THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE " IMITATIO."
[To me EDITOR OF TES "EleacTuroa...1 Sfa,—I have been reading your review of Mr. de Mont- morency's interesting work on the " Imitatio " in your issue of February 2nd, and as I have been for some time studying the "Brothers of the Common Life," under whom h Kempis as a youth received his religious training, you will perhaps allow me to say a few words on these subjects. The great German authority on the " Imitatio," Dr. Hirsche, has entered at great length on the proofs of the authorship of ii. Kemple He finds that there are a large number of coincidences of expression between the Imitatio" and the "Lives of the Brothers," of which a Kemple is the undoubted author, and of these be gives a list. The Lives are contained in the edition of the works of b Kempis by Sommalins, and they have for the first time been translated into English by Mr. J. P. Arthur (Kegaa Paul, 1905). They describe the career of Groot and Florentine, the founders of the "Brotherhoods of the Common Life," and the religious training of h Kemple under the saintly Florentine. It is not too much to say that Thomas k Kempis embodies in the "Imitatio" much of the teaching he received in boyhood at Deventer under the Brothers. This can now be tested by any English reader for himself by comparing the" 'mitotic)" with Mr. Arthur's translation of these memoirs. He will find that Mr. de Montmorency is right in quoting passages from the "Imitatio" to show that that book does not, as Dean Milman assumed, inculcate a merely selfish religion, but contains exhortations to work for others. One may suffice here "If thou wilt be carried, carry also another" ("he.," Book II., chap. 3). Had Dean Milman read the Lives by k Kemple he would have seen that the principle of thoughtful- ness for others pervaded the whole life of the Brothers, and that examples of it are constantly recorded by it Kemple. When we add to this that Hirsche shows how many passages are similar in both books in the words used, it becomes clear that 5. Kempis cannot justly be accused of a want of altruism. The "Imitatio," of course, had the inner life more for its object than the memoirs; but, as Mr. de Montmorency has pointed out, there is quite enough in that devotional manual to show that its teaching is not merely self-centred, but also inculcates the service of others which the Lives of the Brothers by h. Kempis record. With regard to the oft-debated question whether a Kempis was the author of the "Imitatio," one among other proofs is the fact that Busch, who wrote the "Chronicle of Windesheim" (a monastery closely con- nected with that of Mount St. Agnes, of which 5. Kempis was a monk), speaks of" Frater Thomas de Kempis, sir probates vitae, qui plums devotee tractatulos composnit, videlicet qui sequitur Me," de imitation° Christi' cum aliis " (Busch, " Chron. Wind.," ed. Grubs, p.58). Busch was a contemporary of 5. Kempis, and a great reformer of monasteries, one of tho objects that Groot and Florentine had in view. Thomas passed from the care of the Brothers at Deventer to Mount St. Agnes, that and the monastery of Windesheim having been built by the desire of Cvioot and Florentine to serve as model societies Of monks; while the Brothers of the Common Life
devoted themselves to work for the sick and poor of towns, and to the religious part of the education of boys. Is it necessary, with these points of connexion, to search elsewhere for the author of the " Imitatio," or can we charge that book with a selfish tendency F—I am, Sir, &c., M.A.
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