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The Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mary: Devotional Communication and Politics in the Burgundian-Habsburg Low Countries, c. 1490–1520

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 March 2010

SUSIE SPEAKMAN SUTCH  and
ANNE-LAURE VAN BRUAENE
SUSIE SPEAKMAN SUTCH*
Affiliation:
Department of History, Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 35, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
ANNE-LAURE VAN BRUAENE*
Affiliation:
Department of History, Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 35, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
*
E-mail: susiesutch@hotmail.com
E-mail: AnneLaure.VanBruaene@ugent.be
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Abstract

This article discusses the propagation of the devotion of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mary in the Low Countries around 1500. The central argument is that the secular goal of the promoters of the devotion was to create a large spiritual and emotional community in support of the Burgundian-Habsburg dynasty and its ideology of peace and territorial unity. To this end a whole array of old and new media was exploited. The article analyses the dynamics of this devotional communication and gives special attention to the role of miracles, vernacular theatre and the printing press.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 61 , Issue 2 , April 2010 , pp. 252 - 278
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

1 For his biography see Jean-Marie Cauchies, Philippe le Beau, le dernier duc de Bourgogne, Turnhout 2003.

2 W. P. Blockmans, ‘Autocratie ou polyarchie? La lutte pour le pouvoir politique en Flandre, d'après des documents inédits, 1482–92’, Bulletin de la Commission Royale d'Histoire cxl (1974), 257–368; M. J. van Gent, ‘Pertijelike saken’: Hoeken en Kabeljauwen in het Bourgondisch-Oostenrijkse tijdperk, The Hague 1994; Jelle Haemers, ‘ “Ende hevet tvolc goede cause jeghens hemlieden te rysene”: stedelijke opstanden en staatsvorming in het graafschap Vlaanderen, 1477–1492’, unpubl. PhD diss. Ghent 2006.

3 For preliminary insights see Keesman, Wilma, ‘De Bourgondische invloed op de genealogische constructies van Maximiliaan van Oostenrijk’, Millennium viii (1994), 162–72Google Scholar; Catrien Santing, ‘ “I never promised you a rosegarden”: de hofcultuur van Maximiliaan i en de Bourgondische Nederlanden’, in Rita Schlusemann and Paul Wackers (eds), Die spätmittelalterliche Rezeption Niederländischer Literatur im Deutschen Sprachgebiet, Amsterdam–Atlanta 1997, 143–74; Susie Speakman Sutch, ‘Jan Pertcheval and the Brussels Leliebroeders (1490–1500): the model of a conformist rhetoricians chamber?’, in Bart Ramakers (ed.), Conformisten en rebellen: rederijkerscultuur in de Nederlanden (1400–1650), Amsterdam 2003, 95–106; Serge ter Braake and Arjan van Dixhoorn, ‘Engagement en ambitie: de Haagse rederijkerskamer ‘Met Ghenuchten’ en de ontwikkeling van een burgelijke samenleving in Holland rond 1500', Jaarboek voor Middeleeuwse Geschiedenis ix (2006), 150–90; and Anne-Laure Van Bruaene, Om beters wille: rederijkerskamers en de stedelijke cultuur in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden, Amsterdam 2008, 53–76. Maximilian's cultural politics in the Holy Roman Empire have received far more attention. See, among others, Jan-Dirk Müller, Gedechtnus: Literatur und Hofgesellschaft um Maximilian I, Munich 1982.

4 Françoise de Gruben, Les Chapitres de la Toison d'or à l'époque bourguignonne (1430–1477), Louvain 1997, 3–11.

5 Richard C. Trexler, ‘Lorenzo de’ Medici and Savonarola, martyrs for Florence', Renaissance Quarterly xxxi (1978), 293–308; Lorenzo Polizotto, Children of the promise: the Confraternity of the Purification and the socialization of youths in Florence, 1427–1785, Oxford 2004, 53–106.

6 Anne Winston-Allen, Stories of the rose: the making of the rosary in the Middle Ages, Philadelphia 1997, 65–80; Henri Saffrey, Dominique, ‘La Fondation de la Confrérie du Rosaire à Cologne en 1475: histoire et iconographie’, Gutenberg-Jahrbuch (2001), 143–64Google Scholar; Anne Margreet W. As-Vijvers, ‘Weaving Mary's chapelet: the representation of the rosary in late medieval Flemish manuscript illuminations’, in Kathryn M. Rudy and Barbara Baert (eds), Weaving, veiling, and dressing: textiles and their metaphors in the late Middle Ages, Turnhout 2007, 41–79.

7 A very valuable art-historical analysis of the development of the cult of the sorrowing Virgin is Carol Schuler, M., ‘The Seven Sorrows of the Virgin: popular culture and cultic imagery in pre-Reformation Europe’, Simiolus xxi (1992), 5–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also her ‘The sword of compassion: images of the sorrowing Virgin in late medieval and Renaissance art’, unpubl. PhD diss. Columbia 1987. Older, less reliable surveys on the cult's origins are Delehaye, Hypolite, ‘La Vierge aux sept glaives’, Analecta bollandiana xii (1893), 333–52Google Scholar; Stephan Beissel, Geschichte der Verehrung Maria's in Deutschland während des Mittelalters, Freiburg-in-Brisgau 1909, 406–15; Augustin-Marie Lépicier, Mater dolorosa: notes d'histoire, de liturgie et d'iconographie sur le culte de Notre-Dame des Douleurs, Spa 1948; and Émile Bertaud, ‘Douleurs (Notre-Dame des Sept)’, in Dictionnaire de spiritualité, Paris 1937–65, ii. 1686–701.

8 J. Fruytier, ‘Coudenbergh (Jan de)’, in Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek, Leiden 1911–37, vii. 333–4; J. Stellingwerff, ‘Een Vlaamse vredesbeweging uit 1482: een versleten maar uniek manuscript’, in Het oude en het nieuwe boek, de oude en de nieuwe bibliotheek: liber amicorum H. D. L. Vervliet, Kapellen 1988, 63–4.

9 On the icons of Reimerswaal and Abbenbroek see Tim Graas, ‘Verloren gegane Lukas-Madonna's te Reimerswaal en Abbenbroek’, in Christelijke iconografie: opstellen over iconografische aspecten van het Nederlands kerkelijk kunstbezit, The Hague 1990, 12–26.

10 Johannes de Coudenberge, Ortus, progressus et impedimenta fraternitatis beatissime virginis Marie de passione que dicitur de septem doloribus, Antwerp: Michiel Hillen van Hoochstraten, 23 Nov. 1519 (NK 1212). A Dutch translation is available in Jacobus Stratius, Onse L. Vrovwe der seven vveeen: met de mirakelen, getyden, ende misse der selver: insgelycks den oorspronck, ende voortganck der broederschap, Antwerp: Guilliam Lesteens, 1622, 181–263. For a factual account of the development of the Seven Sorrows devotion, based upon the printed sources and upon the Liber authenticus, see Pérégrin-Marie Soulier, La Confrérie de Notre-Dame des Sept Douleurs dans les Flandres, 1491–1519, Brussels [1912], and (less reliable) J. A. F. Kronenburg, Maria's heerlijkheid in Nederland: geschiedkundige schets van de vereering der H. Maagd in ons vaderland, van de eerste tijden tot op onze dagen, Amsterdam 1904–11, ii. 257–79, and Ad. Duclos, De eerste eeuw van het Broederschap der Zeven Weedommen van Maria in Sint-Salvators te Brugge, Bruges 1922.

11 F. De Ridder, ‘De devotie tot O. L. Vrouw van de vii Weeën, haar onstaan’, in Handelingen van het Vlaamsch Maria-Congres te Brussel, 8–11 September 1921: IIe Boekdeel: Maria-vereering, Brussels 1922, 92; J. Fruytier, ‘Verhoeven (Petrus)’, Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek, vii. 1243–4. On the Thabor convent see Ernest Persoons, ‘Prieuré du Mont-Thabor à Malines’, in Monasticon belge, VIII: Province d'Anvers, Liège 1993, ii. 581–9.

12 F. Ridder, De, ‘Brief van Petrus de Manso over de vii Weeën van Maria’, Mechlinia ii (1923), 23–30Google Scholar. See also idem, ‘Petrus de Manso, en de Staties der vii Weeën’, Mechlinia i (1922), 116–22. His ‘De devotie’, 93, and ‘Petrus de Manso’, 118, also refer to De Manso's ties of friendship with Michel François de Lille, but no corroboration of this has been found.

13 The 1492 statutes of the confraternity also invoke the sorrowful times (‘desen droeffeliken tijden’) and the motive of solace as reasons for its establishment. See n. 21 below.

14 Eric Gelaen, De, ‘De gevolgen van de opstand tegen Maximiliaan van Oostenrijk voor het Vlaamse platteland’, Handelingen van de Koninklijke Geschied- en Oudheidkundige Kring van Kortrijk xl (1973), 183–243Google Scholar; Haemers, ‘Ende hevet tvolc’, 500, 504.

15 Herman Pleij, ‘De laatmiddeleeuwse rederijkersliteratuur als vroeg-humanistische overtuigingskunst’, Jaarboek de Fonteine xxxiv (1984), 90.

16 The Treaty of Cadzand was concluded on 29 July 1492.

17 Dit es een seer deuote salige ende profitelicke ghedenckenisse van den vij. weeden oft droefheyden onser lieuer vrouwen, Antwerp: Gheraert Leeu, 14 July 1492 (ILC 888).

18 ‘Ende oec op dat die leeke lieden die niet lesen en konnen/ die personagien aensiende/ hem daer inne oec sullen mogen oefenen// Want die beelden sijn der leecker luden boeken.’

19 The few marks of ownership in the extant copies and the narratives of some of the miracle stories suggest that women formed the privileged audience of the vernacular meditation books: see n. 73 below.

20 De Coudenberge, Ortus, sig. Bir; Stratius, Onse L. Vrovwe, 194–6. On these clerics see Felix Nève, ‘Busleiden (François)’, in Biographie nationale, Brussels 1866–1986, iii. 204–5; E. H. J. Reusens, ‘Franchois (Michel)’, Biographie nationale, vii. 232–4; and André Duval, ‘François, Michel’, Dictionnaire de spiritualité, v. 1107–15.

21 Hier beghint een goede oefeninghe ende een seer deuote meditacye van sonderlinghen vij. ween onser sueter vrouwen ende moeder gods marien, Antwerp: [Gheraert Leeu, 1492] (ILC 887). This text is not dated, but its content and the condition of the woodblocks suggest a publication date after 14 July 1492, when the other Leeu text appeared. In December 1492 Leeu was mortally wounded in a workshop fight. Since both the Ortus and the Quodlibetica (see n. 60 below) are unclear about this point, there has been some discussion about the year of institution of the confraternity: Soulier, La Confrérie, 9; Duclos, De eerste eeuw, 26–7. It is most probable that the establishment of the confraternity and the publication of the statutes more or less coincided: there are no traces of the confraternity before the second half of 1492, and the first Leeu edition does not mention it.

22 Koen Goudriaan, ‘Een drukker en zijn markt: Gheraert Leeu (Gouda 1477–Antwerpen 1492/3)’, Madoc vi (1992), 204. On Maximilian of Austria's relations with the printing press see M. F. Müller, ‘Die Deutsche und Niederländische Druckgraphik in der zweiten Hälfte des 15. Jahrhunderts und die Publikationen Kaiser Maximilians i.’, in Der Aufstieg eines Kaisers: Maximilian I. von seiner Geburt bis zur Alleinherrschaft, 1459–1493 (25. März-2. Juli 2000), Vienna 2000, 133–41.

23 Confraternitas dolorum beatissime virginis marie Autore domino Philippo archiduce austrie duce burgondie brabantie etc. novissime erecta, [Antwerp: Govaert Bac, not before 1493] (ILC 611), sigs b1v–b4v.

24 The book whose incipit reads ‘Hier beghinnen onser lieuer vrouwen ween oft bedroefnissen die si leet ende haers gheminden sone’, [Leiden: Hugo Janszoon van Woerden, 25 May 1498–26 July 1500] (ILC 892) is not a Seven Sorrows but rather a rosary handbook: Schuler, ‘The Seven Sorrows’, 20 n. 56.

25 Van de seuen droefheden ofte weeden Onser lieuer vrouwen, Gouda: Collaciebroeders, 12 Sept. 1494 (ILC 890).The Collaciebroeders appear to have had a close relationship with Gheraert Leeu even after he left Gouda. They likely acquired two of Leeu's types (as well as some of his woodblocks) either as a gift or through a bequest: HPT, i. 88, 93.

26 Vanden seuen droefheden ofte weeden onser lieuer vrouwen, Delft: [Christiaen Snellaert], 17 July 1494 (ILC 889); Van den seuen droefheden ofte weden onser lieuer vrouwen, Delft: [Christiaen Snellaert or Hendrik Eckert van Homberch], 16 Mar. 1497 (ILC 891). The Collaciebroeders' Seven Sorrows manual postdates Snellaert's by only two months. Although their small volume is a reprinting of Leeu's dated 14 July 1492, they imitate Snellaert's by producing a title page that contains a woodcut of the Mater Dolorosa with, above, the title reproducing exactly the same wording that Snellaert had used.

27 Dit is die ghelikenisse vanden beelde van onser lieuer vrouwen ende haren lieuen kinde …, Antwerp: Hendrik Eckert van Homberch, [c. 1501?] (NK 4263).

28 Seven Getijden der passien ons heren met die seven weden onser vrouwen, Delft: Henric Pietersz. Lettersnijder, 12 Dec. 1510 (NK 1002); Ghetijden der passien ons heren Ihesu Christi ende der seven weeden Marien, Delft: [Cornelis Cornelissen, early sixteenth century] (NK 4234). See M. E. Kronenberg, ‘Verzamelband met enige onbekende noord-Nederlandse Postincunabelen’, in Huldeboek Pater Dr. Bonaventura Kruitwagen O. F. M., The Hague 1949, 237–45.

29 Anne Winston, ‘Tracing the origins of the rosary: German vernacular texts’, Speculum xlviii (1993), 619; Saffrey, ‘La Fondation’, 146–51.

30 Winston, Stories of the rose, 67–8; Saffrey, ‘La Fondation’, 149–51.

31 Winston, ‘Tracing the origins’, 629–32.

32 On the confraternities see Kronenburg, Maria's heerlijkheid, iii. 338–44. With the exception of Douai, it is not clear if the first confraternities in the Low Countries (Lille and Ghent) preceded the one in Cologne: Paul Trio, Volksreligie als spiegel van een stedelijke samenleving: de broederschappen te Gent in de late Middeleeuwen, Louvain 1993, 53–5. One of the most prolific printers of the very small illustrated rosary books was Gheraert Leeu who brought out several between 1484 and 1489. He was also responsible for printing both the Latin and Middle Dutch translation of the treatise by François de Lille in defence of the rosary devotion: Quodlibet de veritate fraternitatis rosarij seu psalterij beatae mariae virginis, [Gouda: Gheraert Leeu, 1483–11 June 1484] (ILC 999); Van Marien rosencransken, Gouda: Gheraert Leeu, 9 Mar. 1484 (ILC 1000).

33 Winkelbauer, Walter, ‘Kaiser Maximilian i. und St. Georg’, Mitteilungen des Österreichisches Staatsarchivs vii (1954), 523–50Google Scholar. See Confraternitas sancti Georgij per summum pontificum et inuictissimum romanorum regem approbata, [Antwerp: Govaert Bac, not before 1493] (ILC 1558).

34 Beatrijs Van Vlaenderen, ‘Verhalende bronnen en mentaliteitsgeschiedenis: het voorbeeld van een anonieme, ongedateerde kroniek over de jaren 1477–1482: “Die wonderlijcke oorloghen van Keyser Maximiliaen” ’, Handelingen van de Maatschappij voor Geschiedenis en Oudheidkunde te Gent xxxviii (1984), 67; Jean Devaux, ‘Le Role politique de Marie de Bourgogne au lendemain de Nancy: vérité ou légende?’, Le moyen âge xcvii (1991), 389–405; Cauchies, Philippe le Beau, 25–9.

35 Mireille Madou, ‘Marie et l'héritage de Bourgogne’, in Bruges à Beaune: Marie, l'héritage de Bourgogne, Paris 2000, 104–6.

36 Cauchies, Philippe le Beau, 5–23.

37 This seems to have been one of the reasons for the objections raised against the devotion: see n. 76 below.

38 ‘Lof alder bedruckste moeder ons heeren’: Jan van Stijevoorts refereinenbundel anno 1524, ed. Frederik Lyna and Willem van Eeghem, Antwerp n.d., ii. 228–33, 291 (the final stanza contains the acrostic Maes), and Gilbert Degroote, ‘Diets-Bourgondische letteren te Brussel’, Dietsche Warande en Belfort (1952), 410.

39 Schuler, ‘The Seven Sorrows’, 13–14.

40 Liber authenticus, fo. 29r.

41 Ibid. fo. 29v.

42 On confraternities in the late medieval Low Countries see, among others, Trio, Volksreligie, and Brown, Andrew, ‘Bruges and the Burgundian “theatre-state”: Charles the Bold and Our Lady of the Snow’, History lxxxiv (1999), 573–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

43 The Leeu edition from the second half of 1492 refers on the title page to the chapters in Antwerp, Abbenbroek, Reimerswaal, Leiden and the Thabor convent. On the chapters in the church of Our Lady in Antwerp and in the Thabor convent, which were confirmed later, see also F. Ridder, De, ‘Stichting eener broederschap van OLV van vii Weeën te Antwerpen en te Mechelen: einde der xve eeuw’, Mechlinia iii (1924), 19–21Google Scholar, 74–9. The Antwerp confraternity is in all likelihood the same as the one held in the chapel of St Luke, that was confirmed in 1495 according to the sources of this gild: De liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche Sint Lucasgilde, onder zinspreuk: ‘Wt ionsten versaemt’, ed. Ph. Rombouts and Th. Van Lerius, Antwerp–The Hague n.d., i. 51; Floris Prims, ‘De St. Lucasgilde en de zeven weeën’, Antwerpiensia (1939), 36. On the chapter in the church of St Peter in Leiden see Herman Brinkman, Dichten uit liefde: literatuur in Leiden aan het einde van de Middeleeuwen, Hilversum 1997, 84–7. On the chapter in the church of St Saviour in Bruges (1493) see Duclos, De eerste eeuw. On the chapter in the convent of the Carmelites in Haarlem (before or in 1494) see Liber authenticus, fo. 19r. On the chapter in the church of St Hippolyte in Delft (1503) see G. Verhoeven, Devotie en negotie: Delft als bedevaartplaats in de late middeleeuwen, Amsterdam 1992, 43–50. On the chapter in the church of St Jacob in The Hague (c. 1515) see Stratius, Onse L. Vrovwe, 120–3. On the confraternity in the church of St Géry (1499) see Liber authenticus. On the new confraternities in Malines, respectively in the church of St Rombout (1497–8) and in the church of St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist (1512) see Chan. em. Steenackers, ‘La Confrérie de Notre-Dame des Sept Douleurs à Malines’, Mechlinia vi (1927), 97–103. See also Kronenburg, Maria's heerlijkheid, iv. 440–3 (with also some other, less reliable references).

44 Duclos, De eerste eeuw, 35–7.

45 A. Van de Kerckhove, Geschiedenis van het Koninglyke Broederschap der Zeven Weedommen van Maria, door Philippus I, Koning van Spanien en 31en Graef van Vlaenderen, in St. Salvator's kerk te Brugge ingesteld ten jare 1492, Roeselare 1860, 231–3.

46 Steenackers, ‘La Confrérie’, 99.

47 Reindert Falkenburg, ‘Politiek en propaganda omstreeks 1490’, in Wim van Anrooij (ed.), De Haarlemse gravenportretten: hollandse geschiedenis in woord en beeld, Hilversum 1997, 67–72.

48 For the statutes see Hier beghint een goede oefeninghe.

49 Liber authenticus, fos 161r–223r. This number is comparable with the numbers for the rosary confraternities (Cologne had 8,000 in its first year, Augsburg 3,000): Winston, Stories of the rose, 80. In fact, in 1499, besides a few female and male convents that registered collectively, 1,921 individuals (laymen, laywomen, priests and beguines) took the initiative to be registered together with their living and deceased relatives and friends. Of these 49% were female. In the following years, the numbers were somewhat less impressive with on average 100–600 new members.

50 Rosenwein, Barbara, ‘Review essay: worrying about emotions in history’, American Historical Review cvii (2002), 821–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

51 Schuler, ‘The Seven Sorrows’, 14.

52 For the statutes see Hier beghint een goede oefeninghe.

53 Van Coudenberge alludes to approbation by the Benedictine, Franciscan, Dominican, Carmelite and Augustinian orders: Ortus, sig. Bijv; Stratius, Onse L. Vrovwe, 204–5. Citing copies in the Liber authenticus, Soulier (La Confrérie 19, 27–8), provides translations of the letters patent of the provincial prior and vicar-general of the Carmelites, Jean de Nuys (Liber authenticus, fo. 19r–v) and the master of the Dominicans, Joachim Turriano (Liber authenticus, fo. 13r–v) dated respectively 20 April and 19 December 1494. He cites (p. 36) the letter from the vicar-general of the observant Franciscans, Olivier Maillard, dating to 31 March 1496, granting the confraternity participation in the spiritual benefits of his order.

54 These offices have as yet not been repertoried. See Barbara Haggh, ‘Charles de Clerc, seigneur de Bouvekercke, and two manuscripts: Brussels, Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, ms 215–16, and Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale, ms VI E 40’, Yearbook of the Alamire Foundation v (2003), 188, and ‘Du Fay and Josquin at the Collegiate Church of St Gudila’, Revue belge de musicologie lv (2001), 49. Van Coudenberge states that services honouring the Seven Sorrows including masses were celebrated in Rome, Cambrai, Douai, Deventer, throughout Holland as well as in other cities and provinces: Ortus, sig. Bijv; Stratius, Onse L. Vrovwe, 207; Soulier, La Confrérie, 20. Haggh cites a manuscript from the late fifteenth century written in western Germany for Augustinian use: ‘Charles de Clerc’, 188 n. 16.

55 Haggh, ‘Charles de Clerc’, 188–9, and ‘Du Fay and Josquin’, 49. In her forthcoming Princeton doctoral dissertation ‘The Lady of Sorrows: music, devotion, and politics in the Burgundian Netherlands’, Emily Snow explores this issue further.

56 It is also worth indicating the role that the printing press played in this regard. De Manso's office with a mass was printed on two separate occasions before the end of the fifteenth century: as an appendix to François de Lille's Quodlibetica by Thierry Martens (sigs Fir–F5v; see n. 60 below); and as an appendix to Confraternitas dolorum beatissime virginis marie (sigs c1r–c8v). The devotion's special feast day was the Saturday before Palm Sunday (ibid. sigs a4r, c1r).

57 De Coudenberge, Ortus, sig. Civ; Stratius, Onse L. Vrovwe, 222–3; Willem Eeghem, Van, ‘Rhetores Bruxellenses (15e–16e eeuw)’, Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire xiv (1935), 433–5Google Scholar; L. C. Michels, ‘De letteren in dienst van de propaganda voor Coudenberghes broederschap van de vii weeën’, in his Filologische opstellen, I: Stoffen uit de middeleeuwen, Zwolle 1957, 153–5; Speakman Sutch, ‘Jan Pertcheval’, 97. The Malines city accounts mention both performances and the presence of Philip the Fair at the first: Eugeen van Autenboer, Volksfeesten en rederijkers te Mechelen, 1400–1600, Ghent 1962, 151–2 (old style dates).

58 On the emotional techniques of rhetorician drama see Dirk Coigneau, ‘Emotion and rhetoric in rederijker drama’, in Elodie Lecuppre-Desjardin and Anne-Laure Van Bruaene (eds), Emotions in the heart of the city (14th–16th century), Turnhout 2005, 243–56.

59 Saffrey, ‘La Fondation’, 151–2. For Leeu's double publication of this treatise see n. 32 above.

60 Michael Francisci de Insulis, Quodlibetica decisio perpulchra et deuota de septem doloribus christifere virginis Marie ac communi et saluberrima confraternitate desuper institute, Antwerp: Thierry Martens [1496–7] (ILC 998). If this dating is correct, this must be a second edition since the Quodlibetica is mentioned in the letter of 19 December 1494 by the Dominican magister generalis Joachim Turriano (see n. 53 above). For a summary of François de Lille's arguments see Soulier, La Confrérie, 23–4. François de Lille's was not the only explicit measure taken to combat the opponents of the devotion and its spread. Van Coudenberge's letter to Charles is punctuated with references to these adversaries and their objections as well as to the steps that were taken on the confraternity's behalf to combat them: De Coudenberge, Ortus, sigs Biv, Biijr–v, B4v, Cijv–Ciijr, C4v–Dir; Stratius, Onse L. Vrovwe, 198–202, 217–19, 229–33, 241–5; Soulier, La Confrérie, 17–18, 40–1, 51–4.

61 De Coudenberge, Ortus, sig. Bir; Stratius, Onse L. Vrovwe, 197. While Van Coudenberge asserts that David of Burgundy was the first bishop to confirm the devotion (Ortus, sig. Biv; Stratius, Onse L. Vrovwe, 197–8), in fact the bishop's letter of 13 December 1494 rather validates the three first miracles associated with the church at Abbenbroek (see n. 73 below). For a transcription of the bishop of Utrecht's letter see the miracle books published by Henrick die Lettersnider (fo. 1r–v) and Govaert Bac (fos 6r–7r) cited in n. 73 below and Stratius, Onse L. Vrovwe, 7–13, and Soulier, La Confrérie, 26–7.

62 On the dating of this papal bull see Soulier, La Confrérie, 26 n. 1, and Duclos, De eerste eeuw, 25. While Van Coudenberge only mentions Pope Alexander's bull (Ortus, sig. Biijv; Stratius, Onse L. Vrovwe, 210), Soulier, La Confrérie, 25–6, gives a complete translation of it based on the transcription in the Liber authenticus, fos 15v–16r, which is embedded in Paulus de Porta's letter of 13 February 1497.

63 In 1498/9 De Porta was listed as chaplain at the princely chapel in Ghent: Marc Boone and Thérèse de Hemptinne, ‘Le Clergé séculier gantois en 1498–99’, Bulletin de la Commission Royale d'Histoire cxlix (1983), 410, 423, 425.

64 Liber authenticus, fos 15r–18r.

65 De Coudenberge, Ortus, sigs Biijv–B4v; Stratius, Onse L. Vrovwe, 209–16.

66 Peter Arnade, Realms of ritual: Burgundian ceremony and civic life in late medieval Ghent, Ithaca–London 1996; Elodie Lecuppre-Desjardin, La Ville des cérémonies: essai sur la communication politique dans les anciens Pays-Bas bourguignons, Turnhout 2004; Van Bruaene, Om beters wille.

67 On the developing public sphere in Holland at that time see Serge ter Braake and Arjan van Dixhoorn, ‘Engagement en ambitie’.

68 Koen Goudriaan, ‘Holland in de tijd van Leeu’, in Een drukker zoekt publiek: Gheraert Leeu te Gouda, 1477–1484, Delft 1993, 31–53; Brinkman, Dichten uit liefde, 256–65.

69 François de Lille includes the notarised authentication letter dated 9 August 1494, sigs Eiiijr–E5r. See also Soulier, La Confrérie, 15–6.

70 During these two years François de Lille received five letters from Abbenbroek and one from Haamstede: Verhoeven, Devotie, 58.

71 Between 1502 and 1519 Van Coudenberge received six letters from Delft, four from Abbenbroek, one from Reimerswaal, one from Den Haag and penned one as well regarding miracles that had occurred in Bruges.

72 D. P. Oosterbaan, ‘De Zeven Smarten van Maria te Delft’, Archief voor de Geschiedenis van de katholieke kerk in Nederland v (1963)1, 94–125; Verhoeven, Devotie, 58–62.

73 Miracula confraternitatis septem dolorum beatissime virginis Marie, [Antwerp]: Henrick die Lettersnider, [after 1500] (ILC A 78) (Soulier, La Confrérie, 65, and Verhoeven, Devotie, 58, 363 date this publication to about 1496); Dit sijn die miraculen van onse lieue vrouwe, Leiden: Hugo Jansz. van Woerden, 1503 (NK 1527); Miracula confraternitatis septem dolorum sacratissime virginis Marie, Antwerp: Govaert Bac, 1510 (NK 1525); Miracula confraternitatis Septem dolorum sacratissimae virginis Mariae, Antwerp: Michiel Hillen van Hoochstraten, 1519 (NK 1526). The only extant copy of the latter volume was destroyed during World War II; its contents are known thanks to Georgius Colvenerius, Miracula CCX confraternitatis VII dolorum sacratissimae Virginis Mariae, una cum Ortu et progressu eiusdem confraternitatis, Douai: Pierre Auroy, 1619. Stratius, Onse L. Vrovwe, is a translation of Colvenerius' volume.

74 Oosterbaan, ‘De Zeven Smarten’, 101–3.

75 Duclos, De eerste eeuw, 122–30.

76 One of the most remarkable miracles was that of Anna, a nun from the convent of St Clare in Delft. In 1510 the Virgin had appeared before her to express her special wish to be worshipped in Delft. However, she also declared to Anna that she preferred that the Seven Sorrows would only include her emotions at the scenes of the Passion. It is interesting that although this miracle was communicated in some detail to Jan van Coudenberge, the Virgin's suggestion for an alternative interpretation of the Seven Sorrows was left out in the published letter: Verhoeven, Devotie, 61, 206–10, 283–8.

77 Ibid. 155.

78 Stratius, Onse L. Vrovwe, 24–5, miracle no. 9.

79 Verhoeven, Devotie, 271, miracle no. 102.

80 Ibid. 253–4, miracle no. 55.

81 Ibid. 48–50. Prints referring to the Seven Sorrows in a series together with the Seven Joys of the Virgin were produced around the same period in Leiden: Kruitwagen, Bonaventura, ‘Nederlandsche prenten uit de 15e-16e eeuw’, Het Boek xii (1923), 198–201Google Scholar.

82 Oosterbaan, ‘De Zeven Smarten’, 119; Verhoeven, Devotie, 293–4. This was a variant on the hearts in wax and silver offered by ordinary devotees (Verhoeven, Devotie, 264, 274). In 1518 Margaret of Austria established a convent of the Annonciades dedicated to the Seven Sorrows just outside Bruges: De Coudenberge, Ortus, sigs Div-Diir; Stratius, Onse L. Vrovwe, 247–8; A. C. Schrevel, De, ‘Marguerite d'Autriche et le couvent des Annonciades à Bruges’, Annales de la Société d'Emulation de Bruges lxvii (1924), 108–25Google Scholar. She sent a golden heart to the confraternity in Brussels in 1518: Liber authenticus, fo. 264r. In the same year Margaret wrote to Jan van Coudenberge with the request to take care of the Bruges convent and to include her in the history of the devotion that he was about to write: De Coudenberge, Ortus, sig. Diir–v; Stratius, Onse L. Vrovwe, 250–1; Soulier, La Confrérie, 57. Margaret also exported the devotion to Brou near Bourg-en-Bresse, where she built a monastery and a burial church for herself and her late husband, Philibert of Savoy: M. Fosseyeux, ‘La Dévotion “sensible” et les confrères aux xvie et xviie siècles’, Revue d'histoire de l'église de France xxiii (1937), 321. See also Dagmar Eichberger, Leben mit Kunst, Wirken durch Kunst: Sammelwesen und Hofkunst unter Margarete von Österreich, Regentin der Niederlande, Turnhout 2002, 221–8.

83 Verhoeven, Devotie, 59.

84 Ibid. 138.

85 See, among others, Walsham, Alexandra, ‘Miracles and the Counter-Reformation mission to England’, HJ xlvi (2003), 779–815CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

86 On the revenues of the Delft cult see Verhoeven, Devotie, 164–7.

87 Anne-Laure Van Bruaene, ‘ “A wonderfull tryumfe, for the wynning of a pryse”: guilds, ritual, theater, and the urban network in the southern Low Countries, ca. 1450–1650’, Renaissance Quarterly lix (2006), 374–405, and Om beters wille.

88 Van Autenboer, Volksfeesten, 151.

89 Steenackers, ‘La Confrérie’, 99; Van Autenboer, Volksfeesten, 150–3. On Hendrik Maes see Emile Van Varenbergh, ‘Maes (Henri)’, Biographie nationale, xiii. 134–5; Eugeen Van Autenboer, ‘Maes, Hendrik, rederijker’, in Nationaal Biografisch Woordenboek, Brussels 1966–, ii. 498–9.

90 Brinkman, Dichten uit liefde, 84–7. In 1515 Jan van Coudenberge visited the church of St Peter and offered fragments of the holy cross.

91 Van Bruaene, Om beters wille, 69.

92 For Brussels see n. 110 below. For Bergen op Zoom see F. Caland, ‘De rederijkerskamer van Bergen op Zoom: historische schets uit haren bloeitijd van 1441 tot 1561’, De Dietsche Warande v (1886), 99. For Gouda see Retoricaal memoriaal: bronnen voor de geschiedenis van de Hollandse rederijkerskamers van de middeleeuwen tot het begin van de achttiende eeuw, ed. F. C. van Boheemen and Th. C. J. van der Heijden, Delft 1999, 261.

93 Van Autenboer, Volksfeesten, 152 n. 244.

94 Van Bruaene, Om beters wille, 282 n. 173.

95 Antonin Van Elslander, ‘De Mariavereering bij de Rederijkers’, Jaarboek de Fonteine iii (1945), 60.

96 Victor Fris,‘Uittreksels der stadsrekeningen van Geraardsbergen van 1475 tot 1658’, Bulletijn van de Maatschappij voor Geschiedenis en Oudheidkunde te Gent xx (1912), 66.

97 Herman Van der Wee, The growth of the Antwerp market and the European economy (fourteenth–sixteenth centuries), Louvain 1963, ii. 103–4.

98 See n. 43 above.

99 On the gild of St Luke in this period see Maximiliaan P. J. Martens and Natasja Peeters, ‘Artists by numbers: quantifying artists’ trades in sixteenth-century Antwerp', in Molly Faries (ed.), Making and marketing: studies of the painting process in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Netherlandish workshops, Turnhout 2006, 211–22.

100 Van Bruaene, Om beters wille, 76.

101 On these plans see ibid. 63–4, 73–6.

102 De liggeren, i. 47.

103 Ibid. i. 49.

104 Eugeen Van Autenboer, ‘Een landjuweel te Antwerpen in 1496?’, Jaarboek de Fonteine xxix (1978–9) 1, 125–50.

105 Van Bruaene, Om beters wille, 76, 85.

106 That is his undated Confraternitas dolorum beatissime virginis Marie and the 1510 miracle book, referred to in nn. 23, 73 respectively. See also Van Bruaene, Om beters wille, 63, 68–9, 76.

107 On La Marche see Catherine Emerson, Olivier de La Marche and the rhetoric of 15th-century historiography, Woodbridge 2004.

108 Susie Speakman Sutch, ‘Dichters van de stad: de Brusselse rederijkers en hun verhouding tot de Franstalige hofliteratuur en het geleerde humanisme (1475–1522)’, in Jozef Janssens and Remco Sleiderink (eds), De macht van het schone woord: literatuur in Brussel van de 14e tot de 18e eeuw, Brussels 2003, 141–60.

109 Van Bruaene, Om beters wille, 69.

110 The attribution of the date 1497 is derived from Willem Van Eeghem, ‘Rhetores Bruxellenses’, 433. For an analysis of the elements that this play may have contained see Speakman Sutch, ‘Jan Pertcheval’, 98–101. In 1493 Pertcheval had made a Dutch translation of La Marche's Le Chevalier délibéré: ‘Dichters van de stad’, 150–3.

111 De Coudenberge, Ortus, sig. Cir–v; Stratius, Onse L. Vrovwe, 219–22.

112 In a letter dated 25 February 1499 the bishop of Cambrai, Henricus de Bergis, granted the special consecration of an altar in the Our Lady chapel in St Géry's church dedicated to the worship of the Brussels chapter in response to a petition to that effect from Jan Smeken, Jan Pertcheval and the prefects of the Lily chamber: Liber authenticus, fos 21r–22r.

113 Ibid. fo. 43v.

114 Ibid. fo. 29v.

115 Ibid. fo. 30v.

116 Degroote, ‘Diets-Bourgondische letteren’, 402–21; Samuel Mareel, ‘Voor vorst en stad: de literaire productie bij stedelijke feesten ter ere van het huis Habsburg-Bourgondië in Vlaanderen en Brabant (1432–1561)’, unpubl. PhD diss. Ghent 2007, 161–205.

117 Van Bruaene, Om beters wille, 192.

118 Arjan Van Dixhoorn, ‘Lustige geesten: rederijkers en hun kamers in het publieke leven van de Noordelijke Nederlanden in de vijftiende, zestiende en zeventiende eeuw’, unpubl. PhD diss. Amsterdam 2004, 67–77; Ter Braake and Van Dixhoorn, ‘Engagement en ambitie’, 181–3.

119 Anne-Laure Bruaene, Van, ‘ “Of the king's edict I do you no command”: vernacular literary networks and the Reformation in the Low Countries’, Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte xcix (2008), 229–55Google Scholar.

120 Wim Blockmans and Walter Prevenier, De Bourgondiërs: de Nederlanden op weg naar eenheid, Amsterdam 1997, 227–50.

121 Luc Duerloo, ‘Archducal piety and Habsburg power’, in Werner Thomas and Luc Duerloo (eds), Albert & Isabella, 1598–1621, Turnhout 1998, 272–3.