Johan Wessel
Encyclopedia
Wessel Harmensz Gansfort (1419 – October 4, 1489) was a theologian and early humanist
of the northern Low Countries
. Many variations of his last name are seen and he is sometimes incorrectly called Johan Wessel.
Gansfort has been called one of the reformers before the Reformation
. He protested against a perceived paganizing
of the papacy, superstitious and magic
al uses of the sacrament
s, the authority of ecclesiastical tradition, and the tendency in later scholastic theology to lay greater stress, in a doctrine of justification
, upon the instrumentality of the human will than on the work of Christ for man's salvation.
in whose house the young student lived. He developed close ties with the monastery of Mount St. Agnes
not far from Zwolle
, where Thomas a Kempis
was then living.
His sixteenth-century biographer Albertus Hardenberg, who knew Gansfort's one-time famulus Goswinus van Halen, writes that Gansfort left Zwolle directly for Cologne, perhaps as late as 1449. At Cologne he stayed in the Bursa Laurentiana, where he soon became a teacher. He was granted the degree magister artium in 1452, and remembers with great gratitude that it was here that he first studied Plato. He learned Greek
from monks who had been driven out of Greece
, and Hebrew
from some Jews. He was particularly interested in the spiritual theology of Rupert von Deutz, and he scoured local Benedictine libraries for works related to this devotion.
and the nominalists
in Paris
induced him to go to that city, where he remained for sixteen years as a scholar and teacher. There, he eventually took the nominalist side, prompted as much by his mystical anti-ecclesiastical tendencies as by any metaphysical
insight; for the nominalists were then the anti-papal
party. A desire to know more about humanism sent him to Rome
, where in 1470 he was the intimate friend of Italian scholars and under the protection of Cardinal
s Bessarion and Francesco della Rovere (general of the Franciscan
order and afterwards Pope Sixtus IV
). It is said that Sixtus would have gladly made Wessel a bishop
, but that he had no desire for any ecclesiastical preferment but rather asked for a Hebrew Old Testament. This he took to Groningen, where he studied the text aloud to the bemusement of his fellow monks. Among the exegetical insights which the Hebrew text afforded him were:
From Rome, Wessel returned to Paris and speedily became a famous teacher, gathering round him a band of enthusiastic young students, among whom was Reuchlin. In 1475, he was at Basel
and, in 1476, at Heidelberg
, teaching philosophy
in the university. As old age approached, he grew to dislike the theological strife of scholasticism and turned away from that university discipline, non studia sacrarum literarum sed studiorum commixtae corruptiones. After thirty years of academic life he returned to his native Gröningen, and spent the rest of his life partly as director of the Olde Convent, a sister convent of the Order of Tertiaries, and partly in the convent of St. Agnes at Zwolle. He was welcomed as the most renowned scholar of his time, and it was fabled that he had travelled through all lands, Egypt
as well as Greece, gathering everywhere the fruits of all sciences. To his friends, disciples and admirerers he imparted his rhetorical spirituality, a zeal for higher learning and the deep devotional spirit which characterized his own life. He died on October 4, 1489, with the confession on his lips: "I know only Jesus
the crucified". He was buried in the middle of the choir of the church of the Olde Convent, which stood on what is now called the Rode Weeshuistraat but at the time was known as the Straat van de Geestelijke Maagden, whose director he had been.
in 1614 considered Wessel Gansfort one of their intellectual predecessors, together with Rudolph Agricola (1444-1485) and Regnerus Praedinius (1510-1559). Early editions of works by Gansfort (e.g. Zwolle 1522, Basel 1523, Groningen 1614, Marburg 1617) on their title page call him the learned light of the world (Lux mundi).
There are also:
Several of his letters survive. Some his works are said to have been burned by his friends shortly after his death for fear of ecclesiastical inquisition.
A complete edition of his works appeared at Groningen in 1614, including a biography by the protestant preacher Albert Hardenberg
.
Humanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
of the northern Low Countries
Low Countries
The Low Countries are the historical lands around the low-lying delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers, including the modern countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and parts of northern France and western Germany....
. Many variations of his last name are seen and he is sometimes incorrectly called Johan Wessel.
Gansfort has been called one of the reformers before the Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
. He protested against a perceived paganizing
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
of the papacy, superstitious and magic
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
al uses of the sacrament
Sacrament
A sacrament is a sacred rite recognized as of particular importance and significance. There are various views on the existence and meaning of such rites.-General definitions and terms:...
s, the authority of ecclesiastical tradition, and the tendency in later scholastic theology to lay greater stress, in a doctrine of justification
Justification (theology)
Rising out of the Protestant Reformation, Justification is the chief article of faith describing God's act of declaring or making a sinner righteous through Christ's atoning sacrifice....
, upon the instrumentality of the human will than on the work of Christ for man's salvation.
Early life and education
Gansfort was born at Groningen. After initial schooling at the local Latin school of St Martin's, he was educated at the municipal school of Zwolle, which was closely connected to the Brethren of the Common LifeBrethren of the Common Life
The Brethren of the Common Life was a Roman Catholic pietist religious community founded in the 14th century by Gerard Groote, formerly a successful and worldly educator who had had a religious experience and preached a life of simple devotion to Jesus Christ...
in whose house the young student lived. He developed close ties with the monastery of Mount St. Agnes
Saint Agnes
Agnes of Rome is a virgin–martyr, venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, and Lutheranism. She is one of seven women, excluding the Blessed Virgin, commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass...
not far from Zwolle
Zwolle
Zwolle is a municipality and the capital city of the province of Overijssel, Netherlands, 120 kilometers northeast of Amsterdam. Zwolle has about 120,000 citizens.-History:...
, where Thomas a Kempis
Thomas à Kempis
Thomas à Kempis was a late Medieval Catholic monk and the probable author of The Imitation of Christ, which is one of the best known Christian books on devotion. His name means, "Thomas of Kempen", his home town and in German he is known as Thomas von Kempen...
was then living.
His sixteenth-century biographer Albertus Hardenberg, who knew Gansfort's one-time famulus Goswinus van Halen, writes that Gansfort left Zwolle directly for Cologne, perhaps as late as 1449. At Cologne he stayed in the Bursa Laurentiana, where he soon became a teacher. He was granted the degree magister artium in 1452, and remembers with great gratitude that it was here that he first studied Plato. He learned Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
from monks who had been driven out of Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, and Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
from some Jews. He was particularly interested in the spiritual theology of Rupert von Deutz, and he scoured local Benedictine libraries for works related to this devotion.
Work
Interest in the disputes between the realistsModerate realism
Moderate realism is a position in the debate on the metaphysics of universals which holds that there is no realm in which universals exist , nor do they really exist within the individuals as universals, but rather universals really exist within the particulars as individualised, and multiplied...
and the nominalists
Nominalism
Nominalism is a metaphysical view in philosophy according to which general or abstract terms and predicates exist, while universals or abstract objects, which are sometimes thought to correspond to these terms, do not exist. Thus, there are at least two main versions of nominalism...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
induced him to go to that city, where he remained for sixteen years as a scholar and teacher. There, he eventually took the nominalist side, prompted as much by his mystical anti-ecclesiastical tendencies as by any metaphysical
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
insight; for the nominalists were then the anti-papal
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
party. A desire to know more about humanism sent him to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, where in 1470 he was the intimate friend of Italian scholars and under the protection of Cardinal
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
s Bessarion and Francesco della Rovere (general of the Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
order and afterwards Pope Sixtus IV
Pope Sixtus IV
Pope Sixtus IV , born Francesco della Rovere, was Pope from 1471 to 1484. His accomplishments as Pope included the establishment of the Sistine Chapel; the group of artists that he brought together introduced the Early Renaissance into Rome with the first masterpiece of the city's new artistic age,...
). It is said that Sixtus would have gladly made Wessel a bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
, but that he had no desire for any ecclesiastical preferment but rather asked for a Hebrew Old Testament. This he took to Groningen, where he studied the text aloud to the bemusement of his fellow monks. Among the exegetical insights which the Hebrew text afforded him were:
- The idea that God must be addressed as both Father and Mother (based on his reading of Psalm 25:6);
- An analysis that Exodus 3:14, rendered in Latin as "Ego sum qui sum", should be translated as "Ero qui ero" (thereby undermining much of scholastic theology in which God is the supreme Being); and,
- The understanding based upon his reading of Isaiah 8:3 that Christ came not only to save human beings but also the animals.
From Rome, Wessel returned to Paris and speedily became a famous teacher, gathering round him a band of enthusiastic young students, among whom was Reuchlin. In 1475, he was at Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
and, in 1476, at Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
, teaching philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
in the university. As old age approached, he grew to dislike the theological strife of scholasticism and turned away from that university discipline, non studia sacrarum literarum sed studiorum commixtae corruptiones. After thirty years of academic life he returned to his native Gröningen, and spent the rest of his life partly as director of the Olde Convent, a sister convent of the Order of Tertiaries, and partly in the convent of St. Agnes at Zwolle. He was welcomed as the most renowned scholar of his time, and it was fabled that he had travelled through all lands, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
as well as Greece, gathering everywhere the fruits of all sciences. To his friends, disciples and admirerers he imparted his rhetorical spirituality, a zeal for higher learning and the deep devotional spirit which characterized his own life. He died on October 4, 1489, with the confession on his lips: "I know only Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
the crucified". He was buried in the middle of the choir of the church of the Olde Convent, which stood on what is now called the Rode Weeshuistraat but at the time was known as the Straat van de Geestelijke Maagden, whose director he had been.
Reputation and influence
The founders of the Protestant University of GroningenUniversity of Groningen
The University of Groningen , located in the city of Groningen, was founded in 1614. It is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands as well as one of its largest. Since its inception more than 100,000 students have graduated...
in 1614 considered Wessel Gansfort one of their intellectual predecessors, together with Rudolph Agricola (1444-1485) and Regnerus Praedinius (1510-1559). Early editions of works by Gansfort (e.g. Zwolle 1522, Basel 1523, Groningen 1614, Marburg 1617) on their title page call him the learned light of the world (Lux mundi).
Works
Gansfort's major works are:- De oratione et modo orandi
- Scala meditationis
- De causis incarnationis
- De dignitate et potestate ecclesiastica
There are also:
- De providentia
- De causis et effectibus incarnationis et passionis
- De sacramente, poenitentiae
- Quae sit vera communio sanctorum
- De purgatorio
- De sacramento Eucharistiæ et audienda missa
Several of his letters survive. Some his works are said to have been burned by his friends shortly after his death for fear of ecclesiastical inquisition.
- Farrago rerum theologicarum is the title of a collection of his writings published at Zwolle, probably in 1521 (reprinted at WittenbergWittenbergWittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is a city in Germany in the Bundesland Saxony-Anhalt, on the river Elbe. It has a population of about 50,000....
, 1522, and BaselBaselBasel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
, 1522, which last contains a preface by Luther). Martin LutherMartin LutherMartin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
in 1521 published a collection of Wessel's writings which had been preserved as relics by his friends, and said that if he (Luther) had written nothing before he read them, people might well have thought that he had stolen all his ideas from them. McClintock and Strong's Cyclopedia describes Gansfort as "the most important among men of German extraction who helped prepare the way for the Reformation."
A complete edition of his works appeared at Groningen in 1614, including a biography by the protestant preacher Albert Hardenberg
Albert Hardenberg
Albert Hardenberg or Albert Rizaeus was a Reformed theologian, who was also active as a reformer in Bremen and Emden.- Bibliography :...
.