Thomas Haemerken came from Kempen near Düsseldorf. He was a shy, quiet little German monk with fresh coloring and piercing brown eyes. He was gentle with everyone, especially the poor. When the psalms were chanted he often stretched on tiptoe toward heaven with his face turned upward. He seldom had much to say about everyday affairs; but when the conversation turned to spiritual things he sometimes became so eloquent and moved that he would break off and excuse himself. "My brethren," he would say, "I must go; someone is waiting to converse with me in my cell."
For most of his long life (1379-80 to 1471), Thomas prayed and meditated, instructed novices and meticulously copied texts, while outside his Low Countries cloister raged the great upheavals of the time. On his tomb in The Netherlands is carved a Latin inscription: To the honor, not to the memory of Thomas à Kempis, whose name is more enduring than any monument.
This week, booksellers all over the world are preparing to meet the usual Christmas demand for the book that has made the name of Thomas à Kempis more enduring than marble. The Imitation of Christ has probably been translated into more languages than any other book but the Bible (at least eight U.S. publishers have one or more editions currently in print).* It is a short book, simply written. Like the writings of the earliest Christians, it speaks directly to ordinary people, not merely to theologians or philosophers. It is perhaps the nearest, clearest answer that has been made to the simple question: how to be a Christian. In 15th Century Latin or in modern English, the words of Thomas à Kempis are unequivocal:
¶ "Who hath a greater combat than he that laboreth to overcome himself?"
¶ "We often do a bad act, and make a worse excuse."
¶ ". . . If thou dost set thyself to that thou oughtest, namely, to suffering and to death, it will quickly be better with thee, and thou shalt find peace."
¶ "Set me free from evil passions, and heal my heart of all inordinate affections: that... I may be made fit to love, courageous to suffer, steady to persevere."
¶ ". . . O Lord, thou knowest what is best for us, let this or that be done, as thou pleasest.
"Give what thou wilt, and how much thou wilt, and when thou wilt.
"Deal with me as thou thinkest good, and as best pleaseth thee, and is most for thy honor.
"Set me where thou wilt, and deal with me in all things just as thou wilt.
"I am in thy hand: turn me round, and turn me back again, as thou shalt please.
"Behold, I am thy servant, prepared for all things; for I desire not to live unto myself, but unto thee; and O that I could do it worthily and perfectly!"
* Some scholars hold that it was written by Gerard Groote, founder of the Brethren of the Common Life, by whom Thomas was trained.