oisterwijk belonged to a spiritual tradition that was held in high esteem by the Cologne Carthusians.96 6. The Second Book, The Paradise Thanks to the Cologne Charterhouse, a second book, The Paradise, comprising one complete work by Maria van Oisterwijk, was 92

 RWR3r-S6v.  RWS6v-X5r. 94  RWX5r-Y1r. 95  RWY1v-d7r. 96  U. Wiethaus, “‘For This I Ask You, Punish Me’. Norms of Spiritual Orthopraxis in the Work of Maria van Hout (d. 1547),” Ons geestelijk erf 68 (1994), 257-8. See also Christensen, “Maria van Hout and Her Carthusian Editor,” 107. See also Ampe, “Kanttekeningen bij de ‘Evangelische Peerle’,” 245-6, who suggests, following Kalckbrenner’s note in ‘The Straight Road’ (RWQ5r), that these treatises were written by some ‘other friends of God’, and that all were written in one spirit. With respect to ‘Many Fine Points for Achieving a Perfect Life’, Ampe even emphasizes its close connections with, among others, the so-called Institutiones taulerianae, compiled by Petrus Canisius in defence of Johannes Tauler’s sermons inspired by the friends of God, and translated into Latin by Surius. See ibid. 247-264. With respect to Tauler, see also n. 115 below. 93

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published in 1532.97 As with Maria’s treatises in The Straight Road, The Paradise was translated by Kalckbrenner from sixteenthcentury Early Modern Dutch into ‘German’ (the Lower RhineCologne dialect). In 1535, the book was reprinted in ‘s Hertogenbosch,98 which in fact was a re-translation into Early Modern Dutch of the previously published ‘German’ version.99 Included in this new edition edition were passages from Henry Suso’s Book of Eternal Wisdom (Das Büchlein der ewigen Weisheit).100 The contemporary modern Dutch translation was published in 1991.101 The Paradise consists of three parts – a subdivision probably made by Kalckbrenner, although the book’s introduction mentions only that he divided the book into chapters and applied the titles. The Paradise does not present us with a set of treatises on the spiritual life; it rather provides a personal testimony of Maria van Oisterwijk’s spiritual life and of the inner process of transformation worked in her by God. There is a de facto suggestion that, although it is the second publication, The Paradise was originally written before Maria’s four treatises in The Straight Road, as these treatises appear to be the fruit of the spiritual development recorded in The Paradise. 97  Maria van Oisterwijk’s authorship is discussed in Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 10-1, 32-3, and in Möllmann, “Maria von Oisterwijk und ihre Schrift,” 322. 98  Dat paradijs der lieffhebbender siele[n], vol inniger oeffeninge[n] des geests, in gebetswijse (’s-Hertogenbosch: G. van der Hatart, 1535). 99  Our discussion of The Paradise relies on the Early New Dutch publication from ‘s Hertogenbosch. 100  Maria van Hout. Het paradijs van de minnende mens, 13. The German mystic Henry Suso (Heinrich Seuse) (1295-1366), who joined the Dominicans in Konstanz in 1308, penned his work around 1334-1340. His best-known work is The Book of the Truth (Das Buch der Wahrheit), written in defence of certain theses of Meister Eckhart (his teacher), which had been condemned. Suso is often mentioned in the same breath with Eckhart (1260-1328) and John (Johannes) Tauler (1300-1361). Suso’s tracts are said to have inspired Geert Groote and followers of the Devotio Moderna, as well as the Spanish mystics Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) and John of the Cross (1542-1591). 101  See Maria van Hout. Het paradijs van de minnende mens (for full reference see, n. 8).

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It is quite possible that Maria van Oisterwijk wrote the four treatises in The Straight Road, as well as, The Paradise in her family home in Udenhout. Neither work has any specific objective other than that of moving others – men and women, religious and lay – to a life of repentance and inner friendship with the Lord. According to the author, this is the ‘straight and only road’ to union with God in love. First Part: ‘Forgive Me My Sins and Draw Me Near to You’ The structuring themes in the first part of The Paradise are: creation, the birth of Christ, his life, suffering, death and resurrection, his ascension and ‘second coming’.102 For the most part, the narrative is presented in the form of a conversation with God the Father, the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ. The narrative is constantly interpolated with Maria van Oisterwijk’s personal reflections. These interpolations are of various kinds, such as exhortations to herself and others to imitate the life of Jesus and Mary or calls to consider the suffering of Christ. Maria van Oisterwijk generally tends to emphasize the ‘sinful’ existence of every human being, and at the same time each person’s desire to be delivered from this condition. ‘Sinful’, in her writings, always has a relational connotation. ‘Sinfulness’ refers to the imperfections and shortcomings in a person’s relationship with God: one lives in sin every time one turns away from God who is love. Maria van Oisterwijk’s numerous personal confessions, therefore, are intended to move others to this same awareness of ‘sinfulness’. She herself constantly confesses to specific failings: ungratefulness and an attitude of little respect for God; dealings with bad company, vanity, feigned sanctity, greed, attention to desires of the flesh and to earthly pleasure, concern for temporary possessions, and various forms of tendency to wickedness. These personal confessions often alternate with pleas for help. She begs for God’s grace and for Christ’s indwelling in her soul. 102

 PA5r-L7r.

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She repeatedly asks forgiveness for all her failings and prays for the virtues of obedience, humility, pure love, benevolence, goodness, and patience. In order that she may follow Christ, she further asks in her prayers for the gift of self-surrender, for poverty of spirit, for purity and for fervour. With these urgings, exhortations, confessions, pleas, and promises to strive for a better inner life, only one goal is at stake: the fervent longing to be united with God in love. ‘Draw me to you’, therefore, is the final plea in the first part of The Paradise: I pray you, dear Lord, that this shedding of blood should wash away and extinguish in me and in all people all sensuous thoughts, longings and attachments, by which one may anger you on purpose, dear Lord, with whatever daily sins. Oh, dear Lord, forgive me that I have so often done wrong in this, as you well know, and draw me now to you, dear Lord. Do not consider the days of my youth and ignorance. (…) O my dearest Lord, please draw me to you, because you have been raised up for us all, so that we may look upon you and be saved when we have been bitten by the vicious serpent of sin. (…) Oh, if only I could ascend with you. If this may not yet be, have my heart ascend with you, and if it is your will and if it is possible, let my body do penance for one hundred more years. Oh Father, who can live separated from you for so long? Oh, draw me to you. How long shall my heart long for you? I cannot be satisfied by any other than by you (PE6r, PG5r, PJ5r-J5v).

Second Part: Fervent Longing to Be United with God In the book’s second part, the dialogical account is again interpolated with spontaneous prayers (meditations).103 Realizing that Christ became man, that he suffered, was crucified, died and rose for the salvation of all people, Maria van Oisterwijk cannot but express her gratitude to the Father and the Son while continuing to pray that they will cure her of her failings, purge her of all wickedness, and have her rise from the grave of sin. The 103

 PL7r-O1r.

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longing to be drawn by the Father becomes stronger and more passionate: Please enkindle in me a fervent longing so that, with Mary, I may say: O my God, my soul longs for you. Draw me to you. O heavenly Father, your Son Jesus spoke on earth: No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father.104 O Father, draw me to you. O Father, remember that something of yours is in me. O draw me to you, for you have chosen me, but I was too slow to come. Oh, draw me now. Behold, from now on, there will be eternal peace between you and me. I do not want to enrage you any longer. Grant me your grace (PN1v-N2r).

In this second part, Maria van Oisterwijk also provides meditation exercises which call participants to dwell on the life, suffering, death and resurrection of Christ, so that they may find lasting spiritual joy and experience inner peace. The author consoles the reader by insisting that ‘for God the good will is worth as much as the deed that would actually be accomplished’.105 Third Part: United with Christ in God’s Love The third part consists of one long dialogue with God and may in fact be associated with the genre of the soliloquy.106 Maria van Oisterwijk sometimes addresses her own soul, at other times it is her soul who speaks to Christ and at still other times she ‘communicates’ in the first person with Christ and with God the Father. This part of the text resembles a spiritual diary, cast in the form of a series of personal notes attesting to her inner relationship with God. Here there is no longer room for exhortations to others. We are but silent witnesses to God’s process of transformation that takes place in Maria van Oisterwijk’s inner self. The first pages of the third part are taken up mainly with the Oisterwijk mystic’s expression of the desire to imitate Christ, to 104

 Cf. John 6:44.  PN8v-O1r. 106  PO1r-a3v. 105

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follow his virtuous life, and to become united with Him in God’s love:107 O dear Lord, adorn my soul with the noble virtues of your holy soul, with humility, obedience, purity, forbearance, benevolence, patience and love, and with all your virtues. (…) O dear Lord, make me bare, poor and empty of all the lowest things so that I may not regard nor await anyone but you alone. Oh, when will that be? (PP8v-Q1r). O holy soul of Christ, come and embrace me, and impress in my soul, as in a mirror, all your virtues, your love, humility, obedience, toleration, endurance and the utmost forbearance in the highest degree. O sweet Spirit of Christ, come and unite with me (PU2v-U3r).

In the final pages, the tone of the conversation with God changes. The expressions of longing for the forgiveness of sins and the pursuit of a virtuous life recede into the background. The praying and beseeching to be drawn into God come to an end. Gradually, her union with God becomes manifest, creating the impression that everything has been accomplished.108 Maria van Oisterwijk even speaks of a ‘lasting union’. The union with God

107  Maria van Oisterwijk’s relationship of confidence and intimacy with Christ can be deduced from her appeal to him as ‘dearest friend’ (allerlieffste vrient, PT6v-T7r). 108  Maria van Oisterwijk is not embarking here on the path of mystical phenomena, such as visions and ecstasies. Indeed, she elsewhere cautions beginners in the spiritual life against being deceived by ecstasies, which can hinder the inward action of God’s grace (See RWQ5v-Q6r). On extraordinary phenomena and misunderstandings regarding Christian mysticism, see Lieve Uyttenhove, “De relevantie van Maria Petyt voor het hedendaagse godsdienstonderwijs. Van meditatief gebed tot mystiek gebedsleven gericht op Christus,” in Als gist in het deeg. Uitdagende stemmen voor geloofscommunicatie en levensbeschouwelijke reflectie in het godsdienstonderwijs, ed. Didier Pollefeyt, Hans Debel, and Anthony Dupont. Nikè-reeks, 58 (Leuven: Acco, 2011), 204-7. Yet, in The Paradise, Maria van Oisterwijk, seems to suggest that she herself has had such visions. See PJ7v, PK7v and PL2r.

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of which she speaks is not the result of her own effort. Rather, it is God’s work in her; she is ‘transformed’ in God’s love, by God: O behold now, my soul (…) how God, your beloved, comes to you at every moment; for whoever remains in love, remains in God and God in him. Oh, that is my consolation. Otherwise I would die of love. My heart burns and wants to melt of love. I cannot stand to be apart from you for even a moment (PX3v). O my soul, see how God is united with you, and can never again be separated from you. (…) Oh, consider that united love that may never be separated. Be inflamed by that fire and melt away in the love of God. (…) For God is always present in me. I in God and God in me, united, and he can never be separated from me (PX5v-X7r). Behold, I would like to come to you even through a hundred deaths. O now you no longer need to draw me because in the bare arms of love I rest, dear Father and dear bridegroom (PY5v-Y6r). O your love in me draws me into you, and I draw you back into me. Thus, I forget myself and I become completely transformed in you (PY8v).

In The Paradise, Maria van Oisterwijk uses the terms ‘behold’ or ‘contemplate’ to describe mystical union with God – terms indicating that the mystical or contemplative life involves an inner ‘seeing’ of God’s love.109 In seeing or beholding God, who is love, the human person is transformed in that love and thus ‘becomes, by grace, what God is by nature’.110 109  PY7v-Y8r: ‘I see and behold the love of your heart. (…) In you I see an endless love for me’. See also this book’s chap 1, 1, p. 5-6. 110  See PY8v. The quotation refers to a saying by William of Saint-Thierry (ca. 1075-1148), who, from 1121 to 1135, was the Abbot of the Benedictine Monastery of Saint-Thierry (near Reims, France), and, from 1135 to 1148, a monk in the Cistercian Abbey of Signy, in the French Ardennes. For the quotation in Latin, see Gvillelmi a Sancto Theodorico Opera omnia, 3, De contemplando Deo & Epistola ad Fratres de Monte Dei, ed. Paul Verdeyen, CCCM, 88 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2003), 282: ‘fieri meretur homo Dei, non Deus, sed tamen quod Deus est: homo ex gratia quod Deus est ex natura’. According to Paul Verdeyen, William adopted the expression from the Church Fathers Ambrose of Milan (339-397) and Gregory the Great (ca. 540-604). Verdeyen is convinced that

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7. The Third Book, Nine Rungs of Simplicity There is evidence to suggest that Maria van Oisterwijk wrote (part of) the Nine Rungs of Simplicity during the Cologne period of her life.111 The title appears for the first time in a letter written in 1548 to the Cologne Jesuit Leonard Kessel,112 and one extract from the work appears to be included in the manuscript Collectanea quaedam V.P. Gerardi Hamontani. Kalckbrenner compiled the Collectanea – a kind of a spiritual diary – for his own use, when he was prior in Cologne. A significant part covers the years 1545-1547, the period in which Maria van Oisterwijk lived in Cologne.113 The manuscript was transcribed and translated into French by the Carthusian Augustin Devaux and published in 1999.114 In addition to texts by Maria van Oisterwijk and Kalckbrenner’s personal notes regarding her written or oral advice to him, the manuscript contains treatises by several other spiritual authors: John (Johannes) Tauler,115 Brother Martin,116 John (Joannes)

William was the first to use this expression in his theology of the Trinity to declare that human persons united to God share in the unity of the love of the Father and the Son, who are one in the Holy Spirit. 111  Keersmaekers, “Maria van Oisterwijk en de ‘simplicitas’,” 200. 112  See Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 6; Möllmann, “Maria von Oisterwijk und ihre Schrift,”, 321; Keersmaekers, “Maria van Oisterwijk en de ‘simplicitas’,” 196-7. With respect to Kessel, see chap 1, n. 159. 113  Keersmaekers, “Maria van Oisterwijk en de ‘simplicitas’,” 197. 114  Collectanea quaedam V.P. Gerardi Hamontani, in Dom Gérard Kalckbrenner, Mélanges de Spiritualité, see chap 1, n. 48. 115  Maria van Oisterwijk’s spiritual thought is said to be reminiscent of Tauler’s doctrine and life. Dom Gérard Kalckbrenner. Mélanges de Spiritualité, 72/3; Keersmaekers, “Maria van Oisterwijk en de ‘simplicitas’,” 201. Johannes Tauler, who joined the Dominicans in Strasbourg in 1315 was, like Suso, a disciple of Eckhart. At a certain moment in his life, Tauler became acquainted with the ‘friends of God’ (Gottesfreunde), and he began to share their belief that the soul was more affected by a personal relationship with God than by external practices. See also n. 96 above. 116  There is no trace of this brother in the historical sources. He might have been a Carthusian lay brother or an external hermit. Dom Gérard Kalckbrenner. Mélanges de Spiritualité, 53, n. 1.

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Baerle,117 Nicolaas van Essche,118 Ida (Yda) Comitis (with her Dutch names, die Greve; van Graeve),119 Florence (Florentius) of Haarlem,120 and Peter Faber.121 The texts dealing specifically with Nine Rungs of Simplicity are situated halfway through the manuscript.122 They begin with Kalckbrenner recalling advice received from the Oisterwijk mystic on the theme of holy simplicity,123 followed by devotional excercises from Esschius – also dealing with simplicity, and reflecting

117

 The Dominican Joannes Baerle (†1539) belonged to the circle around Maria van Oisterwijk. He had close contacts with the Cologne Carthusians. Dom Gérard Kalckbrenner. Mélanges de Spiritualité, 8. See also Ibid., 61, n. 1. Cf. Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 31. Baerle probably became acquainted with both the Oisterwijk house of virgins and the ‘student’ Kalckbrenner while he was prior of the Dominican Monastery in ‘s Hertogenbosch. In addition to a Latin treatise, written at the University of Heidelberg, the only other known work by Baerle is his Little Book of the Spiritual Life (Handboexken van ’t gheestelyk leven). 118  See chap 1, 2, p. 10-4. 119  See chap 1, nn. 6 and 121. 120  Florentius of Haarlem (†1543) entered the Leuven Charterhouse in 1528. He was the prior from 1542 to 1543. See also Dom Gérard Kalckbrenner. Mélanges de Spiritualité, 141, n. 2. 121  See chap 1, n. 165. 122  Kalckbrenner points to Maria van Oisterwijk already in the first pages of his manuscript, although she is never explicitly mentioned by name. The second text in the manuscript would seem to allude to an exercise revealed to her. The same can be said for a vision, mentioned in the beginning of the manuscript, which, according to some scholars, could be attributed to her. Maria van Hout (†1547). Begijn en mystica, 67-9. In relation to the latter, we additionally have Kalckbrenner’s testimony that the ‘virgin’ who was the subject of this vision was the one who urged his conversion. See Dom Gérard Kalckbrenner. Mélanges de Spiritualité, 14/5. We do not know for certain, however, whether Maria van Oisterwijk is meant here. 123  Cf. the note, starting with: ‘Quando mater advenit primum’ (When the Mother First Arrived). Soon after her arrival in Cologne, Maria van Oisterwijk expressed her concern about the prior. It seemed he lacked awareness of his spiritual shortcomings. The cause of this, he confesses, was that he did not know true simplicity. Keersmaekers, “Maria van Oisterwijk en de ‘simplicitas’,” 199200. See also Dom Gérard Kalckbrenner. Mélanges de Spiritualité, 7.

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closely the advice of Maria van Oisterwijk.124 In the next, Kalckbrenner offers his own thoughts on holy simplicity,125 and follows with another reflection under the title ‘What the Mother told me on the fifteenth day of the year 1545’.126 Then comes the text of Maria van Oisterwijk’s own writing, ‘On Simplicity’:127 Holy humble Christian simplicity is a hidden narrow path that leads a person, in providential divine wisdom, out of himself and above himself to God, and makes him abide there unceasingly. There God kindly speaks to the soul: in eternal love, I have loved you. That is why I have drawn you to me. Then he makes the soul see and feel, inwardly, how free, peaceful and untroubled it is, not concerned about itself nor about anything that God ever created. And if the soul then feels its elevation in God, how great a need for gratitude and self-annihilation should it not have, for it recognizes that the Lord accomplished all this without any merit on its part. (…) When we have received a little simplicity, we should keep guard over it with the following means: we should always become and remain residents of our inner self. This means our human minds should always remain under that simplicity. And a loving soul should watch over this; that it does not turn its human thoughts outward, whatever injustice attacks it from the outside. For as soon as the mind grasps something and remains fixated upon it, for so long there will be a darkness within it, creating an obstacle between God and itself, for as long as it remains in the mind; whether what one sees within  Cf. notes entitled: ‘Via Domini Nicolai Eschii’ (Reverend Nicholas Esschius’ Journey). Dom Gérard Kalckbrenner. Mélanges de Spiritualité, 76/7-78/9. See also Keersmaekers, “Maria van Oisterwijk en de ‘simplicitas’,” 198, 201-2. 125  See text entitled: ‘Quid sit simplicitas sancta breviter’ (What Holy Simplicity Means, in Brief). Dom Gérard Kalckbrenner. Mélanges de Spiritualité, 80/182/3; Keersmaekers, “Maria van Oisterwijk en de ‘simplicitas’,” 203-5. 126  Cf. text entitled: ‘Haec mater mihi dixit 15a a° 45’ (What the Mother Told Me on the 15th Day of the Year, 1545). Dom Gérard Kalckbrenner. Mélanges de Spiritualité, 84/5-86/7. Keersmaekers, “Maria van Oisterwijk en de ‘simplicitas’,” 205-6. In this text, Maria van Oisterwijk’s advice refers directly to the treatise on simplicity. 127  ‘De simplicitate’ (On Simplicity). Dom Gérard Kalckbrenner. Mélanges de Spiritualité, 88/9-90/1. 124

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oneself be great or small, he must remark it in himself, admonish himself, and submit himself to humble simplicity and forbearance until the obstacle has left him again. He must take upon himself the other person’s imperfection and simply assume that he is himself to blame for another person offending him, and that God therefore has a purpose in this. Then he should turn inward and ask God in simplicity what he means by it, and what he desires him to do or not to do. For, O Lord, you do not allow this to befall me for no reason. He should then remain in introspection, constantly, with a living desire to know God’s dearest will. For God is so good that he will disclose it to him. In what seemed small before, he will eventually understand that God had intended something great with it. Therefore, he should not dismiss lightly what seems small on the outside. Oh, whoever maintains this exercise, how many fruits and wisdom will he not draw from it and observe God’s wonderful works and his hidden judgements.128

This text would appear to be the beginning of the third work, Nine Rungs of Simplicity. The account – written in German (Lower Rhenish-Cologne dialect) – may have been a letter or part of a letter to Maria’s spiritual son.129 Halfway through the text, the language changes to Latin, as Kalckbrenner reflects on the advice for his spiritual life, which had just been communicated to him in this ‘letter’.130 All the texts on holy simplicity in Kalckbrenner’s manuscript mirror Maria van Oisterwijk’s understanding of simple humility as found in the treatises in The Straight Road and in her letters.131 Neither Maria van Oisterwijk’s text above nor Kalckbrenner’s notes replace the lost Nine Rungs of Simplicity. The fact that Kalckbrenner’s notes do not even hint at the book would seem to suggest that it came into existence at a later period. 128  Trans. of Dom Gérard Kalckbrenner. Mélanges de Spiritualité, 88 and 90. See also Keersmaekers, “Maria van Oisterwijk en de ‘simplicitas’,” 206-9; Maria van Hout (†1547). Begijn en mystica, 64-6. 129  In the ‘Germanized’ letter (as in the Latin notes), there are multiple errors. Apparently, the copyist was not a native of Brabant. 130  Dom Gérard Kalckbrenner. Mélanges de Spiritualité, 90/91-94-5; Keersmaekers, “Maria van Oisterwijk en de ‘simplicitas’,” 209-10. 131  Cf. Keersmaekers, “Maria van Oisterwijk en de ‘simplicitas’,” 200.

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Whatever the case may be, it is clear that the manuscript presents Maria van Oisterwijk’s life of Christian simplicity in sharp relief. To conclude this second chapter, we may note that Maria van Oisterwijk’s insights concerning holy simplicity benefitted not only Kalckbrenner’s spiritual life; by means of her teaching, the prior endeavoured to renew the spiritual life of his Order as well. After all, simplicity had traditionally been fundamental to the Carthusian way of life,132 and through the publications of The Straight Road and The Paradise, Kalckbrenner had already summoned the monks to these very foundations.

132

 Ibid., 222.

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The Author’s Spiritual Life Introduction Maria van Oisterwijk’s spiritual life underwent a profound development. This is well-attested in fifteen of her letters, which were published by Kalckbrenner in The Straight Road.1 Early in her spiritual journey, Maria’s life was marked by fasting, selfcastigation, and self-imposed penance. Under the influence of the Cologne Carthusians, this penitential regime gradually changed. Her spiritual director, Peter Blomevenna, directed her not to do penance on her own initiative and not to refrain from receiving the Eucharist during Lent.2 In response to this instruction, the Oisterwijk mystic remarked laconically: ‘Oh, how good is God 1  For the letter’s numbering, see Appendix Two. Overview of Maria van Oisterwijk’s Letters. For the discussion of the letters, see chap. 2, 5, p. 68-72. 2  Reference to: ‘You have forbidden me to do penance in secret. (…) And you give me the permission to go to the Holy Sacrament as often as I can, with inner peace’ (RWP2r) (9th letter). This quotation recalls a complaint and a question from two of her earlier letters to Blomevenna: ‘I cannot fast well because I am deprived of my Lord and God in the Holy Sacrament’ (RWP1r) (8th letter), and ‘If you want me to go to the Holy Sacrament, please write to me’ (RWP3r) (10th letter). We remind the reader that the letters are not published in chronological order. Blomevenna’s warning against exaggerated vigil and fasting probably arose from his fear of paramystical phenomena (such as ecstasy) among the religious. Stephanus G. Axters, Geschiedenis van de vroomheid in de Nederlanden, vol. III. De moderne devotie 1380-1550 (Antwerp: De Sikkel, 1956), 216; James Hogg, “Die Kartause, Köln und Europa. Gelehrte Kartäuser zwischen Reform, Reformation und Gegenreformation,” in Die Kölner Kartause um 1500. Eine Reise in unsere Vergangenheit, ed. Werner Schäfke (Cologne: Kölnisches Stadtmuseum, 1991), 175.

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who through you has forbidden me to do penance. If I had acted according to my own desire, oh how severely I would have castigated myself ’.3 She understood Blomevenna’s words to be God’s personal intervention in her spiritual life.4 They led her to understand that she could encounter God neither on her own nor by her own personal, ascetic, or penitential efforts.5 The awareness of God’s intervention at the level of her deepest being altered her spiritual life significantly, and the emphasis on acts of penance gave way to a focus on the inner relationship with God. This was the first major conversion in her spiritual life. Now she experienced herself as invited by God not to fear for herself and her own spiritual wants, but to attend wholeheartedly to loving God unconditionally. One cannot avoid seeing a second turning point at this moment in her life, when Maria van Oisterwijk experienced union with Christ in God’s love. It was an experience of having been gifted with entering into the love relationship with God, through Christ. This was a climactic moment in her relationship with God and again marked the beginning of new life. Concerning this unexpected inner event, she writes in a letter to Blomevenna: ‘And God has imprinted so intensely this union in me, a sinful creature, on the feast of Corpus Christi, and has given so graciously a new spirit, that since then this has not been taken away from

3

 RWP2v.  At the same time, Maria van Oisterwijk endeavoured to discover God’s intention for her in the discipline her Oisterwijk confessor imposed on her: ‘Then I observed his [the confessor’s] words most fervently, and, when doing penance, I diligently directed my heart to God. And I did not refrain from praying day and night, in order that I would receive insight from God into what he intended by it’ (RWP6r) (11th letter). 5  The insight that Maria van Oisterwijk received through Blomevenna’s words is mirrored in the advice that she gives to one of her spiritual sisters; Maria tells her the search for God’s action in her inner being should not entail spiritual strain or inordinate exertion. She also warns her not to confuse physical symptoms, such as shaking and trembling, with an abundance of God’s grace granted in the spiritual life. See RWQ5v-Q6r (15th letter). 4

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me’.6 Yet, individual personal union with God does not capture the fullness of Maria van Oisterwijk’s spirituality. In time, she became aware of a deeper ‘level’ in her spiritual life. She discovered that God, through mystical union, endowed her with a ‘life in communion with God’ (gemeine leven) that was also oriented to the salvation of all.7 She realized that she had been enabled to encounter and love all people with God’s own love and now her ‘old’ life was left behind, once and for all.8 With respect to this overwhelming divine grace, she writes in her first letter: ‘I know now the foundation of my life, the road the Lord wants me to take from now on. I cannot but (…) stand completely at the service of other people and lead a life in communion with God, in poverty of spirit’.9 It is no surprise that this was the first in the series of letters published by Kalckbrenner. From the very beginning, it compels the reader to recognize that Maria van Oisterwijk’s ‘new life’ was due to God’s love, which overwhelmed her and transformed her soul into divine love. Maria van Oisterwijk’s spiritual companionship with God, which is intimated in her letters, is set out in structured fashion in the first treatise ‘The Straight Road’ (from the book with the same title).10 Here, reflecting on her own experiences, she attempts to clarify the spiritual life for her companions and contemporaries. ‘The Straight Road’ is thus a natural starting point for exploring the deepest ground of Maria van Oisterwijk’s spirituality. It is fitting, therefore, to begin our discussion by recalling briefly its structure and content. 6

 RWQ4r. See chap 1, n. 24, trans. Rob Faesen, “Maria van Hout. Two Letters,” in Late Medieval Mysticism of the Low Countries, eds. Rik Van Nieuwenhove, Rob Faesen, and Helen Rolfson, The Classics of Western Spirituality (New York, NY: Paulist Press, 2008), 369. See also chap 2, 5, p. 71. 7  See chap 1, main text along with n. 110. 8  See: ‘Further, know that all [former] things and my old life is completely annihilated (…). And I am beginning a new life’ (RWO1r) (3rd letter). 9  RWN6v. Cf. chap 1, n. 110. 10  See chap 2, 5, p. 61-4. As we have seen, ‘The Straight Road’ is the first treatise in the book The Straight Road.

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We have already seen how ‘The Straight Road’ may be divided into two parts, each comprising seven chapters; the first part (chapters one to seven) deals with the journey to God while the second part (chapters eight to fourteen) deals with the journey that starts from God and leads out to all human beings.11 Both parts recall the new insights in Maria van Oisterwijk’s spiritual life: the need for an authentic interior love relationship with God and the gift of a life in communion with God, which is a participation in God’s love. Each chapter presents a ‘stage’ in the spiritual life, although here a certain caution is needed. The ‘stages’ are not to be understood in a purely linear sense. Rather, they structure Maria van Oisterwijk’s presentation of the different dimensions of the spiritual life. They do not intend to present the spiritual life as unfolding in a systematic ‘step-by-step’ fashion. After all, God’s action as it enables different aspects of the spiritual life in us is not bound to a fixed structure. Maria van Oisterwijk associates the first part of the spiritual life with God’s initiative at the level of the inmost self. This initiative opens the way for an authentic inner love relationship with God and union with Christ in God’s love. In the first stage, we are called to attend to God’s invitation to believe in the Father’s omnipotence.12 The second stage deals with hope in God’s eternal mercy in Christ.13 Stages three to seven are all concerned with the 11

 See Appendix One: Structure of ‘The Straight Road’.  A firm trust in God’s omnipotence was evident to Maria van Oisterwijk. See: ‘Oh whoever entrusts himself to God, what would he receive?’ (RWO2v) (5th letter). See also: ‘O wondrous wonder of the goodness of God. Whoever dares and ventures to trust in the goodness of God, how wondrous he would know its providence to be’ (RWO4r) (6th letter). 13  Maria van Oisterwijk holds in tandem God’s mercy on the one hand, and on the other hand, our sinfulness, i. e., our falling short in love of God. It is in this sense that we must understand the following instruction given in one of her letters addressed to both her spiritual father and her spiritual son: ‘[Consider] how his [God’s] heart was and still is, ebbing and flowing, out of fatherly love, for the benefit of sinful people’ (RWO4v) (6th letter). Without doubt, Maria van Oisterwijk’s use of the terms ‘ebbing’ and ‘flowing’, derives from John of Ruusbroec’s famous saying, ‘For God is a flowing, ebbing sea’. See his Spiritual 12

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imitation of Christ’s virtuous life14 as we are invited to pray, asking Christ to endow us with his virtues of obedience, humility, meekness, mercy, and true love. In and through her own spiritual community of life with Christ, Maria van Oisterwijk discovered how he formed her in a life of virtue. Through virtues of obedience and humility, Christ himself inclines us to let God’s will happen in us (third stage),15 and to surrender ourselves as a child to the Father (fourth stage).16 In the fifth stage, Maria explains that when we live according to Christ’s virtue of meekness, it is likewise Christ who makes it possible for us to receive his inner peace.17 In the sixth stage, the spiritual relationship with God approaches its Espousals (Die geestelike brulocht), ed. J. Alaerts. Opera omnia, 3; Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio Mediaevalis, 103 (Tielt: Lannoo; Turnhout: Brepols, 1988), b987. The expression ‘ebbing and flowing’ surfaces on more than one occasion in the treatise ‘The Straight Road’ and in other treatises in the book The Straight Road. 14  This emphasis on the imitation of Christ is well exemplified in the advice to her spiritual son in one of her letters: ‘And you, my son, I particularly urge to attend to the life of God’s Son and to follow in his footsteps’ (RWO4v) (6th letter). 15  What Maria van Oisterwijk has in mind with regard to the third stage is very well reflected in the opening greeting of the 8th letter [To my spiritual Father]: ‘To say with the Lord Jesus, ‘not my will but yours be done’ [Luke 22:42], is my reverential greeting to you’ (RWO8v); and again in the 2nd letter where she exclaims: ‘If a person enjoys his own appetites and his own will, oh, oh, what would it gain him?’ (RWN8r). 16  The 4th stage and its characterization of child-like surrender to the Father is evident in the 10th letter: ‘But now, like a child, I am no longer my own master’ (RWP4r). 17  Two quotations from her 2nd letter and another from her 8th letter respectively allow us to assume Maria van Oisterwijk’s spontaneous connection with Christ’s peace: ‘The peace of the Lord be upon you is my greeting to you, my beloved sister. For the Lord spoke to his Apostles: ‘Peace I give you, peace I leave you’ (RWN8r). See also: ‘Oh, oh sister, I do not know whether peace could be greater than that peace the Lord gives to me, an unworthy little creature’ (RWN8r). And: ‘Verily, my dear Father, as things now stand, I find myself in such a firm peace with steadfast love, in spirit and in nature, dedicated to God and accepting from God everything that may happen to me each day, so that I do not know whether my peace could be greater’ (RWO8v).

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deepest level. Here, through our inner participation in Christ’s suffering, death, and burial we are enabled to imitate Christ’s mercy and to accept God’s invitation to surrender ourelves to the Father, becoming emptied of concern for the self,18 and reoriented away from ourselves.19 Finally, the seventh stage presents the climax in the imitation of Christ’s virtues. Here we are bestowed with Christ’s virtue of true love, finding ourselves united with Christ in God’s love. It is the deepest experience of spiritual community of life with Christ. Maria van Oisterwijk discusses the second part of the spiritual life in terms of a ‘life in communion with God’. She explains how the very nature of mystical union with God means we cannot be but oriented to the salvation and redemption of all people. Alluding to her own personal experience, she describes the person united with Christ in God’s love as Christ’s ‘bride’. In stages eight to fourteen dealing with the journey towards all human beings ‘starting from God’, Maria covers seven distinct aspects of the ‘life in communion with God’. Stage eight deals with Christ’s desire to reveal himself to others through his ‘bride’. The following two stages explain how Christ gives to the bride the insight that she with Christ participates in God’s Trinitarian life (ninth stage) and is empowered to lead both the virtuous and non-virtuous to God (tenth stage). The eleventh stage is characterized in terms of the bride’s awareness that all virtues and every grace arise from the Holy Spirit. In the discussion of the twelfth stage, Maria seeks 18  ‘He [the Lord] does not want me to be concerned, but only to pursue his work’ (RWN6v) (1st letter). See also: ‘Then the Lord made me so empty inside that I did not know what I was’ (RWN5v) (1st letter). See further: ‘And furthermore, I can only stand empty in myself, and help other people to carry their burdens and to strengthen them’ (RWP1v) (8th letter), and: ‘If it then pleases God that I should say or write something to someone, the Lord presents to me everything that he wants me to reveal at the right time, and no more. And immediately I lose it again. And therefore, in everything, I am daily just as poor and empty’ (RWP8r) (11th letter). 19  Cf. the beginning of the 11th letter (RWP5v). Renouncing the focus on oneself has to do with the fervent desire to belong to God and to love God ‘for the sake of God’.

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to probe more deeply into the bride’s ability to return all gifts to the Father. In stage thirteen, the bride is urged to lead all people to Christ’s Church, and to hope for the forgiveness of sins for all. Finally, in the fourteenth stage, Maria van Oisterwijk discloses how Christ forms his bride as a willing ‘instrument’ to orient herself to the eternal blessedness of all people.20 20

 What Maria van Oisterwijk has in mind here, is well reflected in the following quotations: ‘Oh dear sister, if things go badly, you and your fellow sisters must all together annihilate yourselves in the deepest ground of your being and surrender yourselves to God as one, and dedicate yourselves and all things entirely to God. But remain with faith in God with prayers that he will make everything turn out right; for God wants to perform his work himself because then it will be more perfect. But see to it that if he wants you to set to work as his instrument, be obedient to him’ (RWN7r-N7v) (1st letter). See also the 12th letter: ‘As long as we have something to long for, we have not yet reached real poverty. God likes a capable and empty instrument, and he knows very well how to purify it, if only we let him do it without [our] meddling’ (RWQ1v, trans. Faesen, “Maria van Hout. Two Letters,” 367). Maria van Oisterwijk’s theological understanding of ‘instrument’, probably also arises from John of Ruusbroec. In his Sparkling Stone (Vanden blinkenden steen), eds. G. De Baere, Th. Mertens, and H. Noë, Opera omnia, 10; Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio Mediaevalis, 110 (Tielt: Lannoo; Turnhout: Brepols, 1991), 786-8, Ruusbroec declares: ‘And he [a person living in communion with God] is a living, willing instrument of God with which God does what he wants, the way he wants’. ‘Instrument’ is similarly employed in Jan van Ruusbroec, A Mirror of Eternal Blessedness (Een spieghel der eeuwigher salicheit), ed. G. De Baere, Opera omnia, 8; Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio Mediaevalis, 108 (Tielt: Lannoo; Turnhout: Brepols, 2001), 15768: ‘Goodness of will is caused and born out of the Holy Spirit. And therefore that will is a living, willing instrument, with which God accomplishes what He wants’. Contrary to Willeumier-Schalij (De brieven uit ‘Der rechte wech’ van de Oisterwijkse begijn en mystica Maria van Hout [†Keulen, 1547], Miscellanea Neerlandica, 6 [Leuven: Peeters, 1993], 19-21), and others following her, for instance Marga Arendsen (“Maria van Hout: Begijn in Oisterwijk,” [unpub. work Church History, Tilburg Theological Faculty, 1998], 24) and August Keersmaekers (“Maria van Oisterwijk en de ‘simplicitas’,” Verslagen en Mededelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde 113 [2003], 216-7), Ruusbroec did not fight tooth and nail against the term ‘instrument’. In his Spiritual Espousals, b2125-2186, Ruusbroec precisely warns against misinterpreting the meaning of ‘instrument’. Indeed, he points out that a person, who is guided as a willing instrument of God, will never omit – nor is able to omit – the active loving of God and all fellow human beings.

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The perspective from which we must read the ‘The Straight Road’ is Maria van Oisterwijk’s insight that the spiritual life develops from God’s active involvement in our lives. This insight led the Oisterwijk virgin to realize that Christian spirituality implies a true loving relationship with God. Hence, she invities us to turn inward and dwell upon our inner encounter with God. The model par excellence for our loving relationship with God is Christ’s virtuous life. Thus, Maria van Oisterwijk appeals to us to pray to Christ that he would be present in us and enable us to follow him in his virtues.21 When endowed with Christ’s virtues, we are transformed in God’s love so that we cannot but lead a life in communion with God for the sake of the eternal blessedness of all. At stake here is not one’s own spiritual perfection before God; at stake rather is one’s transformation in God’s love, in order that he or she may love all people with that divine love. This insight altered Maria van Oisterwijk’s spiritual life completely; and it was the spirituality flowing from this insight that inspired many people. It was this spirituality too that Esschius, Kalckbrenner, and Canisius sought to propagate in their pursuit of a revivified spiritual life in the Church. We will now turn our attention to the exploration of Maria van Oisterwijk’s detailed description of the different aspects of her spiritual life, which, as already stated, is based on ‘The Straight Road’. For the sake of clarity, our discussion will be supplemented with salient passages from that treatise. 21  The emphasis on virtues is particularly evidenced in the opening greeting of three letters addressed respectively to a spiritual sister, to a reverend mother, and to her spiritual son: ‘A sincere progress in virtues, and always advancing more and more, and virtuously to accomplish [them] is my humble greeting to you my beloved sister’ (RWN5v) (1st letter). ‘Perseverance in virtues is my greeting to you’ (RWN8v) (3rd letter). ‘A sincere progress in virtues virtuously fulfilled, and always more and more to advance in virtues, is my humble greeting to you, beloved son of my heart’ (RWO3r) (6th letter). These greetings reflect what Maria van Oisterwijk thinks God expects from her: ‘The Lord wants that I should help you pray that your mother and all your sisters may progress along the straight road of virtues’ (RWN7v) (1st letter).

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1. A Journey to God First Stage. Firm Faith and Confidence in God The first part of ‘The Straight Road’, namely the journey to God, is written from the perspective of a true love relationship between God and the human person. The seven steps or stages are linked respectively with the first seven articles of the Creed and the first seven lines of the Lord’s Prayer.22 The purpose is not a theoretical knowledge of the faith,23 but an elaboration of the meaning of the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer by relating them to the spiritual life. Maria van Oisterwijk explains the first stage in our love relationship with God by drawing on the first article of the Creed, ‘I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth’, and the first words of the Lord’s Prayer, ‘Our Father’. Spiritually speaking, the words convey the idea that we cannot love God if we do not first believe in God’s fatherly omnipotence. Maria van Oisterwijk therefore recommends that we begin our journey of love for God with a firm trust in ‘Our Father’ and with a strong belief that he will grant what we ask, if we need it. From her own experience, she recognizes that when we are in need, it is not necessarily self-evident to trust only in God and believe that only God can offer rescue. That is why it is good, like the apostles, to cultivate the habit of praying to Christ for more faith,24 and, further, to direct oneself to the Father like a child, saying: Therefore, let us put our faith and love entirely in God. When the enemy wants to torment us or when people want to press us hard, or when we suffer some physical ailment, to whom will we run? Will we complain about it to people or desire something from them? No, 22

 Concerning Maria van Oisterwijk’s classification of the Creed into 14 articles, see chap 2, n. 46. 23  Cf. chap 2, n. 48. 24  See RWA8r. Maria van Oisterwijk, most likely refers here to Luke 17:5: ‘The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”’. This and subsequent allusions suggest that the Oisterwijk mystic was well acquainted with the Bible even though she herself, hardly ever cites the Biblical references.

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no, nevermore. For is our Father not almighty? Let us go to him and pour out our troubles to him,25 and say: O beloved Father, I am your child and you my Father. I pour out my troubles to you. You know what I need. I ask you, please take care of me. Therefore, trust him steadfastly.26 He will dispel all doubts, as soon as he deems it time (RWA8r).

Maria van Oisterwijk insists that trusting in God’s omnipotence means we must also believe and trust that in our relationship with the Father we are continuously guided by him. Regardless of the good or evil that comes to us through others, we should keep our attention fixed on God’s activity within us. When encountering good words and deeds, it is not difficult to recognize the Father enabling us to thank and love him. When confronted with angry words or the bad deeds of other people, however, it is less clear how the Father is inviting us to a true loving relationship with him. In considering her own experience, the Oisterwijk virgin, however, offers an interesting line of reasoning. She considers separately those who do us harm, and ourselves to whom injustice is done; her advice is to turn inwards and discern how God simultaneously invites us to beg for the forgiveness of evildoers, and to consider our own relationship with God. An important key to Maria van Oisterwijk’s spirituality is the realization that we ourselves are sinful and fail in our love for God.27 This does not mean that her spiritual life was dominated by a sense of sinfulness. Rather, it explains her focus on God’s merciful love and her advice that we too beg for mercy for our 25

 Cf. 2 Cor 1:3-4: ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation’. 26  Cf. Ps 91:15-16: ‘When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, … With long life I will satisfy them, and show them my salvation’. See also 2 Cor 1:9: ‘…, so that we would rely not on ourselves but on God’. 27  Cf. Ps 51:3-4: ‘For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight’. Concerning the relational connotation of ‘sinful’ and ‘sin’. See also chap 2, 6, p. 74.

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sins. Recognizing our own sinfulness should, moreover, inspire us to pray to Christ for faith that the Father can give a new direction to our spiritual life, through both the good and evil that we encounter. Maria van Oisterwijk does not doubt that all of us, especially through the evil that occurs to us, are prompted to love God: Therefore, let us take from God everything that happens to us through other people, whether it be good or evil. One will accept from God both the evil or suffering, as well as the good. If an evil person were to cause pain or trouble to a good person, and if the good person were to pray for that (evil) person, it might happen that he would begin to gain a clear insight into himself. Therefore, a good person should always pray for those who hurt them, and say: O Lord, are you allowing that person to sin to purify me? O Lord, please have mercy on him and bring him to a sincere confession. This I pray you, beloved Father. Oh children, we cannot but love our Father, since he has all things in his power. He is the Creator of heaven and earth (RWA8v-B1r).

Second Stage: Hoping for God’s Mercy If by God’s intervention we realize we are failing in our inner relationship with God, we need not despair. The second article of the Creed: ‘and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord’, and the second line of the Lord’s Prayer: ‘hallowed be thy name’, announce consolation and salvation. These words invite us to believe and hope that the Son of God became man to redeem us from the sinfulness that had separated us from God. The words ‘hallowed be thy name’, spoken to the Father and paired with the second article of the Creed, denote our salvation in the Person of Jesus Christ.28 Maria van Oisterwijk is convinced that Christ’s desire to redeem all people for the Father continues. Hence, he is still intercessing for all people before the 28  Cf. the meaning of Jesus’ name, Matt 1:21: ‘She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins’.

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Father. Jesus is the source of God’s mercy for each of us. To explain this, Maria van Oisterwijk draws on the image of God’s Son ‘born’ from the heart of the Father.29 Through this image, she demonstrates that hope for God’s mercy cannot exist without Christ’s mediation. Therefore, we must pray to Christ and ask that he enable us to believe and to have hope that every time we ask, he will entreat mercy for us from the Father: O my soul, consider how the Son of God from all eternity has been born from the paternal heart,30 and how he desires to be with the children of human people.31 Therefore we may rightly say: ‘hallowed be thy name’.32 Because, O dearest Lord Jesus, your name is as sweet as honey to my mouth,33 a joy to my ears, a bliss to my heart. Oh children, we may rightly rejoice when we hear the sweet name of Jesus, for he came and was born from the heart of our dear Father. O Lord Jesus, how could a poor creature – who is nothing but sin, and who would do nothing but sin, if you did not prevent it – glorify your divine name sufficiently? Therefore, O Lord, be your own glory. Because no perfect glorification will be rendered to you, other than through yourself. For you are our Lord. I therefore believe that you will answer for us to your and our Father, when he wishes to manifest his justice over us when we do not fulfil his

29  See the opening words in Maria van Oisterwijk’s 5th letter: ‘That the heart of the Father be yours is my humble greeting to you, beloved father of my heart’ (RWO2r). 30  Cf. John 1:1-18. 31  Hebrews 2:13-14: ‘And again, “Here am I and the children whom God has given me.” Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things’. 32  For the meaning of Jesus’ name, see n. 28. 33  Cf. Ps 119:103: ‘How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!’. See also Ez 3:3: where the prophet Ezekiel testifes to a vision, in which the Lord commanded him to eat the scroll as a symbol for accepting the Word of God: ‘Then I ate it; and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey’. In Rev 10:9, John also is commanded to eat the scroll: ‘So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll; and he said to me, “Take it, and eat; it will be bitter to your stomach, but sweet as honey in your mouth”’.

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commandments.34 For, O Lord Jesus, if it were not for your mercy, his justice would immediately condemn us, if we were to have fallen into mortal sin. Therefore, O Lord Jesus, I place my hope, my trust, and my faith in you (RWB1v-B2r).

Third Stage: Obedience to the Father The first two stages, discussing firm confidence in the Father’s omnipotence and hope in his mercy, are treated as a ‘point of departure’ for our love relationship with God. However, human beings cannot achieve either of these dispositions – faith and hope – by their own efforts. We must pray to Christ for them. Christ’s mediation is thus present at the point of departure and is at the centre of the next five stages as well. With a view to growing in a true inner relationship with God, the third to seventh stages urge us to imitate the virtuous life of Christ. Maria van Oisterwijk deals successively with the virtues of obedience, humility, meekness, mercy, and true love. She does not, however, advocate our own striving for these virtues. Rather, at each stage, she encourages her readers to devote themselves to Christ and to ask him to endow us with his virtues. In keeping with the ‘third’ article of the Creed, ‘who was conceived by the Holy Spirit’,35 Maria van Oisterwijk again associates the third stage of the journey to God with Christ’s Incarnation. In the second stage, she has clarified the reason for Christ’s becoming human, namely to deliver us from our weakened relationship with God. Now in the third stage, Christ’s Incarnation is the basis from which she describes the recovery of that relationship. According to the mystic, this recovery can be inferred from the spiritual meaning of the ‘third’ article of the Creed and from the words of the

34  Cf. John 5:22: ‘The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son’. 35  Concerning Maria van Oisterwijk’s classification of the Apostles’ Creed (AC), see chap 2, n. 46. In her discussion of the 3rd stage, she only considers the 1st part, 3rd art. AC.

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Lord’s Prayer, ‘Thy kingdom come’. Christ’s virtue of obedience is emphasized here. Maria van Oisterwijk is convinced that our obedience to the Father is the fruit of the spiritual birth or spiritual incarnation of the Word of God in us. For just as the Incarnation of the Word in the Virgin Mary was related to Christ’s obedience to the Father, so she believes that by the spiritual birth of the Word in us, the virtue of obedience will likewise be born in us. When willing to accept Christ’s Incarnation in our inmost selves, we are enabled to embody Christ’s obedient attitude to the Father. The first and most important counsel of Maria van Oisterwijk, therefore, is to pray for the spiritual birth or the spiritual presence of God’s Word in us.36 Hence, she urges us to pray in the words of the Lord’s Prayer: ‘Thy kingdom come’, and to pray that the Father reign in us as he wills. Longing for God’s will to be realized in us is the very ground of our obedience to the Father:37 Open your fatherly heart and let the eternal Word descend into me. For your Word, O heavenly Father, is a sweet delight for my heart, a pleasing harp for my ears.38 O exalted Word, O eternal Word, O mellifluous Word, O Word full of joy, O Word full of glory, I do not know how I can exalt and honour you sufficiently. It is wondrous that our heart does not melt, and our knees do not fall to earth when we hear: Verbum caro factum est.39 (…) Oh, oh, if only we could truly understand what extraordinarily precious words these are. For, if we could rightly understand, we would find hidden and concealed therein the whole Passion of our dear Lord Jesus Christ. 36  Cf. the opening of the 15th letter: ‘The eternal Word, that flows to us from the fatherly heart is my friendly greeting to you’ (RWQ5v). 37  Concerning ‘obedience’, see chap 2, n. 52. 38  The biblical ‘harp’ reminds us of the Psalms. See Ps 33:2: ‘Praise the LORD with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings’. See also Ps 108:2: ‘Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn’. Finally, see Ps 150:3: ‘Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp!’. The lyre is also known from the story of David in 1 Sam 16:23. 39  John 1:14: ‘And the Word Became Flesh’.

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For our Father sent his only Son out of such great love.40 Herein, the Son of God was obedient to his heavenly Father unto death (RWB2v-B3r; B3v). Therefore, a devout person should often pray, especially as he approaches the Holy Sacrament, saying, O Lord, I ask you through your love – through which the exalted Word became flesh – that through that same love, you have the goodness to come to me and to stay with me eternally. Therefore, we may say in the Lord’s Prayer: Thy kingdom come. Oh, we may certainly pray that God should reign in our soul according to his dearest will (RWB4r-B4v).

From her personal experience, the Oisterwijk mystic knew that willingness to have God’s will realized in us does not arise from our own merits. By ourselves we are sinful beings, as we constantly fall short in our love for God. Both the spiritual incarnation of God’s Word (i.e. the coming of ‘God’s Kingdom’ in our hearts) and God’s reigning in our hearts as he wills, are God’s work. All these inner movements are due to God’s mercy, given in the person of Jesus Christ. By his mediation, the heart of the Father cannot but overflow with goodness: O dear Father, I confess that I have dishonoured you so often with my great sins, shortcomings and omissions. This has caused you, high Majesty, to yearn for me and to wait on me, for so long. Consequently, I am not worthy that the earth should bear me. Therefore, I call for mercy and not for justice because, if justice came to pass on me, hell would not be large enough to punish me. Therefore, I know well that your kingdom will not be mine by my merits, but only by your unfathomable goodness and mercy (RWB4v-B5r). Yet, by the mediation and the merits of his Only Son, he [God] is so mild and so good that he cannot keep his fatherly heart closed. He cannot but show his mercy so abundantly every day. For his heart is like an overflowing fountain, welling, ebbing, and flowing 40

 Continuation John 1:14: ‘…and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son’. See also 1 John 4:9: ‘God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him’.

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up from the altar when one celebrates Mass.41 Oh, oh, what great love he shows us there. For there he gives us his Only Son to eat and his blood to drink – oh, this is certainly a reason for us to rejoice greatly and to be thankful to him (RWB5v-B6r).

Maria van Oisterwijk ends her presentation on obedience with a call to look within our own hearts and to examine whether we possess the virtue of obedience. Whoever is not yet endowed with that virtue, cannot but be ashamed. This is not because he or she has not actively pursued the virtue of obedience; the initiative for the spiritual incarnation of the Word within us, after all, is a gift of God. Rather, we should be ashamed if we have not implored the Lord for the birth of God’s Word in us, or for the desire to have his will done in us. Indeed, without Christ’s birth in us, we cannot obey the Father: O dearest souls, now you have heard what power the words possess when one says: I believe that he was conceived of the Holy Spirit in the body of Mary. That is when the noble Word, from eternity, born from the fatherly heart, became flesh. In his soul was imprinted all his suffering so that it was clear to him, in advance, what he, from the beginning to the end, would have to endure. In this, we are taught the virtue of obedience, completely. For the Son of God obeyed his heavenly Father. O holy obedience, I must glorify you greatly, for you commanded the Son of God to come down to us from heaven. You are the first work that he accomplished and the most useful that he ever did on earth. If he had not obeyed his heavenly Father, we would not have been redeemed. The example he has given to us, he wants us to follow. Oh, therefore let each of us turn to his [deepest] ground. Whoever finds himself disobedient and too obstinate to place himself under [the authority of] God and all creatures42 should rightly be ashamed before God and should 41  With respect to RWB4v-B5r (first quotation), see chap. 2, 2, p. 53. With respect to the expression ‘ebbing and flowing’, see above, n. 13. 42  In Maria van Oisterwijk’s life, the virtue of obedience also signifies obedience to her spiritual father and other superiors. See e.g. RWP6v: ‘This I write to you, dear father, so that you would know the foundation of my life. For it is fully shaped after God’s desire to go up and down, so that God and my superior have

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weep night and day. For he robs himself of this noble virtue, and of all good things (RWC1r-C1v).

Fourth Stage: Being as Humble as a Child Maria van Oisterwijk connects the fourth stage in our spiritual relationship with God with the virtue of humility. Her presentation of this virtue is closely related to her explanation of the virtue of obedience. The desire that God’s will be realized in us is again given priority, but here she recounts in a more detailed way how we can live in accordance with God’s will. For the ‘fourth’ article of the Creed ‘born of the Virgin Mary’,43 and for ‘Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven’, from the Lord’s Prayer, Maria van Oisterwijk, once again, offers a spiritual interpretation. She asks that we dwell upon the birth of Jesus who, as a humble child, surrendered his wisdom and intellect into God’s complete freedom over me and in me. For it seems to me that God wants me to come to you, father, and to the aforementioned priest, (…) and that I allow myself to be taught by you both and that I take careful note of it. Christ became obedient unto death, and is the example for me to submit to the will of you both’. See also: ‘The subordinate will err and will never reach humble simplicity or onefoldness unless they are simply satisfied with the one whom God has given them and unless they submit to this person entirely and renounce themselves, and place themselves in God with a firm faith, and submit to the creature that God has appointed over them, whoever God gives them’ (RWL7v). See further: ‘Dear father, please write to me if it is your will that I may sometimes confess to a different priest, and ask him instead of you about daily matters, because you live too far away from me. So that I might do everything in obedience. That is why I pray in the name of God, if you think it is useful, please let me know, so that I may become more practiced [in obedience]. For all dying [to myself] is more a joy to me than a cross. Herein do whatever you think is best, it is enough for me that you know and see yourself whatever God gives you in accordance with what I need. Because I do not want to rely on anything else but upon holy obedience’ (RWP4v-P5r). According to Maria van Oisterwijk, therefore, a person can do nothing else than pray to the Holy Spirit so that he or she, through a superior or other good people, would obtain his counsel. Cf. RWG6r. 43  The 4th art. CMO corresponds to the 2nd part, 3rd art. AC. See chap 2, n. 46.

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hands. With the help of Christ, we are also invited to surrender our own wisdom and own intellect to the Father, to concentrate our love on him and to pay attention to what he commands within us. In this way, we become simple and humble as the infant Jesus and God’s will reigns in us: If we desire God’s will to be done in us, we cannot but surrender our will completely and unite it with his will. (…) But how will we come to this? How will we subdue our sensory nature and annihilate our will in its ground, which God gave us so freely? Oh, dear children, to do this I know nothing better than to consider the exalted, noble birth of the small child, because the most high has become the lowest and the most humble. If we want to consider this sincerely, then we will discover that this birth was the humblest work that the Lord ever did on earth. (…) Oh children, if we desire our Father to reign in us with his glory (…) we must do as this child did. We cannot but abandon all our own wisdom, as well as our conceited, subtle intellect, and become as simple as this child (RWC2r-C3r). If we want to become truly obedient, humble and simple children of God, we must spiritually cultivate the following points within us. We must entirely submit our wisdom and our intellect to God and become onefold. We need not fear anyone except our Father in heaven and not direct our love to anybody other than him. We must be pure of heart like a child and, above all, our inner eyes must not be turned anywhere except to our Father, and [we must] be attentive to everything that he commands inwardly or whatever we are subjected to outwardly by creatures. We cannot but follow this entirely, without any resistance, in all things in which virtue and dying to oneself lie. And thus will we unite our will with our Father’s will, just as the sweet child Jesus did (…) Oh he has shown us the way so well, and he desires that we will and must follow him44 if we want to reign with him (RWC3r-C3v; C3v-C4r).

44  Cf. Mark 8:34: ‘He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me”’.

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The author finally shows that we cannot actualize the virtue of humility on our own. This is in keeping with her reflection on the virtue of obedience. Obedience and humility become ours only by imploring Christ to descend into us, and by surrendering our wisdom and our reason into the hands of the Father, following the example of Christ. Conversely, the indwelling of God’s Word and union with God’s will become a reality when Christ has endowed us with obedience, humility, and simplicity. It is thus that our hearts become a dwelling place in which the Lord may take up residence permanently: Dear children, now we have heard how obedience compelled him to come down from his Father’s heart and was born on earth from Mary in all humility. Let us pray to the Lord for the grace that he may adorn our soul with the virtues of obedience, humility and true simplicity, so that he may be born anew in our soul every day and so that we will always be found willing [to live according] to his dearest will. (…) When a person is fully united with God’s will, he may believe with complete confidence that the Lord will want to build a heaven, that is, a dwelling place, in his heart, and to reign within it in all his glory (RWC4r-C4v).

Humility means that God’s will reigns in us, that we are no longer sovereign over ourselves but rather, we belong to God. The desire for ‘Thy will be done’, is a fourth fundamental spiritual attitude in our relationship with God. Here again, as when dealing with trust in the Father’s omnipotence, with hope of his mercy, and with the virtue of obedience, Maria van Oisterwijk combines surrender to God’s will with our love for God. Fifth Stage: Four Ways of Receiving Christ’s Peace The fifth stage in our loving relationship with God is related to the imitation of Christ’s meekness and his (disposition of) inner peace. With respect to the ‘fifth’ article of the Creed, ‘suffered under Pontius Pilate’,45 Maria van Oisterwijk explains on the level 45

 The 5th art. CMO corresponds to the 1st part, 4th art. AC. See chap 2, n. 46.

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of faith that Jesus Christ was meek and lived in inner peace, no matter what harm was done to him. If we permit ourselves to be ‘nourished’ spiritually with Christ and allow him to become present in our deepest selves, we will grow in his meekness and peace. After all, Christ is ‘our bread’, and on this we live.46 Therefore, Maria van Oisterwijk insists that we should pray every day with the words of the Lord’s Prayer: ‘Give us this day our daily bread’. In the ‘daily bread’ she differentiates four kinds of bread, i.e. four ways in which Christ offers us his meekness and inner peace. These are: the bread of teaching, the bread of the Holy Scriptures, the bread of penance and the bread of the Holy Sacrament. – The Bread of Teaching When our will is united with that of God and we are willing to have God’s will done in us, then we can receive Christ’s meekness and his inner peace. We cannot achieve this on our own. However, through our own personal striving we can nourish that meekness and peace (that has been bestowed on us). To this end, Maria van Oisterwijk advises us to focus on God’s will and on the unceasing surrender of our intellect and wisdom to God. When we discover that we are still focused on ourselves, that we are not yet united with God’s will and, therefore, do not possess meekness and inner peace, we should not lose hope. In this situation the Oisterwijk mystic urges us to pray to Christ and beg for salvation from ourselves and from our own will: He first gives us a pure bread of teaching when we keep our attention fixed on how he lived his whole life in peace. For however much he was despised, mocked, or tormented, he remained entirely peaceful,47 thinking: This is what my heavenly Father expects me to endure. He was meek, humble and merciful in all his words and 46

 Cf. John 6:26.  Cf. 1 Pet 2:23: ‘When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly’. 47

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deeds.48 It behoves a spiritual person whose will has been united with God, to do likewise, as said before: he shall keep his conscience always in peace, no matter how he is tempted by God, in every suffering, disdain or adversity.49 None of this can harm him: to a spiritual person this is all a paradise in which he may rejoice, since suffering is his rest and disdain is his honour and poverty is his bliss. For in God, he is completey free of his own will that nobody can disturb his heart; God alone wants to cultivate, to instruct, to direct, and to guide it, for he wants to live in a place of peace. (…) Therefore, dear children, let us work diligently to maintain our peace with God, which he has made for us. And whoever finds himself as not having died to himself in this,50 should fall at the Lord’s feet and call for mercy. And let each of us examine our own conscience (RWC5r-C6r).

– The Bread of the Holy Scriptures If we still feel we are not advancing in our inner loving relationship with God, and in compliance with the virtues of Christ and his love for the Father, it is good to examine our conscience. When our searching of heart yields little, and we fail to see where we fall short in our love for God, we can turn to the exemplary life of Christ in Scripture. The Bible will help us understand our inner selves. We can compare our lives with the life of Christ and attempt to discern where our inner life still differs from that of the Lord: When a person finds himself tepid and languid, and lacking all interiority, he should ‘enter’ the book of his own conscience and sincerely scrutinize what hinders or impedes his progress in virtues. And when he still finds himself so obscured that he is unable to see his deficiencies, he should turn to the Holy Scriptures, and 48  Cf. Matt 11:29: ‘Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls’. 49  Cf. Job’s temptations: Book of Job 1:6-12; 2:1-6; 42:1-6. 50  With respect to the expression ‘to die to oneself’, Maria van Oisterwijk, in The Paradise, uses the words, which in English mean: ‘to be freed from oneself’ or ‘to forget oneself’.

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principally to the exemplary life of our Lord Jesus Christ, and mirror himself on it and be attentive to all his actions: how gentle, virtuous, enduring, patient and merciful he was. And so on in many other ways, as anyone can find in the Holy Scriptures. And when one has rightly observed this, everyone should turn inwards and note how different his life is by comparison. In this noble mirror, he will certainly find and see the stains he still has that are hindering him (RWC6r-C6v).

– The Bread of Penance Maria van Oisterwijk recommends that we pray for ‘the bread of penance’ when, in the mirror of Christ’s life, we see the deficiencies and failings in our love for God. With this ‘bread’ Christ sustains us in enduring with him the pain that is caused to us by other people.51 When we are willing to undergo the evil caused to us as a penance for our own sinful relation with God, the shortcomings in our love for God will be forgiven immediately. By accepting this penance without resistance, moreover, we will become a willing ‘instrument’ in the hands of the Lord. According to Maria van Oisterwijk, this means we will be able to fully entrust ourselves to Christ and to surrender to him, so that Christ himself may plant his meekness and peace within us: Let us pray for the bread of penance. (…) If the Lord has suffered at the hands of his subordinate, certainly his servant cannot but endure this as well, when he is tormented or afflicted by wicked people, (…) for it purifies them of their offences. And this is how the Lord wants his justice to prevail over the good, so that in the life to come he may be a merciful judge to them, for they are already completely purified. That is why a virtuous heart may love wicked 51

 The radicality of Maria van Oisterwijk’s belief in Christ’s inner peace emerges in a statement in one of her letters that, despite all the suffering, she could not but remain peaceful ‘even if Christ were to place her in hell’ (RWO1v). Here, again perhaps in imitation of Ruusbroec, Maria van Oisterwijk emphasized that nothing could harm her inner peace when she allowed God’s will be done in her. See Spiritual Espousals, b1652-1654: ‘Thus, for the loving, humble person, the will of God becomes his supreme joy and his greatest lust, as to spiritual feeling, even if he went to hell – which is impossible’.

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people through God, and the good in God, and all people for God, and despise no-one except itself. And when just penance has been done for all failings, he becomes a fitting instrument with which the Lord may work as it pleases him (RWC6v-C7r).

– The Bread of the Holy Sacrament Finally, we may obtain the virtue of meekness and inner peace by praying for the fourth ‘bread’. Here the emphasis is on the living Christ, poured out in us in the Eucharist. This is the moment when Christ takes up permanent residence in us. Maria van Oisterwijk explains this in the language of the Song of Songs. The intensity of our ardent desire for Christ’s presence in us and of Christ’s willingness to hear our prayers are conveyed in the imagery of ‘bride and bridegroom’: O Father, give me the living bread, which descended from heaven; because, O Father, my soul is nearly dead from hunger and almost parched from thirst.52 Therefore, O dear Lord Jesus, by the love through which you, O eternal Word, became flesh and abide in us, I desire to receive you, spiritually, as often as you are consecrated in the hands of priests.53 (…) When our bridegroom then beholds the hunger and the thirst of his bride and when he hears her call, he can no longer restrain himself. He cannot but flow out with his grace. When he sees that she is so beautifully adorned with this bread, he is so greatly pleased to come and live in her, that he says to his Father: let us go to her and make a dwelling place in her, for it is my joy to be with her54 (RWC7v-C8r). 52

 Cf. John 6:35: ‘Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”’. See also: John 6:41: ‘Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven”’. Finally, see John 6:51: ‘“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh”’. 53  Maria van Oisterwijk reminds us that in the Eucharist, bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, and through the cooperation of the priest. Cf. Matt 26:26-28. 54  Cf. Rev 21:3: ‘And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them”’.

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Sixth Stage: Receiving Mercy and Being Merciful The ‘sixth’ article of the Creed, ‘was crucified, died and was buried’,55 and ‘forgive us our trespasses’, from the Lord’s Prayer, together carry the meaning of Christ’s mercy, which Maria van Oisterwijk connects with Christ’s mercy on the cross. Christ’s merciful attitude refers to his divine mission to advocate forgiveness for all people alienated from God, and to restore their relationship with the Father. The effects of Christ’s mercy on the cross continue in us. By confessing our sins and receiving Christ’s mercy, we are ourselves empowered to beg forgiveness for all people who have done harm to us. When we desire to endure everything so that those guilty of wrongdoing are moved to confession of their sins, Christ will also have mercy on us: Let us not stop weeping and praying until we have received forgiveness from our Father. Let us fall at his feet, saying: O Father, I confess that I am a great sinner and that I have dishonored your majesty so often with many sins and shortcomings. This has made my soul miserably captive so that it cannot be redeemed unless your goodness has mercy on it by the merits of your only Son. Therefore, dear Father, I desire that all my sins and anger will be cast into the abyss of your eternal goodness and mercy. (…) When we have received mercy for our soul, we shall say: O dear Father, from the bottom of my heart, I readily forgive those who have ever offended me. I pray you, O beloved Father, that you would also forgive them. I long for them to do what your goodness wants me to endure, in order that they should come to a sincere confession. (…) When the Father sees and hears the call of his friends, he can no longer restrain himself, he cannot but answer them. Then the Son of God comes and shows his abundant mercy (RWD2r-D3r).

To embody Christ’s mercy and to grant it to others, more is required than the confession of our sins and our request for forgiveness for all those who have done us harm; our interior attitude must be centered on Christ’s state of mind on the cross. Hence, 55

 The 6th art. CMO corresponds to the 2nd part, 4th art. AC. See chap 2, n. 46.

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Christ teaches his ‘bride’ the inner disposition she should cultivate towards wrongdoers, in all suffering caused to her. From this point onwards, Maria van Oisterwijk no longer addresses her audience directly. Rather, she speaks mostly about Christ’s bride. The bride represents people who yearn to dedicate themselves entirely to Christ, and to have Christ come alive in them. The image of the bride also represents Maria van Oisterwijk in her relationship with God, and everything she states regarding the bride’s state of mind reflects her own personal experience. The Oisterwijk mystic perceived that Christ grants the bride the interior disposition that allows her to follow him in his mercy. It is for this purpose that Christ teaches her how to be poor in spirit56 and to endure all sufferings, following his own example. For Maria van Oisterwijk being poor in spirit means not being anxious or concerned about oneself. Patience or endurance in the face of suffering means renouncing one’s own will and surrendering to the will of God. If the bride is steadfast in poverty of spirit and endurance, seeking consolation with none but God, she begins to share in Christ’s mission on the cross. Living in this spiritual disposition, the bride may experience herself with the Lord, nailed to the cross:57 56  See: ‘On Simplicity’ (De simplicitate), text taken from Ms. 1204. Collectanea quaedam V.P. Gerardi Hamontani, kept in the Hessische Landes- und Hochschulbibliothek Darmstadt, Germany, published in Dom Gérard Kalckbrenner. Mélanges de Spiritualité, eds. James Hogg, Alain Girard, and Daniel Le Blévec. Texte établi, traduit et présenté par Augustin Devaux. Analecta cartusiana, 158 (Salzburg: Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universität Salzburg, 1999), 88/9-90/1. See chap 2, n. 127. Maria van Oisterwijk herself experienced poverty of spirit. Cf. her 12th letter, especially her words: ‘Oh father [Blomevenna], how valuable it is not to want, not to know, not to have, not to desire, so that a person can come to give himself to God in mere simplicity’ (RWQ1v, trans. Faesen, “Maria van Hout. Two Letters,” 367). See also RWQ6v (15th letter). Maria van Oisterwijk’s views on ‘poverty of spirit’ reflect both the Franciscan spirit (see Maria van Hout (†1547). Begijn en mystica. De rechte weg naar authentiek evangelisch leven [Antwerp: Halewijn, 2003], 41), and the works of Ruusbroec (see for example, A Mirror of Eternal Blessedness, 398-400). 57  Cf. Maria van Oisterwijk’s experience recounted to her spiritual director in the 12th letter: ‘[A]s it is written in your letter, my spirit is now in such great poverty that I cannot express it. All active grace has abandoned me, and I am so

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When he [Christ] has strengthened his bride a little and has drawn her to himself with his grace, he teaches her how she shall hold herself interiorly: in complete poverty of spirit, in aridity and complete resignation, to follow him as he showed us. (…) When the bride then perceives the suffering of her bridegroom, she sees that his suffering is beyond comparison with hers, and says to herself: O Lord, I surrender myself entirely into your hands. Do with me and in me whatever you want. (…) I want to let the wound of the suffering swell until you liberate me from it, O Lord, without seeking any comfort except in you. And if the bride remains steadfast, she is immediately nailed to the cross with the Lord (RWD3r; RWD4r).

Here, Christ invites the bride to die on the cross with him. In other words, he wants her to cultivate poverty of spirit and endurance in suffering to the end. It is necessary for her to transcend herself and her own desires, for as long as she is guided by her own will and desire for consolation, she is not yet endowed with Christ’s mercy: And then she must still die on the cross with the Lord. That is, she must be so practiced in suffering and resignation, unto death, so that in her there remains not a drop of ‘unresignedness’ [vngelaissenheit] – for as long as we still find the smallest drop in us, we may not say that we are resigned people. Therefore, we must be completely barren and arid, just as the Lord was when he hung on the cross unto death. For if a person does not endure it unto death, what is it worth? (RWD4r-D4v).

To be adorned with Christ’s mercy, finally, requires that the bride is ‘buried with Christ’. Therefore, Christ teaches the bride to condemn no one, and to consider herself of less worth than the one who has harmed her. When the bride thus comes to view herself as a ‘worm’, considering herself as nothing, she is delivered from every weakness, failing, passion, and urge to evil. Possibly, Maria van Oisterwijk uses the Biblical imagery of ‘worm’, to evoke reduced to nothing that I myself do not know what I am. I do not know how I could become more naked or bare with the Lord at the cross, and could come onto the cross’ (RWP8v, trans. Faesen, “Maria van Hout. Two Letters,” 366).

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the prophetic statement about Jesus from the Book of Psalms: ‘But I am a worm, and not human; scorned by others, and despised by the people’.58 Having become a ‘worm’ like Christ, the bride should not be concerned that she is trampled upon. She may be confident that God will protect her as a downtrodden worm. Accepting that she is overpowered and trampled upon is the very way for the bride to be healed of shortcomings in her relationship with God. The ability to regard herself as ‘worth nothing’ in respect of the harm caused to her by others, and to accept that she is but a ‘worm’ has only one purpose: it enables the bride to descend to her deepest self and become rid of self-will and all other obstacles that stand in the way of a truly loving relationship with God: And when the bride has died with and for her bridegroom, she must also be buried with him. This means she still must also learn to become a little worm. She must be annihilated so thoroughly with respect to God, herself and all creatures, that neither she herself nor any other creature would esteem her more than a worm that crawls over and into the ground. (…) Although the worm constantly fears that it will be overcome, it need not fear. The worm seems always to be in danger, but the Lord protects it faithfully and with fatherly care so that it cannot be trampled underfoot. Yes, he delivers it in that moment from that which would have trampled it to death without his intervention. This means from all deficiency, passion, urge to evil and weakness by which it was earlier trampled upon and almost killed, because at that time it still resisted the Lord by being attached to outward things and being drawn to them intensely. That is why God allowed it to be trampled upon, so that it would know itself through this and die to itself (RWD4v-D5r). 58  Ps 22:7. Maria van Oisterwijk may have taken the worm image also from Job 25:6: ‘how much less a mortal, who is a maggot, and a human being, who is a worm!’. Here again, she may also have been inspired by Ruusbroec. In three of his works Ruusbroec alludes to Ps 22:7 claiming that Christ in taking the form of a slave, regards himself as a worm: The Sparkling Stone, 138-140; A Mirror of Eternal Blessedness, 310-1, and The Twelve Beguines (Vanden XII beghinen). Text and Apparatus, eds. M. M. Kors, Opera omnia, 7A; Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio Mediaevalis, 107A (Tielt: Lannoo; Turnhout: Brepols, 2000), 2b1955-7.

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We will be rewarded when, like the bride we have learned to regard ourselves as ‘nothing’ in the sufferings caused to us, and when we have been purged of all barriers in our relationship with the Father. Then Christ will offer us forgiveness for all past shortcomings in our love for God. He will also enable us sincerely to beg for forgiveness for wrongdoers, and desire that their relationship with God be restored. Becoming a ‘worm’, out of love for God, we will be endowed with Christ’s mercy and will sincerely display that virtue to others. Moreover, Maria van Oisterwijk believes that God will soon deliver us from all suffering and misery. Having risen above all forms of orientation to self, and focusing only on God, each of us, like the worm, may rise with Christ, and share in Christ’s love for the Father: And when the Lord sees that she has become a worm for the sake of his love, the Lord says: (…) I will help you (…) for your salvation is at hand. As if he wanted to say: O faithful bride, because you remained faithful to me and were crucified with me and died and were buried, you will now also resurrect and rise with me on the third day, that is, when it pleases me and when you least expect it. And this is the word that was foretold in faith and in the Lord’s Prayer. And we may understand by it how we shall bear the virtue of mercy in us and manifest it. One can only experience this as God grants it (RWD5r-D5v).

Seventh Stage: With Christ United in God’s Love Spiritual community of life with Christ arises particularly from participation in Christ’s suffering, death, and burial. When, through this community of life, the bride has died to herself and loves God ‘for the sake of God’, she is filled with God’s extraordinary grace. She experiences Christ, together with the Father, coming to dwell in the depth of her being, and she is transformed into God’s love.59 From experience, Maria van Oisterwijk knows 59  Cf. Maria van Oisterwijk’s experience: ‘O your love in me draws me into you, and I draw you back into me. Thus I forget myself and I become completely transformed in you’ (PY8v). See also chap 2, 6, p. 78.

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that Christ desires to unite himself with ‘simple’ people (who have become a worm), so that they dwell with him, in God’s love, forever.60 She explains God’s love for the ‘simple’ person from the spiritual meaning of the ‘seventh’ article of the Creed: ‘he descended into hell,61 and ‘lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil’, from the Lord’s Prayer. On our journey to God, we should not despair when we are afflicted by suffering and misery. We can have faith that God allows nothing to happen without a reason. We can also trust that this is the way to be redeemed from all evil. Therefore, the Oisterwijk mystic encourages us to pray the Lord’s Prayer, so that the Lord will protect us from all further evil. This encouragement is not given so that we will not feel remorse, rather it is given so that God’s will may be done in us and that we do not dispute his actions. To remain in God’s love, it is necessary that our will is united unceasingly with that of the Father: For he [the bridegroom] sees that she [the bride] sits so miserably in the hellish abyss of annihilating herself, that she considers herself so base that she does not esteem herself worthy to possess the virtue of ‘nothingness’. When he sees this, he can no longer restrain himself. He can only have mercy upon her and set her free from it. (…) And all torment that was bitter to her before now becomes sweet to her. He takes her by the hand and leads her with himself into the earthly paradise. That means, he unites her with himself, in love,62 and makes her abide in him and he in her, so that they become one and no one can separate or distinguish them from each other. For she is so bound to God, in his love and affection, that neither devil nor human being, nor any creature can move her away or separate 60  In ‘The Straight Road’, Maria van Oisterwijk’s description of the love union with God is sober and limited to a few lines. However, in the third part of her second book, The Paradise, more detailed descriptions of the contemplative and ‘unifying’ life come to the fore. See among others, The Paradise, PO4v-PO5r, and PX3v, PX5v-X7r, PY5v-Y6r, in chap 2, 6, p. 78. 61  The 7th art. CMO corresponds to the 1st part, 5th art. AC. See chap 2, n. 46. 62  Cf. chap 1, main text along with n. 23, and chap 2, quotation with reference to n. 57.

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her from him. (…) The Lord has established her in his love so that she cannot be separated from it in any way. For the whole earth is her cell. Heaven is her roof. Therefore, she lives as a mighty dove63 who is without equal; for she knows well that no one has power over her except her dearest beloved, whom she has with her. And she therefore accepts whatever happens to her from him and from no one else. Therefore, dear children, if we truly knew our bridegroom, we would not be anxious or afraid when we encounter any suffering or misery, either within or without. Let us always think that the Lord expects me to endure it, for, O Lord, I know well that you do not allow this to happen without any reason. And let us sincerely love him; so we should not rebuke him for his works. A faithful bride would not do so; that is beyond all doubt (RWD6r-D7r).

Maria van Oisterwijk herself experienced this union with God. Starting at a certain moment in her life, she felt that she was transformed in God’s love, and that she remained in this state ever after. This union with God was not her own accomplishment. It was given to her by God when Christ’s obedient, humble, meek, merciful and loving state of mind came alive in her. Union with God meant the transition to a mystical ‘life’ that allowed her to experience God’s love unceasingly. God revealed to her, however, that the spiritual life is not focused on an exclusive mystical ‘union’ with God. What is at stake is a mystical or contemplative ‘life’ that results from that union. Participation in God’s spirit of love therefore is not primarily meant for herself. She received a new spirit for the salvation of all people. Maria van Oisterwijk connects this new life in God’s spirit of love with a ‘life in communion with God’, or a life which, starting from union with God, is oriented to the salvation of all.

 Cf. the dove in the Song of Songs as the beloved of the bridegroom. See Song 2:14: ‘O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the covert of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely’. 63

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2. A Journey ‘from God’ to All People Eighth Stage: A Willing Instrument in God’s Hands Maria van Oisterwijk links the journey ‘from God’ to all human beings, with a ‘life in communion with God’, by which she means a life of mystical union with God’s Trinitarian communion of love. The ‘life in communion with God’ is given to mediate God’s love to all people,64 and thereby to lead all to God. This is the new insight of Maria van Oisterwijk and the very essence of her spiritual life. With the ‘eighth’ article of the Creed: ‘on the third day he rose again’,65 Maria van Oisterwijk explains how the Lord does not want to keep hidden his immeasurable love that unites the bride with Christ in God. The bride realizes that the Lord wants to rise in her, and, through her, wants to reveal his love to others. From this point onwards, the Oisterwijk mystic speaks interchangeably of ‘bride’ and ‘simple person’. In a spiritual sense, the ‘Amen’ of the Lord’s Prayer conveys that the bride, or the ‘simple’ person, fulfills the Lord’s desire. The ‘simple’ person thus becomes a willing instrument in the hands of the Lord. There are no further references to the Lord’s Prayer in the subsequent stages of the spiritual life. By placing the ‘Amen’ at the beginning of the second part, however, Maria van Oisterwijk indicates, implicitly, that a person united with God assents to Christ’s mediation as far as the life in communion with God is concerned: He [the Lord] does not want her [the bride] to enjoy the grace that he pours out for herself alone, but to use it for the blessedness of all those in need. (…) Through this, he wishes to reveal and glorify himself in the heart of others, so that his grace would thereby be spread and that all people would know and understand what an 64

 RWD7v-D8r. See also chap 1, main text along with n. 110, as well as, main text along with nn. 7 and 9 above. 65  The 8th art. CMO corresponds to the 2nd part, 5th art. AC. See chap 2, n. 46.

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ineffable love he has for such a creature, who, out of love for him is willing to endure and to undertake what pleases him. And so that self-willed and obstinate, unwilling people would come to know themselves and be ashamed and despise themselves, realizing how great is the damage they do to themselves with their stubbornness. (…) For this little person [the bride] is a worthy instrument. The Lord has purified, cleansed and purged her with his grace, so that he fully possesses her for his will. He then reveals himself through her, as he pleases and as he desires and as he deems it useful. He shows such great affection for her and it is such bliss for him to abide in her, that he, in a manner of speaking, does not know how he shall glorify and reveal himself enough in her (RWD8r-D8v).

The ‘simple’ person will gradually notice that, through him, Christ desires to reveal himself in the image of four ‘figures’, which, according to Maria van Oisterwijk, he assumed in his resurrection appearances. Thus, as a ‘gardener’, the simple person is enabled to cultivate love for God in all people; under the guise of ‘pilgrim’, he or she instructs all people in Christ’s wonderous love for them, as a ‘merchant’, the simple person shows all people what a precious pearl each person is to Christ, and as a ‘physician’ he or she finds himself empowered to heal, restore and perfect their love relationship with God: Sometimes he reveals himself through her [the simple person or the bride] as one of the figures that he took after he had risen. For example, as a gardener, which means, for the sake of people who had become weak in their love for him, to enkindle [the fire of love] in them and to comfort their stricken hearts. And sometimes as a pilgrim travelling along the road, which means, that he desires that all people who walk along the road are comforted, strengthened and instructed, wherever they come from. Whoever this little creature [the bride] encounters, he wants her always to speak of him, so that darkened hearts may be enlightened, as he himself did when he went to Emmaus with two of his disciples.66 Sometimes he also reveals himself through this little creature as a merchant, which means, that all rich and greedy people would be amazed and recognize the rich, 66

 Luke 24:13-35.

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precious treasure that the Lord gives to his beloved friends,67 which they in all their greed and wealth cannot find. Sometimes he reveals himself through her as a physician.68 That is, that he desires this little person to help carry the burdens of all people and to receive them kindly and comfort them gently, teach and instruct them, and neither to offend nor cast out anyone thoughtlessly or disparagingly, so that weak souls may be healed by God and become healthy (RWE1r-E1v).

Maria van Oisterwijk also experienced Christ as breaking through ‘closed’ doors. This experience strengthened her conviction that transformation in God’s love does not take place in isolation from others.69 On the contrary, she was not allowed to lose contact with the world around her, as she could not but practice the love of God towards all people. The world and all its people are the scope of the field of action for all who are united with Christ in God’s love. And Christ enables the person thus united to come to know his peace and pass it on to others: Finally, he comes in through closed doors, as he came to the apostles and proclaimed his peace to them. That is, he desires his creatures to keep their external senses always directed inwards so that they 67  Allusion to Matt 13:45-46: ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it’. In her explanation, Maria van Oisterwijk considers the ‘simple’ person as a precious pearl, bought by Christ, and confirming his or her true love for the Lord. 68  Maria van Oisterwijk does not refer to Christus medicus, a phrase popular in Western Christianity in the 4th and 5th centuries, and which referrred to Christ’s healing function on both physical and spiritual levels. Rather, Maria van Oisterwijk uses the term ‘physician’ (healer) only in the sense of Christ’s healing power in the spiritual life. Her contemporary, Martin Luther, resumed the use of Christus medicus, and connected the term to both spiritual salvation and physical healing. Luther thus understood Supper (the Eucharist) as a medicine for body and soul. 69  ‘Closed doors’ probably refers to Maria van Oisterwijk’s earliest period of her spiritual life, lived in seclusion from the world. At a certain point, however, she no longer felt the desire to live as a recluse. See: ‘I lost the longing for a hermitage and many others things’ (RWO1r) (3rd letter).

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always bear his peace in their hearts and consciences, and proclaim it to all people (RWE1v).

Ninth Stage: Oriented to the World and to God’s Trinitarian Life Through her personal experience, Maria van Oisterwijk knew that Christ simultaneously allowed her to focus on the spiritual needs of the world and on her own union with Christ in God’s love. The ‘ninth’ article of the Creed, ‘he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty’,70 is used to elaborate the bride’s unceasing participation with Christ in the unity of the love of the divine Persons. Here, the deepest ground of the ‘life in communion with God’ becomes clear. It is rooted in God’s Trinitarian life, that is, in the unity of love of the Father and the Son, who are one in the Holy Spirit. As with the divine Persons, the bride cannot but be simultaneously oriented to the divine unity of love and to the salvation of all people.71 To be clear, Maria van Oisterwijk notes that this union with God does not mean that the bride becomes God. Whoever is transformed in God’s love does not cease to be a human being.72 The Lord further demonstrates the wondrous love that he has for this chosen bride. He wants her always to keep one eye focused outward and the other eye inwards. This means that he wants her, 70

 The 9th art. CMO corresponds to the 6th art. AC. See chap 2, n. 46.  While the community of life with Christ is at the heart of Maria van Oisterwijk’s spiritual life, the Trinity is the basis of her mystical union. Her trinitarian conception of the mystical experience corresponds to Ruusbroec’s belief that the contemplative (mystical) person is lifted above him- or herself and ushered into the life of the Trinitarian God. See Guido De Baere, “De Middelnederlandse mystieke literatuur en de Moderne Devotie,” Trajecta 6 (1997), 6. 72  Maria van Oisterwijk again echoes Ruusbroec, who repeatedly emphasizes that a person united with God does not lose his or her createdness. See his Little Book of Explanation (Boecsken der verclaringhe), trans. Phayre Crowley and Helen Rolfson, in The Complete Ruusbroec: English Translation with the Original Middle Dutch Text, eds. Guido de Baere and Thom Mertens, Corpus Christianorum Scholars version, Vol. I (Turnhout: Brepols, 2014), 31-3; 366-7; 395-6 and 71

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with her body, to remain at the disposal of all people and that, with the three faculties of the soul, she will always reign with him, and ascend with her Lord into heaven, so that she may always say from the bottom of her heart: Jesus ascended into heaven. My heart has been taken away from me and has followed Jesus. And this faithful bride, who was a little worm, now sits there at the right hand of her Father almighty. That is the Three in One, united with each other and established in God, by the will and the grace of God, in such a way that they cannot be separated from each other. Indeed, what is more, experiencing this union, it would not be possible for her with her own free will to fall into sin, even if she wanted to. Because she is, so to speak, entirely stripped of her own will.73 For the holy Trinity possesses her spirit with grace in such a way that no evil can settle in it, and is free and sovereign therein with respect to perfection. Nevertheless, a creature always remains a creature (RWE2rE2v).

Tenth Stage: Appointed to Guide Both Good and Evil People to God Furthermore, the great love of the Lord for the bride is seen in the fact that Christ gives her the insight to lead both good and evil people to God.74 Maria van Oisterwijk perceived that at a certain moment the Lord gifted her with the knowledge and wisdom to reprimand virtuous people and admonish sinful people who have turned away from God’s love. She connects this aspect of Christ’s mercy with the spiritual meaning of the ‘tenth’ article of the Creed: ‘from there he will come to judge the living and the dead’:75 237-8: ‘… for the creature does not become God nor God creature’. See also A Mirror of Eternal Blessedness, 1797-8. 73  Maria van Oisterwijk means that the ‘bride’ is united with God in such a way that she no longer follows her own will. Therefore, she is no longer oriented to herself, and neither can she sin. Axters, Geschiedenis van de vroomheid in de Nederlanden III, 382. 74  Cf. Ps 51:12-13: ‘Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you’. 75  The 10th art. CMO corresponds to the 7th art. AC. See chap 2, n. 46.

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The Lord has such great love and takes such great delight in the faithful bride that he pours out his grace within her so abundantly, places her on earth as a ruling judge, and gives her power over the living and the dead. This is to be understood as follows: the ‘living’ are the good, virtuous people who would like to live in God and who are not very well able to do so. Then the Lord desires that this little creature will give them food, and will be their support, helping them pray to their heavenly Father that he would move them forward so that they could reach the same grace that he has given to this bride. For he wishes all people to be saved. He therefore also wishes this little creature to direct all of her efforts to drawing all people to God. (…) For he gives this little worm [the bride] that he has united with himself so much intelligence and wisdom that she knows how to govern conscientiously, and to correct and instruct all people, whoever they are. Indeed, she has experienced so much itself that she knows what people are lacking once she hears them speak. For personal experience will often teach more than great erudition. (…) The Lord likewise places this faithful bride on earth to rule over the dead, who are obstinately sinful people, so that she would warn them of his severe judgment that he will pass over them in the life to come, in order that here and now they would judge themselves in their conscience, and desire to do penance for their offences (RWE2v-E4r).

Eleventh Stage: Every Grace and All Virtues Come from the Holy Spirit Furthermore, Christ makes the bride realize that all virtues originate from the grace of the Holy Spirit, that is, from God’s pure goodness. By herself, the bride has not been able to accomplish the virtuous life in imitation of Christ. The ‘eleventh’ article of the Creed: ‘I believe in the Holy Spirit’,76 reminds us that in our deepest ground, we are sinful people who cannot by ourselves fulfil the desire to truly love God, and that we owe our love of God to the infinite goodness of the Father:

76

 The 11th art. CMO corresponds to the 8th art. AC. See chap 2, n. 46.

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She confesses that in herself, she possesses nothing but sin, corruption and deficiency, and that she would fall into every sin if the Lord did not prevent it. She therefore believes in the Holy Spirit. For all virtues that occur in her or through her, and all the gifts that she has received, she profoundly acknowledges as having been given to her by the grace of the Holy Spirit, that is, by the mere goodness of God, who pours out his grace so benevolently, and which dwells in the heart of all people (RWE4v-E5r).

Twelfth Stage: Dedicating to God the Obtained Grace and Gifts With the ‘twelfth’ article of the Creed, ‘the holy catholic Church’,77 Maria van Oisterwijk explains that the bride finds herself impelled to dedicate the received grace and gifts to the fatherly heart. The heart of the Father is the source of all good things and the dwelling place of the one holy Church, or of all good people. The idea that the Church is enclosed in the fatherly heart is good news for all who fall short in their relationship with God. It means that despite their shortcomings, all are welcome in the Church. God’s fatherly mercy excludes no one. The fatherly heart never ceases to flow out to all or to draw all back in again:78 All the grace and all the gifts that the blessed bride has received were poured out on her from the throne of the Holy Trinity, out of the fatherly heart, which encloses the one holy Church, that is, all good people, and from which all good things flow to us. These things [the graces and gifts] should be offered to their living Origin. Oh, by these words, all sinful people may rejoice greatly that the almighty, eternal God holds us weak people in his heart. And let himself be called the head of the one holy Church, as if he wanted to say: My heart is open to all people, whoever they are. I do not want to exclude anyone who longs to enter it. For his heart is an overflowing sea, ebbing and flowing to us, in true faithful love (RWE5r-E5v).

77  The 12th art. CMO corresponds to the 1st part, 9th art. AC. See chap 2, n. 46. 78  Cf. n. 13, and main text along with n. 41 above.

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Thirteenth Stage: Gathering All People in Christ’s Church Maria van Oisterwijk understands the ‘thirteenth’ article of the Creed, ‘the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins’,79 in terms of Christ calling his bride to guide all without exception to his Church and to beg forgiveness for all who go astray. As already acknowledged, God intends that all people will be united with him in eternal happiness, and it is for this end that the Lord invites the bride to devote herself to the forgiveness of all people: The Lord desires that this faithful bride, whom the Lord has thus established in his love, will henceforth forget herself, and help her to gather and assemble all people together in his Church. And also help all erring creatures to obtain forgiveness of their sins, so that all would be assembled together in him. That is why we must all together continuously make every effort, so that all of us would live eternally together in bliss (RWE5v-E6r).

Fourteenth Stage: Guiding All to Eternal Bliss The ‘fourteenth’ and final article of the Creed, ‘the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting’,80 leads Maria van Oisterwijk to conclude that finally, the Lord wants his bride to become detached from all earthly desires. Thus, Christ can dwell in her, and she will be able to participate, with him, in eternal life after death. In addition, the Lord expects her to lead all who have strayed to eternal happiness.81 In order for the bride to redeem others, Christ infuses in her the same disposition that he possessed on the cross. He asks her not to fear for herself on this account, and to allow the Father to make her inwardly poor, to empty her of her own will and her own thoughts, and so permit her to feel completely abandoned by 79  The 13th art. CMO corresponds to the 2nd part, 9th art. as well as 10th art. AC. See chap 2, n. 46. 80  The 14th art. CMO corresponds to the 11th and 12th art. AC. See chap 2, n. 46. 81  See: ‘Oh I wish I could bring them all to you in your Kingdom (…). O Father, you have poured this into me, beyond my strength’ (PX6v-X7r).

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him. In this way, she is being prepared to love God, ‘for the sake of God’, and not for the sake of herself or to receive consolation. When the Lord sees that she truly loves God and has surrendered herself as a willing instrument into God’s hands, he will fulfill her redemption. However, he will not do it for her personal salvation alone. The Lord always has in mind the everlasting happiness of all. That is why she should not cling to Christ’s love for her. Otherwise she would again become focused on herself and forget about the salvation of others. Thus, the total misery and desolation in which the Lord places her is to free her from earthly desires. Thus freed, she may be entirely at the service of others, guiding all people to the eternal blessedness of God’s love: Therefore, he wants this faithful bride, whom he has made so pure, as said before, to work with great diligence to guide all people to it, just as Christ has shown us. He wishes her to follow him thus. And just as his heavenly Father requested him to do, she should likewise do. For he descended from the throne of his heavenly Father, in all misery, to direct all lost people back to eternal blessedness. Therefore, he desires that his beloved bride will do the same, miserably deprived as he was of all consolation in himself, but in the service and for the need and salvation of all. Thus must his dear bride also endure. For her part, he leaves her in misery and she can no longer enjoy the Lord according to her desire. What is more, she is not even allowed to think of herself, or to pray for herself. He makes her so inwardly poor, empty and naked in herself that she cannot even know beforehand what she will do, think or say. In fact, he makes her so inwardly empty and naked in herself that she can daily no longer even enjoy or feel God within herself, just as if she did not know God. Nevertheless, she is being comforted completely; she knows well that if she remains faithful to him, she will enjoy him in eternity. (…) When the Lord then has this bride as his best, and there is no longer a barrier between them, he works through this unworthy instrument as he pleases, and as he wills, being conscious of the needs of other people. Indeed, he does not do it for her sake alone. (…) For the Lord knows well that if the bride were to enjoy him in accordance with her desire, she would be excessively drunk. He therefore carries the key of the wine cellar himself and gives her

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to drink as it pleases him. The Lord thus wants his dear bride to remain in herself, in the same misery as his heavenly Father has placed him, namely in aridity and without consolation in himself, yet completely at the service of all people, to show them the straight roads by which they may come to a true resurrection of the flesh, that is to be released from all sensory pleasure (RWE6r-E7v).

Maria van Oisterwijk is aware that for many people, the spiritual way she describes may appear beyond reach. She nevertheless insists that whoever is willing to forego self-concern and endure everything for the love of God, will in short time attain the perfect spiritual life. As we cannot realize this perfection by our own unaided effort, she instructs us to begin with prayer. We are invited to pray to the Lord and petition him to come and live in us and teach us to truly love God. If we have faith in the Lord and if we trust him, he will not disappoint us. After all, the Lord is full of love and compassion for all who want to follow the ‘straight road’ of virtues, and who cannot by their nature succeed in it by themselves. We must not allow ourselves to be discouraged when we have not yet reached what we want to achieve. The Lord will help us. He will also ensure that, through our union with God, we will be able to lead all people to his sheepfold. He will be our shepherd. According to Maria van Oisterwijk, that is beyond doubt. She herself experienced the Lord making her fit for a ‘life in communion with God’, among people, to lead all to God, and to guide them to the heavenly Jerusalem. Summary Maria van Oisterwijk’s spirituality reflects a deeply experienced relationship with God. This relationship, rooted in Christian faith and based on the love between God and the human person, is presented as occurring on two levels. On the first level, namely the journey to God, one is moved to love God after the example of Christ. The second level, the journey ‘from God’ to all human

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beings, concerns a ‘life in communion with God’, i. e. a life united to God that impels one to seek to draw all human beings into God’s love. The two levels are inseparable, and their dynamisms occur simultaneously. The Oisterwijk mystic thus confronts us with the conviction that the perfect love of God can be lived in no other way but in unceasing service to the eternal salvation of all people. At each level, the role of Christ is essential. At the first level of the spiritual life, where God encourages us to a firm belief in the Father’s omnipotence and to a distinct hope of his mercy, the emphasis is on the mediation of Christ. His intervention is also indispensable in the following of Christ’s virtuous life. To follow Christ means that we should pray for his spiritual presence, so that he may accomplish in us the true love relationship with God. Hence, Maria van Oisterwijk recommends that we implore the virtue of obedience to the Lord, that we call on Christ’s help when we fail to be humble and simple as a child, and that we pray for Christ’s grace when our hearts cannot be open to his inner peace. In other words, her spirituality concerns a relational undertaking. This is also reflected in her presentation of the virtue of mercy in which she shows how Christ enables us to participate spiritually in his suffering, death, and burial. This participation is a direct preparation for a true love for the Father and union with God in love. The imitation of Christ’s virtuous life should not be understood in an ascetic sense. Neither can Maria van Oisterwijk’s spirituality be categorized as mere virtue ethics. Her exposition does not concern ethical teachings that stipulate and regulate our concrete, practical behaviour. This is not to suggest, of course, that the spiritual life she describes does not begin and end with an ethically good life. After all, how could we focus the attention of others on God’s love if we ourselves did not love our fellow human beings with God’s love? The emphasis of virtue ethics, however, is on our own efforts. Maria van Oisterwijk’s spirituality, on the other hand, emphasizes God’s dealings in us and Christ’s mediation that allows

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us to surrender ourselves, willingly and out love for God, to God’s action in us. The inner community of life with Christ also plays a central role in the ‘life in communion with God’ that constitutes the second level of the spiritual life. Maria van Oisterwijk here describes first how Christ reveals himself to others, through the bride who is united with him in God’s love. She then elaborates how Christ enables the bride to both orient herself to her fellow human beings and to her union with God’s Trinitarian communion of love. In the third stage of this level, she shows how Christ allows the bride to guide both good and evil people to God while in the fourth stage, Maria van Oisterwijk explains how Christ provides the bride with the insight that all gifts and virtues flow from the Holy Spirit. In the fifth stage, she illustrates how Christ teaches the bride to dedicate all gifts to the Father. The final two stages exemplify how the bride, through Christ, is enabled to gather all people together in Christ’s Church and to lead all people to eternal blessedness with God. Clearly Maria van Oisterwijk’s spirituality is addressed to people who seek to encounter God in love. What is expected in this regard is described ‘stage by stage’ in the first treatise of her first book. When we allow Christ to come alive in us and pray that he will set us free to begin a journey of sincere love for God and our fellow human beings, we will not be deceived. That is the firm belief of Maria van Oisterwijk, and it is to this kind of spiritual life that she wants to encourage us. We cannot pursue the desire to be united with Christ in God’s love and the gift of a ‘life in communion with God’ that originates from it on our own. Yet, both are the touchstone for our authentic life in love for God, in imitation of Christ. A tree, after all, is known by its fruit.

CHAPTER FOUR

Maria van Oisterwijk and the Western Spiritual Tradition Introduction In the final sentences of the treatise ‘The Straight Road’, Maria van Oisterwijk indicates that her writings are based on personal experience. Nevertheless, it is also evident from her works that she drew on a rich tradition of spiritual literature in the West that can be traced back at least as far as the twelfth century. It was then that a new way of speaking about the spiritual life and a renewed insight into the nature of Christian mysticism developed. This renewal began with Bernard of Clairvaux1 and William of St. Thierry,2 who, circa 1128, read and interpreted the Song of Songs in terms of a loving encounter between God and the human soul. In this interpretation, the passionate love of the bridegroom for his bride is an image for the mutual love between God and the individual human being. The new reading of the Song of Songs, which drew on the writings of Origen many centuries before, offered many spiritual and mystical writers after Bernard and William a new image and language for articulating their own spiritual experiences and for explaining them to others.3 1

 Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), who entered the Abbey of Cîteaux in France ca. 1112/3, became the first abbot of Clairvaux, the fourth daughter house of Cîteaux, in 1115. 2  See chap 2, n. 110. 3  Rob Faesen, “What is a Mystical Experience? History and Interpretation,” Louvain Studies 23 (1998), 234-5; Lieve Uyttenhove, “John of Ruusbroec – A Mystical Experience. Toward an Encounter with God,” in Encountering

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The new approach to the spiritual life, understood as a mutual love relationship between God and the human person, reached its peak in the writings of – amongst others – the thirteenth-century mystic Hadewijch, and the fourteenth-century mystic John of Ruusbroec. Thanks to the Cologne Carthusians and the adherents of the Devotio Moderna, who introduced the Middle Dutch mystical literature of the Low Countries to ever-wider circles, the vision of Ruusbroec in particular flourished anew in the sixteenth-century spiritual and mystical literature in the Northern Low Countries and much further afield. Maria van Oisterwijk and her writings may be situated firmly within this Western spiritual and mystical tradition, which cast new light on the inner relationship with God. Compared with the twelfth-century pioneers of the tradition, Maria van Oisterwijk at a cursory glance does not appear to have added anything new in terms of content. However, her approach and the context in which her work was composed bring a new and distinctive tone to the message of her forerunners. The works of precursors such as Bernard of Clairvaux, William of St. Thierry, Hadewijch and Ruusbroec initially circulated primarily among a religious readership. In contrast, Maria van Oisterwijk’s published works, from the very beginning, were spread ‘among the ordinary people’ while also inspiring many religious people, such as Blomevenna, Kalckbrenner, Esschius, and Canisius in their zeal to revivify the spiritual life of the Church. Apart from Bernard of Clairvaux, the Oisterwijk mystic does not mention any twelfth-, thirteenth- or fourteenth-century pioneers by name. There are, however, certain recurring terms and ideas that echo those of William of St. Thierry, Hadewijch and Ruusbroec indirectly. In the sixteenth century, Maria van Oisterwijk and the residents of the Oisterwijk house of virgins were not alone in living the spiritual and mystical life in the spirit of Transcendence. Contributions to a Theology of Christian Religious Experience, ed. Lieven Boeve, Hans Geybels, and Stijn Van den Bossche, Annua Nuntia Lovaniensia, 53 (Leuven: Peeters, 2005), 442.

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their precursors from previous centuries. We can point, for example, to the anonymous writer of The Evangelical Pearl, who in that period was probably acquainted with the circle of Oisterwijk, and who according to recent literature spent time in the St. Agnes Convent in Arnhem, in the Northern Low Countries.4 The dissemination of fourteenth-century spiritual and mystical literature by the Carthusians and the Canons of Windesheim was not limited to the then Low Countries. Thanks again to the movement of the Devotio Moderna, traces of the rich tradition from the Low Countries were also found in Spain. The books by Thomas a Kempis, which were deeply influenced by the Middle Dutch spiritual and mystical authors, entered Spain through the Benedictine monk García Jiménez de Cisneros (1455-1510). In the fifteenth century, Cisneros studied at the University of Paris, where he became familiar with the writings of the Windesheim Canons. Back in Spain, he became the promotor of the Benedictine Reform, and began writing his Exercitatorio de la vida espiritual, a compilation of texts from the Devotio Moderna movement.5 Through Cisneros, ideas from fourteenth- and fifteenth-century spiritual and mystical writings made their way into the works of the Spanish mystics Teresa of Avila6 and John of the Cross.7 Teresa of Avila came to know the works of the followers of the Devotio Moderna through the writings of Francisco de Osuna and other Franciscan writers.8 The traces of the twelfth-century perspective are still visible in the seventeenth century. We may think of the work of Marie Guyart (1599-1672)9 in France, and of Maria Petyt (1623-1677)10 in what was then French Flanders. Closer to our own time, we 4

 See chap 1, nn. 116 and 185.  See chap 1, n. 182. 6  See n. 58 below. 7  See n. 68 below. 8  In her Constitutions, Teresa of Avila expressly stated that each of the monasteries founded by her should have Thomas a Kempis’s Imitatio Christi at their disposal. 9  See n. 79 below. 10  See n. 83 below. 5

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find the twelfth-century perspective – amongst others – in the writings of Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897)11 and of the Jewish philosopher and Christian mystic Edith Stein (1891-1942).12 1. Major Mystical Authors from the Low Countries in the Twelfth to Fourteenth Centuries: William of Saint-Thierry, Hadewijch, John of Ruusbroec William of St. Thierry In her second book, The Paradise, Maria van Oisterwijk mentions that the human being through mystical union ‘by grace becomes what God is by nature’.13 These words hark back to William of St. Thierry’s Letter to the Brothers at Mont Dieu (Epistola ad fratres de Monte Dei), the so-called Golden Epistle.14 However, when sixteenth-century readers encountered this phrase, they probably thought they heard the voice of Bernard of Clairvaux, for up to the twentieth century, several of William of St. Thierry’s spiritual works were attributed to his good friend Bernard.15 The works that circulated under Bernard’s name were also known in spiritual circles in the Low Countries.16 Maria van Oisterwijk may well have come across them through the Carthusians or through

11

 See n. 89 below.  See n. 105 below. 13  See chap 2, n. 110. 14  The Epistola ad fratres de Monte Dei, also called Epistola aurea (Golden Epistle) was for a long time considered the monastic manual par excellence for young conventuals of all orders and religious communities. Paul Verdeyen, “De invloed van Willem van Saint-Thierry op Hadewijch en Ruusbroec,” Ons geestelijk erf 51 (1977), 3. 15  Ibid., 3-4; Paul Verdeyen, La théologie mystique de Guillaume de SaintThierry. Spirituels (Paris: FAC, 1990), 3-4; Paul Verdeyen, Willem van SaintThierry en de liefde. Eerste mysticus van de Lage Landen (Leuven: Davidsfonds, 2001), 7. See also Rob Faesen, “Was Hadewijch a Beguine or a Cistercian? An Annotated Hypothesis,” Cîteaux 55 (2004), 58. 16  Verdeyen, La théologie mystique de Guillaume de Saint-Thierry, 11. 12

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the movement of the Devotio Moderna. And like William, it is evident that Maria van Oisterwijk also knew and was profoundly influenced by the works of St. Augustine.17 It is by now well-known that the mystical theologies of Bernard and William differ in important respects. Given, however, that Maria van Oisterwijk appears to have known William’s works only under their attribution to Bernard, she could not have been aware of this difference. It is therefore perhaps not remarkable that Maria’s thought corresponds more closely to William’s more radical conception of mystical union than Bernard’s, since indeed she would have associated the content of this thought with Bernard. William believed in the absolute mutuality of the love between God and the human being.18 It is this fundamental mutuality which Maria van Oisterwijk describes, but which in fact the true works of Bernard deny,19 holding instead to an understanding of mystical union as a ‘union of the will’ or a ‘unanimity’ in love.20 Hadewijch Although it is impossible to say with any certainty that Maria van Oisterwijk knew the writings of the thirteenth-century mystical author Hadewijch, it is clear that there are points of profound similarity in their works. Given that Hadewijch’s works were not widely circulated,21 however, it is perhaps not likely that Maria van  See Gvillelmi a Sancto Theodorico Opera omnia, 3, De contemplando Deo & Epistola ad Fratres de Monte Dei, ed. Paul Verdeyen, CCCM, 88 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2003), 958-62, where William of Saint-Thierry almost literally adopts a passage from Augustine’s De trinitate VI, X, 11. 18  With respect to William’s view, see Verdeyen, La théologie mystique de Guillaume de Saint-Thierry, 98. For the difference between William and Bernard, see ibid., 71-8. See also Verdeyen, Willem van Saint-Thierry en de liefde, 91-3. 19  Verdeyen, La théologie mystique de Guillaume de Saint-Thierry, 73-4. 20  Bernard, Sermo 71, 220-1 (PL 183, 1125D-6B). 21  Thom Mertens, “Mystieke cultuur en literatuur in de late middeleeuwen,” in Grote lijnen. Syntheses over Middelnederlandse letterkunde, ed. Frits van Oostrom, J. Goossens, Paul Wackers, e. a. Nederlandse literatuur en cultuur in de Middeleeuwen, 11 (Amsterdam: Prometheus, 1995), 129-30. 17

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Oisterwijk knew them directly. It has been amply demonstrated that Hadewijch was one of John of Ruusbroec’s most important theological sources, and her influence on Maria van Oisterwijk may thus have been indirect. Like Hadewijch, Maria dared to develop a spirituality with a strong experiential character – a spirituality which can be confirmed by the Gospel.22 Hadewijch herself was likewise deeply influenced by William of St. Thierry, though of course again most likely only under Bernard’s name.23 Interestingly, Hadewijch’s love mysticism is also built on a mutual love between ‘equals’, an idea retrieved in the fourteenth century by Ruusbroec. For both Ruusbroec and Hadewijch, ‘mutuality’ was identical with William’s enlightened belief that the human being, on the level of love, ‘by grace becomes what God is by nature’. Another possible medium for Hadewijch’s influence on Maria van Oisterwijk was once again the Devotio Moderna – through the work of Godfrey (Godfried) of Wevel for example, who was himself inspired by Hadewijch.24 Following his time in Groenendaal and on the advice of Geert Groote, Godfrey of Wevel founded the 22  See RWF2r. See also Albert Deblaere, “La littérature mystique au Moyen Âge,” in Albert Deblaere. Essays on Mystical Literature, ed. Rob Faesen, Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium, 177 (Leuven: Leuven University Press/Peeters, 2004), 296. 23  In her Eighteenth Letter, Hadewijch adopts a passage from William’s De natura et dignitate amoris. Jozef Van Mierlo, “Hadewijch en Wilhelm van St. Thierry,” Ons geestelijk erf 3 (1929), 50-5; Paul Mommaers with Elisabeth Dutton, Hadewijch: Writer, Beguine, Love Mystic (Leuven: Peeters, 2004), 64-71; Rob Faesen, Begeerte in het werk van Hadewijch, Antwerpse Studies over Nederlandse Literatuurgeschiedenis, 4 (Leuven: Peeters, 2000), 65, n. 3; 66; Rob Faesen, Lichaam in lichaam, ziel in ziel. Christusbeleving bij Hadewijch en haar tijdgenoten (Ghent: Carmelitana; Baarn: Ten Have, 2003), 37; Hanneke ArtsHonselaar, “Ende dat manen es eweleke euen nuwe …: Eenheid en drieheid in de Brieven van Hadewijch van Brabant,” (PhD Diss., Nijmegen, 2006), 19, n. 39; 97, 104, 288. Concerning William’s influence on Hadewijch, see also Stephanus Axters, Geschiedenis van de vroomheid in de Nederlanden I: De vroomheid tot rond het jaar 1300 (Antwerp: De Sikkel, 1950), 375; B. Spaapen, “Hebben onze 13de-eeuwse mystieken iets gemeen met de Broeders en Zusters van de Vrije Geest?” Ons geestelijk erf 40 (1966), 382-3. 24  Godfrey of Wevel (ca. 1310-1396) was a disciple of Ruusbroec.

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first Congregation of Windesheim. His treatise, The Twelve Virtues (Van den XII doechden), translated into Latin by Groote, enjoyed great popularity in the circles of the Devotio Moderna, perhaps because the tradition initially attributed it to Ruusbroec. Maria van Oisterwijk could also have come across Godfrey’s work through the Carthusians, since a copy of The Twelve Virtues was available at the St. Barbara Charterhouse in Cologne in the second half of the fifteenth century. In addition, the Oisterwijk mystic might have known Hadewijch’s ideas through the work of the Windesheim canon Henry (Hendrik) Mande,25 a great admirer of Hadewijch (and Ruusbroec). His treatise A Pious Little Book on the Perfect Dignity of Love (Een devoet boecxken vander volmaecster hoecheit der minnen) may be considered a paraphrase of many of Hadewijch’s Letters.26 John of Ruusbroec It should be indisputable to claim that we ‘encounter’ the fourteenth-century Brabantine mystic John of Ruusbroec in Maria van Oisterwijk’s work – although not by name. In the first instance, there are strong links between the works of both in terms of structure.27 Second, as indicated in several footnotes, there are many expressions and ideas which, it would seem, the Oisterwijk mystic adopted from Ruusbroec.28 25

 Henry Mande (ca. 1360-1431), in the 19th century, was honoured with the title ‘Ruusbroec of the North’. Due to the influence of Geert Groote’s preaching, he entered the Monastery of Windesheim.Mande took over multiple sections of texts from several treatises of Ruusbroec, with slight modifications. Guido De Baere, “De Middelnederlandse mystieke literatuur en de Moderne Devotie,” Trajecta 6 (1997), 11. 26  Ibid., 12. Mande, however, softened Hadewijch’s statements on the experience of mystical union. He replaced the expression ‘union with God’ with ‘unanimity with God’s will’. Ibid., 13. See also Jozef Van Mierlo, “Eene paraphrase van de brieven van Hadewijch door Hendrik Mande,” Dietsche Warande en Belfort (1909), 293-316. 27  Cf. chap 2, n. 45. 28  See for example chap 3, nn. 13, 20, 41, 51, 56, 58, 71 and 72.

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In support of this claim, it is of primary importance that Maria van Oisterwijk’s understanding of mystical union reflects Ruusbroec’s convictions on this point. Like Ruusbroec, she believes that the human being, who with Christ is united in God’s love, ‘sits there at the right hand of her Father almighty. That is the Three in One’.29 This Trinitarian description of the mystical life corresponds to Ruusbroec’s conception. He too understands union with God as a spiritual participation in the love of the Father and of the Son, who are One in the Holy Spirit.30 Although mystical union with God occupies a key position in both Ruusbroec’s and Maria van Oisterwijk’s writings, the two authors do not share exactly the same intentions in their writings. Ruusbroec tried to fix the attention of his readers on the completeness and the authenticity of an experience of Christian mystical union.31 The letters  Cf. chap 3, 2, p. 118-9, passage RWE2r-E2v.  See Jan van Ruusbroec, The Spiritual Espousals (Die geestelike brulocht), ed. J. Alaerts, Opera omnia, 3; Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio Mediaevalis, 103 (Tielt: Lannoo; Turnhout: Brepols, 1988), c183-92; A Mirror of Eternal Blessedness (Een spieghel der eeuwigher salicheit), ed. G. De Baere, Opera omnia, 8; Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio Mediaevalis, 108 (Tielt: Lannoo; Turnhout: Brepols, 2001), 1981-4; The Seven Rungs (Van seven trappen), ed. R. Faesen, Opera omnia, 9; Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio Mediaevalis, 109 (Tielt: Lannoo; Turnhout: Brepols, 2003), 1080-3, 1089-92, 1103-7; Little Book of Explanation (Boecsken der verclaringhe), trans. Phayre Crowley and Helen Rolfson, in The Complete Ruusbroec: English Translation with the Original Middle Dutch Text, eds. Guido de Baere and Thom Mertens, Corpus Christianorum Scholars version, Vol. I (Turnhout: Brepols, 2014), 328-30; The Twelve Beguines (Vanden XII beghinen). Text and Apparatus, ed. M. M. Kors, Opera omnia, 7A; Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio Mediaevalis, 107A (Tielt: Lannoo; Turnhout: Brepols, 2000), 2c, 1233-5. See also Lieve Uyttenhove, Embraced by the Father and the Son in the Unity of the Holy Spirit. A Study of the Trinity and the Mystical Life in the Works of Jan van Ruusbroec, Annua Nuntia Lovaniensia, 65 (Leuven: Peeters, 2012), 178-93, 239, n. 1, 251-61, 298-300; Lieve Uyttenhove, “Ruusbroec as a Theologian: The Holy Spirit,” in A Companion to John of Ruusbroec, ed. John Arblaster and Rob Faesen, Brill’s Companions to the Christian Tradition, 51 (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2014), 196-201. 31  Johan Bonny, “Het ‘ghemeyne leven’ in de werken van Jan van Ruusbroec,” (unpub. PhD Diss., Rome: Pontificia Universitas Gregoriana, 1988), 451. 29 30

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and treatises of Maria van Oisterwijk, on the other hand, endeavoured to show that, due to her mystical participation in God’s love, she obtained a new and broader conception of the spiritual life. And it was this new understanding that she sought to share with her spiritual companions and contemporaries. Maria van Oisterwijk is especially indebted to Ruusbroec in her presentation of ‘life in communion with God’.32 Like Ruusbroec, she argues that life in communion with God comprises three aspects at once: the imitation of Christ’s inner attitude towards the Father, the experience of being united with Christ in God’s communion of love, and participation in Christ’s desire to save all human beings. From within her personal experience of being united with Christ in God’s love, Maria van Oisterwijk cannot but orient herself to the love of God and love for her fellow human beings at the same time. Moreover, she understands this form of spiritual life to be a participation in God’s eternal Trinitarian life.33 In this she is again aligned with Ruusbroec, who believes that life in communion with God is ‘withdrawn in the eternal rhythm of the divine Persons’.34 This means that the human being who lives ‘in communion with God’ participates in the eternal outflowing of the three Persons and in their eternal flowing-back into the Unity, without, however, losing the eternal union – together with the Father and the Son – in the unity of love of the Holy spirit.35  The Dutch expression ghemeine leven (in English: ‘life in communion with God’) was first used by Ruusbroec. The phrase was already in use before in the Western spiritual tradition, in a spiritual-mystical context, but not in the specific mode and with the specific meaning with which Ruusbroec uses it. See Bonny, “Het ‘ghemeyne leven’ in de werken van Jan van Ruusbroec,” 451. See also Rob Faesen, Jan van Ruusbroec. Contemplatief theoloog in een moeilijke tijd (Kampen: Kok, 2007), 67. 33  Cf. quotation in main text and n. 29 above. 34  Bonny, “Het ‘ghemeyne leven’ in de werken van Jan van Ruusbroec,” 453. 35  Cf. Jan van Ruusbroec, The Realm of Lovers (Dat rijcke der ghelieven), ed. J. Alaerts, Opera omnia, 4; Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio Mediaevalis, 104 (Tielt: Lannoo; Turnhout: Brepols, 2002), 2611-35; The Seven Rungs, 1078-80. See also Uyttenhove, Embraced by the Father and the Son in the Unity of the Holy 32

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2. Acquainted with the Tradition through the Devotia Moderna? We have repeated several times that Maria van Oisterwijk’s contact with the twelfth-century approach in the Western mystical tradition probably came through the movement of the Devotio Moderna. It comes as no surprise then that her treatises should exhibit agreement with the authors of this movement. Maria indeed follows in Geert Groote’s footsteps, observing the inner community of life with Christ as the centre of her spiritual life. As pointed out earlier, however, Maria did not entirely take over Groote’s understanding of the ‘life in communion with God’ (ghemeine leven).36 Groote, as we saw, simplified Ruusbroec’s threefold description of the life in communion with God, ‘going out to the human being’, ‘going in into God’, and ‘resting in God’, to two aspects: ‘going out’ and ‘going in’. In his care not to sound heterodox, Groote guarded himself from associating the life in communion with God with mystical union or ‘resting in God’.37 It is exactly this aspect that links Maria van Oisterwijk to Ruusbroec rather than to Groote. Indeed, according to Ruusbroec, without mystical union, life in communion with God is out of the question.38 In keeping with this claim, the writings of the Oisterwijk mystic illustrate that her transformation to life in communion with God flows from the experience of her union in love with God. Spirit, 133-47; Uyttenhove, “Overgave in het godscouwende leven. Jan van Ruusbroec in Vanden blinkenden steen,”, and “Over levensgemeenschap met Christus,” in In goddelijke liefde geborgen, ed. Lieve Uyttenhove, Piet Nijs, and Kathleen Meyers. Pareltjes van Nederlandse en Rijnlandse mystiek, 5 (Leuven: Peeters, 2012), 43-53, 61-3. 36  Cf. chap 1, n. 108. 37  Guido De Baere, “Het ‘ghemeine leven’ bij Ruusbroec en Geert Grote,” in De Letter Levend Maken. Opstellen aangeboden aan Guido De Baere sj bij zijn zeventigste verjaardag, ed. Kees Schepers and Frans Hendrickx, Miscellanea Neerlandica, 39 (Leuven: Peeters, 2010), 45. 38  Cf. Bonny, “Het ‘ghemeyne leven’ in de werken van Jan van Ruusbroec,” 453.

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It was not only in his writings that Groote attempted to avoid claims about mystical union with God. His personal life was also marked by a constant tension between mysticism and asceticism. Indeed, Groote’s life was dominated by a consciousness of sin. Unlike Ruusbroec (and Maria van Oisterwijk), he could not surrender himself to God’s mercy and experience being overwhelmed by God’s love.39 In fact, the Devotio Moderna, which was founded by Groote and inspired primarily by his ideas, was not strictly speaking a mystical movement, though there were several gifted mystical authors who articulated their mystical experience in the Chapter of Windesheim, which was founded within the movement.40 The initial mystical culture inspired by Groenendaal in the Devotio Moderna was, however, slowly transformed into a Windesheim monastic culture with a slight leaning towards mysticism.41 It may thus be said that the writings of the Windesheim canons were ‘mystical-like’ rather than properly ‘mystical’.42 3. Sixteenth-Century Revival of the Tradition Maria van Oisterwijk and the residents of the Oisterwijk house of virgins were not alone in following Ruusbroec. The anonymous author of The Evangelical Pearl and The Temple of Our Soul also appears to have lived and to have written in Ruusbroec’s spirit.43 39  Maria van Oisterwijk followed in Ruusbroec’s footsteps in this regard. Although Ruusbroec does denounce both heresy and corruption and abuses in the Church, his works primarily testify to the abundance of God’s overflowing love. Cf. De Baere, “De Middelnederlandse mystieke literatuur en de Moderne Devotie,” 8-9. 40  Ibid., 16-7. 41  Mertens, “Mystieke cultuur en literatuur in de late middeleeuwen,” 132. 42  Ibid., 117. The works of the Windesheim Canons often did not describe the ‘fullness of mysticism’ and the highest expressions of mysticism are rarely to be found in their works. Ibid., 123. 43  Paul Verdeyen, Ruusbroec and His Mysticism, trans. André Lefevere (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1994), 95. With respect to the Pearl author, see chap 1, n. 50. See also L. Reypens and J. Huyben, “Nog een vergeten mystieke grootheid,” Ons geestelijk erf 2 (1928), 305-8. In one place, the Pearl author

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Esschius, in his introduction to The Evangelical Pearl (1542) tells us that the author lived in her father’s house and died in 1540 at the age of seventy seven.44 One strand of scholarship holds that this anonymous author was an important source for Maria van Oisterwijk.45 Conversely, another viewpoint maintains that it was the Oisterwijk mystic who inspired the anonymous writer.46 As mentions the Brabantine mystic by name. It is thus evident from her writings that she was familiar with his mystical doctrine, terminology and imagery. In one place, the author even quotes Ruusbroec literally. Ibid., 311, 386-7. See also Stephanus G. Axters, Geschiedenis van de vroomheid in de Nederlanden, III: De moderne devotie 1380-1550 (Antwerp: De Sikkel, 1956), 387-8. 44  Johann Baptist Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” Annalen des historischen Vereins für den Niederrhein, insbesondere das alte Erzbistum Köln 114 (1929), 28; Gods tempel zijn wij. Door de schrijfster van de Evangelische peerle. Een liturgiebeleving uit de XVIde eeuw, Mystieke teksten met commentaar, 3 (Bonheiden: Abdij Bethlehem, 1980), 9. See also Kees Schepers, “Het verborgen leven van de zusters Agnieten. Mystieke cultuur te Arnhem in de zestiende eeuw,” Ons geestelijk erf 79 (2008), 298; Kees Schepers, “Wat zeggen de vroegste edities over de auteur van Die evangelische peerle?” Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse taal- en letterkunde 129 (2013), 44-5; Hans Kienhorst, “Mystiek op schrift in vrouwenkloosters uit de traditie van de Moderne Devotie. Een oriënterende vergelijking van drie collecties: Arnhem, Geldern en Maaseik,” Ons geestelijk erf 81 (2010), 49-50. De tempel van onze ziel. Door de anonieme auteur van de Evangelische Peerle. Herziene vertaling door Jos Alaerts en Rob Faesen. Bronnen van Spiritualiteit (Averbode: Altiora, 2014), 17, mentions, however, that Esschius’ biographical data of the Pearl-author are historically uncertain. A statement by Garnefeld in the Vita S. Beggae, dvcissae Brabantiae Andetennensivm, Begginarvm, et Beggardorvm fvndatricis, ed. Josephus Geldolphus a Ryckel (Leuven: Coenesteyn, 1631), 278, that the anonymous virgin was still alive in 1445 and was 70 years old at that time, is wrong. In any case, the year 1445 is incorrect, since 1545 would have been the correct year. Reypens and Huyben, “Nog een vergeten mystieke grootheid,” 197, 210; Willibrord Lampen, “Maria van Oisterwijk,” Brabantia 8 (1959), 40. 45  Jozef Van Mierlo, Beknopte geschiedenis van de Oud- en Middelnederlandsche letterkunde, 4e bijgewerkte en verbeterde druk (Antwerp: Standaard-Boekhandel, 1942), 211-2. Maria van Oisterwijk may have considered the Pearl author to be her spiritual mother. Cf. 14th letter entitled: ‘To my dear mother in God’ (RWQ5r). 46  Gods tempel zijn wij, 10.

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already noted, scholars long-believed that the fifteenth letter in The Straight Road was not written by Maria van Oisterwijk,47 but was received by her from a spiritual sister – most likely the Pearl author since the said letter is closely related to the sixteenth chapter of The Evangelical Pearl.48 In addition, one cannot avoid seeing other textual links that would support the notion of a certain dependency between the two authors, whatever its direction: the The Evangelical Pearl and ‘The Straight Road’ open with the same words.49 Moreover, Maria van Oisterwijk and the Pearl author agree in their view of the spiritual life, given that each describes a fundamental and comprehensive relationship with Christ.50 The literary and spiritual similarity between both authors seems to suggest that the Pearl author lived in close proximity to the Oisterwijk house of virgins. This does not mean that she lived in the house of virgins itself or even in Oisterwijk.51 For a long time, there was a consensus in the literature that Oisterwijk was the Pearl author’s place of origin.52 Gradually, however, scholars concluded that the Oisterwijk circle of virgins had no direct contact with the Pearl author. Kalckbrenner may have handed The Evangelical Pearl to the Oisterwijk virgins53 or they may have known

47

 Cf. chap 2, n. 84.  Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 28-9. See also Gods tempel zijn wij, 14-5. 49  Reypens and Huyben, “Nog een vergeten mystieke grootheid,” 388. Lampen, “Maria van Oisterwijk,” 40. See also De tempel van onze ziel, 17-8. 50  Gods tempel zijn wij, 22. 51  Kettenmeyer, “Maria von Oisterwijk (†1547) und die Kölner Kartause,” 28. Esschius’ mention of the anonymous author’s stay at the house of her father does not rule out the possibility that she moved to the house of virgins at an older age. Reypens and Huyben, “Nog een vergeten mystieke grootheid,” 210-1. 52  Reypens and Huyben, “Nog een vergeten mystieke grootheid,” 212-3. 53  Albert Ampe, “Kanttekeningen bij de ‘Evangelische Peerle’,” Ons geestelijk erf 40 (1966), 288. From the words ‘our son’ in Maria van Oisterwijk’s 14th letter, it might be gathered that both the ‘spiritual mother’ and the Oisterwijk mystic had one and the same person as spiritual son (Kalckbrenner?). 48

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the Pearl writings through Esschius54 or Canisius.55 These possibilities gave rise to suggestions by recent scholars that the Pearl author did not live in Oisterwijk but in Arnhem.56 This would mean the author belonged to the Convent of St. Agnes, which, in the sixteenth century was a leading centre of the mystical renaissance in the Northern Low Countries.57  Reypens and Huyben have proposed that the Pearl author had no contact with the Cologne Carthusians and that the Pearl manuscript was presented to the Carthusians by Esschius himself. Cf. Reypens and Huyben, “Nog een vergeten mystieke grootheid,” 61, 196, 198, 200. The Pearl author would thus have had a closer relationship with Esschius than with the Carthusians, and Esschius would have assimilated the teachings of the Evangelical Pearl the most and contributed most to its circulation. Ibid., 367-8. 55  It is possible that Canisius met the anonymous author in person as well. After all, he found the inspiration for his spiritual life in various places in the Low Countries. Cf. chap 1, main text along with n. 53. 56  In this sense, Paul Begheyn suggests that the anonymous author might have been a great aunt of Canisius (probably with the real name Reinalda van Eymeren), who was a religious in the St. Agnes convent in Arnhem during the life of Maria van Oisterwijk. P. J. Begheyn, “Is Reinalda van Eymeren, zuster in het St.-Agnietenklooster te Arnhem, en oudtante van Petrus Canisius, de schrijfster der ‘Evangelische Peerle’?” Ons geestelijk erf 45 (1971), 339-75, and P. J. Begheyn, “Nieuwe gegevens betreffende de ‘Evangelische Peerle’,” Ons geestelijk erf 58 (1984), 30-1. The identification with Canisius’ great aunt, however, has found no echo in the literature. Gods tempel zijn wij, 16; Schepers, “Het verborgen leven van de zusters Agnieten,” 298; Schepers, “Wat zeggen de vroegste edities over de auteur van Die evangelische peerle?” 26-7. The Arnhemhypothesis itself is supported by the extant manuscripts, as the only Pearl manuscript that contains part of the text originated from the St. Agnes convent in Arnhem. See Schepers, “Het verborgen leven van de zusters Agnieten,” 298; See also Kees Schepers en Ineke Cornet, “The Arnhem Mystical Sermons in context,” Ons geestelijk erf 81 (2010), 5. 57  Cf. chap 1, nn. 116 and 185, and n. 4 above. From Esschius’ words it can be gathered that the Pearl author did not live in a convent. Early 20th-century secondary literature likewise suggests that she lived in the world as a ‘spiritual daughter’. Passages in which the anonymous author speaks about a convent garment and a monastic rule and profession would not have applied to her. She probably addressed an audience of the modern devout who both lived in convents and in the world. Reypens and Huyben, “Nog een vergeten mystieke grootheid,” 54

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4. Continued Effect in Sixteenth-Century Spain Teresa of Avila We also find the central insights of the spiritual and mystical literature of the Devotio Moderna further afield, in the works of the Spanish mystic Teresa of Avila.58 In many respects, Teresa’s writings echo Maria van Oisterwijk’s spiritual treatises. Like Maria’s ‘virtuous life in imitation of Christ’, Teresa’s ‘way of perfection’ is not to be understood in an ascetic or moralistic sense.59 In Teresa’s works, ‘perfection’ is likewise associated with loving surrender to God and to God’s will.60 Her understanding of considering oneself as ‘nothing’ (nada) – a fundamental disposition in

200-23. See also Siebe Thissen, “‘Tegen die verdoolde blinde lutherse menschen’. Oisterwijkse mystici tussen orthodoxie en ketterij (1500-1550),” De Kleine Meijerij 42 (1991), 88-9, who believes that the Pearl author was an ‘outside’ virgin of the house of virgins, who had close contact with the residents of the house. See Gods tempel zijn wij, 16. 58  The mystical writer Teresa of Avila (born Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada) was involved in the 16th-century reform of the Carmelite Order from the very beginning. She was canonized by Pope Gregory XV in 1622 and proclaimed Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI in 1970. In popular speech, she is often called ‘major Teresa’, compared to the ‘minor Teresa’, St. Thérèse of Lisieux. Teresa of Avila might have become familiar with the mystical spirituality of the Low Countries owing to Herp’s Latin translation of Ruusbroec’s Spiritual Espousals, among others. 59  Teresa van Avila, Het boek van mijn leven. Vertaald door Carlos Noyen. Inleiding door Elisabeth Peeters en Ulrich Dobhan (Ghent: Carmelitana; Heule: Verraes, 2009), 79, n. 1. See also ibid., 456. This also applies, for example, to her understanding of ‘patience’, which according to Teresa is a gift of God, and not a result of one’s (ascetic) efforts. See Teresa of Avila, The Book of Her Life, trans., with notes, by Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez. Introduction by Jodi Bilinkoff (Indianapolis, IN; Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 20082), chap 5, 8; chap 6, 2. With respect to ‘perfection’, the Spanish mystic also asserts that it is gifted by God. ‘Perfection’ to Teresa concerns the ‘union with God’ that one receives along the way of inner prayer. See ibid., chap 21, 8. 60  This theme is present in numerous places in Teresa’s autobiography. See for instance Teresa of Avila, The Book of Her Life, chap 6, 2 and 9; chap 3, 3-4.

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her spirituality61 – seamlessly follows the Oisterwijk virgin’s notion of annihilation. Therefore, like Maria van Oisterwijk’s ‘poverty of spirit’, Teresa’s image of being nada must be considered in the light of Teresa’s understanding of being humble before God.62 Teresa’s view of ‘union with God’ is also explained in terms of love.63 Like Maria van Oisterwijk, she interprets it as a ‘mutual’ relation of love between God and the human being.64 This interpretation corresponds with Ruusbroec’s understanding of the union with God. In her descriptions, Teresa too emphasizes an experience bestowed by God65 that cannot be effected by human effort.66

 Teresa van Avila, Het boek van mijn leven, 451.  Teresa’s humility alludes to one acknowledging his or her own spiritual poverty and trusting that all things can be done ‘in God’ (Phil. 4.13). She therefore recommends: ‘Let humility always go first so as to understand that this strength does not come from ourselves’, Teresa of Avila, The Book of Her Life, chap 13, 3. See also: ‘And it is very certain that while we see more clearly that we are rich, over and above knowing that we are poor, more benefit comes to us, and even more authentic humility’. Ibid., chap 10, 4. Teresa constantly tries to awaken attention to God’s work in the human being, and to call to mind a person’s confidence in God’s goodness. See ibid., chap 19, 13-15; chap 21, 9 and 11: ‘I understood well that these effects [in her soul which made the evil in her disappear] didn’t come from me, nor did I gain them through my diligence, for there wasn’t even time for that. his Majesty solely out of his goodness had given me fortitude for them’. See also ibid., chap 1, 8; chap 2, 6 and 8; chap 22, 1. Incidentally, as with the virtue of obedience, Teresa believes ‘humility’ concerns breaking loose of earthly things through ‘love of God’. See ibid., chap 11, 2. 63  In line with Maria van Oisterwijk, Teresa did not doubt that she experienced union with God. See Teresa of Avila, The Book of Her Life, chap 4, 7; chap 17, 3; chap 18, 3, 7 and 14. 64  See ibid., chap 12, 3; chap 6, 9. 65  See ibid., chap 14, 2 and 8. See also Teresa van Avila, Het boek van mijn leven, 445. Finally, see Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle, translation by Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez. Introduction by Kieran Kavanaugh. Preface by Raimundo Panikkar (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1979), 1st Dw. Pl., chap 1, 1. 66  Teresa van Avila, Het boek van mijn leven, 445-6. See also Teresa of Avila, The Book of Her Life, chap 10, 1. 61

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Finally, in a manner analogous to Maria van Oisterwijk’s commitment to the salvation of her fellow human beings, the Spanish mystic attends also to the ‘active’ aspect of the spiritual life, believing that love of neighbour is the fruit of a life in union with God.67 John of the Cross The tradition in which Maria van Oisterwijk lived and wrote is also encountered in the works of John of the Cross.68 John was Teresa of Avila’s spiritual companion and her greatest support in her Carmelite reform effort. Like Teresa, John expressed the belief that the spiritual life arises in a person’s inmost self – the place where one truly experiences a personal relationship with God.69 In keeping with the tradition of Ruusbroec, Maria van Oisterwijk, and Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross does not emphasize the individual’s own pursuit of perfection; rather the emphasis is on the action of God in the soul and God’s desire to elevate the soul to a perfect loving relationship with God.70 The recurring insight into the inner journey, revealed in the works of John of the Cross is precisely that it is through God’s power that one sets out  Practical charity for Teresa of Avila is the touchstone of an authentic experience of God’s presence. See Teresa van Avila, Innerlijke Burcht en Gewetensbrieven. Vertaald door Carlos Noyen. (Bruges: Walleyn; Ghent: Carmelitana, 2007), 258, n. 11. See also Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle, 7th Dw. Pl., chap 4, 6-7. Finally, see ibid., 5th Dw. Pl., chap 3, 9, as well as chap 3, 1 and 2. 68  John of the Cross (born Juan de Yepes) entered the Carmelites in the Santa Ana Convent in Avila, in 1563. He accompanied Teresa of Avila in the foundation of new Carmelite Convents in the south of Spain. He was canonized in 1726 and proclaimed Doctor of the Church by Pius VI in 1926. 69  Cf. The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, translated from the critical edition of P. Silverio de Santa Teresa, and edited by E. Allison Peers, vol. II, Spiritual Canticle; Poems (London: Burns Oates, 1943), St. 1, 6; St. 6, 5-6. 70  John of the Cross, Selected Writings, ed. and introduced by Kieran Kavanaugh. Preface by Ernest E. Larkin, The Classics of Western Spirituality (New York, NY; Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1987), The Dark Night, Book One, chap 11, 3. See also ibid., chap 13, 1-3 and 11. 67

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on the journey to find God.71 John of the Cross believes that the human person is encouraged to imitate Christ by God (in the Person of Jesus Christ),72 that God enables the soul to be humble,73 that God places the soul on the road of annihilation and teaches the soul how to love God.74 John’s agreement with Teresa of Avila and with Maria van Oisterwijk is also clear from his thinking about asceticism, which we must understand in the light of God’s ‘act of redemption’.75 This insight applies equally to John’s concept of the ‘suffering of the night’, in which the emphasis again is on God’s action in the human being.76 Finally, there is John of the Cross’s description of the union (communion) with God which, for him, just like for Maria van Oisterwijk and Teresa of Avila, means that the human being is united with God ‘in love’.77 Moreover, the works of John of the Cross do not call primarily to our active pursuit of this union. In harmony with both Maria and Teresa, John has in mind an inner remaining with God or the ‘silence of the heart’. According to him, the longing for union with God is stirred up by God,78 and on the way to that union every initiative comes from God.

71  The Dark Night, Book One, St. 1, Commentary, chap 1, 1-2, and Book One, chap 1, 1. 72  John of the Cross, Selected Writings, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book Two, chap 7, 4-5, and, 7-8. 73  Spiritual Canticle, St. 1, 15. 74  The Ascent of Mount Carmel, II, chap 7, 5. And, again, The Dark Night, Book One, chap 1, 1. 75  What is at stake is not asceticism as such, but rather a new attitude that entails a passionate desire to love God. Through ‘asceticism’, a human person is being inwardly prepared by God no longer to search for him- or herself, but instead to seek God ‘for God’s sake’. See The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book Two, chap 7, 5. 76  The Dark Night, Book One, chap 10, 1-6. See also ibid., St. 1, Commentary. The ‘night’, therefore, is positive and is to be conceived as a divine guide on the way to union in love with God. 77  Spiritual Canticle, St. 1, 6. 78  Ibid., St. 2, 2, and The Dark Night, Book One, chap 11, 1.

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5. Traces in the Following Centuries up to the Present Day Marie Guyart The twelfth-century approach to the spiritual and mystical life with its emphasis on the love-relationship between God and the human being was carried forward in the seventeenth-century writings of Marie Guyart, known in religion as Maria of the Incarnation (Marie de l’Incarnation).79 The French mystic was most probably introduced to the tradition through the Introduction to the Devout Life (Introduction à la Vie dévote) written by Francis de Sales,80 whose own works in turn are indebted to The Evangelical Pearl. The Pearl was translated into Latin in the sixteenth century and into French at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The influence of the Pearl on the development of spiritual and mystical literature in the sixteenth and the seventeenth century can hardly be overestimated.81 The spirituality of Marie Guyart exhibits many parallels with that of Maria van Oisterwijk. Like Maria van Oisterwijk, she experienced the spiritual life as an inner love relationship with God, 79  After first being married and becoming a mother, Marie de l’Incarnation (born Marie Guyart, 1599-1672) entered the monastery of the Ursuline nuns in Tours in 1631, a few years after her husband’s death. In 1639, she departed for New France to dedicate her life to the conversion and education of the First Nations. 80  Marie Guyart probably knew François de Sales (1567-1622), then Bishop of Geneva and Annecy. This leads us to suspect that she had read his book at the time she was a young widow. With the bishop and mystic, she shared the optimism of a ‘pious humanism’. Het mystieke leven van Marie Guyart (Marie de l’Incarnation O.S.U.). Autobiografisch relaas van 1654. Ingeleid en vertaald door Jos Alaerts, Bronnen van Spiritualiteit (Averbode: Altiora, 2008), 10-1. 81  The anonymous work by the Pearl author also influenced Peter (Pièrre) de Bérulle, who with the help of his cousin, Madame Barbe Acarie (1566-1618) introduced the Discalced Carmelite nuns into France in 1604. Het mystieke leven van Marie Guyart, 11. Madame Acarie, who in 1615 became a lay sister of the Carmelite Order, about fifteen years before Marie Guyart, also chose the religious name Marie de l’Incarnation (Maria of the Incarnation).

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while the familiar spiritual topics of annihilation and total surrender to God appear frequently in her works. For Marie Guyart, God is the ‘protagonist’ of the spiritual life as well. Moreover, like Maria van Oisterwijk and the Middle Dutch mystical authors, she describes her mystical experience as a participation in the love communion of the divine Persons.82 Finally, her use of Song of Songs terminology and metaphors would seem implicitly to make Marie Guyart a spiritual descendant of Bernard of Clairvaux and William of St. Thierry. Maria Petyt The sixteenth-century revival of the spiritual and mystical literature of the Low Countries as shown in Maria van Oisterwijk’s works also continued in the work of Maria Petyt.83 Under the influence of Benedict of Canfield, Maria Petyt’s early spirituality could be said to have exhibited a rather individualistic character, focused as it was on personal perfection.84 In time she experienced  Het mystieke leven van Marie Guyart, 13.  Maria a Sancta Teresia (born Maria Petyt, 1623-1677) made her profession according to the Third Rule of the Carmel around the age of eighteen. When her spiritual director Michael a s. Augustino, Provincial of the Fathers Carmelites of the then Dutch Province, moved to Mechelen in 1657, she followed him and began to live there as a recluse. 84  Later, Maria Petyt distanced herself from Canfield’s teaching even if Canfield seemed to be inspired by the Evangelical Pearl. Should we conclude from this that he had not understood the Pearl very well? Perhaps. In any case, Maria Petyt’s doctrine of annihilation, which is at the heart of her writings, does not agree in substance with Canfield’s understanding of this notion. Indeed, by annihilation he meant the uniformity of the human will with the divine will. His teaching, therefore, seemed to be a kind of ‘doctrine of perfection of the self’, running counter to ‘true’ annihilation, which according to 17th-century mystics is performed in a ‘passive’ mode or ‘under God’s guidance’. Lieve Uyttenhove, “De relevantie van Maria Petyt voor het hedendaagse godsdienstonderwijs. Van meditatief gebed tot mystiek gebedsleven gericht op Christus,” in Als gist in het deeg. Uitdagende stemmen voor geloofscommunicatie en levensbeschouwelijke reflectie in het godsdienstonderwijs, ed. Didier Pollefeyt, Hans Debel, and Anthony Dupont. Nikè-reeks, 58 (Leuven: Acco, 2011), 212. 82 83

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herself being redeemed by God from this individual striving. As with Maria van Oisterwijk, Maria Petyt’s life was thus transformed from one of ascetic and penitential service to God into a spiritual life lived in a loving relationship with God. Like the former, the latter too regarded her new apostolic orientation as flowing from this relationship; it was the fruit of an unconditional surrender to God’s initiative in the ground of her being.85 The description of Maria Petyt’s life in union with God indicates that this mystic from French Flanders was simultaneously influenced by the Spanish mystics Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross86 on the one hand, and on the other by the thirteenth- and fourteenth-century spiritual and mystical writings of the Low Countries. Furthermore, in her writings that describe her journey to a genuine love relation with God, ‘inner community of life with Christ’ emerges as the central theme.87 In connection with this theme, Maria Petyt uses terminology that points to a certain indirect familiarity with the work of Ruusbroec. For example, like Ruusbroec, she understands the perfect spiritual life as a participation in God’s Trinitarian life. However, in accordance with the baroque time in which she lived, Maria Petyt’s descriptions are often limited to an affective appeal to each of the three divine Persons. She does not always refer to an ontological reality that unceasingly elevates the human being in the inner Trinitarian life. Hence, one cannot categorize all of Maria Petyt’s texts as ‘high’ Dutch mysticism.88 It is true, however, that like Ruusbroec and Maria van Oisterwijk, she believes that in surrendering unconditionally to God, the love for one’s fellow human being is not abrogated. Annihilation of the self and the gift of an apostolic life 85  Albert Deblaere, “Leven ‘in de grond’: De leerschool van een Vlaamse mystieke,” in Albert Deblaere, S.J. (1916-1994). Essays on Mystical Literature, ed. Rob Faesen. Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium, 177 (Leuven: Leuven University Press/Peeters, 2004), 49-51. 86  Uyttenhove, “De relevantie van Maria Petyt voor het hedendaagse godsdienstonderwijs,” 212. 87  Ibid., 213-4. 88  Ibid., 211.

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centred on the salvation of one’s fellow human beings were two simultaneously occurring aspects of Maria Petyt’s spiritual life in union with God. Thérèse of Lisieux Turning to the nineteenth-century Carmelite nun Thérèse of Lisieux,89 we find that she too embraces traces of the spirituality of Maria van Oisterwijk and Teresa of Avila.90 Thérèse also understands the spiritual life as a mutual love relationship between God and the human being. She entered the Carmelite Convent of Lisieux ‘to love Him [God through Christ] as He had never been loved before’.91 She believed that the Father loves us for our sake, and he desires that we love him for his sake. All that God wants, is that we faithfully seek his merciful love, and this became the basis of her love for God.92 We can easily identify this with the fundamental attitude (the first and second stages) of Maria van Oisterwijk’s love relationship with God. Like the Oisterwijk mystic, Thérèse experienced herself ushered into that life by God,93 and that God put her on the path of a simple and loving 89  Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (born Marie Françoise-Thérèse Martin) (18731897), also known as Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, at the age of fifteen entered at the Catholic Discalced Carmelites in Lisieux. Interestingly, 100 years after her death, she was also proclaimed Doctor of the Church by John Paul II. In addition to her autobiography, about 300 of her letters, some sixty poems and some twenty prayers are preserved. 90  We may find a clear picture of Thérèse’s interior life in the letters she exchanged with Maurice Bellière, a seminarian from the Diocese of Bayeux, in France, who, at one point, contacted the Carmelite Convent in Lisieux asking for a sister to pray for him and to guide him in his decision to become a missionary. Patrick Ahern, Maurice & Thérèse. The Story of a Love. The Inspiring Letters Between Thérèse of Lisieux and a Struggling Young Priest (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1998), 15-7. 91  Ibid., 49. Inspired by the Song of Songs, the Psalms, the Prophets and the New Testament, Thérèse longed to become God’s bride. Ibid., 50. 92  Ibid., 140. 93  Ibid., 110. Thérèse had an absolute faith in ‘the operations of God’s consuming and transforming love’. Ibid., 113-4.

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confidence in God. Later, she began to refer to this as her ‘Little Way’.94 Like her forerunners, Thérèse describes being taught to live the love of God in the purest way, through a personal friendship with Christ.95 According to Patrick Ahern, ‘she never thought of her love for Jesus as something private, an exclusive relationship between Him and her’.96 Her thought is aligned with that of Maria van Oisterwijk both in this respect as well as in her desire to share her love for God with the whole world.97 Thérèse moreover believed that in this desire she had a God-given misson.98 ‘To love God and make Him loved’ was the whole scheme of her religious life.99 Thérèse’s thought is very much attuned to that of Maria van Oisterwijk, especially when she prays that the Spirit of Love would be sent into her heart and that the Father would ‘use her as an instrument to win for Him the love of others’.100 In her correspondence with Fr. Maurice Bellière, we see echoes of Maria van Oisterwijk’s imitation of Christ’s virtuous life, as Thérèse connects her ‘Little Way’ with the desire that Jesus would endow us with his virtues and his sincere love.101 From a letter written on her deathbed, it is clear that Thérèse herself possessed Christ’s virtue of obedience.102 During her lifetime, Thérèse also

94  Ibid., 53, 109, 114-5, 138, 141. Parallel to Maria van Oisterwijk, Thérèse describes how God teaches her how to love God the Father completely. After all, she believes what we are not able to do for ourselves, God accomplishes in us ‘in a single moment’. Cf. ibid., 72. 95  Ibid., 51-2, especially the words to her sister Pauline: ‘I am more his than my own’. See also ibid., 134-5. 96  Ibid., 110. 97  Ibid., 50. 98  Ibid., 110. 99  Ibid., 155. 100  Ibid., 87. In this way, ‘God’s love for her and her love for God, fused into one with her love for everyone she encountered’. Ibid., 78. 101  Cf. her letter of February 27, 1897 to Maurice: ‘I beg Jesus to embellish your own soul with every virtue, and especially with his love’. Ibid., 84. 102  Ibid., 129.

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knew the spiritual joy and lasting peace that came from a firm confidence in God’s love.103 A spiritual affinity with Maria van Oisterwijk is also clear in the way Thérèse of Lisieux dealt with suffering. In this respect, she was primarily inspired by The Spiritual Canticle of John of the Cross. In fact, John’s work helped her devote herself to Christ in all physical and spiritual misfortune. Imbued with her mission, Thérèse, following John of the Cross ‘saw no reason to take upon herself the great penances, which were common in the Carmel of her day’.104 With respect to suffering, the young nun was also influenced by the Devotio Moderna and Thomas a Kempis’ Imitatio Christi, which shaped her desire to suffer after the example of Christ. Edith Stein After her death, the mystically gifted Jewish philosopher Edith Stein105 shared with Maria van Oisterwijk the distinction of being compared to Catherine of Siena.106 As a student of philosophy, Edith Stein undertook an intense search for the truth in life, and this search ultimately led her to God. Initially, her search involved

103

 Ibid., 110-1.  Ibid., 114. 105  Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (born Edith Stein) (1891-1942), a JewishGerman philosopher and former assistant to Edmund Husserl, converted to Catholicism in 1922. In 1934 she entered the convent of the Discalced Carmelites in Cologne. In 1942, while staying in the Carmelite convent of Echt (in the Netherlands), for some time, because of her Jewish ancestry, she was captured by the Nazi’s and sent to the Westerbork concentration camp. Two days later, she was put on a transport to Auschwitz where, upon her arrival, she was almost immediately put to death in the gas chamber. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was canonized by John Paul II in 1998. 106  Didier-Marie Golay, Devant Dieu pour tous. Vie et message de Edith Stein. Avec la collaboration de Robert Arcas, et al (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 2009), 272. 104

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nothing of the interiority associated with Christian spirituality,107 but this changed when she encountered Teresa of Avila’s autobiography. This encounter would mark the beginning of a new life of loving surrender to God, which transcended all intellectual knowledge of God.108 As happened with Teresa, and indeed with Maria van Oisterwijk, Edith Stein’s spiritual life from then on was based on God’s love for her and her love for God. She too attributed the ‘presence of God’ in her life to God’s initiative. In this context, she speaks of ‘being touched by God’s hand which we cannot withdraw from’.109 After all, an inner relationship with God presupposes that we allow ourselves to be guided and overwhelmed by God.110 What Edith Stein experienced in her spiritual journey maps directly onto what Maria van Oisterwijk describes in ‘The Straight Road’ as the virtuous life in imitation of Christ. Edith’s only desire was that in her and through her, God’s will would be accomplished.111 This desire shines through in the following quotation in which she imagines herself being guided by God as a child: ‘[F]rom moment to moment, I am sustained in my being, and (…) in my being I share in enduring being. In the knowledge that being holds me, I rest securely. This security, however, is not the self-assurance of one who under her own power stands on firm ground, but rather the sweet and blissful security of a child that 107  Michael Linssen, Kiezen voor de waarheid. Teresia Benedicta a Cruce O.C.D. Edith Stein (Ghent: Carmelitana, 20023), 20. 108  Ibid., 42-3. See also Golay, Devant Dieu pour tous, 98, 102. 109  Linssen, Kiezen voor de waarheid, 41. 110  Golay, Devant Dieu pour tous, 189. See also Linssen, Kiezen voor de waarheid, 44, reference to a quotation from Edith Stein’s book Finite and Eternal Being. An Attempt at an Ascent to the Meaning of Being. Trans. Kurt F. Reinhardt (Washington, DC: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 2002), 60: ‘The way of faith gives us more than the way of philosophic knowledge. Faith reveals to us the God of personal nearness, the loving and merciful God, and therewith we are given a certitude which no natural knowledge can impart’ (Trans. of Edith Stein, Endliches und ewiges Sein. Versuch eines Aufstiegs zum Sinn des Seins, Band II, Edith Stein Werke [Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 1949, 1986], 57-8). 111  Linssen, Kiezen voor de waarheid, 69.

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is lifted up and carried by a strong arm.’112 Like her spiritual forerunners, Edith considered herself and her own existence as a ‘nothing’.113 There is a further similarity with Maria van Oisterwijk in her experience that each of us is a mere ‘instrument’ in God’s hands, and that we need to consider our own powers not as ours, but as the fruit of God’s action in us.114 Edith’s spiritual experience was one of mystical union with God. She was convinced that God created human beings to be one with God in love.115 She describes this union as a participation in God’s Trinitarian mystery.116 As with Maria van Oisterwijk, the Jewish-German philosopher experienced that her union with God was not meant for herself exclusively, since the more someone is drawn into God, the more he or she must come out of his- or herself.117 Moreover, Edith’s thought on community of life with Christ can be seen to follow that of the Oisterwijk mystic who preceded her by centuries. After some time, Christ indeed became the centre of Edith’s life.118 In this regard, she allowed herself to be nourished by the writings of John of the Cross, and like him she defended no other wisdom than that of Jesus Christ and his cross. To her, the crucified Christ reveals the radical nature of the great mystery of God’s love. The mystery of the cross affected Edith Stein profoundly. As a Carmelite nun she intentionally chose the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross and in accordance with the Western Christian spiritual and mystical tradition, she

112  Ibid., 63, a reference to Edith Stein, Finite and Eternal Being, 58 (Trans. of Edith Stein, Endliches und ewiges Sein, 57). 113  Linssen, Kiezen voor de waarheid, 63, a reference to Edith Stein, Finite and Eternal Being, 55: ‘My own being, as I know it and as I know myself in it, is null and void [nichtig]; I am not by myself (not a being a se and per se), and by myself I am nothing’ (Trans. of Edith Stein, Endliches und ewiges Sein, 53). 114  Linssen, Kiezen voor de waarheid, 54. 115  Golay, Devant Dieu pour tous, 207. 116  Ibid., 174. See also ibid., 212, 284. 117  Ibid.,128. 118  Ibid., 110.

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understood that she could not follow the way of the cross without an inner union with Christ.119 Conclusion It may be clear from this brief overview of the mystical tradition from the twelfth to the twentieth century that Maria van Oisterwijk is an important but little-known voice in Western Christian mystical theology in general and the Middle Dutch tradition in particular. This tradition understood the mystical life as a loving encounter between God and the human person. Given the enduring power of this image to captivate human hearts and minds, it need not surprise us that during her lifetime, the Cologne Carthusians began publishing her works. It may be hoped that a critical edition and complete translation of these works will at some point become available, so that Maria van Oisterwijk may become better known both in the scholarly community and to a broader readership.

119  In her ‘encounter’ with Christ’s cross, the philosopher Adolf Reinach and his wife Anna played a major role. At Edith Stein’s meeting with Anna, immediately after her husband Reinach’s death during the Second World War, Edith noticed that her friend was not desperate, and that she was enduring her sufferings courageously: Anna did not complain and seemed to find strength in Christian faith. From then on, Edith Stein began to realize that with faith in the cross of Jesus Christ, one is granted a divine power which helps us to bear every suffering. Linssen, Kiezen voor de waarheid, 39. See also Golay, Devant Dieu pour tous, 92, 233.

General Conclusion

Maria van Oisterwijk’s spiritual journey can captivate and inspire, even in our present day. Her spiritual writings touch us through her spontaneous, enthusiastic, and tender manner of expression, and her capacity for radiating hope and joy to all those who want to turn (again) to God. Her books will not scare off the tentative reader with moralizing and theoretical considerations. Maria van Oisterwijk inspires us in the first place by grounding her spiritual journey in God’s love; she refrains from linking the way to God with a personal quest for spiritual perfection. To those who want to act in response to God’s love, she recommends surrender to the Father and willing acceptance that he will take the lead in the spiritual life. This is the first foundation of her spiritual teaching; it arose from a deep personal experience, and it was her desire that this could become the driving force in our spiritual lives. Realizing an absolute surrender to God, however, is not easy. Therefore, Maria van Oisterwijk suggests that we direct ourselves to Christ, whose mediation on our journey to God is essential. She is convinced that Christ wishes to become spiritually present in the heart of every human being. For that reason, she encourages us to approach the Father asking that he opens up his fatherly heart and allow the eternal Word to descend upon us. Once Christ has been born in us, he himself will accomplish our surrender to the Father. Christ will enable us to love God and to share with him in the love of the Father. Maria van Oisterwijk’s conviction that we may always and ceaselessly rely on Christ’s mediating help is certainly a hopeful and joyful message, both then and now. Of even greater significance is Maria van Oisterwijk’s conviction that spiritual participation in God’s communion of love,

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which is the ultimate goal of the Christian spiritual life, is not an exclusivist reality. Those who are united with God, ‘depart from God’, directing themselves to others. From her personal experience, Maria van Oisterwijk discerned that the gift of transformation in God’s love is fundamentally oriented to manifesting this divine love to all other people. ‘To Draw and Assemble all People unto God ’, herein lies the full meaning of her spiritual journey. She herself refers to it as a ‘life in communion with God’. This life is given to us as a gift from God, when, through the spiritual presence of God’s Word in us, we are enabled to experience God’s love and feel ourselves impelled to spread divine love to all people.

APPENDIX ONE

Structure of The Treatise ‘The Straight Road’ (RWA7r-F2v) Part One: A Journey to God Stages

Articles of the Creed (CMO)

Lord’s Prayer (LP)

Imitation of Christ’s Virtuous Life

Stage 1 RWA7r-B1v

I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.

Our Father.

Faith and trust in the Father’s omnipotence.

Stage 2 RWB1v-B2r

And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.

Hallowed be thy name.

Hope for God’s mercy.

Stage 3 RWB2r-C1v

Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

Thy kingdom come.

Virtue of obedience.

Stage 4 RWC1v-C4v

Born of the Virgin Mary.

Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

Virtue of humility.

Stage 5 RWC4v-C8v

Suffered under Pontius Pilate.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Virtue of meekness.

Stage 6 RWC8v-D5v

Was crucified, died and was buried.

Forgive us our trespasses.

Virtue of mercy.

Stage 7 RWD5v-D7v

He descended into hell.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Virtue of true love.

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Part Two: A Journey ‘from God’ to All People Stages

Articles of the Creed (CMO)

Lord’s Prayer (LP) Amen.

Life in Communion with God

Stage 8 RWD7v-E2r

On the third day he rose again.

To be God’s instrument.

Stage 9 RWE2r-E2v

He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.

To be directed to God and to fellow people.

Stage 10 RWE2v-E4v

From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

To judge over good and bad people.

Stage 11 RWE4v-E5r

I believe in the Holy Spirit.

To see that all virtues and gifts are of the Holy Spirit.

Stage 12 RWE5r-E5v

The holy catholic Church.

To return God’s grace and God’s gifts to God.

Stage 13 RWE5v-E6r

The communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins.

To collect all people into Christ’s Church.

Stage 14 RWE6r-F2v

The resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.

To lead all people to eternal salvation.

APPENDIX

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APPENDIX TWO

Overview of Maria van Oisterwijk’s Letters (RW N5v-Q7r)

Letter 1

RWN5v-N8r

To My Sister in God.

Letter 2

RWN8r

To My Sister N.

Letter 3

RWN8v-O1r

To My Worthy Mother and Sisters in N.

Letter 4

RWO1r-O2r

Another Letter to the Same N.

Letter 5

RWO2r-O3r

To Reverend Father, N. prior. My Dear Father.

Letter 6

RWO3r-O5r

To Brother N. My Beloved Son in God.

Letter 7

RWO5r-O8v

To My Spiritual Son, Brother N.

Letter 8

RWO8v-P1v

To My Spiritual Father N.

Letter 9

RWP1v-P3r

To the Same.

Letter 10

RWP3r-P5v

To the Same.

Letter 11

RWP5v-P8r

To the Same.

Letter 12

RWP8r-Q2v

To the Reverend Father, Prior in N (Spiritual Father).

Letter 13

RWQ3r-Q5r

Dear Spiritual Father.

Letter 14

RWQ5r-Q5v

To My Dear Mother in God.

Letter 15

RWQ5v-Q7r

To My Spiritual Sister N.

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