Medieval monasteries in the Netherlands

"The historical development of monastic life in the present-day Netherlands made a late start in comparison with the surrounding countries, though ‘foreign’ abbeys from an early moment possessed immovable goods in the Netherlands, which often were organised in manors (‘courts’). However, the number of monasteries which actually settled in the Netherlands before 1100 was very modest. What are the facts?

In the Carolingian era, a differentiation took place between ‘real’ monasteries demanding the three classical vows of poverty, chastity and obedience from their inhabitants and living according to the rule of St Benedict, and collegiate churches or ‘chapters’ manned by secular canons following the Aachen rule.

The twelfth and thirteenth centuries saw the deployment of the new rural orders of Regular Canons, Cistercians and Premonstratensians, with male and female branches and at least in the beginning also joined by a considerable number of double monasteries. In this development the lead was taken by the Northern provinces as well as the Southwest. 

As far as monks and nuns are concerned, these monasteries were affiliated to the nobility. But they also counted large numbers of converses (lay brothers) who tilled the soil; landed property usually was organised in granges. Characteristic at least for the Regular Canons and the Premonstratensians was their willingness to adopt tasks in the pastoral care in rural parishes. 

In this same period the earliest settlements of the knightly orders in the Netherlands took place, a process in which the Teutonic Order was ahead of the Knights Hospitaller. The early date given to the first commandery of Hospitallers, the one in Utrecht (1122) may be called into doubt. As far as the Teutonic Order is concerned, besides priestly members its Netherlandic bailiwicks also counted knights with a noble background. The commanderies of the Knights Hospitaller were inhabited by priests only. 

The number of settlements of the Knights Templar was restricted to one or two at the most (Alphen and Zaamslag), but this is amply compensated by the miraculous multiplication of Templars in later legend."

The research of Dr Brus, however, has provided many sites, mostly farms, that based on toponyms, historical information and/or folklore may at some time have had a Templar relationship. Several sites have been presented on his website. For example the probable Templar location at De Bijvanck, Beek. 

This blog, apart from the last paragraph, quotes, with minor adaptations, parts of the introduction to the most interesting website Monasteries in the Netherlands until 1800, a census. The illustration shows a detail from Horenbault's drawing of Zaamslag from 1569 (source) with what may be a late sketch of the former Templar commandery in the top left corner. More or less distinguishable are a chapel, a well, a cemetery and a few buildings. The whole corresponds to the image one has of a commandery. The word “spittael” above probable refers to the mid-sixteenth century commandery that was in the hands of the Knights Hospitaller. Their commandery was called “Hospitaal”, in this case “Spittael”. This name referred more to a “guest house” (hospice) than to a “hospital”. If this interpretation is correct, then Horenbault's drawing contains a sketch of the commandery of the Knights Hospitaller of Zaamslag in the sixteenth century. It probably still retained many of the features of the medieval Templar commandery.

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