ing nothing but his devotions and his meals to interrupt him. He was wholly indifferent to other matters, rarely could tell after dinner, what he had eaten, and injudiciously neglected his health even when ill. But he was by no means unskilled in secular business; he was well versed in law, and was possessed of such a sound judgment that he was often consulted by Florentius and employed by him in legal transactions. Called away once on such a case, as he was returning to Deventer, he was seized with an illness at Windesheim which proved fatal. Aemilius van Buren, in the unreserved manner of the Brethren, said to him, “it seems to me brother, that you are near your end;" so it appears to me also," was the reply; and soon he expired in the year 1398, the thirty-first of his age and about two years before Florentius. Excessive study and a want of due regard to his health, may have hastened his premature death. In his life he was equally remarkable for his zeal in collecting books, and for his bold efforts in behalf of the Bible.

Gerard Groot, a great lover and diligent collector of good books, had left his library to the house of the Brethren at Deventer. Florentius and Gronde, who were appointed librarians, had greatly increased the collection. But no one equalled Zerbolt in this respect after he was made librarian. His attachment to valuable authors was almost unbounded. He was accustomed to say, "such works do more by way of preaching and instructing than it is possible for us to express." A beautiful manuscript was more attractive to him than a feast. He therefore kept the copyists constantly employed, collected books from every quarter, and preserved them with the greatest care. And yet as zealous a librarian as he was, he never forgot, that men were not made for books, but books for men; and consequently took pleasure in lending from his choice collection to the clerks of distant houses, that they also might be instructed and benefited. Men of a purely practical character might easily regard such a zeal for books as excessive and injurious. So it was in fact. As one of the Brethren was upon his dying bed, Florentius asked him, in what respect he thought the institution might be improved. The dying man replied among other things: "We have too many books; the most important ought to be selected, and the rest sold and the money given to the poor." Florentius, more intelligent and more sound in his views, honored the good intention of the brother, but did not follow his advice. The impulse which Zerbolt gave in favor of copying manuscripts and of collecting good libraries

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1845.] Bible and other Books in the Native Language. was perpetuated among the Brethren; and it must be confessed, that in an age when the art of printing was unknown, it was of the utmost importance in two respects, first because both teacher and pupil found only in the libraries of the Brethren the kind of books that were needed for their intellectual culture, and secondly, because through their untiring industry alone, could such a novelty as religious tracts in the native language be furnished for the common people in numbers sufficient to produce general effect.

This brings us to the second important agency of Zerbolt, that which related to the use of the Bible and other religious books in the vernacular tongue. On this subject in particular, did he employ all his talents and eloquence in writing for the public. It is certainly very extraordinary that in such an age, about one hundred and thirty years before Luther published his theses, this distinguished young man should speak out so fully and so powerfully on this point, as to create a general demand, which was never fully satisfied till Luther published his version of the Scriptures. We are to place the merits of Zerbolt the higher from the fact, that among his contemporaries even such men as Gerson should call in question the expediency of giving the Bible to the common people in their own language.

The treatise which Zerbolt wrote De Utilitate Lectionis Sacrarum Literarum in Lingua Vulgari, and which was designed for the learned and therefore written in very good Latin, pleads energetically, with a practical good sense and an earnestness free from all fanatacism, for the right and the duty of all laymen to learn for themselves the will of God directly from the Scriptures. He maintained that there was in the Bible a plain and simple sense intelligible to all, to the substantial comprehension of which no profound investigations or long trains of reasoning were necessary, but that, on the contrary, the meaning shines forth by its own light without the necessity of much labor or controversy. But he conceded that there are other truths in the Bible more profound and obscure, which must be earnestly studied and reflected upon order to be understood. The one is milk for babes, the other strong meat for men. Simple and uneducated people, children in knowledge, may not only without injury or danger, but with great profit, as the best of the Fathers have maintained, read for themselves in a language which they understand those parts of the Scripture, which set forth a simple and practical Christianity. Obscure parts of the Bible, and different theological writers they

in

These

cannot understand; these it is better for them to let alone. views he supports in the following manner. The Scriptures are not given for any one class in particular, but they contain instruction for persons of every class. Sometimes they enjoin general precepts equally applicable to all, but more frequently, they address their instructions to particular classes of individuals. At one time they speak to the beginner in religious knowledge, at another to those more advanced. Now they teach the way of life to the perfect, now to every variety of moral condition. Consequently they are designed for persons of every class, in order that men, estranged as they are from themselves, and ignorant of their true character, may learn their condition from the mirror of God's word. What rational person will venture to say that laymen commit sin, when they make that use of the Bible for which God gave it, namely to learn their sinfulness and heartily repent and reform? Why should they not receive the divine law as well as other more general blessings from God, since the law of God and the Holy Scriptures occupy the highest place among the blessings of Heaven? The people cannot justly be excluded from this blessing, and the divine consolations by which the soul receives its life and nourishment." The Bible, he continues in effect, is designed to give support to the law of nature, so that man may already learn what is left in obscurity there. Immersed as the common people are in worldly affairs, they need to have the dust removed which has beclouded the mental eye, and, at particular seasons to suspend their business, and turn their attention inward upon themselves and view their character and wants by the light of God's word. It is required of them even by law, that at certain times they go to church to hear the gospel; but why preach to them from the Bible, if they ought to be ignorant of it? But if they can be benefited by oral teaching, why can they not read in books the same that is read or preached to them from the pulpit? They surely learn and retain little from what they hear in discourses fifteen minutes long, and that in an unknown tongue. If they are allowed without censure to read worldly productions, which are often corrupt and seductive, it is absurd to prohibit them from reading the Scriptures, by which the love of God, and a longing for their heavenly home is enkindled. Jerome, Augustine, Gregory and Chrysostom always exhorted the people to study the Scriptures, which they would never have done, had they regarded the practice as injurious or unlawful. That the people should read the word of God in their own language is suf

1845.] Thomas à Kempis-Highest Prosperity of the Brethren. 225 ficiently proved by the nature of the case. The whole Bible was originally in the language of the people to whom it was given. If it is unlawful for the people at large to read the Bible in their native language, why did the prophets and the apostles write the several books of it in the language of the people rather than in a foreign language? From the earliest times the church has given translations of the Scriptures into different languages. The Jews had the Bible in Hebrew, the Chaldeans in Chaldee, the Greeks in Greek, the Arabians in Arabic, the Syrians in Syriac, the Goths in Gothic. The Romans, the Egyptians, the Indians, the Russians, the Sclavonians, the Gauls and all nations have the Scriptures in their own language. If, then, they are read in nearly all languages under heaven, why should they not be read in German also? He urged similar considerations in favor of employing the German, instead of the Latin language, in the prayers and hymns of the church. These sentiments and a corresponding practice among the Brethren not only gave depth and interest to those religious services which were the vehicle of a spiritual Christianity, but they tended to deliver the nation from the yoke of Roman laws, language and customs, which cramped the development of the national spirit. When the Germans heard German preaching, read a German Bible, had a German theology, and prayed and sung in German, they were internally severed from Rome; but it was reserved for Luther, to complete the work and bring the inward sentiment to a decisive outward act.

Thomas à Kempis, and the practical Religion of the Brethren in its most flourishing state.

There were in the community of the Brethren two theological elements, the one practical, the other doctrinal; the one designed more for Christians in general, the other for the smaller circle of reflecting and philosophic minds. These might be united in one man, or they might be so far separated, that one individual might give a preponderance to the former and carry it to the highest degree of perfection, and another to the latter. Such a separation actually took place. The two most distinguished men of the fraternity, who were born and bred in its spirit, Thomas à Kempis and Johan Wessel were the purest representatives of these two elements, the former preceding in point of time, as was natural perhaps, and setting forth ascetic Christianity in its noblest and most winning form, the other unfolding in the clearest and most perVOL. II. No. 6.

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fect manner in that age the system of Christian doctrines. From the nature of the case, the theologian would more readily come in collision with the authority of the church than the ascetic. But while the one was breaking through the incrustation which had been formed over society, the other was preparing a warm germinal principle in the heart of the people, which would supply new life and energy when the incubus of antiquated formalism should be thrown aside. To form Thomas for this great work assigned him by Providence everything conspired, natural constitution and temperament, early domestic training, education in the schools, the whole tenor of his life and the moral condition of the age.

The character of his mind, in its original stamp, was evidently predisposed to a quiet, contemplative, introverted life. There breathes in all his writings a peculiar spirit of satisfaction and repose, and there beats gently a pulse of inward joy, cheerfulness and delight. We feel, as we read, that the writer moves only in this inner spiritual circle, but in this is perfectly happy. The cell, narrow indeed, but cheered by the love of God and of Christ, is to him a paradise, which he would exchange only for heaven. The duties of subjection, of prayer and other acts of devotion are to his taste the choicest delicacies. The renunciation of self, and devotedness to the interests of others, are the very elements of his life. Whatever he enjoins upon others, he himself performs with the greatest pleasure and enthusiasm.

Thomas Hamerken (Malleolus) was born in the year 1380, in the small but pleasant village of Kempen, situated in the vale of the Rhine not far from Cologne. Hence his name Thomas von Kempen, or Thomas à Kempis. His parents were of humble birth and lived in moderate circumstances, of which he made no secret, but like Luther, often referred to his low origin with the utmost simplicity and freedom. His father, who was an ordinary mechanic, gave him an example of industry and perseverance; his mother, who was distinguished for the fervor of her piety, early instilled into his susceptible mind the sentiment of a warm and devout love for divine things. Thomas undoubtedly gave signs of good talents very early, else the thought of giving him an education could hardly have been entertained, for, being poor, he was entirely dependent on the benevolence of others. The Brethren of the Life in Common were accustomed to aid precisely this class of boys. Consequently, in his thirteenth year he resorted to Deventer, the place of the most flourishing establishment of the Brethren. The relation of this house to the school of Deven