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Gerrit Gerrits, Acadia University GERRIT GERRITS, ACADIA UNIVERSITY A Comparison of Erasmus' Handbook of the Christian Knight with Thomas a Kempis' Imitation of Christ and Gerard Zerbolt's The Spiritual Ascentsl Erasmus' Handbook of the Christian Knight has respective authors. The oldest of the three often been compared to Thomas a Kempis' works is that by Gerard Zerbolt of Zutphen Imitation of Christ. 2 However, the construc­ (1367 -l398). Zerbolt was one of the first tion, content and tone of the two works members of the Modern Devotion and may is so different in most respects that one is be regarded as one of its founders, especially hard pressed to find many parallels between when it comes to the movement's spiritual­ them, apart from the fact that both writings ity.6 And what was the Modern Devotion? deal with Christian spirituality.3 Exactly why Briefly, it was the movement for spiritual the comparison is made is not altogether renewal, and to a lesser degree ecclesiastical clear, although one assumes that it is partly renewal, that was founded by Gerard Grote because Erasmus' spirituality is seen by around l380. From its beginnings in De­ many as having been heavily influenced by venter and Zwolle it spread throughout the that of the Modern Devotion,4 and Thomas Low Countries and much of Germany, and a Kempis' Imitation of Christ is commonly into Switzerland and northern France. From regarded as the most representative work of an institutional perspective, the Modern De­ Devotionalist spirituality. 5 It will be argued votion consisted of two separate branches: here, however, that rather than compar- the semi-monastic branch known as the ing the Handbook to the Imitation, it is more Brothers and the Sisters of the Common Life, instructive and revealing to compare the for­ and the monastic branch represented by the mer to Gerard Zerbolt's The Spiritual Ascents. Augustinian Canons and Canonesses Regu­ For the parallels between the Handbook and lar of the Congregation of Windesheim. The the Ascensions are much more substantial Modern Devotion is often regarded as the than they are between the Handbook and the last attempt at religiOUS renewal and church Imitation. reform before the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, itself largely the cause of Before we pursue the thesis just presented, the demise of the Modern Devotion. 7 it may be useful to first say a few words in general about the three works in question, As was just observed, Zerbolt, a Brother of especially about the historical context in the Common Life, played a major role in which they were written, and about their shaping the spirituality of the Modern Devo- 2 Canadian Journal of Netherlandic Studies tion, and he did so through his two manuals Agnes) just north of the city of Zwolle. It for the spiritual or religious life, the more im­ was here that he completed The Imitation of portant of which is The Spiritual Ascents. Both Christ some time in the 1420's. From the very works were more or less required reading for beginning this work enjoyed an immense all members of the Modern Devotion, but The popularity; some one hundred editions had Spiritual Ascents appears to have been more come off the presses by the year 1500, less widely read than the other, The Reformation of than fifty years after the printing press had the Powers of the Soul, judging by the number been invented. By the 1950's, this work had of manuscripts that have survived of each gone through approximately 3000 editions, work. The Spiritual Ascents in particular also with translations into at least ninety-five enjoyed a considerable popularity beyond languages, and by the year 2000 the total the confines of the Modern Devotion, for we number of editions had doubled, reaching know that it was read by the monk Martin some 6000.lO In a recent monograph on the Luther - and perhaps by Ignatius Loyola, for Scriptural sources of The Imitation of Christ, in 1499 Garcia Ximenes de Cisneros, ab- Kenneth Michael Becker provides a list of bot of the monastery of Montserrat in Spain, some people who read, advocated and were had The Spiritual Ascents printed, and a copy influenced by this work, and it reads like a of this edition may have found its way into Who's Who of the past 500 years. ll Richard Loyola's hands. In fact, Loyola's own Spiritual W Southern, the great British medievalist Exercises and Zerbolt's The Spiritual Ascents who died recently, explained the abiding ap­ belong to the same genre of manuals for the peal of The Imitation of Christ as follows: "This spiritual life. The popularity and impact of is one of the few books which breaks down Zerbolt's work in the 15th and 16th centu­ without any effort the barrier between the ries is partly demonstrated by the fact that medieval and modern worlds. "12 Indeed, The between 1486 and 1579 it was printed some Imitation of Christ has conquered not only the twenty times, both in the original Latin and barriers of time, but religious barriers as well, in translations. Thereafter it largely disap­ for it is read not only by Christians, but also peared from sight. 8 by Hindus, Buddhists, Jews and Muslims, as well as by those who profess to hold no That, of course, cannot be said of Thomas religious convictions. a Kempis' Imitation of Christ, to this day still the most widely sought after, and read, Those familiar with the history of The Imita­ work by Christians after the Bible itself. A tion of Christ are, of course, all too familiar native of Kempen, a town in the Duchy of with the authorship question that has raged Gelre (Gelderland),9 Thomas a Kempis was around this work almost from the very begin­ born around 1380. He came to Deventer at ning. At a very early date it was also attrib­ the age of ten to be educated at the famous uted to Jean Gerson (1363-1429), one time Latin school of St. Lebwin's, then joined the Chancellor of the University of Paris. Early Modern Devotion and spent almost his entire in the seventeenth century a third major long life - he died i~ 1471 at the age of 91 candidate for the authorship of the Imitation or 92 - as an Augusbnian Canon Regular at of Christ was brought forward, namely one the monastery of A~nietenberg (Mount Saint Giovanni Gersen (who sounds suspiciously A Comparison of Erasmus' Handbook of the Christian Knight with Thomas a Kempis' 3 Imitation of Christ and Gerard Zerbolt's The Spiritual Ascents. like Jean Gerson), an Italian abbot, but there his Christian convictions which he summed is no solid evidence that such a person ever up in the phrase philosophia ChristL l7 existed. 13 In the second half of the 19th cen­ tury linguists demonstrated quite conclu­ That was about when The Handbook first sively that the Latin of The Imitation of Christ became popular, and soon it was translated contains enough Dutchisms to make Thomas into a number of vernacular languages. In a Kempis the best candidate for the author­ fact, in Spain the vernacular version became ship of this famous work. 14 Furthermore, the first great publishing success,18 but not all comparisons of the contents of The Imitation Spaniards were enthusiastic about it. Loyola of Christ with that of other Devotionalist writ­ is reported to have said that "the reading of ings have revealed that the spirituality of The that book chilled the spirit of God in him Imitation is of a piece with that of the Modern and gradually extinguished the ardour of Devotion. ls Consequently, Thomas a Kempis' devotion. "19 By contrast, he read daily from authorship of The Imitation of Christ is now The Imitation of Christ and highly recom­ accepted by all, with the exception of a few mended it to others. He may also have read Italians who continue to put forward the Zerbolt's The Spiritual Ascents, and if not, he mysterious Giovanni Gersen as its author. was at least influenced by it indirectly.2o That Loyola's negative reaction to The Handbook In spite of the continued appeal and popu­ was solely a consequence of its contents may larity of The Imitation of Christ, its author is be questioned. It must be viewed, I believe, not as universally known as is Desiderius in light of the fact that Catholics widely Erasmus, the author of The Handbook of the regarded Erasmus as having "laid the egg Christian Knight. In fact, in the early 16th that was hatched by Luther," and because of century Erasmus was perhaps the best known his unwillingness to throw his support un­ commoner in Europe, until Martin Luther equivocally behind Rome against Luther, all stole his thunder. Born sometime between of which led to the works of Erasmus being 1465 and 1470, Erasmus was subjected to censored or banned outright by the Congre­ the influences of the Modern Devotion dur­ gation of the Index. Today, The Handbook is ing most of h.is teens, but the extent to which still one of Erasmus's best known works, but these influences shaped his religious outlook it in no way matches the continued popular­ and beliefs has been the subject of a debate. 16 ity of the Imitation of Christ. This discussion has largely centred on The Handbook of the Christian Knight, arguably After introducing these three works, we are Erasmus' single most important religious ready to compare them. We shall argue that work. It was written in 1501, thus relatively the Handbook has much more in common early in his literary career, but the views with The Spiritual Ascents than it has with the expressed in it are ones that Erasmus contin­ Imitation of Christ, to which it is compared ued to hold throughout the remainder of his more frequently.
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