Our navigation bar is loading . . . . . .


Advertise on JCSM - Hear JCSM's Weekly Devotions via Podcast/RSS Feed! - Skip These Ads

You can advertise your site right here!Click here to learn more!

 10,000 Wise Quotes and Spiritual Sayings by Jason Gastrich, Ph.D.

 JCSM's Top 1000 Christian Sites - Free Traffic Sharing Service! Join the Online Christ-Centered Ministries!

-
Jesus Christ Saves Ministries

Click here and add this page to your favorites!

Return to the JCSM Study Center!

Encyclopedia Britannica



THOMAS A KEMPIS (c. 1380-1471)

This article appears in Volume V26, Page 864 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: THE-TOO
THOMAS A KEMPIS (c. 1380-1471) , the name by which the Augustinian canon and writer Thomas Hammerken (Hammerchen, Malleolus) is commonly known. He was born in 1379 or 1380 in the town of Kempen, lying about 15 miles north-west of Dtisseldorf, in one of the many patches of territory between
1 See the sketch in Syriac of the history of the church of Malabar printed and translated by Land, Anecd. Syr. i. 24 seq. It was sent to Schaaf at Leiden in 172o by Mar Gabriel, the last Nestorian bishop in Malabar (see Germann, p. S42).
the Meuse and the Rhine belonging to the archiepiscopal principality of Cologne. " Ego Thomas Kempis," he says in his chronicle of the monastery of
Mount
  St Agnes, " scholaris Daventriensis, ex diocesi Coloniensi natus." His father was a poor hard-worked peasant; his mother " ad custodiam rei domesticae attenta, in opere alacris, in victu sobria, in potu abstemia, in verbo pauca, in factis pudica," as her son fondly says, kept a dame's school for the younger children of the town. John and Gertrude Hammerken had two sons, John and Thomas, both of whom found. their way to Deventer, and thence to Zwolle and to the conent of
Mount
  St Agnes. Thomas reached Deventer when he was barely twelve years- old, was taught by a dame the beginnings of his learning, and in a few months to his great joy entered the classes of Florentius Radewyn. After the fashion of the time he was called Thomas from Kempen, and the school title, as was often the case then, pushed aside the family name. Thomas Hammerken was forgotten; Thomas a Kempis has become known to the whole Christian world.
This school at Deventer had become famous long before Thomas a Kempis was admitted to its classes. It had been founded by Gerhard Groot (q.v.), a wealthy burgher who had been won to pious living mainly through the influence of Ruys broeck, the Flemish mystic. It was at Deventer, in the midst of this mystical theology and hearty practical benevolence, that Thomas a Kempis was trained. Gerhard Groot was his saintly ideal. Florentius Radewyn and Gerhard's other early disciples were his heroes; their presence was his atmosphere, the measure of their lives his horizon. But he was not like them; he was not an educational reformer like Radewyn, nor a man of affairs like Gerhard. He liked books and quiet corners all his days, he says; and so, when conviction of sin and visions of God's grace came to him in the medieval fashion of a dream of the anger and forgiveness of the Virgin, Florentius told him that a monk's life would suit him best, advised him to join the Augustinian order, and sent him to Zwolle to the new convent of Mount St Agnes, where his brother John was prior. Thomas was received there in 1399, he professed the vows in 1407, received priest's orders in 1413, became sub-prior in 1425 and died on the 8th of August 1471, being ninety-one.years old.
The convent of Mount St Agnes was poor, and most of the monks had to earn money to support their household by copying MSS. Thomas was a most laborious copyist: missals, books of devotion and a famous MS. Bible were written by him. He also wrote a large number of
original
  writings, most of them relating to the convent life, which was the only life he knew. He wrote a chronicle of the monastery and several biographiesthe life of Gerhard Groot, of Florentius Radewyn, of a Flemish lady St Louise, of Groot's
original
  disciples; a number of tracts on the monastic lifeThe Monk's Alphabet, The Discipline of Cloisters, A Dialogue of Novices, The Life of the Good Monk, The Monk's Epitaph, Sermons to Novices, Sermons to Monks, The Solitary Life, On Silence, On Poverty, Humility and Patience; two tracts for young peopleA
Manual
  of Doctrine for the Young, and A
Manual
  for Children; and books for edificationOn True Compunction, The Garden of Roses, The Valley of Lilies, The
Consolation
  of the Poor and the Sick, The Faithful Dispenser, The Soul's Soliloquy, The
Hospital
 
    See Also:
of the Poor. He also left behind him three collections of sermons, a number of letters, some hymns and the famous Imitatio Christi (though his authorship of this has been disputed). These writings help us to see the man and his surroundings, and contemporary pious records make him something more than a shadow. We see a real man, but a man helpless anywhere save in the study or in the conventa little fresh-coloured man, with soft brown eves. who had a habit of stealing away to his cubiculum whenever the conversation became too lively; somewhat bent, for it is on record that he stood upright when the psalms were chanted, and even rose on his tiptoes with his face turned upwards; genial, if shy, and occasionally given to punning, as when he said that he preferred Psalmi to Salmones; a man who perhaps led the most placid uneventful life of all men who ever wrote a book or scribbled letters. It was not that he lived in uneventfultimes: it is impossible to select a stormier period of European history, or a per'ibd when the stir of the times made its way so well into the obscurest corners. Bohemia, Huss leading, was ablaze in revolt at one end of Europe; France and England, then France and
Burgundy
 , were at death-grips at the other. Two popes anathematized each other from Avignon and from Rome, and zealous churchmen were at their wit's end to concoct ways and means, by general councils of Constance and Basel and otherwise, to restore peace to a distracted church, and to discipline the clergy into decent living. But Thomas knew nothing about all this. He was
intent
  on his copying, on his little books, and on his quiet conversations. His very biographies are colourless. He had not even the common
interest
  in the little world coming up to the convent gate which most monks may be supposed to have. His brethren made him oeconomiae prefectus; but he was too " simple in worldly affairs " and too absent-minded for the post, and so they deposed him and made him sub-prior once more. And yet it is this placid kindly fresh-coloured old man who has come down to us as the author of that book the Imitation of Christ, which has been translated into more languages than any other book save the Bible, and which has moved the hearts of so many men of all nations, characters and conditions of life.
On the controversy as to the author of the Imitatio, see the article IMITATION OF CHRIST. See also James Williams, Thomas of Kempen (191o). The classical edition of the works of Thomas a Kempis by SommaliusThomas Malleoli a Kempis opera amnia (3 vols. in 1, 1607)has been many times reprinted. A
critical
  edition in 8 vols. by M. J. Pohl, has also been undertaken. The best accounts in English of Thomas a Kempis are those by S. Kettlewell (1882) and F. R. Cruise (1887), written from the
Protestant
  and the Catholic stand-points respectively. A penny tract by F. R. Cruise, entitled Outline of the Life of Thomas d Kempis (1904), contains substantially all that is known concerning him. (T. M. L.)


End of Article: THOMAS A KEMPIS (c. 1380-1471)


If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/THE_TOO/THOMAS_A_KEMPIS_c_1380_1471_.html">
THOMAS A KEMPIS (c. 1380-1471)
</a>
(Previous)
THOMAS (d. 110o) 		(Next)
THOMAS BEAUFORT (d. 1426)

 


 

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries

The JCSM Study CenterAmerica's Christian FoundationSkeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and ExplainedNKJV Web Hosting and Services
JCSM's Sermons, Debates and the Bible on MP3The Online Christ-Centered MinistriesDo You Have A Web Site?  Your Ad Could Be Here!Seminary Notes and PapersThe Picturesque Photo Albums


Jesus Christ Saves Ministries, P.O. Box 70696, Pasadena, CA 91117

JCSM is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization. Copyright © 1997-present.


Kingdom Debt Solutions - Be Debt Free! Sport Logos - Quality Athletic Equipment The JCSM Study Center Your Ad Could Be Here! Launch A Successful Internet Organization or Business! Learn Guitar, Bass, or Piano in San Diego county!

You can advertise your site right here!

Free & Cheap Cell Phones  |  Cheap Long Distance Phone Service Carriers  |  Talk America Local Phone Service  |  Ztel & MCI - Unlimited Long Distance
Compare Cell Phone Plans & Companies  |  International Calling Cards & Prepaid Phone Cards  |  Voice Over IP Broadband Internet Phone Service  |  Wireless Phone Plans & Cheap Cell Phones

Dr. Jason Gastrich

Jason Gastrich, Ph.D.

 

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries is directed by Dr. Jason Gastrich.  It was founded in 1997 and it exists to bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ.  JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, discussion boards, weekly html and mp3 devotionals, free email accounts, and much more.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA  92169
1-877-850-3878 or Email

JCSM is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization. Copyright © 1997-2008.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Online First Aid and CPR Certification  .  The Online Christ Centered Ministries  .  The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained  .  The Inerrancy Discussion Board  .  Free Email Accounts  .  Home Equity Loans  .  JasonGastrich.com  .  The Missions, Apologetics, and Creation Bible Conference  .  Young Earth Creation Science  .  San Diego Music Lessons  .  10,000 Wise Quotes and Spiritual Sayings  .  Gastrich.net  .  Maximizing the Internet: 12 Keys to Success  .  Louisiana Baptist University  .  NKJV Web Hosting and Services  .  Michael Newdow  .  San Diego Soccer Training  . Christian Guitar Lessons  .  Jesus Christ Saves Ministries  .  Eternal Security