Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

IMITATION OF CHRIST, THE (Imitatio Ch...

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V14, Page 334 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

IMITATION OF See also:CHRIST, THE (Imitatio Christi) , the See also:title of a famous See also:medieval See also:Christian devotional See also:work, much used still by both Catholics and Protestants and usually ascribed to See also:Thomas a Kempis. The " Contestation " over the author of the Imitation of Christ is probably the most considerable and famous controversy that has ever been carried on concerning a purely See also:literary question. It has been going on almost without flagging for three centuries, and nearly 200 combatants have entered the lists. In the See also:present See also:article nothing is said on the See also:history of the controversy, but an See also:attempt is made to summarize the results that may be looked on as definitely acquired. Until quite recently there were three candidates in the See also:field—Thomas a Kempis (1380–1471), a See also:canon See also:regular of See also:Mount St See also:Agnes in See also:Zwolle, in the See also:diocese of See also:Utrecht, of the Windesheim See also:Congregation of Augustinian Canons; See also:John See also:Gerson (1363–1429), See also:chancellor of the University of See also:Paris; and an See also:abbot, John Gersen, said to have been abbot of a See also:Benedictine monastery at See also:Vercelli in the 12th See also:century. Towards the end of the 15th century the Imitation circulated under the names of the first two; but Gerson is an impossible author, and his claims have never found defenders except in See also:France, where they are no longer urged. The Benedictine abbot Gersen is an absolutely mythical personage, a See also:mere " See also:double " of the chancellor. Consequently at the present See also:day the question is narrowed to the issue: Thomas a Kempis, or an unknown author. The following is a statement of the facts that may be received as certain: t. The earliest-known dated MS. of the Imitation is of 1424—it contains only Bk. I.; the earliest See also:MSS. of the whole work of certain date are of 1427. Probably some of the undated MSS. are older; but it is the See also:verdict of the most competent See also:modern See also:expert See also:opinion that there is no palaeographical See also:reason for suspecting that any known MS. is earlier than the first See also:quarter of the 15th century.

2. A Latin See also:

letter of a Dutch canon regular, named Johann See also:van Schoonhoven, exhibits such a See also:close connexion with Bk. I. that See also:plagiarism on the one See also:side or the other is the only possible explanation. It is capable of demonstration that the author of the Imitation was the borrower, and that .the opposite hypo-thesis is inadmissible. Now, this letter can be shown to have been written after 1382. Therefore Bk. I. was beyond controversy written between the years 1382 and 1424. 3. It is not here assumed that the four See also:treatises formed a single work, or even that they are all by the same author; and the date of the other three books cannot be fixed with the same certainty. But, on the one See also:hand, before the beginning of the 15th century there is no trace whatever of their existence —a strong See also:argument that they did not yet exist; and on the other hand, after 1424 nearly each See also:year produces its See also:quota of I\ISS. and other signs of the existence of these books become frequent. Moreover, as a See also:matter of fact, the four treatises did commonly circulate together. The presumption is strong that Bks.

II., III., IV., like Bk. I., were composed shortly before they were put into circulation. It may then be taken as proved that the Imitation was composed between 1380 and 1425, and probably towards the end rather than the beginning of that See also:

period. Having ascertained the date, we must consider the birthplace. 4. A number of idioms and turns of expression throughout the See also:book show that its author belonged to some See also:branch of the See also:Teutonic See also:race. Further than this the argument does not See also:lead; for when the dialects of the See also:early 15th century are considered it cannot be said that the expressions in question are Netherlandic rather than See also:German—as a matter of fact, they have all been paralleled out of High German dialects. 5. Of the 400 MSS. of the Imitation 340 come from the Teutonic countries—another argument in favour of its Teutonic origil;. Again, too of them, including the earliest, come from the Nether-lands. This number is quite disproportionate to the relative See also:size of the See also:Netherlands, and so points to See also:Holland as the See also:country in which the Imitation was first most widely circulated and presumably composed. 6.

There is a considerable See also:

body of early See also:evidence, traceable before 1450, that the author was a canon regular. 7. Several of the MSS. were written in houses belonging to the Windesheim Congregation of canons regular, or, in close See also:touch with it. Moreover there is a specially intimate literary and spiritual relationship between the Imitation and writings that emanated from what has been called the " Windesheim Circle." To sum up: the indirect evidence points clearly to the conclusion that the Imitation was written by a Teutonic canon regular, probably a Dutch canon regular of the Windesheim Congregation, in the first quarter of the 15th century. These data are satisfied by Thomas a Kempis. We pass to the See also:direct evidence, neglecting that of witnesses who had no See also:special See also:sources of See also:information. 8. There can be no question that in the Windesheim Congregation itself there was already, during Thomas a Kempis's lifetime, a fixed tradition that he was the author of the Imitation. The most important See also:witness to this tradition is Johann See also:Busch. It is true that the See also:crucial words are missing in one copy of his " See also:Chronicle " ; but it is clear there were two redactions of the work, and there are no grounds whatever for doubting that the second with its various enlargements came from the hands of Busch himself—a copy of it containing the passage exists written in 1464, while both Busch and Thomas a Kempis were still alive. Busch passed a See also:great See also:part of his See also:life in Windesheim, only a few See also:miles from Mount St Agnes where Thomas lived. It would be hard to find a more See also:authentic witness.

Another witness is See also:

Hermann Rhyd, a German member of the Windesheim Congregation, who also had personally known Thomas. Besides, two or three MSS. originating in the Windesheim Congregation See also:state or imply the same tradition. 9. More than this: the tradition existed in Thomas Kempis's own monastery shortly after his See also:death. For John Mauburne became a canon in Mount St Agnes within a few years of Thomas's death, and he states more than once that Thomas wrote the Imitation. ro. The earliest biographer of Thomas a Kempis was an See also:anonymous contemporary: the Life was printed in 1494, but it exists in a MS. of 1488. The biographer says he got his information from the brethren at Mount St Agnes, and he states in passing that Bk. III. was written by Thomas. Moreover, he appends a See also:list of Thomas's writings, 38 in number, and 5–8 are the four books of the Imitation. - - It is needless to point out that such a list must be of vastly greater authority than those given by St See also:Jerome or Gennadius in their De Viris Illustribus, and its rejection must, in consistency, involve methods of See also:criticism that would work havoc in the history of early literature of what See also:king soever. The domestic tradition in the Windesheim Congregation, and in Mount St Agnes itself, has a See also:weight that cannot be legitimately avoided or evaded.

Indeed the See also:

external authority for Thomas's author-See also:ship is stronger than that for the authorship of most really anonymous books—such, that is, as neither themselves claim to be by a given author, nor have been claimed by any one as his own. A large proportion of See also:ancient writings, both ecclesiastical and See also:secular, are unquestioningly assigned to writers on far less evidence than that for Thomas's authorship of the Imitation. See also:Internal arguments have been urged against Thomas's author-ship. It has been said that his certainly authentic writings are so inferior that the Imitation could not have been written by the same author. But only if they were of the most certain and See also:peremptory nature could such internal arguments be allowed to weigh against the clear See also:array of facts that make up the external argument in favour of a Kempis. And it cannot be said that the internal difficulties are such as this. Let it be granted that Thomas was a prolific writer and that his writings vary very much in quality; let it be granted also that the Imitation surpasses all the See also:rest, and that some are on a level very far below it; still, when at their best, some of the other See also:works are not unworthy of the author of the Imitation. In conclusion, it is the belief of the present writer that the " Contestation " is over, and that Thomas a Kempis's claims to the authorship of the Imitation have been solidly established. The best See also:account in See also:English of the Controversy is that given by F. R. Cruise in his Thomas a Kempis (1887). Works produced before 188o are in See also:general, with the exception of those of See also:Eusebius See also:Amort, superannuated, and See also:deal in large measure with points no longer of any living See also:interest.

A pamphlet by Cruise, Who was the Author of the Imitation? (1898) contains sufficient information on the subject for all See also:

ordinary needs; it has been translated into See also:French and German, and may be regarded as the See also:standard handbook. It has been said that the Imitation of Christ has had a wider religious See also:influence than any book except the See also:Bible, and if the statement be limited to Christendom, it is probably true. The Imitation has been translated into over fifty See also:languages, and is said to have run through more than 6000 See also:editions. The other statement, often made, that it sums up all that is best of earlier Western See also:mysticism—that in it " was gathered and concentered all that was elevating, passionate, profoundly pious in all the older mystics" (See also:Milman) is an exaggeration that is but partially true, for it depreciates unduly the See also:elder mystics and fails to do See also:justice to the originality of the Imitation. For its spiritual teaching is something quite different from the mysticism of See also:Augustine in the Confessions, or of See also:Bernard in the Sermons on the See also:Song of Songs; it is different from the scholastic mysticism of the St Victors or Bonaventure; above all, it is different from the obscure mysticism, saturated with the pseudo-Dionysian See also:Neoplatonism of the German school of See also:Eck-See also:hart, See also:Suso, See also:Tauler and See also:Ruysbroek. Again, it is quite different from the later school of St Teresa and St John of the See also:Cross, and from the introspective methods of what may be called the modern school of spirituality. The Imitation stands apart, unique, as the See also:principal and most representative utterance of a special phase of religious thought—non-scholastic, non-platonic, See also:positive and merely religious in its See also:scope—herein reflecting faithfully the spirit of the See also:movement initiated by See also:Gerhard See also:Groot (q.v.), and carried forward by the circles in which Thomas a Kempis lived. In contrast with more mystical writings it is of limpid clearness, every See also:sentence being easily understandable by all whose spiritual sense is in any degree awakened. No doubt it owes its universal See also:power to this simplicity, to its freedom from intellectualism and its direct See also:appeal to the religious sense and to the extraordinary religious See also:genius of its author. See also:Professor See also:Harnack in his book What is See also:Christianity? See also:counts the Imitation as one of the See also:chief spiritual forces in Catholicism: it " kindles See also:independent religious life, and a See also:fire which See also:burns with a See also:flame of its own " (p. 266).

The best Latin edition of the Imitation is that of Hirsche (1874), which follows closely the autograph of 1441 and reproduces the rhythmical See also:

character of the book. Of English See also:translations the most interesting is that by John See also:Wesley, under the title The Christian's See also:Pattern (1735). (E. C.

End of Article: IMITATION OF CHRIST, THE (Imitatio Christi)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
IMITATION (Lat. imitatio, from intitari, to imitate...
[next]
IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, THE