New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-09-29
AN ENGLISH MYSTIC.
THE WORKS OF A PREDECESSOR OF
THOMAS A KEMPIs.
yo,rs,,,pr xypITERs RICHARD ROLE OF
oMnNNSMPoLE An English Fath"r Of the Church
and His Followers Edited ny y y mi s'''n ,
Iato professor In the University o. Berlin. Up
i,ttc ~ aoisssoi .i,ion o. 70

Most persons who have turn Tor letters are
ant to take some interest In Thomas hefnpis
limitation Of Christ" They dread CONFESSION
that they never read a book so Famous "heh
they do read IT attentively they find that II en-
welcomes ascetic piety OF the severest type IN an
atmosphere OF romanticism that Its phrases OF
religious affection are often Identical Win those
used to express the grossest sensuaIism IL was
against this tendency In general tha' 'ona'"""
Edwards revolted with all his soul, and the anon
ymous author 81 THE Alternative Drought '"e
charge OF indecency specifying In particular
massage In the fifth chapter OF keinpiss 'hru
hook The hgh-wrought language of human love
usuallv turrs to poetry or to something that the
lover takes for poetry. 1t was quite NATURAL
therefore that somebody should discover some
wears ago that Kemps's book was really not
prose but rhythmical Latin, with well denned
metrlcal structure. This feature Is now repre-
scented in an English translation, ana IL Is iouhu
on wider research to be general characteristic
more or less perfectly exemplifed IN all DOCKS Oh
the class to which the Limitation OF CHRIST De-
longs Professor Horstman feels bound to excuse
his failure to print many parts OF the literature
embodied In the volume In hand as verse be
tween the prose and the poetry OF the ancient
hcrnits with whom he Is dealing the line Is sofhe
what Indefinite Richard Role. In particular Is
poetica In his prose and prosaic IN MS poetry
and In those pieces which are unquestohao'! ms
he so mixes up his rhythmical prose with MS al
lucrative poesy that the effort to distinguish
them would be altogether vain.
While everybody knows something about lhom-
as Kempis nobody would feel ashamed TO con-
fess that he never heard Of Richard Roile. Never
theless-"ncver the latter" Role himself would
have said--Rolle is for several reasons the pe'-
ter man In the first place ne was 'he carrier
writer and this is important because Thomas oe-
longed to the eve Of the Reformation wheh me"
were beginning to take healthier view Oh ''ihss'
II is said that Rodewin. the practical head OF the
brotherhood of the Common LIE II which
Thomas WAS trained. Invariably put these t'iee
questions to those who desired to JON MS co'"-
inunitv; "Do YOU eat we'll? Do you sleep weiii 10
,o,, obev readlly?" In earlier times only the last
,,,os,,or vyoul1 have been deemed important,
T., Richards time obedience except to rule OF
life could not have been expected OF persons VINO
lived absolutely alone in caves or IN cells l"e
most turbulent and rebeous mob that ever uls-
turbed the peace OF community were the So
called hermits Of the Thebaid, men ana women
who. had nothing but their hatreds ana their re-
ug,ous prejudices in common. Richard Role was
>, o-ohodied reminiscence of the early Syrian and
t,,,,ian anchoritism characteristic of Celtic
,,,i,izatioo I'm both ireland and Britain, which
gave way stubbornly and gradually 10 the mon
asiic common life favored by the Latin Church-
He is said to havo obeyed the Order OF 81 Angus
tine and the relations Of the anchorltlc ana cen
obitic systems the one passing away, the other
rising to hateful mastery over IN" Chrlsuah
world. are shown in the fact that his cell was
near a convent Of nuns Of Hampole His most
inportant work. The Form Of Perfect Living
was addressed to woman. and its ideal was a
life more secluded than was possible even IN d
nunnery
Human nature was beginning to re'oit agaihs1
q loneliness which was really welcome only 10
tbe sun-beaten races Of Asia and Egypt But to
the recluse the highest form OF piety was SUI
tho incIosed nfe-that Of person who was sealed
nm in p cell Of stone with only narrow window
through which to take the gifts and hear the
words Of those who passed by. The her1nits were
Thought 10 surpass the monastcs in holiness;
but there must have been abuses. or Charlemagne
would not have desired to send ali anchorites into
inconsistencies It is to an age when the seVerest
ideas are giving way to milder ones that Rich
ard the hermit of Hampoe. belongs. How near
that was in England to the era Of monastic decay
ard died in 1S49 that Thomas Kempis was born
IN 1850 and that Luther was born before the CEN
fury out
Richard hermit he was, was still no recluse
in the older sense of the term. The study of hui
man nature that made the English novel OF the
early half Of the nineteenth century the most
admirable thing Of its kind In literature helped
to make him and his followers mystics of a
cd hk- he standards OF
other countries The world had long been fam-
lar With the speculations of Dionysus. Ergena.
Hugo and Richard OF St. Victor, as we'll as with
the pious romanticism Of Bonayentura. II re-
NAMED for the pious Yorkshireman to combine
certain practical elements drawn from all these
sources into scheme Of religious thought for the
common people who surrounded him. Professor
Horstman holds that Richard was practical and
unphiIosophical. preacher for others. and yet
q hermit because he was an Engllshman, and
therefore a Saxon. essentially individual. self
asserting, self-relying, self-possessed" This he
maintains by way Of insisting that no such man
could have sprung of Frankish stock. or could
ever have gained any influence In France. HIS
tory seems to show that the Celt had something
to do in making the Saxon of England different
from his Teutonic cousin on the mainland. But
fourteenth century a man who has anticipated all
that Thomas Kempis could say in behalf OF the
contemplative life and much that Wicliffe was
10 say in the way of religious socialism; and who
already clearly understands that the true solitary
is one who is such in mind whether he lives in
bodily seclusion or not. He declared that all
men were by nature free with respect to each
other II he exalted the contemplatve- over the
active life, it was plainly because tradition re-
qured this Of him. For he was equally explicit
in his directions as to each. The higher life Is
only higher because it is the more secure from
peril and temptation.
What has delighted many generations in the
work Of Thomas Kempis is the melody OF his
words so expressive Of his thought. This melody
echoes in the English transations. because the
English lang iage is sweetest and richest when 1t
comes TO the utterance Of religious thought 1t
10 Of a ID