A Heretic in Groenendaal? The Impact of In Agro Dominico in the Low Countries in the Light of Vanden Twaelf Dogheden

ABSTRACT In 1329, Pope John XXII promulgated the bull In agro dominico in which he condemned 28 propositions of Meister Eckhart and their further distribution. The Brussels monastery of Groenendaal, where Jan van Ruusbroec and especially Jan van Leeuwen violently rejected Eckhart’s teachings, was long-time considered as the proof that the bull was also read in the Low Countries. However, a recent hypothesis of Satoshi Kikuchi has shown that the exact content of the bull was probably not known in Groenendaal. I aim to contribute to that hypothesis by analysing Vanden twaelf dogheden, a text mainly based on a Middle Dutch adaptation of the Erfurter Reden and most likely written by Godfried Wevel, canon of Groenendaal. I moreover intend to reveal why Ruusbroec and Van Leeuwen rejected any association with Eckhart, even while the reading and possession of Eckhart’s oeuvre in monasteries similar to Groenendaal was not considered problematic.