Hendrik Mande Explained

Hendrik Mande (1350-60 – 1431) was a Dutch mystical writer, an early member of the Brethren of the Common Life, and an Augustinian Canon.

Life

Hendrik Mande was born in Dordrecht, Holland. While serving as a copyist in the court of Count Willem, he heard the preaching of Geert Groote on the Devotio Moderna, a movement seeking a return to an apostolic faith based on piety, humility, obedience, and simplicity of life. Mande became a convert and joined the Brethren of the Common Life, a group devoted to the principles of Devotio Moderna.^[1]

About 1382, he moved to Deventer and then Zwolle, centers for the Brethren of the Common Life. In 1395 he joined the Congregation of Windesheim near Zwolle and became a canon, remaining there the rest of his life. Mande wrote fourteen mystical treatises, such as Book of Revelations (now lost), A Love Complaint (about the absence and inaccessibility of God) and Apocalypse.His works drew heavily on those of Hugh of Saint Victor, Hadewijch and especially John of Ruusbroec.^[2]

References

• F. L. Cross, E. A. Livingstone. eds., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3 rev. ed.), Oxford University Press, 2005.
• John M. Jeep, ed., Medieval Germany: An Encyclopedia, New York: Routledge, 2017.
• Rik Van Nieuwenhove, Robert Faesen, Helen Rolfson, eds., Late Medieval Mysticism of the Low Countries, Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2008.

See also

• Hadewijch
• Hugh of Saint Victor
• Mysticism
• John of Ruusbroec

Notes and References

1. Rik Van Nieuwenhove, Robert Faesen, Helen Rolfson, eds., Late Medieval Mysticism of the Low Countries, Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2008. pp 76-77
2. John M. Jeep, ed., Medieval Germany: An Encyclopedia, New York: Routledge, 2017, p 489