RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Keller Kempis
Testament Doctrine of the Holy Spirit (London, (1867); On the Church of God (10th ed., 1906); On the Pentateuch (1877); On the Gospel of Matthew (1868); and On the Book of Revelation (1861). " In the Beginning " (Mosaic Cosmogony), Expositions of the Prophecies of Isaiah and the Gospel of John (enlarged ed. by E. E. Whitfield, 1907); The Epistle to the Hebrews and the Epistles of John; a work on God's Inspiration of the Scriptures, and his last words on Christ's Coming again (in which he vindicated the originality of Darby in regard to the " Secret Rapture " after its impugnment by an American writer) are other works which warrant notice.
E. E. Whitfield. Bibliography: W. B. Neatby, William Kelly as a Theologian, in Expositor, 7 ser., no. 17.
KELSO, JAMES ANDERSON: Presbyterian; b. at Rawal Pindi (90 m. s.e. of Peshawur), India, June 6, 1873. He was graduated at Washington and Jefferson College in 1892, Western Theological Seminary in 1896, and studied in Berlin and Leipsic (Ph.D., 1902). He was tutor of Greek and Latin at Washington and Jefferson College 1892- 1893, instructor in Hebrew in Western Theological Seminary 1897-1901, professor of Hebrew and Old- Testament literature in the same institution 1901- 1909, and president since 1909. He is "an adherent of the confessional Theology of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A." He has written Die Klagelieder, der masoretische Text und die Versionen (Leipsic, 1901).
KEMPIS, THOMAS A.
I. Life, Minor Writings. II. The Imitation of Christ. III. Disputed Authorship of the "Imitation of Christ."
General Survey (§1). Gersen's Claims (§ 2). Gerson's Claims (§ 3). Thomas a Kempis (§ 4).
I. Life, Minor Writings: Thomas a Kempis, German mystic and author of the " Imitation of Christ," was born at Kempen (40 m. n.w. of Cologne) in 1380 and died near Zwolle (52 m. e.n.e. of Amsterdam) in 1471. His paternal name was Hemerken or Hammerlein, " little hammer." In 1395 he was sent to the school at Deventer conducted by the Brethren of the Common Life (q.v.). He became skilful as a copyist and was thus enabled to support himself. Later he was admitted to the Augustinian convent of Mount Saint Agnes near Zwolle, where his brother John had been before him and had risen to the dignity of prior. Thomas received priest's orders in 1413 and was made subprior 1429. The house was disturbed for a time in consequence of the pope's rejection of the bishopelect of Utrecht, Rudolph of Diepholt; otherwise, Thomas' life was a quiet one, his time being spent between devotional exercises, composition, and copying. He copied the Bible no less than four times, one of the copies being preserved at Darmstadt in five volumes. In its teachings he was widely read, and his works abound in Biblical quotations, especially from the New Testament. His life is no doubt fitly characterized by the words under an old picture, first referred to by Francescus Tolensis: " In all things I sought quiet and found it not save in retirement and in books." A monument was dedicated to bis memory in the presence
of the archbishop of Utrecht in St. Michael's Church, Zwolle, Nov. 11, 1897.
Thomas a, Kempis belonged to the school of mystics who were scattered along the Rhine from Switzerland to Strasburg and Cologne and in the Netherlands. He was a follower of Geert Groote and Florentius Radewijns, the founders of the Brethren of the Common Life. His writings are all of a devotional character and include tracts and meditations, letters, sermons, a life of St. Lydewigis, a Christian woman who remained steadfast under a great stress of afflictions, and biographies of Groote, Radewijns, and nine of their companions. Works similar in contents to the "Imitation of Christ " and pervaded by the same spirit are his prolonged meditation on the life and blessings of the Savior and another on the Incarnation. Both of these works overflow with adoration for Christ.
II. The Imitation of Christ: The work which has given Thomas a Kempis universal fame in the Western churches is the De imitatione Christi. It is the pearl of all the writings of the mystical German-Dutch school of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and with the " Confessions " of Augustine and Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress it occupies a front rank, if not the foremost place, among useful manuals of devotion, after the Bible. Protestants and Roman Catholics alike join in giving it praise. The Jesuits give it an official place among their " exercises." John Wesley and John Newton put it among the works that influenced them at their conversion. General Gordon carried it with him to the battlefield. .Few books have had so extensive a circulation. The number of counted editions exceeds 2,000; and 1,000 different editions are preserved in the British Museum. The Bullingen collection, donated to the city of Cologne in 1838, contained at the time 400 different editions. De Backer (Essai, ut inf.) enumerates 545 Latin and about 900 French editions. Originally written in Latin, a French translation was made as early as 1447, which still remains in manuscript. The first printed French copies appeared at Toulouse 1488. The earliest German translation was made in 1434 by J. de Bellorivo and is preserved in Cologne. The editions in German began at Augsburg in 1486. The first English translation (1502) was by William Atkinson and Margaret, mother of Henry VII., who did the fourth book. Translations appeared in Italian (Venice, 1488, Milan 1489), Spanish (Seville, 1536), Arabic (Rome, 1663), Armenian (Rome, 1674), Hebrew (Frankfort, 1837), and other languages. Corneille produced a poetical paraphrase in French in 1651.
The "Imitation of Christ" derives its title from the heading of the first book, De imitatione Christi et contemptu omnium vanitatum mundi. It consists of four books and seems to have been written in meter and rime, a fact first announced by K. Hirsche in 1874. The four books are not found in all the manuscripts, nor are they arranged invariably in the same order. The work is a manual of devotion intended to help the soul in its communion with God and the pursuit of holiness. Its sentences are statements, not arguments, and are pitched in the highest key of Christian experience. It was
Kempis