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Observant Memory and Propaganda in Johannes of Mainz's Vita fratrum predicatorum conventus Basiliensis (1442–1444)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2018

Anne Huijbers
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Abstract

This article presents an unpublished and largely unexplored source written in Basel during the international church council, the Vita fratrum predicatorum conventus Basiliensis (1442–1444). It deals with the reform of the Dominican friary, which was effectuated just before the start of the council to prevent scandals. Johannes of Mainz, its author, was the first lector of the reformed friary and wrote the text to corroborate the reformed religious identity of his community. He presented the reform of the Basel friary—which aroused fervent opposition of the original inhabitants—as a new episode in the history of salvation. A second part of the Vita fratrum eulogized the characteristics that Observant friars have in common. By “othering” Conventual friars and by depicting their horrible deaths, Johannes tried both to convince the Observant Basel friars of their superiority over Conventuals and to exhort them to stick to an Observant lifestyle. Unfaithful friars, the narrative warned, were eradicated from the celestial vineyard. For the last part of the Vita fratrum, which presents “the most fruitful plants” of the vineyard, Johannes of Mainz drew up personal and original biographies of contemporary Dominicans, such as Johannes Nider (d. 1438), who is presented as a “mirror of observance” and a “doctor of souls.”

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Church History , Volume 87 , Issue 3 , September 2018 , pp. 718 - 739
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Copyright © American Society of Church History 2018 

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Footnotes

I wish to thank the Zeno Karl Schindler Foundation for financing my research stay at the University of Basel from May to October 2015. This article expands on the discussion of the Vita fratrum in my published dissertation, Zealots for Souls (see notes below), and on a paper presented at the University of Colorado, Boulder: Religion and the (Master) Narrative. An interdisciplinary Conference on Medieval and Early Modern Belief and Practice, October 22–24, 2015. I owe thanks to John van Engen and Bert Roest for their helpful comments.

References

1 See especially the first English-language handbook on the topic: Mixson, James and Roest, Bert, eds., A Companion to Observant Reform in the Late Middle Ages and Beyond (Leiden: Brill, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, which has updated the findings of Elm, Kaspar, ed., Reformbemühungen und Observanzbestrebungen im spätmittelalterlichen Ordenswesen (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1989)Google Scholar. Mixson gives an overview of recent scholarly approaches to Observant reform: see Mixson, James, “Introduction,” in A companion to Observant Reform in the Late Middle Ages and Beyond, ed. Mxsom, James and Roest, Bert (Leiden: Brill, 2015), 1–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On Dominican reform more specifically, see Hillenbrand, Eugen, “Die Observantenbewegung in der deutschen Ordensprovinz der Dominikaner,” in Reformbemühungen und Observanzbestrebungen im spätmittelalterlichen Ordenswesen, ed. Elm, Kaspar (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1989), 219–271Google Scholar; and more bibliographical references are given in Huijbers, Anne, Zealots for Souls: Dominican Narratives of Self-Understanding During Observant Reforms, c. 1388–1517 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018), 178–183CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On Dominican women and Observant reform, see most recently Jones, Claire Taylor, Ruling the Spirit. Women, Liturgy and Dominican Reform in Late Medieval Germany (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Duval, Sylvie, “Comme des anges sur terre”: Les moniales dominicaines et les débuts de la réforme observante (Rome: Ecole Française de Rome, 2015)Google Scholar.

2 For writings by women on reform, see Uffmann, Heike, Wie in einem Rosengarten: monastische Reformen des späten Mittelalters in den Vorstellungen von Klosterfrauen (Bielefeld: Verlag für Regionalgeschichte, 2008)Google Scholar; and Winston-Allen, Anne, Convent Chronicles: Women Writing About Women and Reform in the Late Middle Ages (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004)Google Scholar. On Reformchronistik by men, see Proksch, Constance, Klosterreform und Geschichtsschreibung im Spätmittelalter (Cologne: Böhlau, 1994)Google Scholar; and Schreiner, Klaus, “Erneuerung durch Erinnerung. Reformstreben, Geschichtsbewusstsein und Geschichtsschreibung im benediktinischen Mönchtum Südwestdeutschlands an der Wende vom 15. Zum 16. Jahrhundert,” in Historiographie am Oberrhein im späten Mittelalter und in der frühen Neuzeit, ed. Andermann, K. (Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1988), 35–89Google Scholar. For Dominican order chronicles, convent chronicles, and collective biographies that transmitted Observant ideals, see Huijbers, Zealots for Souls. On the Colettines, see Anne Campbell, “Creating a Colettine identity in an Observant and Post-Observant World: Narratives of the Colettine Reforms after 1447,” in Religious Orders and Religious Identity Formation, ca. 1420–1620: Discourses and Strategies of Observance and Pastoral Engagement, ed. Bert Roest and Johanneke Uphoff (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 32–47. And on Franciscan Observant literature, see Clare Lappin, “The Mirror of the Observance: Image, Ideal and Identity in Observant Franciscan Literature, c. 1415–1528” (PhD diss., University of Edinburgh, 2000).

3 Franz Egger and Martina Wehrli-Johns are preparing an edition of the text. Egger was the first to draw attention to the chronicle. He included a table of contents in Egger, Franz, Beiträge zur Geschichte des Predigerordens: Die Reform des Basler Konvents 1429 und die Stellung des Ordens am Basler Konzil 1431–1448 (Bern: Lang, 1991)Google Scholar, especially 29–62, 217–218.

4 On this council most recently, see Decaluwé, Michiel, Izbicki, Thomas M., and Christianson, Gerald, eds., A Companion to the Council of Basel (Leiden: Brill, 2017)Google Scholar.

5 Bailey, Michael, “Abstinence and Reform at the Council of Basel: Johannes Nider's De abstinentia esus carnium,” Mediaeval Studies 59 (1997): 226CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 For historiographical texts as tools in the process of religious identity formation, see, for instance, Burton, Janet, “Constructing a Corporate Identity: The Historia Fundationis of the Cistercian Abbeys of Byland and Jervaulx,” in Self-Representation of Medieval Religious Communities: The British Isles in Context, ed. Müller, Anne and Stöber, Karen, (Berlin: LIT, 2009), 12–17Google Scholar.

7 Mixson, “Introduction,” 14–15.

8 For instance, reformers had different opinions about poverty and study. See Neidiger, Bernhard, “Selbstverständnis und Erfolgschancen der Dominikanerobservanten: Beobachtungen zur Entwicklung in der Provinz Teutonia und im Basler Konvent (1388–1510),” Rottenburger Jahrbuch für Kirchengeschichte 17 (1998): 67–122Google Scholar.

9 Huijbers, Zealots for Souls, 74–75.

10 Roest, Bert and Uphoff, Johanneke, “Introduction,” in Religious Orders and Religious Identity Formation, ca. 1420–1620: Discourses and Strategies of Observance and Pastoral Engagement, ed. Roest, Bert and Uphoff, Johanneke (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 2CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Dlabačová, Anna, “Transcending the Order. The Pursuit of Observance and Religious Identity Formation in the Low Countries, c. 1450–1500’,” in Religious Orders and Religious Identity Formation, ca. 1420–1620: Discourses and Strategies of Observance and Pastoral Engagement, ed. Roest, Bert and Uphoff, Johanneke (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 86–109CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially 87, where she addresses the conciliating effect of Observance “among Observant members of various religious orders and reform movements.”

11 Huijbers, Zealots for Souls, 74–75, 177–178, 194–195; reform treatises by the Dominicans Henry of Bitterfeld (d. 1404–1406?), Johannes Nider (d. 1438), and Jean Uytenhove (d. 1489) are introduced and compared on 190–201.

12 The term “nucleo normativo” is derived from Reinhard, Wolfgang, “Religione e identità—Identità e religione. Un'introduzione,” in Identità collettive tra Medioevo ed Età Moderna, ed. Prodi, Paolo and Reinhard, Wolfgang (Bologna: Clueb, 2002), 91Google Scholar. For the concept “normative Zentrierung,” see: Hamm, Berndt, “Normative Centering in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries: Observations on Religiosity, Theology, and Iconology,” in The Reformation of Faith in the Context of Late Medieval Theology and Piety: Essays by Berndt Hamm, ed. Bast, Robert J. (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 1–46Google Scholar.

13 This term was often applied to Observants: see Huijbers, Zealots for Souls, 228.

14 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, MS A XI 42 (hereafter cited as Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum), fol. 98r (see n18 below): “Hoc videns et invidens ordinis magister reverendissimus frater Bartholomeus Texerii nominatus emulus viciorum zelator animarum timens quod grave scandalum ordini suboriri in conspectu futuri Basiliensis concilii, reformare decrevit hunc venerabilem conventum.” This is for the most part transcribed verbatim by Meyer, Johannes, Chronica brevis ordinis praedicatorum, ed. Scheeben, H. C. (Leipzig: Harrassowitz, 1933), 84Google Scholar. In his Buch der reformacio, however, Meyer stated that it was the city council that asked for the reform. Meyer, Johannes, Buch der reformacio predigerordens, ed. Reichert, B. M. (Leipzig: Harrassowitz, 1908–1909)Google Scholar, 2:70. This (probably deliberate) change in agency supported Meyer's argument that Observant reform was not just an order's internal affair but was wanted by (and crucial for) Christianity at large. On the role of the city council for the reforms in Basel, see Neidiger, Bernhard, “Stadtregiment und Klosterreform in Basel,” in Reformbemühungen und Observanzbestrebungen im spätmittelalterlichen Ordenswesen, ed. Elm, Kaspar (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1989), 539–567Google Scholar.

15 B. Raymundi Capuani XXIII magistri generalis ordinis praedicatorum opuscula et litterae, ed. Cormier, H. M. (Rome: Ex Typographia Polyglotta, 1899), 54–56Google Scholar.

16 Sources that highlight the Conventual perspective are generally lacking, One example of a chronicle written to oppose reform is the Chronica del monastero delle Vergini di Venetia (c. 1520) mentioned by Zarri, Gabriella, “Predicazione e cura pastorale. I Sermoni della clarissa veneziana Chiara Bugni (1471–1514),” Anuario de estudios medievales 42 (2012): 144CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The ways in which Conventual friars defended themselves against the reformers’ attacks on their lifestyle can to some extent be reconstructed with the help of reform treatises, which list arguments against reform to subsequently refute them. See Huijbers, Zealots for Souls, 197–198. For reflections on “Conventual” religious life, see also Mixson, James, Poverty's Proprietors: Ownership and Mortal Sin at the Origins of the Observant Movement (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 25–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Winston-Allen, Convent Chronicles, 129.

17 The explicit informs us that the chronicle was written between August 14, 1442, and August 14, 1444, exactly.

18 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, fols. 97r–119r. The hands alternate systematically between the recto and verso sides and even change in the middle of a sentence if the end of the page is reached. Kaeppeli, Tommaso, Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum Medii Aevi (Rome: Istituto Storico Domenicano, 1970–1993)Google Scholar, 2:480, 4:162; Neumann, Hans, “Johannes von Mainz,” Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters. Verfasserlexikon, vol. 4 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1983), 675–677Google Scholar; Dolbeau, Francois, “La bibliothèque des dominicains de Bâle au XVe siècle. Fragments inédits d'un catalogue topographique,” Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 81 (2011): 122Google Scholar; and Neidiger, “Selbstverständnis und Erfolgschancen,” 97–110.

19 Gerard of Frachet, Fratris Gerardi de Fracheto O.P.: Vitae fratrum ordinis Praedicatorum, ed. Reichert, B. M., Monumenta ordinis fratrum praedicatorum historica (Lovanii: Charpentier & Schoonjans, 1896)Google Scholar.

20 General chapter of Bologna, 1426: Acta capitulorum generalium ordinis praedicatorum, ed. Reichert, B. M. (Rome: Ex Typographia Polyglotta, 1900)Google Scholar, 3:185: “Devocionem fratrum et sororum nostri ordinis ac honestatem adaugere satagentes, imponimus provincialibus universis, ut vitas sanctorum fratrum ac sororum, qui a tempore edicionis libri, qui vitas fratrum dicitur, in suis provinciis usque ad presens decesserunt et aliquibus miraculis claruerunt ad immediate sequens capitulum generale secum deferant, ut prefato libro ad perpetuam rei memoriam valeant annotari.” For more examples, see Huijbers, Zealots for Souls, 143–146.

21 For an introduction to this genre, see Proksch, Klosterreform und Geschichtsschreibung im Spätmittelalter, passim; and Huijbers, Anne, “Observance as Paradigm in Mendicant and Monastic Order Chronicles,” in A Companion to Observant Reform in the Late Middle Ages and Beyond, ed. Mixson, James and Roest, Bert (Leiden: Brill, 2015), 115–118Google Scholar.

22 Winston-Allen, Convent Chronicles, 22, already noted that convent chronicles were “intended to foster a sense of common mission and commitment to the community.”

23 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, fol. 97r: “celi vinum populo propinantes, hereses extirpantes, errores effugantes, patriam illuminantes, regi deo virgines adducentes, peccatores a statu periculoso convertentes, bonos in pratu laudabili confirmantes ac fructum in plebe multiplicem presentes.” All translations are my own. For the vine as a Dominican topos, see Huijbers, Zealots for Souls, 19, 27–34.

24 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, fol. 98r: “An non ferreas gestabant tibias qui in excursibus et discursibus fuerant tam infatigabiles?”

25 Ibid.: “An non fictiles terreosque pedes qui et affecciones habuerunt carni et sanguini servientes?” This allusion derives from the prophet Daniel's explanation of a dream of Nebuchadnezzar, who saw a statue with a golden head but legs and feet of iron and clay. See Daniel 2:31–45.

26 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, fol. 98r: “Inolevit tunc proverbium hoc secularibus quod pons Reni nunquam foret tam vacuus quin ibi azinus cerneretur aut monachus.”

27 Ibid.: “Sic Clingentalenses muliercules sine colloquio non poterant vivere aut noluerant quod fraterculi deserebant.” Muliercula normally has a somewhat negative connotation for a little, common, or weak woman. It is here used next to fraterculus (little friar).

28 For this and other ways in which Dominicans explained the decline of their order, see Huijbers, Zealots for Souls, 183–190.

29 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, “Quartum Capitulum: de primis reformatoribus huius conventus,” fol. 99r: “Ymmo huius apostolice vite xii apostoli primo scilicet conventum ingressi.” The reformers came from the Observant friary of Nuremberg.

30 For other reformed Dominican convents with such a double regime, see Huijbers, Zealots for Souls, 180–181, 234–235. In Basel, this double regime did not last long. Most Conventuals eventually left the friary. See Egger, Beiträge zur Geschichte des Predigerordens, 66–67.

31 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, fol. 98v: “Audisses in choro hinc pausas regulares, illinc caudas seculars . . . hinc optimas carnes, illinc vix panes.”

32 Ibid., fol. 99r: “Tunc itaque novus sol oritur.” Egger, Beiträge zur Geschichte des Predigerordens, 67, 71n30.

33 Neidiger, “Selbstverständnis und Erfolgschancen,” 72–75; and Hillenbrand, “Die Observantenbewegung in der deutschen Ordensprovinz der Dominikaner,” 239–262.

34 More details and discussion in Egger, Beiträge zur Geschichte des Predigerordens, 63–67; and Neidiger, “Stadtregiment und Klosterreform in Basel,” 543–545, who mostly follows Meyer. Five local friars accepted the reform.

35 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, fol. 104v: “An dignus est agnus qui accusus est qui nos redemit in hunc locum ex omni tribu et populo et nacione?”

36 Ibid., fol. 99v: “Secunda pars huius libri. De insignibus fratrum huius observancie in communi habet xi capitula.” See for a further discussion, with some overlap, Huijbers, Zealots for Souls, 203–204, 253–259.

37 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, fol. 100r: “Primum capitulum. De intenso amore eorum ad beatissimam virginem. Secundum capitulum. De devocione ipsorum.”

38 Ibid., fol. 101r: “Istis modus erat semper ad regulam ad constituciones ad notulam recurrere in minimis eciam allegare.”

39 Ibid.: “Tercium capitulum. Quomodo se habuerint circa missam et communionem.”

40 Ibid., fol. 98v: “Audisses in choro hinc pausas regulares, illinc caudas seculares, hinc punctaturas, illinc fracturas, hinc cantantes, illinc discantantes.”

41 Taylor Jones, Ruling the Spirit, 27, passim.

42 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, fol. 101r: “De ipsorum maxima paciencia et constancia.”

43 The Basel case did not stand alone: reform could lead to violent opposition. For some examples, see Huijbers, “Observance as Paradigm,” 129–131; Dlabačová, “Transcending the Order,” 87; and Mixson, James, “Observant Reform's Conceptual Frameworks between Principle and Practice,” in A Companion to Observant Reform in the Late Middle Ages and Beyond, ed. Mixson, James and Roest, Bert (Leiden: Brill, 2015), 74–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar: “Reform was conflict. It almost always met with resistance.”

44 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, fol. 101v: “Nam quidam ex nobis ymmo non ex nobis captant nocturna silencia, mutant habitum, prostibula visitant et fere insanabiliter hunc locum scandalisant. O quantus gemitus tunc affuit cordibus nostris. Fit carmen publicum et in nos psallebant qui bibebant vinum. Famamur ypocrite, dicimur formicarii, deridemur, confudimur, subsanamur.”

45 For an introduction to the work, see Bailey, Michael D., Battling Demons. Witchcraft, Heresy, and Reform in the Late Middle Ages (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003), 91–117Google Scholar.

46 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, fol. 102v: “Mulieribus non in faciem sed collateraliter assistere.”

47 Ibid., fol. 103v: “Tempore recreacionis conferebant simul omnes aut duo pariter de insignibus ordinis.”

48 Egger, Beiträge zur Geschichte des Predigerordens, 89.

49 Meyer, Buch der reformacio, 2:75: “Wie der selb brůder convent prediger zů Basel reformiert ist worden, und von dem selben andechtigen leben etlicher brůder hat zů latin an schön büchli geschriben der andechtig vater brůder Iohannes von Mentz.”

50 See Huijbers, “Observance as Paradigm,” 135–141. A closer comparison between the works of Johannes of Mainz and Meyer can be found in Huijbers, Zealots for Souls, 42–49, 262.

51 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, fol. 104v; and Egger, Beiträge zur Geschichte des Predigerordens, 51.

52 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, fol. 104v: “Tercium signaculum quod deus omnipotens tam miris graciis dotavit hunc locum. An amplexatur hunc in causis fidei Sacrum Concilium?” The Basel convent was indeed a central location where council meetings took place. Abel, Stefan, Johannes Nider: “Die vierundzwanzig goldenen Harfen”: Edition und Kommentar (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011), 9–10Google Scholar; and Egger, Beiträge zur Geschichte des Predigerordens, 196, 199.

53 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, fol. 104v: “Famatur alius in tota Colonia profundissimus albertista.”

54 Ibid.: “Ardent alii furore studii. Alii zelo religionis.”

55 Ibid.: “Ut semper proficiat sponsa sua biblioteca.”

56 This is also one of the conclusions in Huijbers, Zealots for Souls, 172–173, 278–279, 322, 325.

57 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, fol. 105r: “Quartum signaculum quod honor dei salusque animarum dono suo non parvum augentur . . . famatum hunc dei cultum modumque vivendi in fines orbis terre.” Johannes Meyer employed a similar rhetorical strategy to show the impact of the reform of the Nuremburg friary: see Huijbers, “Observance as Paradigm,” 123.

58 Compare with the essays in Elm's Reformbemühungen und Observanzbestrebungen and in Mixson and Roest's Companion to Observant Reform. In the latter, see, for instance: Delcorno, Pietro, “Quomodo discet sine docente? Observant Efforts towards Education and Pastoral Care,” in A Companion to Observant Reform in the Late Middle Ages and Beyond, ed. Mixson, James and Roest, Bert (Leiden: Brill, 2015), 147–184Google Scholar; Zarri, Gabriella, “Ecclesiastical Institutions and Religious Life in the Observant Century,” in A Companion to Observant Reform in the Late Middle Ages and Beyond, ed. Mixson, James and Roest, Bert (Leiden: Brill, 2015), 23–59Google Scholar; and Mixson, “Observant Reform's Conceptual Frameworks,” 60–84.

59 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, fol. 105r: “Sextum est caritatis vincul'um.”

60 Egger, Beiträge zur Geschichte des Predigerordens, 66–67.

61 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, fol. 105r: “In Reno miserabiliter est subversus.”

62 Ibid.: “Solus in nemore quodam obisse dicatur sed et volucres sibi narrantur oculus evulsisse.”

63 Ibid.: “non erant plantati a patre celesti sed aliunde venerunt ab hac vinea dei sunt eradicati.”

64 Ibid., fol. 106r: “Exhortatorium pro manutenencia observancie.” He also used John Cassian in this part. See Egger, Beiträge zur Geschichte des Predigerordens, 53.

65 In Johannes of Maiz, Vita fratrum, fol. 106r, he starts with: “Dilectissimi itaque mei. Respicite et levate capita vestra.” Luke 21:28.

66 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, fol. 106r: “Non propter locum gentem, scilicet propter gentem decoravit locum.”

67 Ibid., fol. 106v: “Loquor clarius: Si volumus non deficere, oportet ebdomadaliter inspicere speculum regule nostre, statuta patrum possetenus implere, errata non transire segniter, atque minima non omittere.”

68 On Meyer's activities as reformer and Observant writer, see Huijbers, Zealots for Souls, 132–141, 259–262, passim; and Taylor Jones, Ruling the Spirit, 127–160.

69 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, fol. 97r: “Fateor christi et sanctorum vitam prorsus sufficere ad exemplar, sed . . . spero hiis hoc opus non esse inutile, quos aliquando plus conpungit simplex exemplum dictum quam ewangelium sacrosanctum.”

70 For more information on the increasing number of friars, see Egger, Beiträge zur Geschichte des Predigerordens, 72–73.

71 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, fols. 112v, 114r. Johannes of Cologne originally came from Barcelona.

72 Ibid., fol. 103v.

73 Ibid., fol. 106v: “observancie speculum.” For the importance of such exempla in the Dominican tradition, see John H. Van Engen, “Dominic and the Brothers: Vitae as Life-Forming Exempla in the Order of Preachers,” in Christ among the Medieval Dominicans: Representations of Christ in the Texts and Images of the Order of Preachers, ed. Kent Emery Jr. and Joseph Wawrykow (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1998), 5–25.

74 Reinhard, “Religione e identità,” 107.

75 See, for instance, Tschacher, Werner, Der Formicarius des Johannes Nider von 1437/38: Studien zu den Anfängen der europäischen Hexenverfolgungen im Spätmittelalter (Aachen: Shaker, 2000)Google Scholar.

76 Mixson, James, “The Setting and Resonance of John Nider's De reformatione religiosorum,” in Kirchenbild und Spiritualität: dominikanische Beiträge zur Ekklesiologie und zum kirchlichen Leben im Mittelalter: Festschrift für Ulrich Horst OP zum 75. Geburtstag, ed. Prügl, Thomas and Schlosser, Marianne (Paderborn: Schöningh, 2007), 319–338Google Scholar; Bailey, “Johannes Nider's De abstinentia esus carnium”; and Abel, Johannes Nider. For Nider's writings, see Kaeppeli, Scriptores, 2:500–515.

77 In the Verfasserlexikon, authoritative citations on Nider's life are instead drawn from Johannes Meyer's edited Buch der reformacio predigerordens. These were actually selective translations from the Latin portrait written nearly twenty years earlier by Johannes of Mainz. Hillenbrand, Eugen, “Nider, Johannes,” Verfasserlexikon, vol. 6 (1987), 976Google Scholar. Only Franz Egger made use of the eulogy. Egger, Beiträge zur Geschichte des Predigerordens, 57, 61–62. It is touched upon briefly in Bailey, Battling Demons, 5; and Abel, Johannes Nider, 11–12. See Huijbers, Zealots for Souls, 256.

78 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, fol. 119r. Nider's eulogy is the longest in the chronicle: fols. 106v–108v.

79 Ibid., fol. 106v: “Eius verba et opera, cantus ac vivendi modus quasi lex scripta teneatur a posteris. . . Unde solent de ipso dicere gravissimi viri nunc maximi prelati ecclesie se nescire hominem vidisse in quo tot gratie et virtutes totque laudabiles propter etates noscantur claruisse.” The complete passage and translation is included in Huijbers, Zealots for Souls, 45.

80 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, fol. 107r–v: “O summa humilitas, o paupertas; O bone pater, O animarum fidelis medice.”

81 See Huijbers, Zealots for Souls, 223–229, 241–279.

82 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, fol. 106v: “O fecundissima planta!”

83 Ibid., fol. 107r: “Sicut in magisterio et prioratu et ceteris dignitatibus simplex et humilis fuit.”

84 Ibid.: “Huic iactabat eciam se tociens pauperis sutoris filium ex swevia oriundum esse.”

85 Ibid.: “Putasses utique cellam eius ut tabulam fere rasam.”

86 Cited and translated by Mixson, “The Setting and Resonance,” 324.

87 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, fol. 107v: “Nocte legeret fratribus, mane populo predicaret, prius prandium lecta repeteret atque in his laboribus ferventer continuaret.”

88 Ibid., fol. 108r: “Non ad pecunie questum sed ad salutem animarum.”

89 Ibid., fol. 107r.

90 Ibid.: “Respondit: quia scivit gaudentibus distinctissime congaudere et nichilominus proprie conscientie et profectui sollerter intendere.”

91 Ibid., fol. 107v: “Hunc verum fuisse alumpnus observancie Interrogatus quare magister inquit chorum frequentavit nocte dieque fere conventualium fratrum more.”

92 Ibid., fol. 107r: “Fuit prior noster affabilis et humanus, conversationis optime et edificatorius, quod si non esset vulgatum ubique, hoc solum affirmaret, quod in studio colonie tam humiliter, serviliter et hilariter vixit quod usque hodie eius laus pro omnibus observancialibus enituit.”

93 Ibid., fol. 107v: “Hanc tam leviter sed efficaciter fecerat ut et vicium sopiretur et frater non offenderetur.”

94 Ibid.: “Non recolo autem ipsum nec ab aliis didici eum umquam impetuosum fuisse.”

95 Ibid.: “Silencium consuevit observare.”

96 Ibid.: “Hinc consuevit ibidem sacerdos quidam observancialibus iocose insultare.”

97 Ibid.: “Ego hanc singularem gratiam in eo stupere non sufficio; quia in actu publico ipse unicus homo ymmo eodem tempore eodem loco fuerat duris tam auctoritativus timidus tam mellifluus tam summus in publico et tam conpaciens et dulcis in consciencie.”

98 Ibid., fol. 108r: “In iterere cum socio nunc oravit nunc questiones movit et multum socialis fuit.”

99 Ibid.: “Temptatus ego per biennium eciam ad ordinis exitum propter redditus temporales.”

100 Ibid.: “Cum sibi proponerem scrupulum, extendit manum dicens in hec verba tubaliter: Frater Johannes, nisi iam vincas hanc scrupulositatem dyabolus semper postea ingeret tibi aliam et forte peyerem. Per que verba et similia tantam sensi virtutem in anima mea ut postea non absorbeat me temptacio ista.”

101 Ibid., fol. 108v: “Quantus luctus fuit aput nos qui et premium perdidimus et reliquias habere non meruimus. Non possum describere sine luctu.”

102 Ibid., fol. 116r: “Ne scilicet laudarem hominem in faciem et adhuc viventem in corpora.” This was an unwritten rule generally respected by Dominican authors: see Huijbers, Zealots for Souls, 77, 97.

103 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, fol. 116v.

104 Ibid., fol. 117r: “Aliquis, inquit [Seneca], vir bonus nobis eligendus [sic, cf. deligendus] est ac semper ante oculos habendus ut sic tanquam illo spectante vivamus et omnia tanquam illo vidente faciamus.” Seneca, Epistulae morales ad Lucillum, 9:8.

105 Johannes of Mainz, Vita fratrum, fol. 118r.

106 Ibid., fol. 118v: “mulieres diu sustinere non potuit.”

107 Ibid.: “Quia ista nocte foret ustus ab igne.”

108 Ibid., fol. 105v: “mulierculis complacendum.”

109 Ibid.: “Cessat, inquit, affectus vite regularis cum ad complacendum monialibus inflectitur animus fratris.”

110 Ibid.: “Consuevit sepissime corripi ob sordes vestium. Nitorem horruit. Calceos novos in ordine fere nunquam admisit.” The latter sentence (literally, “He accepted new shoes in the order only sporadically”) seems to indicate his reluctance toward material goods and luxury.

111 This generic heterogeneity is typical for many Dominican order and convent chronicles in this period. See Huijbers, Zealots for Souls, 105–108, 141–142, 323.

112 Bailey, Michael, “Reformers on Sorcery and Superstition,” in A Companion to Observant Reform in the Late Middle Ages and Beyond, ed. Mixson, James and Roest, Bert (Leiden: Brill, 2015), 239–240Google Scholar.