Lives of Gerard Groote, Florentius Radewijns and Their Followers
Short lives of Geert Groote, of Florentius Radewijns and of their disciples at Deventer, written by Thomas à Kempis, who had known Florentius and his house as a schoolboy. They are a narrative source for the beginnings of the Devotio Moderna from inside the movement.
Thomas à Kempis wrote these lives for the younger members of his own community, as edifying reading. Geert Groote died in 1384, when Thomas, by the age his own house chronicle gives him, was a small child; for Groote he depends on what he heard at Deventer and on Groote’s letters, some of which he quotes. For Florentius and the men of his house he writes from memory: he served at Florentius’s table, sang in the choir beside him and lodged for a time in the house.
The lives are praise, not inquiry. They give few dates, pass over conflict quickly, and present the opponents of Groote as moved by envy. The translator notes that the latest year mentioned is 1439, so that Thomas wrote in old age, some fifty years after the events of his youth. See the Devotio Moderna and the Imitation of Christ.
Cited in
- 1384 to 1441, firm date