Life of the author

The Life of Thomas à Kempis

Thomas of Kempis was born in 1380, at Kemp, a village situate at a small distance from Cologne. His surname was Hammerlin, or Little Hammer, translated into the word Malleolus by his Latin biographers. His parents were of low condition; they were highly respected for their piety.

When he attained his sixth year, he was placed in one of the houses belonging to the Society of Brothers and Sisters of Common Life. It is remarkable that, in one of the schools of this society, Erasmus received his first rudiments of learning.

The school in which Thomas of Kempis entered himself, was in the town of Daventer, in West Friesland; where Flqrentiusj the immediate successor of Gerard de Groote, the founder of the society, was vicar of the principal church. Thomas of Kempis was introduced to him. Florentius received him with great kindness, gave him all the books which he wanted for the prosecution of his studies — kept him some time in his family, and then placed him with a respectable matron, by whom he was furnished gratuitously with his board. Her house was filled with many of the same society, to whom she showed the same gratuitous hospitality.

The account which Thomas of Kempis gives of the manner in which the members of this little household spent their time, is very edifying.* “Much was I delighted” — these are his words —“with the devout conversation, the irreproachable manners, and the humility of my brethren. I had never seen such piety or charity. Taking no concern in what passed beyond their walls, they remained at home, employed in prayer and study; or in copying useful books, and

• Da Discipuli’s Florentii, C. 1.

sanctifying this occupation by short but frequent ejaculations of devotion. They appeared to have but one heart and one souL Their dress was homely; their diet spare; their obedience to their superiors without reserve; their prayer, continual. By degrees, the uniform tenor of their blameless, unpretending lives gained them general good will; and they became generally respected, as true disciples of Christ, and true lovers of their neighbor.”

The copying of useful books was a favorite occupation of Thomas of Kempis during his stay in this community; and he warmly exhorted others to the same occupation. In one of his sermons,* he thus expresses himself on this subject:—“To transcribe works which Jesus Christ loves, by which the knowledge of him is diffused, his precepts taught, and the practice of them inculcated, is a most useful employment If he shall not lose his reward, who gives a cup of cold water to his thirsty neighbor, what will not be the reward of those who, by putting good works into the hands of their neighbors, open to them the fountain of eternal life! Blessed are the hands of such transcribers! Which of the writings of our ancestors would now be remembered, if there had been no pious hand to transcribe them?”—Thomas of Kempis himself was an excellent copyist: some of his transcriptions yet remain; among them are a Bible, and some extracts from the works of Saint Bernard.

When he attained his nineteenth year, Thomas of Kempis determined on entering into the order of Saint Augustine. Tradition deduces that order from the celebrated doctor of the church of that name. Till the eleventh century, the monks of Saint Augustine seem to have been little more than a voluntary association of ecclesiastics: about that time they were fixed in a permanent order. They exercised a variety of ecclesiastical functions, and their public schools for instruction of youth were particularly esteemed.—Florentius encouraged Thomas of Kempis in his resolution to enter among them.

Thomas of Kempis continued a novice during five years. It should seem, from some passages in his writings, that, during this time, he was visited by some interior troubles. It is supposed by Valart, a celebrated editor of The Imitation of Christ, that, in the following passage in The Imitation of Christ, Thomas of Kempis relates an occurrence which happened to himself u When a person, in anxiety of mind, was often wavering between fear and hope, and, on a time, being overwhelmed with grief, had prostrated himself in prayer in the church, before an altar, he revolved those things within himself, saying,—If I did hut know that I should still persevere! — He # then presently heard, within him, this answer from God: If thou didst know this, what wouldst thou do? Do now what thou wouldst then do, and thou shalt be very secure/ Immediately being comforted and strengthened, he committed himself to the divine will; and his anxious wavering ceased. Neither had he from that time any desire to search with curiosity what should befall him thereafter; but rather studied to inquire what was the will of God, well pleasing and perfect, for the beginning and accomplishing of every good work.” *

From the time of his profession, till his decease, a period of sixty-six years, Thomas of Kempis remained in the monastery of Zwoll, and in the continual practice of every virtue of his state. He was visited by many and long interior trials and temptations; but his prayer, his self-denial, and his watchfulness over himself, were constant. “ Silence,” he says of himself, “was his friend, labor his companion, prayer his auxiliary.” An interesting account of his progress in spirituality, seems to be given us by himself, in the 15th, 16th, and 17th chapters of his Soliloquy of the Soul. He begins by mentioning his sins, and the great mercy of God in withdrawing him from his repeated infidelities, and healing the general deformity, as he terms it, of his soul.

Of his sins he speaks in the strongest terms; but we must not understand his expressions in their strict sense; they are the language of a soul whom God raised to a view, not ordinarily given in this life, of his adorable perfections. Such a soul has an exquisite sense of the beauty, the wisdom, and the justice, of the divine will, and, consequently, considers every deviation from it, though no greater than one of those failings into which the just man falls seven times a day, as an act of heinous rebellion.

He mentions that the spiritual delights, which he experienced when he first dedicated himself to God, were very great: u For God,” he says, u would not then visit me with great sufferings; wisely considering, that the tender shoot, just brought under the shelter of his wings, would shrink at the first rough blast By degrees, God lovingly prepared him for the trials which he designed him: he showed him the conflicts which the saints of the Old and New Testament sustained; their vigilance, their exertions, their constancy, their rewards.” He declares that, at first, he was terrified, and seemed to sink under every wave, but God was always his refuge and support “O how great,” he exclaims, “hath been the mercy of God to me! How often, when I was almost overcome, has he been my deliverer! Sometimes my passions assailed me as a whirlwind; but God sent forth his arrows and dissipated them. The attack was often renewed, but God was still my support By degrees I was weaned from every thing earthly, and adhered to God alone. Then I experienced how sweet, how frill of mercy God is to those who truly love him. O my God! how merciful hast thou been to me! Many have been forsaken by thee, and are lost, who were less guilty than I am. But thy mercies are unspeakable. Let the worthless one (sayest thou) draw near to me, that he may be made worthy; the wicked one, that he may be converted; the imperfect one, that he may be made perfect: let all draw near to me, and taste the living waters of salvation. It is my delight to be with the children of men.”

From The Imitation of Christ, it appears that he had frequently before his eyes the abase of human learning, and was too often obliged to see, that it was attended with the worst consequences: From the same work, it also appears, that he was sometimes a subject of slander and obloquy. The third book of The Imitation abounds with passages, in which the bitterness of such a trial is feelingly acknowledged, and the sufferer beautifully exhorted to bear the trial silently and patiently.

Thomas of Kempis was successively promoted to the office of Bursar, Master of Novices, and Subprior.—The first volume of his works contains his sermons: the greatest part of them are addressed to the novices. The reader must not expect to find in them the splendor, pathos, or dignified instruction, of Massillon, Bossuet, or Bourdaloue; but he will find in them much solid precept, much that invigorates his devotion, and many touches of piety, by a master’s hand. The same may be said of his other writings; but the greater part of them is rather for claustral than for general use.

By degrees, his reputation for virtue and piety got abroad. Many persons in the neighborhood of the monastery wished to place themselves under his spiritual direction; and numbers sought his pious and edifying conversation. But he avoided their visits, as much as it was in his power. At the first moment that Christian civility allowed, he took leave of company, saying, “that he must leave them, as one was waiting for him in his cell.” What passed between him and the visitant of his cell, he himself has described, as far as language can describe it, in the twenty-first chapter of the third book of The Imitation. Every such hour was dearer to him than the last “I have sought for rest every where,” he said towards the close of his life, “but I have found it no where except in a little comer, with a little hook.”

He died on the 25th of July, in the year 1471, in the ninetieth year of his age. He is described to have been of small stature, well proportioned, and to have had a piercing eye.—His body was discovered in 1672.

Few points of literary history have been a subject of greater or warmer controversy than the authorship of The Imitation of Christ. Doctor Dupin, in his “ Dissertation on the Author of The Imitation of Christ,” published by him towards the close of the seventeenth century, mentions that one hundred and fifty publications on that question had, before that time, issued from the press. Many afterwards made their appearance, and the point is now a subject of warm debate at Paris. — A full account of all the manuscript and printed editions of The Imitation, and of the principal works in which the authorship of it is discussed, has lately been published with the following title — uDe Imitation* Chris- ft, IAbri quaiuor, ad pervetustum exemplar, * Extemarum Contemplationum? dictum, nec non adcodices complures ex diversa regions ac editiones cevo et nota insigniores, variis nunc primum sectionibus subjunctis, recensiti et indidbus locupletati. Studio J. B. M. Genze, kujm Editionis gallici Interpre- tes Cartophylacio, Regia Archivists olim addicti, Parisiis, Sumptibus Sociorum Trend-

Id d Wurtz. Argentorati, et Londini, t* eorumdem Bibliopolis MJD. CCC.XXVI.”

To the present writer, after some examination of the controversy, the claim of Thomas of Kempis to the authorship of The Imitation appears to preponderate. The claimants are Gersen, Abbot of the Benedictine Convent at Vercelli,— Ger- $on, the Chancellor of the University, Paris, — and Thomas of Kempis. Even the existence of the first of these persons is problematical; and supposing his existence proved, it seems decisive against him, that the writer of The Imitation states the lives of the Cistercians, Carthusians, and other Monks, to be more severe than his own;# this, a Benedictine Monk would not have done. — Against the Chancellor of the University of Paris may be urged the great difference in the styles of the

* Attende Carthusienses Cistertienses et diversae Religionis monachos et moniales; qualiter omni nocte ad psallendum Domino assurgunt, &c. L. I €.25.(8.

writers, and that the author of The Imitation evidently was, wh&t Gerson was not, & member of & religious order: * in favor of Thomas of Kempis may be urged that, if we put the two former out of court, no other claimant appears. Add to this, that the Augustinian friare, to which order Thomas of Kempis belonged, held a middle place between the Benedictine and the Secular Clergy. This accounts, at the same time, for his commendation of a life of poverty and obedience, and his acknowledgment of the greater austerities of the Cistercians and Carthusians.

The best edition of the works of Thomas of Kempis is that printed by Father Somalius, with an account of his life, at Antwerp, in three volumes, 8vo. 1615. w The Imitation of Christ,” says the celebrated Leibnitz,! wis one of the most excellent trea-

* Quid retribuam tibi pro gratia ista? Non enim omnibus datum est, ut omnibus abdicatis, seculo renuntient et monasticam vitam assumanU L. III. c. 10. $ 2.

tises that have been composed. Happy is he who puts its contents into practice, and is not satisfied with merely reading them.”

Lincoln’s Jfon, Feb. 1827.

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