C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Thomas à Kempis (1380–1471)
Thomas à Kempis (kem’pis). A celebrated German mystic; born at Kempen (whence his name, “Thomas from Kempen”), near Cologne, 1380; died in 1471. His true name was Hamerken (Latin, Malleolus). Sub-prior of the monastery of Mount St. Agnes, near Zwolle, he was distinguished for piety and success as an instructor of youth. He was author of the ‘Imitation of Christ,’ one of the most famous of books, which has been universally read and has moved the hearts of men of all nations, conditions, and kinds for four centuries. Its title describes its contents; it abounds in maxims of humility and resignation, and is such a book as only a man living the most uneventful of lives, withdrawn from the world and spent in contemplation, could have written. It is said that it has been translated into more languages than any other book except the Bible. (See Critical and Biographical Introduction).