Editing Geert Groote (section)

=== Religious life ===
Soon after, Groote settled in [[Cologne]], teaching philosophy and theology, and was granted a [[prebend]] in [[Utrecht (city)|Utrecht]] and another in [[Aachen]]. In 1366 his countrymen sent him to Avignon on a secret mission to [[Pope Urban V]]. The life of the brilliant young scholar was rapidly becoming luxurious, secular and selfish, when a great spiritual change passed over him which resulted in a final renunciation of every worldly enjoyment. This conversion, which took place in 1374,<ref>[https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095909864;jsessionid=E53AB1ECD88D79511CFE910DEC2E583D "Geert Groote", '' The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages'', (Robert E. Bjork, ed.) OUP, 2010] {{ISBN|9780198662624}}</ref> appears to have been due partly to the effects of a dangerous illness and partly to the influence of a fellow student, [[Henry de Calcar]], the learned and pious [[Prior (ecclesiastical)|prior]] of the [[Carthusian|Charterhouse]] at Munnikhuizen (Monnikenhuizen) near [[Arnhem]], who had remonstrated with him on the vanity of his life.{{sfn|Butler|1911|p=614}}
[[File:Archive-ugent-be-336BC5FA-15CD-11E9-954B-23312282636C DS-209 (cropped).jpg|left|thumb|341x341px|Excerpt from a "simple" [[Middle Dutch]] book of hours, using the translation of '''Geert Groote'''. Made in the 2nd half of the fifteenth century in [[Duchy of Brabant|Brabant.]]<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Middelnederlands getijdenboek|url=https://lib.ugent.be/viewer/archive.ugent.be:336BC5FA-15CD-11E9-954B-23312282636C#?c=&m=&s=&cv=5&xywh=-121,-236,5285,2951|access-date=2020-08-27|website=lib.ugent.be}}</ref>]]
In 1374 Groote turned his family home in Deventer into a shelter for poor women and lived for several years as a guest of the Carthusian monastery. In 1379, having received ordination as a [[deacon]], he became a missionary preacher throughout the diocese of Utrecht. The success which followed his labours not only in the city of Utrecht, but also in [[Zwolle]], Deventer, [[Kampen, Overijssel|Kampen]], [[Amsterdam]], [[Haarlem]], [[Gouda, South Holland|Gouda]], [[Leiden]], [[Delft]], [[Zutphen]] and elsewhere, was immense; according to [[Thomas à Kempis]] the people left their business and their meals to hear his sermons, so that the churches could not hold the crowds that flocked together wherever he came.{{sfn|Butler|1911|p=614}}

The [[Floris van Wevelinkhoven|bishop of Utrecht]] supported him warmly, and got him to preach against [[concubinage]] in the presence of the clergy assembled in [[synod]]. The impartiality of his censures, which he directed not only against the prevailing sins of the laity, but also against [[heresy]], [[simony]], avarice, and impurity among the secular and regular clergy, provoked the hostility of the clergy, and accusations of heterodoxy were brought against him. It was in vain that Groote emitted a ''Publica Protestatio'', in which he declared that [[Jesus]] was the great subject of his discourses, that in all of them he believed himself to be in harmony with Catholic doctrine, and that he willingly subjected them to the candid judgment of the Church.{{sfn|Butler|1911|p=614}}

The bishop was induced to issue an edict which prohibited from preaching all who were not in priestly [[Holy Orders|orders]], and an appeal by Groote to [[Pope Urban VI]] was without effect. There is a difficulty as to the date of this prohibition; either it was only a few months before Groote's death, or else it must have been removed by the bishop, for Groote seems to have preached in public in the last year of his life.{{sfn|Butler|1911|p=614}}

At some period (perhaps 1381, perhaps earlier) he paid a visit of some days' duration to the famous mystic [[John of Ruysbroeck|John Ruysbroeck]], prior of the Augustinian canons at Groenendaal near [[Brussels]]; during this visit was formed Groote's attraction for the rule and life of the Augustinian canons which was destined to bear notable fruit. At the close of his life he was asked by some of the clerics who attached themselves to him to form them into a religious order and Groote resolved that they should be [[Canons Regular of St. Augustine]]. No time was lost in the effort to carry out the project, but Groote died before a foundation could be made.{{sfn|Butler|1911|p=614}}

The initiation of this movement was the great achievement of Groote's life; he lived to preside over the birth and first days of his other creation, the society of [[Brethren of the Common Life]]. He died of the [[Black Death|plague]] at Deventer, which he had contracted while nursing the sick, in 1384 at the age of 44.{{sfn|Butler|1911|pp=614–615}} Geert Groote was also a famous writer, who made an important [[Middle Dutch]] translation of a [[book of hours]]. His translation was used innumerable times throughout the following centuries.<ref name=":0" />