§ 35. THE IMITATION OF CHRIST. 289
character, include tracts and meditations, letters, sermons, a Life of St. Lydevvigis, a steadfast Christian woman who endured a great fight of afflictions, and the biographies of Groote, Florentius and nine of their companions. Works similar to the Imitation of Christ are his prolonged meditation upon the Incarnation, and a meditation on the Life and Blessings of the Saviour,^ both of which overflow with admiration for Christ.
In these writings the traces of mediaeval theology, though they are found, are not obtrusive. The writer followed his mediseval predecessors in the worship of Mary, of whom he says, she is to be invoked by all Christians, especially by monastics. 2 He prays to her as the " most merciful," the " most glorious " mother of God, and calls her the queen of heaven, the efficient mediatrix of the whole world, the joy and delight of all the saints, yea, the golden couch for all the saints. She is the chamber of God, the gate of heaven, the paradise of delights, the well of graces, the glory of the angels, the joy of men, the model of manners, the brightness of virtues, the lamp of life, the hope of the needy, the salvation of the weak, the mother of the orphaned. To her all should flee as sons to a mother's bosom. ^
From these tender praises of Mary it is pleasant to turn away to the code of twenty-three precepts which the Dutch mystic laid down under the title, A Small Alphabet for a Monk in the School of Grod.^ Here are some of them. Love to be unknown and to be reputed as nothing. Love solitude and silence, and thou wilt find great quiet and a good conscience. Where the crowd is, there is usually confusion and distraction of heart. Choose poverty and simplicity. Humble thyself in all things and under all things, and thou wilt merit kindness from all. Let Christ be thy life, thy reading, thy meditation, thy conversation, thy desire, thy gain, thy hope and thy reward. Zaccheus, brother, descend
1 Pohl's ed., II. 1-59 ; V. 1-363.
2 De disciplina daustralium, Pohl's ed., II. 313. For prayers to Mary III. 355-368 and sermons on Mary, VI. 218-238.
3 Pohl, III. 357; VI. 219, 235 sq. * HI. 317-322.
u
290 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
from the height of thy secular wisdom. Come and learn in God's school the way of humility, long-suffering and patience, and Christ teaching thee, thou shalt come at last safely to the glory of eternal beatitude.
Note. — The Authorship of the Imitation of Christ. This question has been one of the most hotly contested questions in the history of pure literature. National sentiments have entered into the discussion, France and Italy contending for the honor of autliorship with the Lowlands. The work is now quite generally ascribed to Thomas a Kempis, but among those who dissent from this opinion are scholars of rank.
Among the more recent treatments of the subject not given in the Literature, § 27, are V. Becker : Uauteur de V Imitat. et Us documents neerlandais, Hague, 1882. Also Les derniers travaux sur Vauteiir de V Imitat., Brussels, 1889. — Denifle : Krit. Bemerk. zur Gersen-Kempis Frage, ZeUunfj fur kath. TheoL, 1882 sq. — A. O. Spitzen : Th. a K. als schrijver der navolgin(j, Utrecht, 1880. Also Xouvelle defense en reponse du Denifle, Utrecht, 1884. — L. Santini: I diritti di Tvmmaso da Kemp., 2 vols., Rome, 1879-1881. — F. X. Funk: Gerson und Gersen and Der Verfasser der Nachfolge Christi in his AhhandJungen, Paderborn, 1899, II. 373-444. — P. E. Puyol : Descript. bibliogr. des MSS. et des princip. edd. dxi livre de imitat., Paris, 1898. Also Paleographie, dassement, genealogie da livre de imitat., Paris, 1898. Also L\iuteur du livre de imitat., 2 vols., Paris, 1899. — Schulze's art. in IIeuzog. — G. Kentenich : Die Handschriften der Imitat. und die Autorschaft des Thomas, in Brieger's Zeitschrift, 1902, 18 sqq., 1903, 594 sqq.
Pohl gives a list of no less than 35 persons to whom with more or less confidence the authorship has been ascribed. The list includes the names of John Gerson, chancellor of the University of Paris ; John Gersen, the reputed abbot of Vercelli, Italy, who lived about 1230; Walter Hylton, St. Bernard, Bonaventura, David of Augsburg, Tauler, Suso and even Innocent III. The only claimants worthy of consideration are Gerson, Gersen, and Thomas k Kempis, although Montmorency is inclined to advance the claim of Walter Hylton. The uncertainty arises from the facts (1) that a number of the MSS. and printed editions of the fifteenth century have no note of authorship ; (2) the rest are divided between these, Gerson, Gersen, k Kempis, Hylton, and St. Bernard ; (3) the MSS. copies show important divergencies. The matter has been made more difficult by the forgery of names and dates in MSS. since the controversy began, these forgeries being almost entirely in the interest of a French or Italian authorship. A reason for the absence of the author's name in so many MSS. is found in the desire of k Kempis, if he indeed be the author, to remain incognito, in accordance with his own motto, ama nesciri, "love to be unknown."
Of the Latin editions belonging to the fifteenth century, Pohl gives 28 as accredited to Gerson, 12 to Thomas, 2 to St. Bernard, and 6 as anonymous. Or, to follow Funk, p. 426, 40 editions of that century were ascribed to Gerson, 11 to k Kempis, 2 to Bernard, 1 to Gersen, and 2 are anonymous. Spitzen gives 15 as ascribed to k Kempis. Most of the editions ascribing the