Friday, September 30, 2016

the lens grows darker: late September 2016

It is widely acknowledged that there is one person in the US driving the discussion of public issues through as many least common denominators as he can find. Many times before he has shown this habit, but recently the Republican nominee has increasingly resorted to forms of dishonest rhetoric in order to support his personal claims. The problem with this of course is that anyone who knows about fractions, or factions, knows that there is only one number found in or common to all denominators - even if it may not be counted. And that is one. Anyone can have an opinion. But if the basis for the opinion are merely a tissue of lies and misppropriations, then it becomes the problem of that audience, then who repeats them. Donald Trump keeps telling people he won the first round of Presidential Debates with Hillary Clinton. The overwhelming consensus is that he clearly did not.
The press disagrees with that assessment partly because their credibility has been called into question. Not the least over how Trump has seemingly sucked the air out of the collective media exposure of his tactics, since the summer of last year. He repeats a lie until others are repeating it too. Then the 'issue' is either a 'scandal' or, just another 'two-sided' disagreement. The facts, what is really happening, in turn, gets ignored as 'less interesting'. People become unaware of what is actually happening and, react instead to another orchestrated scandal. (Today, it is over the nominee's 3AM tweets attacking Alicia Machado, a former Miss Universe winner, who accused the nominee of mental abuse after her win. Irrationally, in order to discredit her, he then invited his followers to watch a fake sex tape that didn't involve her.) There's been such a scandal, or two, or three, or more, every week since Trump started running for President. One example is that Trump doesn't seem to understand the US had an embargo against Cuba, for over fifty years. Another is that he doesn't seem to understand how a charitable foundation, that is, his charitable foundation functions.

It's alarming how so many people can't seem to get enough of the petty scandals and outrageous pychopathic behaviors.

But it seems even Congress has a difficult time understanding the gravity of their actions.

A graphic with the last date that people can register to vote has been circulating.

It is common knowledge these days that 'lack of education', in addition to 'poverty' makes these problems worse. But there is even disagreement on what that means, and less agreement on what to do about it. There is a problem with the shrinking middle class in the US as well.
Also, in the US more people feel that this is happening:

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Thursday, September 22, 2016

Queen Isabella of Castile & the Cortes of Madrigal: 1476

Castile was the most populous Spanish realm when Isabella and Ferdinand came to power. After the War of Succession in 1476, they immediately held a great council, the Cortes of Madrigal, that very year in April. For decades Greater Spain and Castile in particular had suffered internal civil wars and constant waves of anarchy and corruption. With this new arrangement and those reorganizations that followed later, Isabella formed at first a solid grasp on the region that grew in time to a tight control over the breadth of Castilian lands. The formation of a workable system had to be established first and order needed to be restored. This took time, but within just a few years and, by a number of careful selections, a broad framework for order could flourish.

The cities and towns of Castile all had different histories. They all had their own memory of who had taken whom and whose allegiance was due, or not. The monarchy wanted greater royal supremacy and stronger, more effective control over Castile as a whole. 
"... the walled cities and towns which dotted the Castilian landscape had many of the characteristics of city states and enjoyed a high degree of independence of the Crown. Established one after another during the southward march of the Reconquista, they had been given their own fueros or charters of liberties by generous kings, and had been liberally endowed with vast areas of communal land, which extended their jurisdiction far into the surrounding countryside and served to meet the bulk of their expenses. Their charters gave them the right to form a general assembly or concejo, which was ordinarily composed of the heads of families (vecinos), and which chose each year the various municipal officials." [p. 93]
Judicial officials were called alcaldes, and below them were large numbers of regidores, local police officers. There were also escribano, who kept the municipal registers. These were the long-standing traditional arrangements baked in to the broader culture over centuries. But even these, and often too, in many places, these local officials werethen  replaced with the Santa Hermandad and corregidor by Isabella and Ferdinand. Established during the Cortes of Madrigal in 1476, these were the reestablishment of a particular order of men used for 'security'.
"The Hermandad combined in itself the functions of a police force and of a judicial tribunal. As a police force, its task was to suppress brigandage and to patrol the roads and countryside. Every town and village was expected to provide its quota of troops, at the rate of one horseman to every hundred householders."
...
"If the malefactor was caught by the Hermandad he was also likely to be tried by it, for the tribunals of the Hermandad enjoyed complete jurisdiction over certain carefully specified classes of crimes -- robbery, murder, and arson... together with rape, housebreaking and acts of rebellion ...". [p. 87]
These often inflicted terrible punishments to offenders. The desired effect achieved was an overall suppression of disruptive crime and disorder. There was widespread revolt at thier tactics, but they remained useful through the recapture of Granada in 1492 and weren't entirely disbanded until 1498.

There is the sure certainty of 20-20 hindsight here in the ripe summation that Elliott offers us in taking leave of one topic and turning to another. There was much violence and tumult to quell and other old institutions needed reworking, as well. No single way forward was assured success.
"The organization of the Hermandad was therefore essentially a temporary expedient devised to deal with an acute national emergency. The year... saw another move by the Crown to reassert its authority over the magnates...  the mastership of the powerful Order of Santiago." [p. 88]
The Orders were traditional medieval institutions. As groups of (at least nominally) ordained soldiers with their own traditions, offices, and hierarchies, they served both Church and Crown. In Castile, certain members of the prominent Orders - Elliott lists those of Santiago, Calatrava and Alcantara - held vast tracts of land and could count on thousands of vassals serving them. Similar in practice to so many princes in German lands and beyond, they fought with each other over principle and prestige, the confiscation of goods or revenue streams.  Some kind of control over the leaders, at least, of these 'states within states' by the Crown could certainly help unify central Spain.

When news arrived (also in 1476) that the Grand Master of the Order of Santiago had died, Isabella raced on horseback to Udes where the Council of the Order had gathered to choose a successor. Once there she insisted on a suspension of the hearing, and for her husband King Ferdinand to be named the new Grand Master. Later, Elliott tells us Ferdinand demurred, but the precedent was set. When in 1487 and 1494 the same office of the other Orders fell vacant, they sent representatives asking for royal permission.

In this same time, the Crown drew more and more of these gigantic revenue streams for their own use. Between the three Orders they controlled 183 different encomienda, or 'commanderies',  with combined annual rents of 145,000 ducats. In addition, with the numerous offices and officers (some 1500 and more) in these Orders, a rich store of potential dignitaries therein could be individually encouraged and, in time, selected from. This would go a long way toward ensuring regal control in all the districts. [p. 89]

Another form of controlling the many magnates came in the decisions ironed out during the 1480 Council of Toledo. As sovereign entities they also felt they needed a stronger hand in the operation of governmental activities. The Consejo Real, the old royal Council of Castile also needed refashioning, and for more than just money streams.

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J.H. Elliott: Imperial Spain 1469-1716 : Penguin, NY, 2002
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Excerpted Lives of Katherine Hughen & Wibbe Arnts: Modern Devotion, Basic Writings

A couple more quick sketches of lives spent in devotion under direction at those Houses in Holland here. The more of these the better, yes, as they act like tiny windows on individual lives, long ago. Still, the existence of these texts themselves shed light on what these houses thought memorable and noteworthy. They clearly thought these were people worth remembering: the forebears and former 'sisters' in this particular House of Devotion. And with just a few, poles of activity and the personalities and their roles, a view on how a house could operate also comes into view, so there should be a few. All are translated by John Van Engen and available for purchase in a sharp book by the Paulist Press.

These two snapshots are of older women who perhaps saw the earliest Houses of 'sisters' in their earliest years. But both were older by the time they entered their devotional practices in these separated spiritual spaces, both stayed there for years and both died about the same time. One was Sister Wibbe Arnts.
"Good sister Wibbe [d. 1412] used to take care of the inner courtyard of our house, and this was her office. She did this humbly; it was her way of turning herself to our dear Lord. She was an elderly sister and had lived here a long time, but she walked about simply and plainly as if she were a young sister. She was a plain and simple creature by nature, and she turned to our dear Lord in this same way. She was never sharp or complaining, and was never heard talking or murmuring about the things her superiors had charged or ordered. She did the work charged to her very devoutly and was at peace with it, allowing things to go up and down just as God and her superiors wished. She also spurred others on, according to their abilities." [pp. 126-7]
Another sister Katherin Hughen had died the year before and had come to join the others already after the age of fifty.
"She was an ardent and devout person and took pains  -- because she had entered the Lord's vineyard in her eleventh hour -- to give herself all the more ardently to the virtues, for she had spent her time in the world foolishly." [p. 126]
The word ardent comes up frequently in these encomia. It was indeed a mark of high praise in these houses. Van Engen tells us in his introduction that ardent (in both the English and Latin use) referred to an inner fire or glow.
"Every brother or sister who had caught the spark, whose inner life was moved with desire toward God and goodness, was described as "ardent" or "kindled" or "fervent". The New Devout looked for that glow, for that inner radiance, that inner light, marking a heart now folllowing down the path of the new devotion with intensity, with "fire."" [p. 34]
In this new place, in her ardent reaction to her former 'worldly foolishness', Katherine,  "... tried.. to retrieve twice as much:"
"Just as earlier she had served the world with everything that was in her, so now she served our dear Lord with everything that was in her. She had once lived with people who were great in the world's eyes, and there she had grown accustomed to much worldliness and done all to serve her own pleasure. But when she came to join the sisters, she converted herself wholly to God and gave herself over to great humility and lowliness, as if she neither had nor had ever had great possessions in the world. For she saw what she had done and therefore counted nothing as what she now did in turn. Because she had joined fully in the idle pleasures of this world, she possessed all kinds of beautiful jewelery; this she brought along and gave to our dear Lady, or elsewhere as there was need." [p. 126]
It would be interesting to find out how Katherine Hughen in her pursuit of 'idle pleasure' in those days (c. 1370-1400) could acquire so many 'kinds of beautiful jewelery'.  Also interesting would be the chain of events that led her to enter into such a modern devotion instead of the other many canonical houses. This move would possibly be away from courtlife, or the gambling houses and brothels, or even, any of the other leading abbeys and Houses with Canoninc Orders.  The question of why and how the chain of events of her conversion to such a House and toward this form of practice scratches at the imagination. While the record is silent on these matters, a spare clue is given.

"She was very loyal to our house. Because she wanted so very much that the sisters should receive her earthly possessions, she held on so powerfully in her final illness that she nearly died without the holy sacrament." [p. 126]
Were these houses or their practitioners taxed? What rights did she have over her earthly possessions when she died? Why did this matter at this time? Why was this matter, even for these worldly renouncing sisters, seemingly so important? It's hard to answer these basic questions from so far away.

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John Van Engen: Devotio Moderna, Basic Writings ; Classics of Western Spirituality, Paulist Press, New York, 1988


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Thursday, September 15, 2016

Bembo Shows Venice Most Willing For War Over Pisa: Fall 1496

The official view from Venice was that the City had been playing its role in the recovery of Pisa. At last coming to agreement to do something, they agreed to build more ships, and as the summer wore out, to send plenty of gold and troops and envoys out into the field. There were the discussions with Maximillian, then on Italian soil, with details of his perambulations closely following Burchard's own. But tensions were rife as this anecdote from Bembo's History of Venice shows. 

Bembo implies that it was while the King was at Vigevano that the discussions with the Pisans were had, and that there was some sort of impasse. [iii,54] But for him as well, it also seems that when word came that Venice was willing to take a more prominent role in protecting Pisa, and the money came in, Maximillian then resolved at last to actually go help the Pisans. Word came out that Max would go first through Tortona on his way to Genoa and there board ship in a fleet to approach Pisa, via Livorno (Leghorn) its port. 

The scene quickly tumbles into view. Florence had its partisans, to be sure, but all Florentines (with or against the current Council) could point to Pisa as being their traditional protectorate. And it was the French who had liberated it from the de'Medici faction, only lately previously in power in Florence. So, for those remaining as Florentine partisans, it seemed, Pisa should naturally fall under Florentine rule. The Pisans as they repeatedly told all, wanted to find some way to maintain their independence from all callers. Yet, Venice would say, that's not what was told to them.
"At Tortona, the following incident occurred. Meeting by chance on the street two Florentine ambassadors who had come to Maximillian, the Venetian ambassadors greeted them, but got not a word in return as the Florentines continued on their way in an ill-bred and haughty manner. Meeting again the next day, they would not give way to the Venetian ambassadors, but practically jostled them with their retinue in an arrogant manner. Morosini, who had a face of remarkable dignity and was very strongly built, cried, "Learn to give way to your betters!" and gave one of them such a push that he fell over in the mud."
Then after this exchange, almost as an afterthought or a conclusion, this additional transaction was (quite a bit) more simply spelled out.
"As he reached Genoa from Tortona, Maximilian asked to be given the Genoese citadel. When his request was refused, he left the town the next day and spent a number of days in the outskirts preparing his fleet." [iii,55]
It would not be until October that Maximiliian would actually make his approach to Livorno. When soon after a French and Florentine fleet arrived full of grain and troops, Bembo says it was a Venetian ship that drew off the French captain's ship, while Maximillian retreated in the hail of explosions and cannon fire.
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from Pietro Bembo: History of Venice; edited and translated by Robert W Ulery, Jr.; in english and latin, for The I Tatti Renaissance Library; by The President and Fellows of Harvard College, USA 2007
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Thursday, September 8, 2016

news late summer 2016

The constant churn of disasters all over still leaves survivors to sort it all out. Ten thousand refugees were rescued in the Mediterranean in a 36-hour period at the end of August.
Fires in Spain and California, earthquakes in Italy and Oklahoma, and floods elsewhere accumulate, as do great mounds of hail on top of terrible earthquakes in New Zealand, and snow in Montana. The celebration of the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London seems an odd thing to celebrate.

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Why is is it that for eighteen months current US policy is to help Saudi Arabia bomb Yemen?
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Some ask if GLOBO Brasil's primary news source isn't partly to blame for their change in government this summer. Already the same media reports bonfires over their new temporary president after last week's impeachment vote ousting President Dilma Roussef.
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Many Americans are deeply concerned about water and land rights. This looks big from here people.
Obama went to Asia, and assuredly sealed a deal with China over the environment,
but his TPP trade plan has problems.
Back in session the US Congress has work to do.

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We lost another couple legends last week. In addition to the wonderful Gene Wilder, we also lost longtime recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder.

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Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Johann Burchard, Diary Digest: Afield in Lombardy, Aug-Sep 1496

Johann Burchard wrote many details of ceremonies and interactions in his official capacity as the master of ceremonies for the papal court in Rome. The office was appointed and he served under several popes. He also travelled overland and wrote of those activities. On a Saturday at the end of July 1496 Burchard was sent, 'on order of the pope',  north from Rome after Cardinal Carvajal, the pope's legate. Burchard met up with the Cardinal 'on Sunday before dinner at one of the inns of Otricoli', a couple days after the legate had left Rome. The details of the following itineraries and the arrangements for meetings of such notable persons - and who should decide what - reveals both physical exposition but cultural explanations as well in a multipolar world.

"We eventually reached Milan on August 24th, and there the legate attended various services and ceremonial functions during the next two or three days. On Sunday, August 28th, he rode out with the Duke of Milan and the ambassadors that were present to the monastery of the Augustinian nuns, whose abbess was the duke's sister, although she was of illegitimate birth, and where there were about a hundred and thirty nuns following the Rule."
This may have been Bianca Francesca Sforza (1448-1516), abbess at Santa Monica in Cremona, some miles southeast of Milan. This off-hand remark by Burchard connecting Ludovico Sforza's half-sister with the abbey outside Milan, by itself, shows so much. The previous couple years this Lombard region of north Italy, had been full of threats of, rumors of, and evidence of, wars and battles. In running an abbey, it was especially the sister to the local Duke Ludovico (who continued to be instrumental in fomenting, prolonging and often worsening affairs), who had to be selective on who she might let in. As I wonder what duties she might have running such a place, one also wonders how many other sisters were employed detailing the arrangements affording accomodation there to the many dignitaries and emissaries and thir attendants and horsemen and so on. Heirs of nobles, and often the 'illegitimate' heirs especially, would be sent, fulfilling in some capacity, and often for a fee to such sequestered, holy orders. Still, even for her place, this daughter of Francesco Sforza had much responsibility.

The next day, Burchard tells us, he received some letters. These detailed the arrival of King Maximillian at Carimate, some miles north of Milan. Reporting this news to the Cardinal, asking if there was any other service he might offer, the cardinal 'was most pleased' to send Burchard off in his capacity of legatine ambassador to meet with the King's group, and, 'in accordance with the instructions sent by Cardinal Piccolomini'.
"The legate commissioned me to speak plainly and suitably about everything that need not be concealed from the Duke of Milan, who thereafter arranged for my journey by placing me in the care of his chamberlain. The latter arranged for me to be provided with hospitality and all other necessities in Carimate, which I reached that same evening at about seven o'clock, only to find that there was no time then to have an audience with the king and that my accomodation was not yet available."
So, Burchard retreated 'under protection of the duke's chamberlain' to another nearby town named Lentate where they spent the night. The info he might keep from the Duke of Milan while being protected by the Duke's chamberlain, refers to agreements and arrangements the pope wanted to send to Maximillian but without the Duke of Milan's knowledge. It wasn't until later that Burchard would be able to do this. The next day there was a meeting at Carimate. Burchard paid his due respects, 'as a servant should', and immediately began discussing precedence, and who should sit next to whom.
"Properly speaking, His Majesty's place should be next to the legate, and this I had to explain to him at the same time as I pointed out what the difference was between a crowned Emperor and the King of the Romans." [p. 123]
The German lords present agreed that the legate could sit at the left of the King since the King already 'held the full powers of imperial administration'. After all, the distinction that Maximiliian Habsburg, King of the Romans desired, to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor, could only be bestowed by the pope. Pope Alexander VI had offered this possibility in exchange for helping in keeping the French out of Italy. Abruptly, Burchard turns from his narrative to retrace his steps, telling details of how difficult matters had been for him on this trip in exercising what he saw was his correct duties.

It is possible Burchard had a difficult time of these exchanges. This may have had to do with his sense of the importance of his office, - that's how he writes about it - also recognizing the importance of the issues at stake, and showing he wanted things to be done in a procedurally sound way. But he wasn't negotiating, or persuading. He was there almost perfunctorily to explain the order of things, literally the precedence of persons, and the distinction of a king's own station, to his face, upon first meeting. Burchard had done this before, and back in Rome usually (like with the French King Christmas week two years back), but not before this king or these chamberlains and other attendants, so far afield like this.

Burchard returned that afternoon (Aug30) to report back to Cardinal Carvajal. His group then left for Monza on the way to meet up with Max at Carimate. There he was given orders by the legate and the duke to leave before dawn next day and return to Carimate and the King carrying the proposed itinerary and timetable for the arrival and meeting of the legate with Max. That night, Burchard notes, 'if I remember rightly', he slept in a nearby public inn, the Campana.

Before dawn, Burchard had saddled up and returned to Carimate, where he learned that the King 'had not yet breakfasted' and could 'give no audience', but that the papers could be sent ahead. Later, he received word that the legate and the duke should go to Meda in order to meet up with the King there. This message was returned to the duke and the legate whereupon they agreed to all the king's requests. All these goings and comings to ensure that their eventual meeting could be worked out smoothly, shows how high the degree of respect that each wanted to pay to the other. The actual physical approach of one to the other, and who should dismount, and how the legate should then pay his respects to the mounted King, etc. are details that Burchard most dutifully explains.

"They thereupon continued to Meda to wait for the king, and they joined the Duchess of Milan and her ladies-in-waiting who had arrived in three carriages. King Maximillian then appeared with about two hundred cavalry, and he was met by the legate, the duke and the duchess. On reaching the legate, the king dismounted and embraced him, and all four together went into an inner room. The legate presented the apostolic letter to the king who, receiving it, handed it on to his secretary to open and read. This was done publicly, after which the legate spoke some suitable words about the commission given him by His Holiness, and blessed the king according to his authority whilst they remained seated on their thrones, together with the duke and duchess, and the envoys standing around." [p. 126]
Maximillian had a prepared response written out and delivered by his secretary 'in a finely-composed, polished Latin'. A local nobleman's villa had been prepared to receive the king, the duke, the legate and the various councillors, and this is where they then went and spent the afternoon. Later, when the king retired again to Carimate, the duke, duchess and the legate returned to Monza. And the following day (Sep 1) they went on to Milan. By Sunday they had again gone on to another villa, by boat and on horse to Vigevano, situated between Milan and Novarra to the west. There the group spent most of September receiving many dignitaries from all over, including Spain, Venice, Naples and Florence.
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Johann Burchard: At The Court of the Borgia translated for english, with introduction by Geoffrey Parker, The Folio Society, Ltd, 1963



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Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Florence, Of Rome and France: Portrait From Weinstein's "Savonarola", II

Continuing to look at the picture of Florence in Donald Weinstein's modern, clear-eyed account of that city's famous Friar Savonarola one must look at the relationship that Florence had with its Church, its Archbishop, its relations with Rome, as well as its internal politics. Despite the effects of the great plague, the numerous revolutions, assassinations, more than a few wars, and much internal conflict among families and between classes, the city's reputation still today retains a glow of freshness, virtue and even a sort of sanctity. This following gloss of quotes and barest context can only hint at the ongoing push and pull, over centuries.
"Building Florence was a collaborative effort involving government, clergy, aristocrats, wealthy gildsmen, skilled artisans, and laborers, and the sense of communal - if often fractious - participation and accomplishment remained a fundamental part of the Florentine republican identity. Important contributions to the urban landscape were the Dominican, Franciscan, and other mendicant friars who had begun arriving in the second quarter of the thirteenth century.... The mendicants were keen to depict the lives of their founders and saints on church doors, walls, windows, chapels, and crypts. Bishops and civic officials affixed their motifs and family crests.... Humbler parishioners contributed their pennies for candles and donated their labor." [p. 44]
Behind much of this, for centuries, lay the struggles between Guelf and Ghibelline factions. Owing allegiance to either the Pope in Rome or the Emperor and his allies, respectively, these parties had various familial and artisanal adherents, which over time would fluctuate.
"The control of Florence alternated between Ghibelline and Guelf until 1293 when a new set of ordinances established the principle of representation by occupation rather than party."
Only male citizens, enrolled in a guild, wealthy enough to pay certain taxes and enjoy the scrutiny of their peers (seduti) could be selected for administrative offices or deciding councils. The 'banking guilds, wool and silk merchants, lawyers, doctors, notaries and master craftsmen' were eligible. Names of these were drawn up, voted by lot, and, for varying councils and for varying lengths of time, these individuals would rule, temporarily. Until the next vote or revolution.
"Terms of service were strictly limited.... Members of the lesser gilds, journeymen, and gild-ineligible wage laborers (popolo minuto) ... were excluded as were members of the old landed aristocracy (magnati).
The Ordinances of Justice of 1293 were the Magna Carta of Florence's gild republic. With some adjustments they remained in force, at least formally, until the sixteenth century."
The Guelf party and its ties to Rome and its interests remained central to government and economics.
"The Guelf Party possessed great tax-exempt wealth and exercised conspicuous ceremonial, charitable, and honorific functions, such as the conferring of the title of knight, a dignity much prized in this society of merchants."
Long after the conflicts between the Guelf and Ghibelline parties were over, it was the descendants of the Guelfs that felt they were the caretakers of this Republican Florence. [p.45]

In the view of Giovanni Villani (the Chronicler of Florence until he died of the plague in 1348),
"...Florence's Roman-Guelf legacy stood for republican government, prosperity, and the charity and culture of her citizens, not territorial aggrandizement." 
The City was self-aware of her chosen alliance and wanted to nurture that image. It could see itself as both devoted to and prized by both Rome and France. As patrons, protectors, customers and even sometimes, foes, the City and its people could highlight different aspects.
"Writers forged a new version of Florence's history, reworking the old myth of Florence, the daughter of Rome, heir to Rome's imperial mission. In the second half of the thirteenth century a pseudo-prophecy of France's origin predicted that a King named Charles would rule the empire, reform the Church, and conquer the infidel in the East, uniting the world into one sheepfold under a single shepherd (Ezekiel 37.24)...."
In the following century that myth was reworked again into a closer relation with France. For Villani that extended to Charlemagne himself, perhaps the best known of Holy Roman Emperors, rebuilding Florence in his time, [p.46]

In the plague years, Florence and the church would fight a war over competing interests in southern Tuscany. Again, Florence would reassert its rights even after more internal revolution between the classes, and again politically, the ottimati would land on top of things. Within fifty years, the leading civic humanist of the day, Leonardo Bruni could tell Florentines that their city was built by the Roman people, and that they were the lord and leader of the world. [p.47] It was in this environment that the De'Medici family came to prominence as eminent bankers. Through the fifteenth century their influence and power grew across Europe but particularly in self-aware Florence.
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quotes and pagination in Donald Weinstein: Savonarola: the rise and fall of a renaissance prophet , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2011
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Excerpted Life of Fye Vreysen, c.1430-54: Modern Devotion, Basic Writings

A collection of brief lives and remembrances of sisters of 'houses' that practiced some measure of that 'modern devotion' found in Holland and thereabouts in the fifteenth century. They are excerpts of individual lives, there will be a few. All are translated by John Van Engen and available for purchase in a sharp book by the Paulist Press.

This one, a former adherent, was a nice girl. But, one time, she went off with some friends and never came back. She also appears as one of the last of sixty-seven lives in a middle Dutch collection that Van Engen found and drew on for his translations. This collection, he says in his introduction, was found in the Deventer Archives but belonged to the canonesses at Frenswegen around 1480. He says there must have been an original produced around 1456, now lost. The author was probably another unknown sister. These lives must have been living in a House of Master Geert Grote set up in the later 1300's. The story concludes with ruminations on those found and lost.
"Sister Fye Vreysen (d. 1454) Good sister Fye did not work long for the penny of eternal life, because she was quite young when she died and lived here about six years. By nature she was friendly and personable. She put herself out remarkably to serve the sisters where she could, and used often to take work out of the hands of the older sisters -- and so quickly that when one thought to do it she already had it done. Yet she used to think she was the laziest of all and to lament that. Because she was so loving and ever ready to serve, she was loved by all the sisters. She spent most of her time in the workhouse, where she proved herself so well suited that everyone was glad to work alongside her. If she was next to someone who seemed not so strong, she often did much of the work for her, and then acted so kindly and friendly as if someone had done it all rather for her. No one ever heard her complain or grumble that she thought something was too much or anything of that sort. ...
But she was still young and had not visited much in the world, and the flesh and the devil and the world can prove very distracting from the good. She would probably have gladly been something in the world, which also distracts from a good will and a firm resolution. The result was that after she returned to the house she never again had the same love for this way of life. She became progressively sick in the body and declined from day to day until she finally died. 
We have said this to point out that we should be very careful and anxious about going often to spend time with our worldly friends, who have no taste for the things that belong to the spirit of God. We should not fall into a passion or displeasure if on occasion a superior denies us the right to go off somewhere to please our nature. They often perceive things unknown to us, and see that almost nothing is so harmful to us as frequent visits with our worldly friends, especially those who have sunk the roots of their hearts into the love of this world and hold nothing greater than temporal well-being. To go around much with such people... is nothing other than a kind of sweet poison or drink of death... and unworthy of the kingdom of God. ... For the spiritual things in which they should be enveloped have no taste for them, and that which would give them pleasure according to the flesh they cannot get. They are therefore like those who sit uncertainly between two tables and fail to get enough from either." [pp. 131-2]
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John Van Engen: Devotio Moderna, Basic Writings ; Classics of Western Spirituality, Paulist Press, New York, 1988
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