Musica ecclesiastica. The imitation of Christ

Front matter

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Preface

WHY is it that for the last four centuries The Imitation of Christ has stood higher than any other book of devotion in the heart and judgment of millions of Christians ? Because, beyond any other devotional work, it seriously takes the moral teaching of our Lord in the Gospels as a rule of thought, feeling, and action. It is the fashion of our day to make much of the words of Jesus Christ, when His Divine Person, or the atoning value of His death, or the teaching of His inspired Apostles is being disparaged. But those who would thus exalt the words of Christ at the expense of other things which are assuredly dear to Him, do not know, or do not remember, the lessons which His words really teach, or what is the standard of thought, motive, and conduct which they set before us, or how exacting and peremptory they are. The author of the Imitation did keep this constantly in mind. He had before his eyes those searching and awful warnings, viii PREFACE.

those piercing questionings of motive and character, those high ideals of devotion,— -the counsels no less than the precepts of Christian perfection, — which are too often never read, or at any rate are seldom pondered in days of —

" Smooth, open ways, good store ; A creed for every clime and age, By mammon's touch new moulded o'er and o'er ; No cross, no war to wage."

And therefore it is that in reading A Kempis the Christian conscience feels itself in the moral atmosphere of the Gospels. There are here no such accommodations of the words of Christ to moral situations which they cannot be made to sanction without more or less violence, as are to be met with in modern books of devotion; and we pass from his pages to those of the inspired Evangelists with less sense of a change of spiritual atmosphere than is possible in the case of any other writer. Among English books of piety, Law's Serious Call and Bishop Wilson's Sacra Privata most nearly recall the tenderness and the severity of A Kempis ; but they scarcely less recall A Kempis by what they are not than by what they are.

The present translator has wisely taken advantage of the admirable Latin version of the Lnitation which was published by C. Hirsche at Berlin in 1874. To all previous editions Hirsche's is related as a Hebrew or English edition of the Psalter which exhibits the

PREFACE. ix

parallelisms is to an edition which prints the Psalms as though they were prose. The difference is not only or chiefly one of literary form; the mind is led by the poetical arrangement to dwell with a new intelligence and intensity upon clauses and words, and to discern with new eyes their deeper meanings, their relation to each other and to the whole of which they are parts. That The Imitation of Christ now for the first time offered to English readers in its original form will be widely welcomed, the present writer cannot doubt.

II. P. Liddon.

Christ Church,

March, 18S9,

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.*

^T^HERE is perhaps no name better known in X the world of books than that of Thomas Kempis ; yet it would puzzle most people to tell whether he lived in the thirteenth or fifteenth century, whether he was monk or layman, whether he passed a quiet or a stormy life, and what he did besides writing the book which has made his name so famous. The world of readers cares little for biography that has no scandal in it; and men pass by simple lives to read about Saint Augustine's immorality, Milton's domestic troubles, and Abtlard's tragedy of love. But God carries His work on, though His workmen may be forgotten, and the pen which won an immortality by copying the Church Music still "works miracles, turning bitter waters into sweetness, every day."

* The Translator does; not consider himself called upon to discuss the question of the authorship. In whatever \va3 T we decide it, it is certain that we owe the book in its present form to Thomas Haemmerlein.

xii TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

Let us think oun elves back into the end of the fourteenth century and the beginning of the fifteenth, and with the map of Europe open before the eye of the mind, look in upon the stormy scene.

Here are the French and English flying at one another's throats, fighting the senseless Hundred Years' war. In Central Europe, Bohemia is in wild revolt to avenge the death of Huss and Jerome of Prague. The Western Church is torn by schism. One Pope is at Rome, another at Ravenna, another in France, and each one is denouncing his brothers as Antichrists; while, in the East, Constantinople is only waiting for the dreadful day when the longwatching Crescent shall become a circle round the walls, and Mahomet shall vanquish Christ in Eastern Europe, as he has already vanquished Him in Africa and in Arabia.

There is a wave of discontent everywhere rearing its crest; the clergy are ill in their lives, the laity are careless. Chaucer, the poet of the well-to-do, may pen his kindly Prologue and smile upon the vagaries of friars and monks and sompnours ; but there are deeper tones to be heard from the Rectory at Lutterworth, where the Morning Star of the Reformation is ending his dauntless life over his translation of the Bible ; and from the Ploughman's rugged text stand out in staitling distinctness, word-

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. xih

pictures of an England just remembering that it has forgotten God.

But there was quiet here and there, and in Thomas Kempis' country of Holland the noise of the world was partly dulled. What could it matter to the Haemmerlein family at Kempen what the Popes were and did? It was enough for them to mend the shoes of Kempen, to look after the tiny scholars, and perhaps to hear Tauler the Mystic preach.

It must have been a serious home ; for Thomas's elder brother, John, had gone away when quite a boy to get himself an education among the Brothers of Common Life at Deventer, a community half-lay, half-clerical, founded by Gerard Groot ; and, so far as we know, his father and mother never saw the lad again. The writer of the Church Music was as yet a toddling child ; and when the toddling child grew older, what must he do but follow in John's steps? So in 1393 Thomas presents himself in Deventer, asking for his brother John. Here at Deventer he learns Latin, perhaps Greek, a little mathematics, and a smattering of what they called philosophy, logic, and science ; but he learns something more — the copying of manuscripts, in which he soon excels. The Bible and its thoughts, reverence for people in authority, simple rules for a life of haid work, purity, and holiness, — these, under xiv TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

due guidance, he also studies ; for the world was not so far advanced in that century that schoolmasters and parents could afford to let a child pick up these subjects by the light of nature. Then we see him, as we should expect, ready to enter the monastery of the Brotherhood; and off he went to Mount St. Agnes, near Zwolle. But not till 1414 was he ordained a priest; he was in no hurry to take a step which he regarded as an important one. His quiet life was spent in the service of the busy monastery ; he taught the young, copied MSS., dreamed wonderful dreams, and wrote book after book.

What are the words under his picture?

"I have sought everywhere for peace, but I have found it not save in a little nook and in a little book."

From this retreat, except for one year of persecution, he never went, and it was in his cell that the Imitation was copied and written out. He died at last in 147 1, at the age of ninety-seven, "having fulfilled in very deed and verifying in himself what he recommended in his discourses should be done."

To understand the teaching of this "last of the Mystics" we must read the lives of Tauler and

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. xv

Ruysbroeck; but it is quite possible in a few lines to show what is the leading thought of the Musica Ecdesiastica.

Mysticism exists in every century and in every Church, and, stated in a word, means this : " Works in themselves are nothing ; personal communion with God is everything." Eckhard, Suso, and Tauler taught that the first step towards perfection is a purification of the soul from sin; and, when this is done, there follows a complete identification of the soul with God.

It is quite a mistake to think that the continual repetition of this thought in the Church Music is merely due to the wild transports of the monastic cell; the man who wrote that the soul might even on earth become one with God, meant it — and believed it.

Man is God in potentiality, and may by communion with God regain his first happy state. Works ;tre useless, ceremonies of little avail, charity but cold, if this communion with God be wanting. Thus it is that the writer of Church Music says little about the ethics of Christianity; he is the St. John of devotional literature ; and he feels himself as close to Jesus as if he had once walked with Him in the cornfields, stood beside the ignominious cross, and leaned upon His breast.

It is precisely this omission of his which brings xvi TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

down upon the book the curious condemnation of Dean Milman, and which wins for it the panegyric of George Eliot. It is a record of hidden spiritual struggle, and in so far as it deals with the soul and God alone, it is separated from all creeds. Resting on them, it is above them.

Now it is well known to students that the Church Music, commonly called The Imitation of Christ (though this title is a complete misnomer), was written, not in simple prose, but in a rhythm more or less exact. Dr. Hirsche of Hamburg, who has spent many years upon a study of the text, has once more brought this fact before the world. I say "once more," because even in Kempis' lifetime people knew that the book was called Musica Ecclesiastica, and that it was written " metrice," or in rhythm; but succeeding centuries disregarded the melody of the Latin and the evident intention of the writer that the chapters should be learnt by heart and chanted or recited.

Very often the lines rhyme ; but this appears to be more the result of the Latin inflexions than of any fixed intention. At any rate this rhyming can hardly be reproduced in English.

It has been my aim to take full advantage of this rhythmical arrangement, and to give to the public a copy of the Church Music which shall, as far as my English can catch the melody of the

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. xvii

semi-barbarous Latin, correspond with the original. But I do not pretend that the translation is mercilessly literal.

Long words, stereotyped phrases, and theological terms which carry no fixed meaning to the reader, have been discarded in favour of simple English. But I have generally made it clear in a foot-note whenever I lay violent hands upon a time-honoured expression.

The order of the books has been altered. They are given as Thomas Kempis left them. Nobody would think of putting the book on the Communion last, if he considered for a moment the Mystic teaching. "The Warnings Useful to a Spiritual Life " (Book I.), " The Warnings to draw us to the Inward Life" (Book II.), and "A Pious Encouragement to the Holy Communion " (Book III.), lead up to the dramatic conversations between God and the faithful soul — " The Book of Inward Consolation " (Book IV.)

And, lastly, no passage has been smoothed over, toned down, or omitted, merely to suit the particulai tenets of any school in the Christian Church.

Of the 1 44 1 Codex, which is the basis of Dr. Hirsche's edition and of this translation, Bonet- Maury says : " Quum igitur teutonici et nederlandici codices nobis antiquiores esse videantur, omnes demum supereminet codex ille, qui in burgundica xviii TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

Bruxellensi bibliotheca nunc reperitur. . . . Nobis, ex omnibus indiciis, constare videtur in Antverpiensi codice certissimum integerrimumque existere textum." And he adds that if you arrange the lines as they are marked in this Codex you will be astonished at the melody, rhythm, and rhyme, as if the writer had meant it to be sung in plain-song. And he compares the form of the book with that of the Psalms and Proverbs.

I may ask any of my readers who doubt this to refer to Hirsche's "Prolegomena zu einer neuen Ausgabe der Imitatio Christi."

If the work is in any way rescued from the misunderstandings of many generations, my aim will have been accomplished. The thinking world has for ages given its imprimatur to the volume which began its world-wide journey from the cell in Mount St. Agnes. From that hill-side still rings out the Mystic's voice : —

" I will hear what the Lord God may say in me. Blest is the soul that hears its Lord's voice speaking

within it, And takes the word of comfort from His lips. Blest are the ears that catch the throbbing whisper of

the Lord, And turn not to the buzzings of the passing world ; That listen not to voices from without, But to the truth that teaches from within. Blest are the eyes That, shut to outer things,

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. xix

Are busied with the inner life.

Blest are they who penetrate within,

And more and more by daily use

Strive to prepare themselves

To take the heavenly mysteries.

And blest are they who try to give their time to God,

And shake them free from all the burden of the world.

So, all is vanity,

Save loving God and serving Him alone/*

Book I. Contents Of Book I

CHAP. PAGE

i. Of Imitating Christ and Scorning all the World's Vanities . 3

2. Humble Thoughts of Self 5

3. Truth's Teaching 7

4. Prudence in what we have to do 10

5. Reading Holy Writ 11

6. Unbridled Longings ,12

7. Flight from Vain Hopes and Boastful Pride .... 13

8. Beware of being Too Familiar 15

9. Obedience and Subjection .15

10. Shunning Excess in Talk 17

11. How to gain Peace and Earnestness upon our way . . 18

12. "The Uses of Adversity " ........ 2a

14. Shun passing a Rash Sentence upon Men .... 25

15. Deeds done in Charity 26

16. Bearing with the Weaknesses of Others .«.,.. 28

17. Life in the Monastery . . . . • . . . 30

18. Examples set us by the Holy Fathers 31

19. The Duties of a Good Man in a Brotherhood . . . . 34

21. Heart-Sorrow 42

24. The Judgment and the Punishment of Sin . . 53

25. A Burning Wish to Better all our Lives 57

Here begin the " Warnings Useful to a Spiritual Life!'* * This in the MS. comes in this place, not before the list of chapters.

Chapter I

Of Imitating Christ and Scorning all the World's Vanities.

fan. x. " TT E that followeth after Me walks not in the darkness ; " *- -A Thus saith the Lord.

These are Christ's words, and by them we are told How far to imitate His life and ways, If we would be truly filled with light, And from all blindness of our hearts be set at liberty. Therefore our study above all must be Upon the life of Jesus Christ to ponder.

His teaching passes all the teaching of the saints, And he who has the spirit of Christ Would find the manna hidden there. But it is thus, that many a man, Hearing the Gospel ever and again, Feels for it little longing, Because the spirit of Christ is none of his. Yet he who would in all their fulness Taste and know the words of Christ,

Must study to make all his life like in its beauty unto His.

4 OF IMITATING CHRIST.

ii.

What boots it deeply of the Holy Three to talk, If, lacking humbleness, you grieve that Holy Three ? Deep words make no man just and holy, But lives of virtue make men dear to God. Far rather had I feel a sorrow for my sin, Than know the definition of the feeling ; For if in the mere letter * you should know the Bible

through, And all the sayings of the wise,

What — without love of God, without His gracious touch f — would all be worth to you ?

Jan. 2. " Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity," Save loving God and serving Him alone. That is the best philosophy, To scorn the world and strive to gain the kingdom in the

skies.

Therefore it is but vanity to seek the riches that will fail, And to build hopes on them.

It is but vanity to look for offices of state. It is but vanity to raise oneself on high. It is but vanity to follow longings of the flesh, Panting for what must bring us heavy punishment in days

to be.

It is but vanity to wish for life that shall be long, And care but little for its being good. It is but vanity to think alone upon the life we lead, And not look forward to the things which are to come. It is but vanity to love what with all speed is passing by, And not to hasten there where joys eternal dwell.

Jan. 3. Bethink you often of the saying,

" The eye is never satisfied with what it glances at, * Exterius. t Gratia.

HUMBLE THOUGHTS OF SELF. 5

The ear is never filled with what it hears,"

And try to wean your heart from loving what you see,

And turn to what you cannot see ;

For they who follow where the senses lead, will spoil the

conscience, And lose the kindly touch* of God.

CHAPTER II. Humble Thoughts of Self

Jan. 4. a ll men by nature dearly love to know,

±± But knowledge without fear of God — what is it

worth ?

Better indeed a humble peasant, fearing God, Than the proud thinker who neglects himself in musing

on the courses of the stars.

He that well knows himself is cheap in his own sight, And praise from man delights him not ; For if I knew all that is in the world, And yet were not in charity with men, What would it profit me before my God ? He is to judge me from my actions here.

Rest, rest from this excessive longing ; In it you will but find distraction and deceit. Gladly the men of knowledge would seem wise, Gladly be talked of as " the learned ; " But there are many things Of little or no profit to the soul. Unwise indeed is he Who turns his mind to aught But that which serves the safety of his soul.

* Gratia.

6 HUMBLE THOUGHTS OF SELF.

Much talk contents it not,

But a good life will cool the burning of the mind ;

And a pure conscience

Brings us with confidence before our God.

The more you know, the better that you know it,

The sterner will the judgment be, unless your life be holy.

Then be not raised on high in pride for any skill or

knowledge of your own, But rather fear for what has been entrusted to you.

II

Jan.$. If you think you know much and comprehend things well, Reflect that there is much you do not know. Be not high-minded, But confess your ignorance.

Why would you put yourself before another? Many may be found more skilled than you, Many more learned in the law ;

But if you would learn something that will profit you, Love to be all unknown^ and to be held as nothing.

The deepest lesson for a man to learn is this, and the most gainful too : Truly to know— ay and to scorn himself. Great wisdom is it, and it makes a man far better, To put no price upon himself,

And to think highly of his neighbour with a kindly mind. For if you saw another sin some open sin, Or do some grievous deed, Think not the better of yourself for that. How long can you stand straight ? You cannot tell. We all are frail ; But this must be your thought— " None is more frail than 1."

TRUTH'S TEACHING. 7

CHAPTER III. Truth's Teaching

Jan. 6. TT APPY the man taught by the truth itself;

•A- J- Not by the shapes and sounds that pass across his life,

But by the very truth.

Our thoughts and senses often lead us wrong ;

They see one side alone.

What is the use of great disputes on what is hidden

and obscure ?

We shall not in the judgment day be judged because we

know them not.

But it is great unwisdom that we should neglect the gainful

and the needful things, And turn our willing thoughts to what is strange and hurtfuL Eyes we have, and do not see.

Why should we care about scholastic terms ? *

fan. 7. The man to whom the Word Eternal speaks Is loosened from the bonds of many theories; For from one Word come all things, And all things speak — one Word.

This Word is the beginning.

It also speaks to us.

Without this Word, no one can judge or think aright ; But he to whom all things are One, And who to One brings all his questions,! And in One sees all his answers, Steadfast-hearted will he be, And rest at peace in God.

O God of truth, Make me one with Thee in eternal love.

* De generibus et speciebus.

8 TRUTH'S TEACHING.

Oft am I weary, reading, listening,

But all I wish and long for is in Thee.

Then silent be all teachers, hushed be all creation at the

sight of Thee : Speak Thou to me, alone.

II.

Tan. 8. The more a man is one within himself, and simple in

his inner life, The deeper and the more he understands — yet without toil. For down from heaven there comes to him the light that

brings intelligence.

A spirit simple, pure, and firm, is never wasted in a multitude

of business, Because its business is in all to honour God. It strives to be at rest within itself from all self-seeking

thoughts.

Who troubles you ? who hinders you ? Naught but your heart's affection — yet unkilled. The good and pious soul first maps out in his heart His business in the world, Nor does his work e'er draw him off into the longings of a

wicked mind.

He bends it all to listen to his reason, — Reason, the holy witness of his life. Who fights a braver fight

Than he who strives to win a battle o'er himself? This, this should be our ceaseless work, To crush the enemy within ourselves, — Daily to get a braver hold on him, And win some ground upon the better path.

in.

Jan. 9. All our ideal life upon the earth

Has something unideal that clings to it,

TRUTH'S TEACHING. 9

And no deep thoughts of ours are free from some dark mists.

The humble knowledge of yourself

Will be a surer road to God

Than a deep searching into knowledge of the world.

Yet knowledge is not to be blamed,

Nor any simple grasping of a thing.

Nay, in itself considered, it is good,

And is of God ordained ;

But a good conscience and a virtuous life are ever put

before it.

Still, because many rather strive to know And not to live in holiness, They often err, And bring forth little fruit, if any at all.

O, if they used the care they spend upon their questions, In rooting out their vices and in sowing seeds of virtue, There would not be such scandals and such evils in the

world, Such careless ways within the cloister walls.

Jan 10. But, when the day of judgment comes, we shall be asked What we have done, — and not what we have read ; How holy were our lives, — and not how fine our words.

Tell me, Where now may all those lords and masters be whom you

knew well While on the earth they lived, And while they flourished in their learning? Their prebends others hold ; I cannot tell if they think once of them. In life it seemed that they were something great. And now none speaks of them.

How fast, how fast the glory of the world flits by.

io PRUDENCE IN WHAT WE HAVE TO DO.

I would their lives had balanced with their knowledge ; Then good had been their studies and their books. How many perish by vain learning in the world, That care too little for the service of their God. They vanish into shadows, while they meditate, — Because they make their choice for greatness, not for

lowliness of mind.

Truly great is he, Who has great charity.

Truly great is he, Who in himself is small, And holds as naught all heights of honour. Truly wise is he,

Who deems all earthly things as dung, That he may win the prize of Christ. Truly learned too is he, Who does God's will, Letting his own will go.

CHAPTER IV. Prudence in what we have to do

Jan. ii TT7E must not credit every word and every rising thought, V V But with care and patience we must weigh a matter as it is with God.

Oh, (it is sad) more readily we speak, more readily believe, 111 of another rather than good ; So weak are we.

But good men do not lightly credit every teller of a tale, Because they know that human weakness is so prone to ill, And apt enough to stumble through the tongue.

II.

Great wisdom is it Not to run headlong on in what we have to do,

READING HOLY WRIT. u

Nor to stand obstinately fixed in our decisions.

It is a part of wisdom, too, not to believe any and every

word of man, Nor soon to pour into another's ear what we have heard

or credited.

Take counsel with the wise, with those whom conscience

rules, And seek instruction from a better man than you, Rather than follow up your own discoveries.

The good life makes man wise, as God would have him

wise, Cunning in much.

The humbler one is in himself, and the more subject unto

God, The wiser will he be in all, the more at peace.

CHAPTER V. Reading Holy Writ

Jan. 12. T N Holy Writ we must seek truth, -*• Not eloquence ;

And in the spirit in which all holy writing was once made, In that must it be read.

Use we should look for there, Not subtle talk.

ir.

We should be just as glad to read simple and pious books, As deep ones and profound.

Let it not trouble you whether the writer be of weight or no, Whether his name be great or small,

12 UNBRIDLED LONGINGS.

But let the love of simple truth draw you to read your book.

You must not ask who said it,

But what is said — attend to that.

God's truth remains for ever though men pass away,

And, without caring for the person of the writer,

God speaks to us in many ways.

in.

Jan. 13. Often in reading Holy Writ curious thoughts obstruct our path ; We wish to understand and argue, where we should pass by If you would drink a profitable draught, Read with humility, With simpleness and faith, And never long to gain the name of " wise/' Ask your questions freely,

And hear the words of holy men — not answering them And be not grieved by parables from older men ; Not without reason are they put before you.

CHAPTER VI. Unbridled Longings

Jan. 14. T T THEN we desire a thing in an unbridled way, V V We are at once unrestful in ourselves. The proud and covetous are never still ; The poor and lowly-minded spend their days In peace that never fails.

II.

The man who is not yet quite dead within himself Is quickly tried : In little worthless things he is defeated.

FLIGHT FROM VAIN HOPES. 13

He that is weak in spirit, and in a way slave to the flesh,

leaning to things of sense, Can hardly steal himself away from earthly longings, And when he does he is but sad, Easily angered if a man withstands him. Yet if he gain his end,

At once his conscience rises to accuse him ; He is cast down because he followed where his passions led, Passions that aid him not to gain the longed-for rest.

ill.

So by resisting passion, Not by bowing to it like a slave, The true heart's peace is found.

Therefore peace has no being in the heart of carnal man, Given up to earthly things, But in the burning spiritual soul.

CHAPTER VII. Flight from Vain Hopes and Boastful Pride

Ian 15. T TAIN is he

V Who puts his trust in man or in created things. Blush not to serve your neighbour for the love of Christ, Nor blush at seeming needy in this world of time.

You must not stand upon yourself, But rest ycur hope in God.