Apostolate And Printing. The Collaciebroeders Of Gouda And Their Press

Abstract

In oral discourse, Gerrit van der Goude instructed his lay audience about the secrets of the mass, explaining its significance with reference to the suffering of Christ in order to improve the quality of their participation. Lay participation in the mass was one aspect of the intense laical involvement in religious life which characterizes the fifteenth century. The installation of printing presses in brother houses - one could surmise - was a natural extension of the manual writing labour they practised for decades as a kind of apostolate with the pen. The Collaciebroeders printed a modest number of liturgical books. In the 1490s the Brethren produced some letters of indulgence on behalf of the Order of the Holy Trinity. The Dominican convent in Haarlem was one of the oldest of its order in the Northern Low Countries. Keywords: Collaciebroeders ; Dominican convent; Gerrit van der Goude; Haarlem