THOMAS À KEMPIS

(ca. 1379–1471)

The assumed author ofThe Imitation of Christ, after the Bible the most popular spiritual work in Christian history, Thomas à Kempis was a 15thcentury writer of devotional works, sermons, and saints’ lives, and a member of the Augustinian order of Canons Regular. Thomas is considered the outstanding representative of the late medieval spiritual movement known asDevotio Moderna(Modern devotion).

Thomas was born Thomas Hemerken in the town of Kempen in the Rhineland, from which he took the surname “à Kempis.” His father was a blacksmith and his mother a schoolmistress who probably gave the young Thomas his earliest education. In 1393 he began studying in Deventer in the Netherlands, at a school established by the Brethren of the Common Life. This group, founded by the Dutch mystic and priest Geert (or “Gerard”) de Groote (1340–84), was a community of secular priests and lay persons who, though they took no vows, focused on their interior spiritual lives through meditation, reading, and education. The Brethren were instrumental in popularizing theDevotio Moderna, a movement that discounted the highly intellectual, scholastic theology of the 13th and early 14th centuries and limited the importance of external rituals of the church in favor of meditation and the inner life. After spending some time living among the Brethren, Thomas surprisingly chose to join the Augustinian order rather than stay with the Deventer community. Thomas entered the monastery ofMount St.Agnes near Zwolle in 1399, shortly after his brother John had become prior of the monastery.

Thomas spent the rest of his life in the monastery at Mount St. Agnes. He was professed in 1407 (after an unexplained delay of eight years) and ordained a priest in 1413 or 1414.He served as a scribe in the monastery, copying many manuscripts, including one of the Bible. He served twice as subprior and was, for some time, master of novices.He is also known to have written a number of works, including a collection ofSermones ad novicios(Sermons to novices), biographies of both Geert de Groote and of his successor, Florentius Radewijns (whom Thomas had known during his years with the Brethren of the Common Life), and theChronica Montis Sanctae Agnetis, a history of the monastery at Mount St.Agnes. He also wrote two mystical treatises (The Little Garden of RosesandThe Valley of the Lilies), and several works of devotional counsel, the best known of which isSoliloquy of the Soul(a practical spiritual guide in the manner of the Brethren of the Common Life). Thomas died at Zwolle in 1471, having lived well into his 90s.

The Imitation of Christwas first issued anonymously in about 1425. An early manuscript from about 1441 cites Thomas à Kempis as its author, but over the years some have disputed Thomas’s authorship, suggesting St. BERNARD, St. BONAVENTURE, Pope INNOCENT III,Walter HILTON, and even Thomas’s brother John as possible authors.Others have suggested that Thomas composed the text of theImitation of Christfrom manuscripts originally composed by Geert de Groote. But there seems no good reason to doubt Thomas’s authorship. The doctrine of the book is clearly in line with the beliefs of the Brethren of the Common Life, and Thomas’s other writings are consistent with the content of theImitation.

The book is written in a colloquial Latin style, and is intended to instruct the reader in Christian perfection, focusing on Christ as the model of behavior and stressing, particularly, self-renunciation and the superiority of following Christ over all the learning one can obtain. It is divided into four books dealing with, first, freedom from desire for worldly goods, meditation and preparing the soul for prayer, the comfort of prayer life, and the importance of the sacrament of communion in the spiritual life of the Christian. In the many manuscripts of theImitation of Christ, the four books do not always occur in the same order; nor do all manuscripts contain all four books. The text was translated into German by 1434, into French by the 1440s, and into English in 1502.The Imitation of Christhas since been translated into hundreds of languages and gone through thousands of editions. Thomas à Kempis’s text and the spirituality of the Brethren of the Common Life continue to inspire readers to this day.

■ Becker, Kenneth Michael.From the Treasure-House of Scripture: An Analysis of Scriptural Sources in De imitatione Christi. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2002.

■ Thomas à Kempis.The Imitation of Christ in Four Books: A Translation from the Latin. Translated by Joseph N.Tylenda.Rev. ed.New York:Vintage, 1998.