Bursfelde Congregation

Dederoth succeeded beyond expectations in the restoration of Bursfelde and began the reform of Reinhausen Abbey near Göttingen but died on 6 February 1439, before his efforts in that quarter had borne fruit.

Dederoth had intended to unite the reformed Benedictine monasteries of Northern Germany under a stricter uniformity of discipline, but the execution of his plan was left to his successor, Johannes de Indagine.

[2] In 1445 Johannes de Indagine obtained permission from the Council of Basel to restore the Divine Office to the original form of the old Benedictine breviary and to introduce liturgical and disciplinary uniformity in the monasteries that followed the reform of Bursfelde.

[2] In 1451, while on his journey of reform through Germany, the papal legate, Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, met Johannes de Indagine at Würzburg, where the Benedictine monasteries of the Mainz-Bamberg province held their triennial provincial chapter.

Under the influence of Jan Busch and Nicholas of Cusa, the reform spread to Benedictine monasteries in Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Denmark.

Those who preferred a relaxation of the rule argued that fish was not always easy to come by, and that the monasteries were losing well-qualified potential candidates to orders with less stringent requirements.

[3] About forty other Benedictine abbeys belonging to the Bursfelde Congregation were also dissolved, their possessions confiscated by Lutheran princes, and their churches demolished or turned to Protestant uses.

[5] Though greatly impeded in its work of reform, the Bursfelde Congregation continued to exist until the compulsory secularization of all its monasteries at the end of the eighteenth, and the beginning of the nineteenth, century.