Brittany and Bretons 127Press, 1959); Tim Severin, The BrendanVoyage (London:
Hutchinson, 1978).
Brethren of the Common Life (Fratres communis
vitae)Brethren of the Common Life were an association
of men formed in the 14th century to promote a higher
level of commitment by the laity and the clergy to a Chris-
tian life and devotion. The founder was probably Gerard
GROOTE, a canon of Utrecht. He resigned his prebend to
travel through the NETHERLANDS,FLANDERS, and BRABANT
to preach against clerical laxity and call all Christians to
repent and reform their life. Groote did not impose vows
on his disciples but often allowed them, whether clerical
or lay, to continue in their accustomed livelihood. How-
ever, they were to live in common and could not hold pri-
vate property. For their community activities, they
stressed teaching and founded free, high-quality schools
all over northwestern Europe. To support these schools
and supply books, many brethren worked in the copying
of manuscripts and later in the early printing industry.
On the death of Groote in 1384, the leadership of
the Brethren was assumed by Florentius Radewijns (ca.
1350–1400). They soon continued an austere way of
life and adopted a rule organizing themselves as AUGUS-
TINIAN CANONS. Among those influenced by the
Brethren were Thomas à KEMPIS, Pope Hadrian VI (r.
1522–23), Gabriel BIEL,NICHOLASof Cusa, and Rudolph
Agricola (1443–85). The association disappeared in the
16th century.
See alsoDEVOTIOMODERNA.
Further reading:Albert Hyma, The Brethren of the
Common Life(Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1950);
Albert Hyma, The Christian Renaissance: A History of the
“Devotio moderna,” 2d ed. (Hamden, Conn.: Archon
Books 1965).
Bretons SeeBRITTANY ANDBRETONS.
breviary(brevarium, abridgment) The medieval bre-
viary was a book that contained the divine office for use
by clerics in services or prayers. Before the 12th and 13th
centuries, a breviary, not yet well standardized, contained
miscellaneous collections of prayers and liturgical texts.
By the 13th century, it had become a portable book con-
taining all of the divine office, with readings shorter than
those for the office celebrated in a church by a commu-
nity or monks or clerics. Sometimes it included a
PSALTER, but it was to be a memory text collected to help
a cleric learn to recite most of it by heart. This portable
breviary was especially adopted and spread by the travel-
ing mendicant orders.
Further reading:Pierre Batiffol, History of the Roman
Breviary,trans. Atwell M. Y. Baylay (London: Longmans,
Green, 1898).
brewing SeeFOOD, DRINK, AND NUTRITION.Bridget of Kildare or Cell-dara, Saint(Brigid, Brigit
of Ireland, Fochart)(ca. 453–ca. 525)legendary founder
of the double monastery of Kildare
A historical Bridget has left almost nothing in the histori-
cal record. She has been linked to the Celtic goddess
named Brigid in having the same feast day as a pre-Chris-
tian festival for the goddess. Both were supposed to be
patronesses of poets and people of learning. Her biogra-
phy was written in 680 by a certain Cogitosus more than
150 years after her supposed death around 525. It was
among the first examples of Irish HAGIOGRAPHY. Besides
the usual miracles of providing food and manipulating
animals and the weather, she supposedly founded a rare
double monastery for men and women at Kildare (Cell-
dara) or church of the oak on the site of a pagan place of
worship. In addition to being the monastery’s first abbess,
another source claimed, she was more or less accidentally
consecrated a bishop. Eventually a male bishop joined
the monastery. Such an establishment did exist, had a
bishop attached to it, and was among the most important
in Ireland in the seventh century. That it was a double
monastery for a while made it unique. She might repre-
sent another Celtic, perhaps female, Christian tradition
rivaling Saint PATRICK. She did not establish an order that
lasted but a monastery for her nuns existed until the 12th
century.
Further reading:Oliver Davies, ed., Celtic Spiritual-
ity(New York: Paulist Press, 1999), 121–154; Mary Low,
Celtic Christianity and Nature: Early Irish and Hebridean
Traditions (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996);
James F. Kenney, The Sources for the Early History of
Ireland: An Introduction and Guide, Vol. 1, Ecclesiastical
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1929); Joseph
Falaky Nagy, Conversing with Angels and Ancients: Literary
Myths of Medieval Ireland(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University
Press, 1997); Richard Sharpe, Medieval Irish Saints’ Lives:
An Introduction to Vitae sanctorum Hiberniae (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1991).Brittany and Bretons In Celtic Brittany, the Middle
Ages was a time of migration and of the establishment of
a Breton people and language. The Bretons of Britain set-
tled what was called Armorica in western France from
the fourth century, driven there from 450 on by the Scots
of IRELANDand by the advance of the Angles and SAXONS.
The Breton language, resembling Cornish soon evolved
in the most densely colonized parts.
From the sixth century the Breton kingdoms man-
aged to stop the advance of the FRANKS. The dukes of
Brittany rejected any idea of subjection to FRANCEand
refused homage, while trying to preserve their principal-
ity. They and their successors created a principality,
sometimes a kingdom, which lasted until a military