The German Theology_ was
first published by Luther in 1516, with the statement that save the
Bible and St. Augustine's works, he had never met with a book from
which he had learned so much of the nature of "God, Christ, man, and
all things." But other theologians, both Protestant and Catholic, did
not agree with him. Calvin detected secret and deadly poison in the
author's pantheism, and in 1621 the Catholic Church placed his work on
the Index.

The Netherlands also produced a school of mystics, later in blooming
than that of the Germans and greater in its direct influence. The
earliest of them was John of Ruysbroeck, a man of visions and
ecstasies. [Sidenote: Ruysbroeck, 1293-1381] He strove to make his
life one long contemplation of the light and love of God. Two younger
men, Gerard Groote and Florence Radewyn, socialized his gospel by
founding the fellowship of the Brethren of the Common Life. [Sidenote:
Groote, 1340-84] [Sidenote: Radewyn, 1350-1400] Though never an order
sanctioned by the church, they taught celibacy and poverty, and devoted
themselves to service of their fellows, chiefly in the capacity of
teachers of boys.

The fifteenth century's rising tide of devotion brought forth the most
influential of the products of all the mystics, the _Imitation of
Christ_ by Thomas a Kempis. [Sidenote: Thomas a Kempis, c. 1380-1471]
Written in a plaintive minor key of {33} resignation and pessimism, it
sets forth with much artless eloquence the ideal of making one's
personal life approach that of Christ. Humility, self-restraint,
asceticism, patience, solitude, love of Jesus, prayer, and a diligent
use of the sacramental grace of the eucharist are the means recommended
to form the character of the perfect Christian. It was doubtless
because all this was so perfect an expression of the medieval ideal
that it found such wide and instant favor. There is no questioning of
dogma, nor any speculation on the positions of the church; all this is
postulated with child-like simplicity. Moreover, the ideal of the
church for the salvation of the individual, and the means supposed to
secure that end, are adopted by a Kempis. He tacitly assumes that the
imitator of Christ will be a monk, poor and celibate. His whole
endeavor was to stimulate an enthusiasm for privation and a taste for
things spiritual, and it was because in his earnestness and
single-mindedness he so largely succeeded that his book was eagerly
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