BROTHERS OF COMMON LIFE, a religious community formerly existing in the Catholic Church. Towards the end of his career Gerhard Groot (q.v.) retired to his native town of De venter, in the diocese of Utrecht, and with the assistance of his friend Florentius Radewyn, who resigned for the purpose a canonry at Utrecht, succeeded in carrying out a long-cherished idea of establishing a house wherein devout men might live in community without the monastic vows. The first such com munity was established at Deventer In the house of Florentius himself (c. 138o) ; and Thomas a kempis lived in it from 1392 to 1399. Other houses of the Brothers of Common Life were in rapid succession established in the chief cities of the Low Coun tries and north and central Germany.
The ground-idea was to reproduce the life of the first Chris tians as described in Acts iv. The members took no vows and were free to leave when they chose ; but so long as they remained they were bound to observe chastity, to practice personal poverty, putting all their money and earnings into the common fund, to obey the rules of the house and the commands of the rector, and to exercise themselves in self-denial, humility and piety. The rec tor was chosen by the community and was not necessarily a priest, though in each house there were a few priests and clerics. The majority, however, were laymen, of all kinds and degrees— nobles, artisans, scholars, students, labouring men. After the re ligious services of the morning the Brothers scattered for the day's work. The clerics preached and instructed the people, work ing chiefly among the poor; they also devoted themselves to the copying of manuscripts, in order thereby to earn something for the common fund ; and some of them taught in the schools. Of the laymen, the educated copied manuscripts, the others worked at various handicrafts or at agriculture, going to the workshops in the city, or to the fields—for the idea was to live and work in the world, and not be separated from it, like the monks. Their rule was that they had to earn their livelihood, and must not beg. This feature seemed a reflection on the mendicant orders, and the idea of a community life without vows and not in isolation from everyday life, was looked upon as something new and strange. Opposition arose, and the status of the order was not finally set tled until the council of Constance (1414), when their cause was triumphantly defended by Pierre d'Ailly and Gerson. For a century after this the order flourished exceedingly, and its in fluence on the revival of religion in the Netherlands and north Germany in the 15th century was wide and deep. During the second half of the 16th century the order gradually declined, and by the middle of the 17th all its houses had ceased to exist.
chief authorities are Thomas a Kempis, Lives of Groot and his Disciples and Chronicle of Mount St. Agnes (both works translated by J. P. Arthur, the former under the title Founders of the New Devotion, 1905). An excellent article in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie (3rd ed.), "Briider des gemeinsamen Lebens," sup plies copious information with references to all the literature.