13 MAY 1905, Page 14

" MUSICA ECCLESIASTICA."

read in your issue of May 6th, in regard to " Musica, Ecelesiastica," commonly known by the heading of its first book, " Imitatio Christi," that its "writer is, before all things, a monk, a celibate, and an ascetic." Thomas, the publisher— whether or not the author is another matter—of the work in question, was no "monk." Please get your writers to see that the term " monk " does not cover all those who live by rule. Whether he was a "celibate," that is to say, whether he had ever been married, is known only to God. That he was an " ascetic " there is no evidence; nor does the theory tally either with the rules of his Brotherhood, or with the tone of his well-known and numerous genuine works.—I am, Sir, &c.,