The most important work of the devotio moderna movement, Thomas Kempiss classic, The Imitation of Christ, is saturated with Scripture and classical philosophy and reveals a deep understanding of human nature. Matthew Arnold called it the most exquisite document, after those of the New Testament, of all that the Christian spirit has ever inspired.

Thomas Kempis (13801471) was a monk at Mt. St. Agnes in the Netherlands. Thomas worked principally at copying and writing. A number of his treatises on the monastic life and little devotional essays have been translated into English, including the great devotional work The Imitation of Christ (c. 1427).