The Intimate Path. The Late Medieval Piety as a Context for Reformation

The aim of the paper is to analyse the transformations of the forms of late medieval folk piety in Germany and Netherlands. Two types of late medieval religious expression were distinguished: the so called extraverted piety, being a ritualised form faith, and the devotio moderna movement as instantiated by the mysticism of Meister Eckhart. By using the passages from The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis, De theologia mistica by Jacobus de Paradiso and Theologia Germanica both types of piety were presented as preparing the ground for the Reformation