INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
FOR many years the Venerable Thomas à Kempis had charge of the young Religious at Mount St. Agnes. The office of training the Novices was with the Windesheimers usually attached to the sub-priorship, at least in the early days of the Congregation, and a Novice-Master, as such, was not appointed. Twice Thomas was elected Sub-Prior of the Monastery on the Mount. We find him named as holding that post in 1429, in a list of the Brethren who went into exile rather than disobey a papal interdict laid upon the land. As a vacancy had occurred by the promotion of Brother Theodoric from Sub-Prior to Prior in 1425, it is reasonable to presume that our author was appointed at that date.
During the period of exile in Frisia, three years or longer, the community would be more or less disorganized; moreover, during part of that time Thomas was posted by his superiors at Arnheim to aid his brother John à Kempis, who was failing in health and who died in 1432, assisted by Thomas to the end. Meanwhile another had been elected Sub-Prior of Mount St. Agnes. But in 1448 we find our Venerable Thomas chosen Sub-Prior again, and this time he seems to have remained in office for a long period: the next Sub-Prior mentioned is Henry Ruhorst, whose death is chronicled in 1458.
The fact of our author’s close relations as Sub-Prior with the younger members of the Community explains not only the present volume of sermons, but also the great proportion among his writings of treatises intended chiefly for youthful Religious, as “The Discipline of the Cloister,” “The Monk’s Alphabet,” “The Manual for Beginners,” etc. “He composed various treatises for the edification of youth, unadorned and simple in style, but truly great in thought and efficacy,” says the unknown continuator of the “Chronicles of Mount St. Agnes,” in his necrology notice of our Venerable Thomas. And he adds, “he possessed a wonderful gift of consoling the tempted and afflicted.”
In fact, tradition represents him to us as particularly skilled in the direction of souls, a gift it is not difficult to concede to the author of the “Imitation,” and as especially happy and successful in the encouragement and instruction of the young. “There is an interesting picture given of him,” writes Kettlewell, “which is said to have been taken from an engraving on copper, found over his grave when his bones were dug up in the burial ground of Mount St. Agnes. In this picture Thomas à Kempis is represented as coming forward on the elevated part of the chancel to receive a young man anxiously desirous to forsake the world and its vanities, and to enter upon a religious state. The young man is seen approaching the reverend Father, reverently bowing his knee, and saying:
‘O where is peace? For thou its path hast trod.’
This is on a scroll which he bears in his hand; and Thomas à Kempis gives the following reply on another scroll which he carries:
‘In poverty, retirement, and with God.’ ”
This answer is certainly characteristic, as a perusal of the present volume will abundantly show.
The Windesheimers were exceedingly careful, as might be expected, in the reception and subsequent training of candidates for the Religious Life in the Canonical Order. One reads in their Statutes or Constitutions: “We consider that the greatest possible care and diligence should be exercised in the reception of Novices; inasmuch as the perverse and indocile, if admitted to mingle with the good, are often wont to cause serious harm to religion, and inasmuch as the good after their admission, if left without due instruction, suffer grave loss in the negligence of religion.”
The Constitutions then proceed to proscribe all merely human motives in the acceptance of postulants: “For the admission therefore of all who may come and seek the religious habit, we decree that this primary care and caution be exercised, namely that neither for dignity of family nor for multitude of riches, nor for any other consideration pertaining to the pomp or avarice of this world, any be accepted, whose fellowship is known as likely to cause harm or danger or disgrace to the rest established in religion, either because of the depravity of their own conduct, or through the annoyance and importunity of others among their acquaintance or kinsfolk.”
Then are added the qualifications which should be sought in the candidates: “But we counsel that you should consider in those who would be received, in the first place good conduct, and especially that they be meek and tractable and not impatient of correction.”
Further precautions are then taken to secure that no candidate be admitted even to the Noviciate hastily or without full deliberation: “Unknown persons who do not bring with them trustworthy testimonials we do not admit before the probation of half a year, unless the Community unanimously, or at least three parts of the Community, judge that a less lengthy delay may be accorded.
“During this period they should be tried whether they be constant in their purpose, and perfectly renounce the pomps of the world by the casting aside of worldly garments, by the exercise of toil and humiliation, by ready submission to all commands and hardships, by mortification of their own will and opinion, by observance of silence and quiet, by zeal in sacred reading and prayer, by the grateful acceptance of blame and correction, by cheerfulness in the watchings and fasts, by readiness to confess their sins, and to disclose their temptations, and all other the like wherein they can be proved, whether they truly will to die to the world and themselves and live to God in the perfection of holy Religion.”
Excluded from admission were: (1) Youths under eighteen; after the Council of Trent, the age limit was sixteen. (2) A Cleric or Lay-Brother from another Monastery, except by leave of the General Chapter. (3) Two brothers, or father and son, in the same house, except again by permission of the General Chapter; in this case the second comer was not to have a voice in the Chapter, except by dispensation. (4) Secular priests, or those of illegitimate birth.
In accordance with papal decrees, no gift of any kind, under any pretext whatever, was to be demanded of the postulants.
If, finally, a candidate was accepted as such, he was to be very fully instructed in the obligations, burdens, and difficulties of the Religious Life, and in the Rule and Statutes of the Order; if this severe presentment did not dismay him he was to be further initiated into the choir duties of reading and chant. Then, on an appointed day he was led into the Chapter Room, where, duly instructed beforehand, he prostrated himself at the Prior’s feet.
“What is your request?” the Prior asked.
“I beg God’s mercy and your fellowship,” was the reply.
Then rising to his knees at the command of the Prior, he is questioned by him before the whole assembly: whether he had come from another Order: whether he was free: whether he had plighted his troth to any woman: whether he was bound by any vow: whether he suffered from any hidden and incurable disease: whether he was involved in any quarrel or debt: whether born in lawful wedlock: whether he was capable of receiving Holy Orders.
After receiving a satisfactory answer to all these various questions, the Prior again insisted on the difficulties and hardships of the Religious Life, especially such as were entailed in the renunciation of self-will and constant obedience, warning him at the same time with what unsparing severity a strict observance of every point of religious discipline would be exacted, and how sternly every defect would be punished. The candidate is then asked whether he still perseveres in his request.
“Then if undismayed and constant he reply, that trusting solely in the loving-kindness of God and the prayers of the Brethren, he will accomplish all these things, the Prior shall say: ‘May the Lord grant thee to fulfill all this, that thou mayest attain eternal life.’ ”
Taking the kneeling postulant’s hands in his own, the Prior proceeds: “On the part of God and our own, we grant thee our fellowship.”
He would add that the postulant was fully free to depart before his profession, as it was also always in the power of the Order to dismiss him before that act, should he prove an unsuitable subject: and finally a day was assigned him for his clothing in the religious habit.
For this solemn investiture, which was to mark the commencement of his Noviciate proper, the postulant was instructed to prepare himself by a General Confession and Holy Communion. The clothing took place in the Sacristy, between the recitation of the Office and the Conventual Mass: the tyro was divested of his upper garment and robed in the white cassock and linen rochet of the Order. He was then led to the High Altar and lay prostrate there during the singing of the “Veni Creator” and the customary versicles and collects. Finally, he was received to the kiss of peace by the Prior and the assembled Brethren.
The Novice’s rochet, then as now, was distinguished from that of a professed Canon by short sleeves, in place of the long, to signify his freedom as yet from the vows. He was also not permitted to wear the amess, an article of dress which survives to-day in the cape of the Secular Canon.
The Novice was now entrusted to a Brother “of good repute,” in the early years of the Congregation usually the Sub-Prior, to be diligently instructed even in the minutest details of the Regular Life, “as to his carriage, his bearing, his every gesture, how to keep his eyes cast down, to speak modestly and not hastily, and in all his movements to give proof of humility.” He was also to be taught how to read and chant in the different tones, according to the diversity of the season; and it was the special duty of the Novice to sing the versicles on his side of the choir.
“He shall also be taught how to address the Prior and the Brethren, and that he must especially show reverence to the Prior. And, above all, he shall be frequently admonished to change his worldly conduct and habits unto better, and to put off the old man with his deeds, confessing and punishing with tears the evil he has wrought, repressing also his vices and the concupiscence of the flesh, mortifying likewise his own will and judgement for the good of obedience, and embracing all things lowly and base, and labours of whatsoever kind, and then by pursuing virtue become a new man in Christ.”
And the better to attain this, “as one dead to the world and himself, let him in no wise mingle with the external affairs or business of the house in private or public, seeking to live to God alone, a zealous guardian of his cell and quiet; let him shun growing slack in idleness, and following the counsel and instruction of his master let him set his soul to spiritual progress, being instant in holy reading and prayer, and compunction of heart and meditation, or else in labour of the hands in his cell or without, as shall be enjoined him, according to the rule of our common practice.” It would be difficult to find a more exact conformity than exists between these prescriptions and the oft-repeated counsels contained in the following discourses.
And how well the following paragraph fits in with the subject matter of his Third Sermon: “And that he may the more efficaciously consult his own welfare, he should very often manifest to his master all his temptations and the secrets of his heart and his whole life, and have nothing that he would wish concealed from him or the Prior of the house.”
And again, “let no man,” says à Kempis, “looking at others, neglect himself: having a care of himself before all, let him be silent as to the rest, which does not concern his charge,” p. 19. And the Constitutions, speaking of the Novice: “And he should not freely thrust himself into the discourse or business of others, but showing honour to all, let him hardly venture to say anything in the presence of others, and when questioned, let him learn to answer humbly and in few words, with modesty and fear.”
“And to the Community gatherings, where his presence is required, especially in the Divine Office, let him accustom himself to hasten devoutly and betimes, day and night, with all alacrity and fervour of spirit.” To this “alacrity and fervour of spirit,” especially in the Divine Office, our Venerable Thomas encourages his Novices in his very first Sermon: and again in Sermon VI he encourages them to struggle against the very natural difficulty that must have beset many to remain wakeful through the long night vigils. In the third Example which he cites there for the edification of his young hearers, it is thought that he is referring to the holy man William Vorniken, for many years Prior of Mount St. Agnes, so well does the narrative fit in with what we learn of the character of this venerable Canon from Busch in his Chronicle of Windesheim. But for the rest it must be freely admitted that joyous devotion in the praise of God was a common characteristic of all the Devout Brothers and Canons of Windesheim, and pre-eminently of Thomas himself.
Who can read unmoved the eloquent testimony of Francis Tolensis on this point? And this writer earnestly assures us that in his brief biography he has carefully eschewed all mere rhetorical flourish and has strictly adhered to the simple truth, as found in contemporary documents, or handed down by tradition in Mount St. Agnes, of which monastery he was himself a member.
“In the Church,” he writes, “and in the performance of ecclesiastical ceremonies, it is difficult to describe his rapt attention, and I might say inspiration. While he chanted the psalms, his eyes were ever raised towards Heaven, and he appeared to be filled with a divine enthusiasm, captivated and carried away by the unutterable sweetness of the holy psalmody: so that he never stood with his heels resting upon the ground; that is to say, as he meditated the tips of his toes alone touched the floor, the rest of his body was lifted heavenwards, whither his soul tended with all its desires. In the Divine Office he always remained standing erect, never sitting, never resting his arm, or leaning back against the stall. Of those that entered the choir, night or day, he was always the first; of those that left he was always the last. Incredible was his delight in and his love for the Divine worship and the services of the Church. So evident was this pleasure that one day some one remarked to Thomas that he considered him very fortunate, and after all not so much deserving of praise in the alacrity of his voice, the joyousness of his soul, and his piety in singing the psalms, because those psalms were as sweet to him as salmon. ‘Thanks be to God,’ Thomas replied, ‘the psalms are indeed to me as salmon; nevertheless their taste is frequently turned to bitterness and death, when I perceive any idly inattentive to the matter in hand, or sparing their voice.’ ”
Finally, the Master of the Novice is bidden “often to consider his daily life, and whether he does anything in excess or in default of what is befitting, in order to correct him in secret and instruct him as may be necessary.”
And here I will close the quotations from the Windesheim Constitutions regarding the reception and training of the Novices. Those who desire an account of the Solemn Profession, or taking of the vows, which generally followed at the end of the year’s noviciate, may consult the “Life of the Venerable Thomas à Kempis,” quoted above, p. 114.
Enough meanwhile has been said to enable the reader of the following Sermons to appreciate the position of à Kempis as Novice Master, and the appropriateness of the greater part of the discourses here given. For they treat precisely, as we have already partly seen, of those virtues and practices which were especially required of the young Religious, if they were to progress and persevere in their holy vocation: lessons of obedience, humility, modesty, patience, love of the cloister, of solitude and silence, zeal for the worship of God, and devotion to the angels and saints, to the holy Mother of God, and above all to the person of Jesus Christ, the whole interwoven with constant reference to the eternal rewards and punishments of the life to come.
For the rest these are favourite subjects with à Kempis, and are to be found passim throughout his works.
Usually, as befits the matter and the audience, and as the author himself says in the Preface, the style is of the simplest. But there is always to be remarked that easy flow of language together with that precision of expression, which are familiar to à Kempis scholars, but for which the venerable Thomas has not yet received sufficient general recognition: at times indeed, as for instance in Sermon XVI, he rises to heights of real eloquence, not unworthy of the great St. Augustine, whose works he so closely studied.
Moreover it should be noted that although these discourses are addressed directly to Novices and adapted chiefly to their needs, they are animated with the same spirit, they vibrate and palpitate with the same life as the other works of the Venerable Author, and especially his masterpiece, the “Imitation,” the spirit namely and the life of the Mystics of Windesheim. The essence of this mysticism, as of all true mysticism, is union of the soul with God. The first step towards this union is the removal of all obstacles in the way. The first hindrance is sin: hence the need not only of the abandonment of sin now in the thorough conversion of the soul and all its faculties to God, but of constant further purification by continual grief and penance for past guilt. Then must follow the removal of all other impediments induced by the soul’s undue attachment to self and creatures, and this by mortification in every shape and form, exterior and interior, by obedience, humility, patience, poverty, chastity. And yet all this is only so much preparatory spade-work, the degree and the perfection of the actual union itself, the realization of the mystic state, are in proportion only to the actual Love of the soul for its Creator, a Love nurtured first by sensible affections and intense personal devotion to the God-Man, Christ, but ascending finally to a simple, indescribable resting and breathing of the soul in the contemplation of the pure, indivisible Essence of the Godhead.
The reader will notice and doubtless smile at the simplicity of the reason given by the author in the Prologue for his division of the Sermons into three parts, containing respectively nine, ten, and eleven discourses. But any one acquainted with the writings of the early Fathers knows how fondly they dwelt on the figurative symbolism of numbers: and saturated, so to speak, as they were, with these writings, it is but natural that the Windesheimers should have acquired something of the same habit. In explanation of the rather obscure passage, regarding the Third Part that “it contains eleven Sermons to designate the religious state, in the renouncing of the world and carrying of the cross,” I venture to suggest that eleven is taken as typical of the Cloister, because it consists of ten, the number of the Decalogue, plus one, the counsel of perfection embraced in Religion.
Before concluding I must refer to the extraordinary statement of the Rev. S. Kettlewell that “there is some question, however, as to whether he (à Kempis) ever wrote the third part or series of the ‘Sermons to the Novices.’ The subjects are wholly different from the first two series, and relate more to the corruptions and superstitions of the Church before the Reformation era. But supposing those sermons in the third series were his, it is questionable whether he would have suffered them to have been published, had he been alive. Of all those treatises which are found re-written by his own hand, we may presume that he gave his sanction to their being made public. But of the others there is reason to doubt whether he would have wished them to have gone forth at all, or not without some correction at least.”
Of course, the sole reason for the position here assumed by Mr. Kettlewell is found in the second sentence quoted above. The same unhappy prejudice explains much that mars his otherwise excellent work. But I am convinced that even he could never have penned these words, if he had been privileged, as I was, to see and handle the autograph volume of à Kempis, containing these Sermons, bound with the Life of Lydwine, Virgin, now preserved in the University Library, Louvain.
Dr. Pohl’s text, of which the following pages are an exact rendering, is a very painstaking edition of this precious original.
THE TRANSLATOR.
ST. IVES, CORNWALL.
Feast of St. Joseph, 1907.