Editing Geert Groote (section)

===Devotio Moderna===
{{main|Devotio Moderna}}
A movement known as the Modern Devotion (Devotio Moderna) was founded in the Netherlands by Groote and [[Florens Radewyns]], in the late fourteenth century. For Groote the pivotal point is the search for inner peace, which results from the denial of one's own self and is to be achieved by "ardour" and "silence". This is the heart of the "New Devotion", or the "Devotio moderna". Solitary meditation on Christ’s Passion and redemption, on one’s own death, the Last Judgment, heaven, and hell was essential.<ref name=hand>[http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/diptych/assets/diptych_bro.pdf Hand, John Oliver. "Prayers and Portraits: Unfolding the Netherlandish Diptych", National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 12 November 2006] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120925003416/http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/diptych/assets/diptych_bro.pdf |date=25 September 2012 }}</ref>

In the course of the 15th century, the Modern Devotion found adherents throughout the Netherlands and Germany. Its precepts were further disseminated in texts such as ''[[The Imitation of Christ]]'' by [[Thomas à Kempis]], which reached an increasingly literate public. In this context small works of art such as diptychs that provided a focus for private worship enjoyed wide popularity.<ref name=hand/>