Kempis

Kempis, Thomas a, is the name by which Thomas Hammereken (Malleolus), the son of a poor peasant, born at Kempen, near Diisseldorf, about 1380, became famous throughout the Christian world. His career was placid enough. Sent by his mother to school at Deventer, he came under the influence of Groot and Radewyn, but his bent was to study and retirement, rather than to mission work, and so he entered the convent of Mount St. Agnes at Zwolle, where he ended his days as sub-prior in 1471. His days were spent in the laborious task of the copyist, in the composition of a history of the monastery, and lives of Groot and Radewyn, and in the writing of a number of little simple tractates on monastic habits. None of these works gave indications of the power to be displayed in the marvellous embodiment of Christian precept and practice known as the Imitatio Cliristi. It has been conjectured that Thomas merely transcribed these pages from some ancient manuscript, or on behalf of some contemporary author, and the Benedictines have tried hard to vindicate the claims of John Gerson. Nothing, however, has been as yet adduced to deprive A Kempis of his credit, and the form of pietism developed in the book accords with the gentle mysticism, the freedom from ecclesiastical ambition, and the self-effacement of the poor monk of St. Agnes.