(Thomas à), a pious and learned regular canon, was born at the village of Kemp, in the diocese of Cologne, in 1380; and took his name from that village. He performed his studies at Deventer, in the community of poor scholars established by Gerard Groot; and there made a great progress in the sciences. In 1399, he entered the monastery of the regular canons of Mount St Agnes, near Zwol, of which his brother was prior. Thomas à Kempis there distinguished himself by his eminent piety, his respect for his superiors, his charity to his brother canons, and his continual application to labour and prayer. He died in 1471, aged 70. The best editions of his works, which consist of sermons, spiritual treatises, and lives of holy men, are those of Paris in 1649, and of Antwerp in 1607. The famous and well-known book *De Imitatione Christi*, which has been translated into almost all the languages of the world, though it has almost always been numbered among the works of Thomas à Kempis, is also found printed under the name of Gerlson; and on the credit of some MSS. has been since ascribed to the abbot Gerlson of the order of St Benedict. This has occasioned a violent dispute between the canons of St Augustine and the Benedictines; but while devout Christians find spiritual comfort in the work, the name of the writer is of small importance.