{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_4544/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_4544","id":"gutenberg_4544","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4544","summary":null,"tags":["Category: British Literature","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christianity","Devotional literature","Mysticism -- Great Britain","Mysticism -- History -- Middle Ages, 600-1500","Religious thought -- Middle Ages, 600-1500"],"text":"Produced by Charles Aldarondo, with thanks to the CCEL\n(www.ccel.org) collection. HTML version by Al Haines.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Cell of Self-Knowledge:\n\nSeven Early English Mystical Treatises\n\n\n\n\nPrinted by Henry Pepwell\n\n\nMDXXI\n\n\nEdited with an introduction and notes by\n\nEdmund G. Gardner M.A.\n\n1910\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Frontispiece is taken from B.M. MS. Faustina, B. VI.\n\n\"Stiamo nella cella del cognoscimento di noi; cognoscendo, noi per\nnoi non essere, e la bonta di Dio in noi; ricognoscendo l'essere, e\nogni grazia che e posta sopra l'essere, da lui.\"--St. Catherine of\nSiena.\n\n\"Tergat ergo speculum suum, mundet spiritum suum, quisquis sitit\nvidere Deum suum. Exterso autem speculo et diu diligenter inspecto,\nincipit ei quaedam divini luminis claritas interlucere, et immensus\nquidam insolitae visionis radius oculis ejus apparere. Hoc lumen\noculos ejus irradiaverat, qui dicebat: Signatum est super nos lumen\nvultus tui, Domine; dedisti laetitiam in corde meo. Ex hujus igitur\nluminis visione quam admiratur in se, mirum in modum accenditur\nanimus, et animatur ad videndum lumen, quod est supra se.\"--Richard\nof St. Victor.\n\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nI. A very Devout Treatise, named Benjamin, of the Mights and Virtues\nof Man's Soul, and of the Way to True Contemplation, compiled by a\nNoble and Famous Doctor, a man of great holiness and devotion, named\nRichard of Saint Victor\n\nThe Prologue\n\nCap. I. How the Virtue of Dread riseth in the Affection\n\nCap. II. How Sorrow riseth in the Affection\n\nCap. III. How Hope riseth in the Affection\n\nCap. IV. How Love riseth in the Affection\n\nCap. V. How the Double Sight of Pain and Joy riseth in the Imagination\n\nCap. VI. How the Virtues of Abstinence and Patience rise in the\nSensuality\n\nCap. VII. How Joy of Inward Sweetness riseth in the Affection\n\nCap. VIII. How Perfect Hatred of Sin riseth in the Affection\n\nCap. IX. How Ordained Shame riseth and groweth in the Affection\n\nCap. X. How Discretion and Contemplation rise in the Reason\n\n\nII. Divers Doctrines Devout and Fruitful, taken out of the Life of\nthat Glorious Virgin and Spouse of Our Lord, Saint Katherin of\nSeenes\n\nIII. A Short Treatise of Contemplation taught by Our Lord Jesu\nChrist, or taken out of the Book of Margery Kempe, Ancress of Lynn\n\nIV. A Devout Treatise compiled by Master Walter Hylton of the Song\nof Angels\n\nV. A Devout Treatise called the Epistle of Prayer\n\nVI. A very necessary Epistle of Discretion in Stirrings of the Soul\n\nVII. A Devout Treatise of Discerning of Spirits, very necessary for\nGhostly Livers\n\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nFROM the end of the thirteenth to the beginning of the fifteenth\ncentury may be called the golden age of mystical literature in the\nvernacular. In Germany, we find Mechthild of Magdeburg (d. 1277),\nMeister Eckhart (d. 1327), Johannes Tauler (d. 1361), and Heinrich\nSuso (d. 1365); in Flanders, Jan Ruysbroek (d. 1381); in Italy,\nDante Alighieri himself (d. 1321), Jacopone da Todi (d. 1306), St.\nCatherine of Siena (d. 1380), and many lesser writers who strove, in\nprose or in poetry, to express the hidden things of the spirit, the\nsecret intercourse of the human soul with the Divine, no longer in\nthe official Latin of the Church, but in the language of their own\npeople, \"a man's own vernacular,\" which \"is nearest to him, inasmuch\nas it is most closely united to him.\"[1] In England, the great names\nof Richard Rolle, the Hermit of Hampole (d. 1349), of Walter Hilton\n(d. 1396), and of Mother Juliana of Norwich, whose Revelation of\nDivine Love professedly date from 1373, speak for themselves.\n\nThe seven tracts or treatises before us were published in 1521 in a\nlittle quarto volume: \"Imprynted at London in Poules chyrchyarde at\nthe sygne of the Trynyte, by Henry Pepwell. In the yere of our lorde\nGod, M.CCCCC.XXI., the xvi. daye of Nouembre.\" They may, somewhat\nloosely speaking, be regarded as belonging to the fourteenth\ncentury, though the first and longest of them professes to be but a\ntranslation of the work of the great Augustinian mystic of an\nearlier age.\n\nSt. Bernard, Richard of St. Victor, and St. Bonaventura--all three\nvery familiar figures to students of Dante's Paradiso--are the chief\ninfluences in the story of English mysticism. And, through the\nwritings of his latter-day followers, Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton,\nand the anonymous author of the Divine Cloud of Unknowing, Richard\nof St. Victor is, perhaps, the most important of the three.\n\nHimself either a Scot or an Irishman by birth, Richard entered the\nfamous abbey of St. Victor, a house of Augustinian canons near\nParis, some time before 1140, where he became the chief pupil of the\ngreat mystical doctor and theologian whom the later Middle Ages\nregarded as a second Augustine, Hugh of St. Victor. After Hugh's\ndeath (1141), Richard succeeded to his influence as a teacher, and\ncompleted his work in creating the mystical theology of the Church.\nHis masterpiece, De Gratia Contemplationis, known also as Benjamin\nMajor, in five books, is a work of marvellous spiritual insight,\nunction, and eloquence, upon which Dante afterwards based the whole\nmystical psychology of the Paradiso.2 In it Richard shows how the\nsoul passes upward through the six steps of contemplation--in\nimagination, in reason, in understanding--gradually discarding all\nsensible objects of thought; until, in the sixth stage, it\ncontemplates what is above reason, and seems to be beside reason, or\neven contrary to reason. He teaches that there are three qualities\nof contemplation, according to its intensity: mentis dilatatio, an\nenlargement of the soul's vision without exceeding the bounds of\nhuman activity; mentis sublevatio, elevation of mind, in which the\nintellect, divinely illumined, transcends the measure of humanity,\nand beholds the things above itself, but does not entirely lose\nself-consciousness; and mentis alienatio, or ecstasy, in which all\nmemory of the present leaves the mind, and it passes into a state of\ndivine transfiguration, in which the soul gazes upon truth without\nany veils of creatures, not in a mirror darkly, but in its pure\nsimplicity. This master of the spiritual life died in 1173. Amongst\nthe glowing souls of the great doctors and theologians in the fourth\nheaven, St. Thomas Aquinas bids Dante mark the ardent spirit of\n\"Richard who in contemplation was more than man.\"[3]\n\nBenjamin, for Richard, is the type of contemplation, in accordance\nwith the Vulgate version of Psalm lxvii.: Ibi Benjamin\nadolescentulus in mentis excessu: \"There is Benjamin, a youth, in\necstasy of mind\"--where the English Bible reads: \"Little Benjamin\ntheir ruler.\"[4] At the birth of Benjamin, his mother Rachel dies:\n\"For, when the mind of man is rapt above itself, it surpasseth all\nthe limits of human reasoning. Elevated above itself and rapt in\necstasy, it beholdeth things in the divine light at which all human\nreason succumbs. What, then, is the death of Rachel, save the\nfailing of reason?\"[5]\n\nThe treatise here printed under the title Benjamin is based upon a\nsmaller work of Richard's, a kind of introduction to the Benjamin\nMajor, entitled: Benjamin Minor; or: De Praeparatione animi ad\nContemplationem. It is a paraphrase of certain portions of this\nwork, with a few additions, and large omissions. Among the portions\nomitted are the two passages that, almost alone among Richard's\nwritings, are known to the general reader--or, at least, to people\nwho do not claim to be specialists in mediaeval theology. In the\none, he speaks of knowledge of self as the Holy Hill, the Mountain\nof the Lord:--\n\n\"If the mind would fain ascend to the height of science, let its\nfirst and principal study be to know itself. Full knowledge of the\nrational spirit is a great and high mountain. This mountain\ntranscends all the peaks of all mundane sciences, and looks down\nupon all the philosophy and all the science of the world from on\nhigh. Could Aristotle, could Plato, could the great band of\nphilosophers ever attain to it?\"[6]\n\nIn the other, still adhering to his image of the mountain of\nself-knowledge, he makes his famous appeal to the Bible, as the\nsupreme test of truth, the only sure guard that the mystic has\nagainst being deluded in his lofty speculations:--\n\n\"Even if you think that you have been taken up into that high\nmountain apart, even if you think that you see Christ transfigured,\ndo not be too ready to believe anything you see in Him or hear from\nHim, unless Moses and Elias run to meet Him. I hold all truth in\nsuspicion which the authority of the Scriptures does not confirm,\nnor do I receive Christ in His clarification unless Moses and Elias\nare talking with Him.\"[7]\n\nOn the other hand, the beautiful passage with which the version\ncloses, so typical of the burning love of Christ, shown in devotion\nto the name of Jesus, which glows through all the writings of the\nschool of the Hermit of Hampole, is an addition of the translator:--\n\n\"And therefore, what so thou be that covetest to come to\ncontemplation of God, that is to say, to bring forth such a child\nthat men clepen in the story Benjamin (that is to say, sight of\nGod), then shalt thou use thee in this manner. Thou shalt call\ntogether thy thoughts and thy desires, and make thee of them a\nchurch, and learn thee therein for to love only this good word Jesu,\nso that all thy desires and all thy thoughts are only set for to\nlove Jesu, and that unceasingly as it may be here; so that thou\nfulfil that is said in the psalm: 'Lord, I shall bless Thee in\nchurches'; that is, in thoughts and desires of the love of Jesu. And\nthen, in this church of thoughts and desires, and in this onehead of\nstudies and of wills, look that all thy thoughts, and all thy\ndesires, and all thy studies, and all thy wills be only set in the\nlove and the praising of this Lord Jesu, without forgetting, as far\nforth as thou mayst by grace, and as thy frailty will suffer;\nevermore meeking thee to prayer and to counsel, patiently abiding\nthe will of our Lord, unto the time that thy mind be ravished above\nitself, to be fed with the fair food of angels in the beholding of\nGod and ghostly things; so that it be fulfilled in thee that is\nwritten in the psalm: Ibi Benjamin adolescentulus in mentis excessu;\nthat is: 'There is Benjamin, the young child, in ravishing of\nmind.\"'[8]\n\nThe text printed by Pepwell differs slightly from that of the\nmanuscripts, of which a large number have been preserved. Among\nothers, it is found in the Arundel MS. 286, and the Harleian MSS.\n674, 1022, and 2373. It has been published from the Harl. MS. 1022\nby Professor C. Horstman, who observes that \"it is very old, and\ncertainly prior to Walter Hilton.\"[9] It is evidently by one of the\nfollowers of Richard Rolle, dating from about the middle of the\nfourteenth century. External and internal evidence seems to point to\nits being the work of the anonymous author of the Divine Cloud of\nUnknowing.\n\nThis is not the place to tell again the wonderful story of St.\nCatherine of Siena (1347-1380), one of the noblest and most truly\nheroic women that the world has ever seen. Her life and manifold\nactivities only touched England indirectly. The famous English\ncaptain of mercenaries, Sir John Hawkwood, was among the men of the\nworld who, at least for a while, were won to nobler ideals by her\nletters and exhortations. Two of her principal disciples, Giovanni\nTantucci and William Flete, both Augustinian hermits, were graduates\nof Cambridge; the latter, an Englishman by birth, was appointed by\nher on her deathbed to preside over the continuance of her work in\nher native city, and a vision of his, concerning the legitimacy of\nthe claims of Urban the Sixth to the papal throne, was brought\nforward as one of the arguments that induced England, on the\noutbreak of the Great Schism in the Church (1378), to adhere to the\nRoman obedience for which Catherine was battling to the death. A\nletter which she herself addressed on the same subject to King\nRichard the Second has not been preserved.\n\nAbout 1493, Wynkyn de Worde printed The Lyf of saint Katherin of\nSenis the blessid virgin, edited by Caxton; which is a free\ntranslation, by an anonymous Dominican, with many omissions and the\naddition of certain reflections, of the Legenda, the great Latin\nbiography of St. Catherine by her third confessor, Friar Raymond of\nCapua, the famous master-general and reformer of the order of St.\nDominic (d. 1399). He followed this up, in 1519, by an English\nrendering by Brother Dane James of the Saint's mystical treatise the\nDialogo: \"Here begynneth the Orcharde of Syon; in the whiche is\nconteyned the reuelacyons of seynt Katheryne of Sene, with ghostly\nfruytes and precyous plantes for the helthe of mannes soule.\"[10]\nThis was not translated from St. Catherine's own vernacular, but\nfrom Friar Raymond's Latin version of the latter, first printed at\nBrescia in 1496. From the first of these two works, the Lyf, are\nselected the passages--the Divers Doctrines devout and\nfruitful--which Pepwell here presents to us; but it seems probable\nthat he was not borrowing directly from Caxton, as an almost\nverbally identical selection, with an identical title, is found in\nthe British Museum, MS. Reg. 17 D.V., where it follows the Divine\nCloud of Unknowing.\n\nMargery Kempe is a much more mysterious personage. She has come down\nto us only in a tiny quarto of eight pages printed by Wynkyn de\nWorde:--\n\n\"Here begynneth a shorte treatyse of contemplacyon taught by our\nlorde Jhesu cryste, or taken out of the boke of Margerie kempe of\nLynn.\"\n\nAnd at the end:--\n\n\"Here endeth a shorte treatyse called Margerie kempe de Lynn.\nEnprynted in Fletestrete by Wynkyn de worde.\"\n\nThe only known copy is preserved in the University of Cambridge. It\nis undated, but appears to have been printed in 1501.[11] With a few\ninsignificant variations, it is the same as was printed twenty years\nlater by Pepwell, who merely inserts a few words like \"Our Lord\nJesus said unto her,\" or \"she said,\" and adds that she was a devout\nancress. Tanner, not very accurately, writes: \"This book contains\nvarious discourses of Christ (as it is pretended) to certain holy\nwomen; and, written in the style of modern Quietists and Quakers,\nspeaks of the inner love of God, of perfection, et cetera.\"[12] No\nmanuscript of the work is known to exist, and absolutely no traces\ncan be discovered of the \"Book of Margery Kempe,\" out of which it is\nimplied by the Printer that these beautiful thoughts and sayings are\ntaken.\n\nThere is nothing in the treatise itself to enable us to fix its\ndate. It is, perhaps, possible that the writer or recipient of these\nrevelations is the \"Margeria filia Johannis Kempe,\" who, between\n1284 and 1298, gave up to the prior and convent of Christ Church,\nCanterbury, all her rights in a piece of land with buildings and\nappurtenances, \"which falls to me after the decease of my brother\nJohn, and lies in the parish of Blessed Mary of Northgate outside\nthe walls of the city of Canterbury.\"[13] The revelations show that\nshe was (or had been) a woman of some wealth and social position,\nwho had abandoned the world to become an ancress, following the life\nprescribed in that gem of early English devotional literature, the\nAncren Riwle.14 It is clearly only a fragment of her complete book\n(whatever that may have been); but it is enough to show that she was\na worthy precursor of that other great woman mystic of East Anglia:\nJuliana of Norwich. For Margery, as for Juliana, Love is the\ninterpretation of revelation, and the key to the universal\nmystery:[15]--\n\n\"Daughter, thou mayst no better please God, than to think\ncontinually in His love.\"\n\n\"If thou wear the habergeon or the hair, fasting bread and water,\nand if thou saidest every day a thousand Pater Nosters, thou shalt\nnot please Me so well as thou dost when thou art in silence, and\nsuffrest Me to speak in thy soul.\"\n\n\"Daughter, if thou knew how sweet thy love is to Me, thou wouldest\nnever do other thing but love Me with all thine heart.\"\n\n\"In nothing that thou dost or sayest, daughter, thou mayst no better\nplease God than believe that He loveth thee. For, if it were\npossible that I might weep with thee, I would weep with thee for the\ncompassion that I have of thee.\"\n\nAnd, from the midst of her celestial contemplations, rises up the\nsimple, poignant cry of human suffering: \"Lord, for Thy great pain\nhave mercy on my little pain.\"\n\nWe are on surer ground with the treatise that follows, the Song of\nAngels.[16] Walter Hilton--who died on March 24, 1396--holds a\nposition in the religious life and spiritual literature of England\nin the latter part of the fourteenth century somewhat similar to\nthat occupied by Richard Rolle in its earlier years. Like the Hermit\nof Hampole, he was the founder of a school, and the works of his\nfollowers cannot always be distinguished with certainty from his\nown. Like his great master in the mystical way, Richard of St.\nVictor, Hilton was an Augustinian, the head of a house of canons at\nThurgarton, near Newark. His great work, the Scala Perfectionis, or\nLadder of Perfection, \"which expoundeth many notable doctrines in\nContemplation,\" was first printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1494, and is\nstill widely used for devotional reading. A shorter treatise, the\nEpistle to a Devout Man in Temporal Estate, first printed by Pynson\nin 1506, gives practical guidance to a religious layman of wealth\nand social position, for the fulfilling of the duties of his state\nwithout hindrance to his making profit in the spiritual life. These,\nwith the Song of Angels, are the only printed works that can be\nassigned to him with certainty, though many others, undoubtedly from\nhis pen, are to be found in manuscripts, and a complete and critical\nedition of Walter Hilton seems still in the far future.[17] The Song\nof Angels has been twice printed since the edition of Pepwell.[18]\nIn profoundly mystical language, tinged with the philosophy of that\nmysterious Neo-Platonist whom we call the pseudo-Dionysius, it tells\nof the wonderful \"onehead,\" the union of the soul with God in\nperfect charity:--\n\n\"This onehead is verily made when the mights of the soul are\nreformed by grace to the dignity and the state of the first\ncondition; that is, when the mind is firmly established, without\nchanging and wandering, in God and ghostly things, and when the\nreason is cleared from all worldly and fleshly beholdings, and from\nall bodily imaginations, figures, and fantasies of creatures, and is\nillumined by grace to behold God and ghostly things, and when the\nwill and the affection is purified and cleansed from all fleshly,\nkindly, and worldly love, and is inflamed with burning love of the\nHoly Ghost.\"\n\nBut to this blessed condition none may attain perfectly here on\nearth. The writer goes on to speak of the mystical consolations and\nvisitations granted to the loving soul in this life, distinguishing\nthe feelings and sensations that are mere delusions, from those that\ntruly proceed from the fire of love in the affection and the light\nof knowing in the reason, and are a very anticipation of that\nineffable \"onehead\" in heaven.\n\nThe three remaining treatises--the Epistle of Prayer, the Epistle of\nDiscretion in Stirrings of the Soul, and the Treatise of Discerning\nof Spirits[19]--are associated in the manuscripts with four other\nworks: the Divine Cloud of Unknowing, the Epistle of Privy Counsel,\na paraphrase of the Mystical Theology of Dionysius entitled Dionise\nHid Divinity, and the similar translation or paraphrase of the\nBenjamin Minor of Richard of St. Victor already considered.[20]\nThese seven treatises are all apparently by the same hand. The\nDivine Cloud of Unknowing has been credited to Walter Hilton, as\nlikewise to William Exmew, or to Maurice Chauncy, Carthusians of the\nsixteenth century, whereas the manuscripts are at least a hundred\nyears earlier than their time; but it seems safer to attribute the\nwhole series to an unknown writer of the second part of the\nfourteenth century, who \"marks a middle point between Rolle and\nHilton.\"[21] The spiritual beauty of the three here reprinted--and,\nmore particularly, of the Epistle of Prayer, with its glowing\nexposition of the doctrine of Pure Love--speaks for itself. They\nshow us mysticism brought down, if I may say so, from the clouds for\nthe practical guidance of the beginner along this difficult way.\nAnd, in the Epistle of Discretion, we find even a rare touch of\nhumour; where the counsellor \"conceives suspiciously\" of his\ncorrespondent's spiritual stirrings, lest \"they should be conceived\non the ape's manner.\" Like St. Catherine of Siena, though in a less\ndegree, he has the gift of vision and the faculty of intuition\ncombined with a homely common sense, and can illustrate his \"simple\nmeaning\" with a smile.\n\nI have borrowed a phrase from St. Catherine, \"The Cell of\nSelf-Knowledge,\" la cella del cognoscimento di noi, as the title of\nthis little volume. Knowledge of self and purity of heart, the\nmystics teach, are the indispensable conditions for the highest\nmystical elevation. Knowledge of self, for Richard of St. Victor, is\nthe high mountain apart upon which Christ is transfigured; for\nCatherine of Siena, it is the stable in which the pilgrim through\ntime to eternity must be born again. \"Wouldest thou behold Christ\ntransfigured?\" asks Richard; \"ascend this mountain; learn to know\nthyself.\"[22] \"Thou dost see,\" writes Catherine, speaking in the\nperson of the eternal Father, \"this sweet and loving Word born in a\nstable, while Mary was journeying; to show to you, who are\ntravellers, that you must ever be born again in the stable of\nknowledge of yourselves, where you will find Him born by grace\nwithin your souls.\"[23] The soul is a mirror that reflects the\ninvisible things of God, and it is by purity of heart alone that\nthis mirror is made clear. \"Therefore,\" writes Richard of St.\nVictor, \"let whoso thirsts to see his God, wipe his mirror, purify\nhis spirit. After he hath thus cleared his mirror and long\ndiligently gazed into it, a certain clarity of divine light begins\nto shine through upon him, and a certain immense ray of unwonted\nvision to appear before his eyes. This light irradiated the eyes of\nhim who said: Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon\nus; Thou hast put gladness in my heart. From the vision of this\nlight which it sees with wonder in itself, the mind is wondrously\ninflamed and inspired to behold the light which is above\nitself.\"[24]\n\nPepwell's volume has been made the basis of the present edition of\nthese seven treatises; but, in each case, the text has been\ncompletely revised. The text of the Benjamin, the Epistle of Prayer,\nthe Epistle of Discretion, and the Treatise of Discerning of\nSpirits, has been collated with that given by the Harleian MSS. 674\nand 2373; and, in most cases, the readings of the manuscripts have\nbeen adopted in preference to those of the printed version. The\nKatherin has been collated with Caxton's Lyf; the Margery Kempe with\nWynkyn de Worde's precious little volume in the University Library\nof Cambridge; and the Song of Angels with the text published by\nProfessor Horstman from the Camb. MS Dd. v. 55. As the object of\nthis book is not to offer a Middle English text to students, but a\nsmall contribution to mystical literature, the orthography has been\ncompletely modernised, while I have attempted to retain enough of\nthe original language to preserve the flavour of mediaeval devotion.\n\nEDMUND G. GARDNER.\n\n\n\n\nI.\n\nHERE FOLLOWETH A VERY DEVOUT TREATISE, NAMED BENJAMIN, OF THE MIGHTS\nAND VIRTUES OF MAN'S SOUL, AND OF THE WAY TO TRUE CONTEMPLATION,\nCOMPILED BY A NOBLE AND FAMOUS DOCTOR, A MAN OF GREAT HOLINESS AND\nDEVOTION, NAMED RICHARD OF SAINT VICTOR\n\nA TREATISE NAMED BENJAMIN\n\nTHE PROLOGUE\n\n\nA GREAT clerk that men call [25] Richard of Saint Victor, in a book\nthat he maketh of the study of wisdom, witnesseth and saith that two\nmights are in a man's soul, given of the Father of Heaven of whom\nall good cometh. The one is reason, the other is affection; through\nreason we know, and through affection we feel or love.\n\nOf reason springeth right counsel and ghostly wits; and of affection\nspringeth holy desires and ordained[26] feelings. And right as\nRachel and Leah were both wives unto Jacob, right so man's soul\nthrough light of knowing in the reason, and sweetness of love in the\naffection, is spoused unto God. By Jacob is understanden God, by\nRachel is understanden reason, by Leah is understanden affection.\nEach of these wives, Rachel and Leah, took to them a maiden; Rachel\ntook Bilhah, and Leah took Zilpah. Bilhah was a great jangler, and\nZilpah was ever drunken and thirsty. By Bilhah is understanden\nimagination, the which is servant unto reason, as Bilhah was to\nRachel; by Zilpah is understanden sensuality, the which is servant\nunto affection, as Zilpah was to Leah. And so much are these maidens\nneedful to their ladies, that without them all this world might\nserve them of nought. For why, without imagination reason may not\nknow, and without sensuality affection may not feel. And yet\nimagination cryeth so inconveniently[27] in the ears of our heart\nthat, for ought that reason her lady may do, yet she may not still\nher. And therefore it is that oft times when we should pray, so many\ndivers fantasies of idle and evil thoughts cry in our hearts, that\non no wise we may by our own mights drive them away. And thus it is\nwell proved that Bilhah is a foul jangler. And also the sensuality\nis evermore so thirsty, that all that affection her lady may\nfeel,[28] may not yet slake her thirst. The drink that she desireth\nis the lust of fleshly, kindly, and worldly delights,[29] of the\nwhich the more that she drinketh the more she thirsteth; for why,\nfor to fill the appetite of the sensuality, all this world may not\nsuffice; and therefore it is that oft times when we pray or think on\nGod and ghostly things, we would fain feel sweetness of love in our\naffection,[30] and yet we may not, for are we so busy to feed the\nconcupiscence of our sensuality; for evermore it is greedily asking,\nand we have a fleshly compassion thereof. And thus it is well proved\nthat Zilpah is evermore drunken and thirsty. And right as Leah\nconceived of Jacob and brought forth seven children, and Rachel\nconceived of Jacob and brought forth two children, and Bilhah\nconceived of Jacob and brought forth two children, and Zilpah\nconceived of Jacob and brought forth two children; right so the\naffection conceiveth through the grace of God, and bringeth forth\nseven virtues; and also the sensuality conceiveth through the grace\nof God, and bringeth forth two virtues; and also the reason\nconceiveth through the grace of God, and bringeth forth two virtues;\nand also the imagination conceiveth through the grace of God, and\nbringeth forth two virtues, or two beholdings. And the names of\ntheir children and of their virtues shall be known by this figure\nthat followeth:\n\nHusband: Jacob temporally, God spiritually. Wives to Jacob: Leah,\nthat is to say, Affection; Rachel, that is to say, Reason. Maid to\nLeah is Zilpah, that is to understand, Sensuality; and Bilhah maiden\nto Rachel, that is to understand, Imagination.\n\nThe sons of Jacob and Leah are these seven that followeth: Reuben\nsignifieth dread of pain; Simeon, sorrow of sins; Levi, hope of\nforgiveness; Judah, love of righteousness; Issachar, joy in inward\nsweetness; Zebulun, hatred of sin; Dinah, ordained shame.\n\nThe sons of Jacob and Zilpah, servant of Leah, are these: Gad,\nabstinence; Asher, patience.\n\nThe sons of Jacob and of Rachel are these: Joseph, discretion;\nBenjamin, contemplation.\n\nThe sons of Jacob and Bilhah, servant to Rachel, are these: Dan,\nsight of pain to come; and Naphtali, sight of joy to come.\n\nIn this figure it is shewed apertly of Jacob and of his wives, and\ntheir maidens, and all their children. Here it is to shew on what\nmanner they were gotten, and in what order:--\n\nFirst, it is to say of the children of Leah; for why, it is read\nthat she first conceived. The children of Leah are nought else to\nunderstand but ordained affections or feelings in a man's soul; for\nwhy, if they were unordained, then were they not the sons of Jacob.\nAlso the seven children of Leah are seven virtues, for virtue is\nnought else but an ordained and a measured feeling in a man's soul.\nFor then is man's feeling in soul ordained when it is of that thing\nthat it should be; then it is measured when it is so much as it\nshould be. These feelings in a man's soul may be now ordained and\nmeasured, and now unordained and unmeasured; but when they are\nordained and measured, then are they accounted among the sons of\nJacob.[31]\n\n\n\n\nCAPITULUM I\n\nHOW THE VIRTUE OF DREAD RISETH IN THE AFFECTION\n\n\nTHE first child that Leah conceived of Jacob was Reuben, that is,\ndread; and therefore it is written in the psalm: \"The beginning of\nwisdom is the dread of our Lord God.\"[32] This is the first felt\nvirtue in a man's affection, without the which none other may be\nhad. And, therefore, whoso desireth to have such a son, him behoveth\nbusily and oft also behold the evil that he hath done. And he shall,\non the one party, think on the greatness of his trespass, and, on\nanother party, the power of the Doomsman.[33] Of such a\nconsideration springeth dread, that is to say Reuben, that through\nright is cleped \"the son of sight.\"[34] For utterly is he blind that\nseeth not the pains that are to come, and dreadeth not to sin. And\nwell is Reuben cleped the son of sight; for when he was born, his\nmother cried and said: \"God hath seen my meekness.\"[35] And man's\nsoul, in such a consideration of his old sins and of the power of\nthe Doomsman, beginneth then truly to see God by feeling of dread,\nand also to be seen of God by rewarding of pity.\n\n\n\n\nCAPITULUM II\n\nHOW SORROW RISETH IN THE AFFECTION\n\n\nWHILE Reuben waxeth, Simeon is born; for after dread it needeth\ngreatly that sorrow come soon. For ever the more that a man dreadeth\nthe pain that he hath deserved, the bitterlier he sorroweth the sins\nthat he hath done. Leah in the birth of Simeon cried and said: \"Our\nLord hath heard me be had in despite.\"[36] And therefore is Simeon\ncleped \"hearing\";[37] for when a man bitterly sorroweth and\ndespiseth his old sins, then beginneth he to be heard of God, and\nalso for to hear the blessed sentence of God's own mouth: \"Blessed\nbe they that sorrow, for they shall be comforted.\"[38] For in what\nhour the sinner sorroweth and turneth from his sin, he shall be\nsafe.[39] Thus witnesseth holy Scripture. And also by Reuben he is\nmeeked,[40] and by Simeon he is contrite and hath compunction of\ntears; but, as witnesseth David in the psalm: \"Heart contrite and\nmeeked God shall not despise\";[41] and without doubt such sorrow\nbringeth in true comfort of heart.\n\n\n\n\nCAPITULUM III\n\nHOW HOPE RISETH IN THE AFFECTION\n\n\nBUT, I pray thee, what comfort may be to them that truly dread and\nbitterly sorrow for their old sins, ought but a true hope of\nforgiveness? the which is the third son of Jacob, that is Levi, the\nwhich is cleped in the story \"a doing to.\"[42] For when the other\ntwo children, dread and sorrow, are given of God to a man's soul,\nwithout doubt he this third, that is hope, shall not be delayed, but\nhe shall be lone to;[43] as the story witnesseth of Levi, that, when\nhis two brethren, Reuben and Simeon, were given to their mother\nLeah, he, this Levi, was done to. Take heed of this word, that he\nwas \"done to\" and not given. And therefore it is said that a man\nshall not presume of hope of forgiveness before the time that his\nheart be peeked in dread and contrite in sorrow; without these two,\nhope is presumption, and where these two are, hope is done to; and\nthus after sorrow cometh soon comfort, as David telleth in the psalm\nthat \"after the muchness of my sorrow in my heart,\" he saith to our\nLord, \"Thy comforts have gladded my soul.\"[44] And therefore it is\nthat the Holy Ghost is called Paracletus, that is, comforter, for\noft times he vouchethsafe to comfort a sorrowful soul.\n\n\n\n\nCAPITULUM IV\n\nHOW LOVE RISETH IN THE AFFECTION\n\n\nFROM now forth beginneth a manner of homeliness for to grow between\nGod and a man's soul; and also on a manner a kindling of love, in so\nmuch that oft times he feeleth him not only be visited of God and\ncomforted in His coming, but oft times also he feeleth him filled\nwith an unspeakable joy. This homeliness and this kindling of love\nfirst felt Leah, when, after that Levi was born, she cried with a\ngreat voice and said: \"Now shall my husband be coupled to me.\"[45]\nThe true spouse of our soul is God, and then are we truly coupled\nunto Him, when we draw near Him by hope and soothfast love. And\nright as after hope cometh love, so after Levi was Judah born, the\nfourth son of Leah. Leah in his birth cried and said: \"Now shall I\nshrive to our Lord.\"[46] And therefore in the story is Judah cleped\n\"Shrift.\"[47] Also man's soul in this degree of love offereth it\nclearly to God, and saith thus: \"Now shall I shrive to our Lord.\"\nFor before this feeling of love in a man's soul, all that he doth is\ndone more for dread than for love; but in this state a man's soul\nfeeleth God so sweet, so merciful, so good, so courteous, so true,\nand so kind, so faithful, so lovely and so homely, that he leaveth\nnothing in him--might, wit, conning,[48] or will--that he offereth\nnot it clearly, freely, and homely unto Him. This shrift is not only\nof sin, but of the goodness of God. Great token of love it is when a\nman telleth to God that He is good. Of this shrift speaketh David\nfull oft times in the psalter, when he saith: \"Make it known to God,\nfor He is good.\"[49]\n\nLo, now have we said of four sons of Leah. And after this she left\nbearing of children till another time; and so man's soul weeneth\nthat it sufficeth to it when it feeleth that it loveth the true\ngoods.[50] And so it is enough to salvation, but not to perfection.\nFor it falleth to a perfect soul both to be inflamed with the fire\nof love in the affection, and also to be illumined with the light of\nknowing in the reason.\n\n\n\n\nCAPITULUM V\n\nHOW THE DOUBLE SIGHT OF PAIN AND JOY RISETH IN THE IMAGINATION\n\n\nTHEN when Judah waxeth, that is to say, when love and desire of\nunseen true goods is rising and waxing in a man's affection; then\ncoveteth Rachel for to bear some children; that is to say, then\ncoveteth reason to know these things that affection feeleth; for as\nit falleth to the affection for to love, so it falleth to the reason\nfor to know. Of affection springeth ordained and measured feelings;\nand of reason springeth right knowings[51] and clear understandings.\nAnd ever the more that Judah waxeth, that is to say love, so much\nthe more desireth Rachel bearing of children, that is to say, reason\nstudieth after knowing. But who is he that woteth not how hard it\nis, and nearhand impossible to a fleshly soul the which is yet rude\nin ghostly studies, for to rise in knowing of unseeable[52] things,\nand for to set the eye of contemplation in ghostly things? For why,\na soul that is yet rude and fleshly, knoweth nought but bodily\nthings, and nothing cometh yet to the mind but only seeable[53]\nthings. And, nevertheless, yet it looketh inward as it may; and that\nthat it may not see yet clearly by ghostly knowing, it thinketh by\nimagination.\n\nAnd this is the cause why Rachel had first children of her maiden\nthan of herself. And so it is that, though all a man's soul may not\nyet get the light of ghostly knowing in the reason, yet it thinketh\nit sweet to hold the mind on God and ghostly things in the\nimagination. As by Rachel we understand reason, so by her maiden\nBilhah we understand imagination. And, therefore, reason sheweth\nthat it is more profitable for to think on ghostly things, in what\nmanner so it be; yea, if it be in kindling of our desire with some\nfair imagination; than it is for to think on vanities and deceivable\nthings of this world. And, therefore, of Bilhah were born these two:\nDan and Naphtali. Dan is to say sight of pains to come; and\nNaphtali, sight of joys to come. These two children are full needful\nand full speedful unto a working soul; the one for to put down evil\nsuggestions of sins; and the other for to raise up our wills in\nworking of good and in kindling of our desires. For as it falleth to\nDan to put down evil suggestions of sin by sight of pains to come,\nso it falleth to the other brother Naphtali to raise up our wills in\nworking of good, and in kindling of holy desires by sight of joys to\ncome. And therefore holy men, when they are stirred to any unlawful\nthing, by inrising of any foul thought, as oft they set before their\nmind the pains that are to come; and so they slaken their temptation\nin the beginning, ere it rise to any foul delight in their soul. And\nas oft as their devotion and their liking in God and ghostly things\ncease and wax cold (as oft times it befalleth in this life, for\ncorruption of the flesh and many other skills),[54] so oft they set\nbefore their mind the joy that is to come. And so they kindle their\nwill with holy desires, and destroy their temptation in the\nbeginning, ere it come to any weariness or heaviness of sloth. And\nfor that[55] with Dan we damn unlawful thoughts, therefore he is\nwell cleped in the story \"Doom.\"[56] And also his father Jacob said\nof him thus: \"Dan shall deem his folk.\"[57] And also it is said in\nthe story that, when Bilhah brought forth Dan, Rachel said thus:\n\"Our Lord hath deemed me\";[58] that is to say: \"Our Lord hath evened\nme unto my sister Leah.\" And thus saith reason, when the imagination\nhath gotten the sight of pains to come, that our Lord hath evened\nher with her sister affection; and she saith thus, for she hath the\nsight of pains to come in her imagination, of the which she had\ndread and sorrow in her feeling. And then after came Naphtali, that\nis to say, the sight of joys to come. And in his birth spake Rachel\nand said: \"I am made like to my sister Leah\";[59] and therefore is\nNaphtali cleped in the story \"Likeness.\"[60] And thus saith reason\nthat she is made like to her sister affection. For there as she had\ngotten hope and love of joy to come in her feeling, she hath now\ngotten sight of joy to come in her imagination. Jacob said of\nNaphtali that he was \"a hart sent out, giving speeches of\nfairhead.\"[61] So it is that, when we imagine of the joys of heaven,\nwe say that it is fair in heaven. For[62] wonderfully kindleth\nNaphtali our souls with holy desires, as oft as we imagine of the\nworthiness and the fairhead of the joys of heaven.\n\n\n\n\nCAPITULUM VI\n\nHOW THE VIRTUES OF ABSTINENCE AND PATIENCE RISE IN THE SENSUALITY\n\n\nWHEN Leah saw that Rachel her sister made great joy of these two\nbastards born of Bilhah her maiden, she called forth her maiden\nZilpah, to put to her husband Jacob; that she might make joy with\nher sister, having other two bastards gotten of her maiden Zilpah.\nAnd thus it is seemly in man's soul for to be, that from the time\nthat reason hath refrained the great jangling of imagination, and\nhath put her to be underlout[63] to God, and maketh her to bear some\nfruit in helping of her knowing, that right so the affection refrain\nthe lust and the thirst of the sensuality, and make her to be\nunderlout to God, and so to bear some fruit in helping of her\nfeeling. But what fruit may she bear, ought but that she learn to\nlive temperately in easy things, and patiently in uneasy things?\nThese are they, the children of Zilpah, Gad and Asher: Gad is\nabstinence, and Asher is patience. Gad is the sooner born child, and\nAsher the latter; for first it needeth that we be attempered in\nourself with discreet abstinence, and after that we bear outward\ndisease[64] in strength of patience. These are the children that\nZilpah brought forth in sorrow; for in abstinence and patience the\nsensuality is punished in the flesh; but that that is sorrow to the\nsensuality turneth to much comfort and bliss to the affection. And\ntherefore it is that, when Gad was born, Leah cried and said:\n\"Happily\"[65]; and therefore Gad is cleped in the story \"Happiness,\"\nor \"Seeliness.\"[66] And so it is well said that abstinence in the\nsensuality is happiness[67] in the affection. For why, ever the less\nthat the sensuality is delighted in her lust, the more sweetness\nfeeleth the affection in her love. Also after when Asher was born,\nLeah said: \"This shall be for my bliss\";[68] and therefore was Asher\ncalled in the story \"Blessed.\"[69] And so it is well said that\npatience in the sensuality is bliss in the affection. For why, ever\nthe more disease that the sensuality suffereth, the more blessed is\nthe soul in the affection. And thus by abstinence and patience we\nshall not only understand a temperance in meat and drink, and\nsuffering of outward tribulation, but also [in] all manner of\nfleshly, kindly,[70] and worldly delights, and all manner of\ndisease, bodily and ghostly, within or without, reasonable or\nunreasonable, that by any of our five wits torment or delight the\nsensuality. On this wise beareth the sensuality fruit in help of\naffection, her lady. Much peace and rest is in that soul that\nneither is drunken in the lust of the sensuality, nor grutcheth[71]\nin the pain thereof. The first of these is gotten by Gad and the\nlatter by Asher. Here it is to wete that first was Rachel's maiden\nput to the husband or the maiden of Leah; and this is the skill why.\nFor truly, but if the jangling of the imagination, that is to say,\nthe in-running of vain thoughts, be first refrained, without doubt\nthe lust of the sensuality may not be attempered. And therefore who\nso will abstain him from fleshly and worldly lusts, him behoveth\nfirst seldom or never think any vain thoughts.[72] And also never in\nthis life may a man perfectly despise the ease of the flesh, and not\ndread the disease, but if he have before busily beholden the meeds\nand the torments that are to come. But here it is to wete how that,\nwith these four sons of these two maidens, the city of our\nconscience is kept wonderfully from all temptations. For all\ntemptation either it riseth within by thought, or else without by\nsome of our five wits. But within shall Dan deem and damn evil\nthoughts by sight of pain; and without shall Gad put against[73]\nfalse delights by use of abstinence. Dan waketh[74] within, and Gad\nwithout; and also their other two brethren helpen them full much:\nNaphtali maketh peace within with Dan, and Asher biddeth Gad have no\ndread of his enemies. Dan feareth the heart with ugsomeness of hell,\nand Naphtali cherisheth it with behighting[75] of heavenly bliss.\nAlso Asher helpeth his brother without, so that, through them both,\nthe wall of the city is not broken. Gad holdeth out ease, and Asher\npursueth disease. Asher soon deceiveth his enemy, when he bringeth\nto mind the patience of his father[76] and the behighting of\nNaphtali, and thus oft times ever the more enemies he hath, the more\nmatter he hath of overcoming. And therefore it is that, when he hath\novercome his enemies (that is to say, the adversities of this\nworld), soon he turneth him to his brother Gad to help to destroy\nhis enemies. And without fail, from that he be come, soon they turn\nthe back, and flee. The enemies of Gad are fleshly delights; but\ntruly, from the time that a man have patience in the pain of his\nabstinence, false delights find no woning stead[77] in him.\n\n\n\n\nCAPITULUM VII\n\nHOW JOY OF INWARD SWEETNESS RISETH IN THE AFFECTION\n\n\nTHUS when the enemy fleeth and the city is peased,[78] then\nbeginneth a man to prove what the high peace of God is that passeth\nman's wit. And therefore it is that Leah left bearing of children\nunto this time that Gad and Asher were born of Zilpah, her maiden.\nFor truly, but if it be so that a man have refrained the lust and\nthe pain of his five wits in his sensuality by abstinence and\npatience, he shall never feel inward sweetness and true joy in God\nand ghostly things in the affection. This is that Issachar, the\nfifth son of Leah, the which in the story is cleped \"Meed.\"[79] [And\nwell is this joy of inward sweetness cleped \"meed\"];[80] for this\njoy is the taste of heavenly bliss, the which is the endless meed of\na devout soul, beginning here. Leah, in the birth of this child,\nsaid: \"God hath given me meed, for that I have given my maiden to my\nhusband in bearing of children.\"[81] And so it is good that we make\nour sensuality bear fruit in abstaining it from all manner of\nfleshly, kindly, and worldly delight, and in fruitful suffering of\nall fleshly and worldly disease; therefore our Lord of His great\nmercy giveth us joy unspeakable and inward sweetness in our\naffection, in earnest[82] of the sovereign joy and meed of the\nkingdom of heaven. Jacob said of Issachar that he was \"a strong ass\ndwelling between the terms.\"[83] And so it is that a man in this\nstate, and that feeleth the earnest of everlasting joy in his\naffection, is as \"an ass, strong and dwelling between the terms\";\nbecause that, be he never so filled in soul of ghostly gladness and\njoy in God, yet, for corruption of the flesh in this deadly life,\nhim behoveth bear the charge of the deadly body, as hunger, thirst,\nand cold, sleep, and many other diseases; for the which he is\nlikened to an ass as in body; but as in soul he is strong for to\ndestroy all the passions and the lusts of the flesh by patience and\nabstinence in the sensuality, and by abundance of ghostly joy and\nsweetness in the affection. And also a soul in this state is\ndwelling between the terms of deadly life and undeadly life. He that\ndwelleth between the terms hath nearhand forsaken deadliness, but\nnot fully, and hath nearhand gotten undeadliness, but not fully; for\nwhiles that him needeth the goods of this world, as meat and drink\nand clothing, as it falleth to each man that liveth, yet his one\nfoot is in this deadly life; and for great abundance of ghostly joy\nand sweetness that he feeleth in God, not seldom but oft, he hath\nhis other foot in the undeadly life. Thus I trow that saint Paul\nfelt, when he said this word of great desire: \"Who shall deliver me\nfrom this deadly body?\"[84] And when he said thus: \"I covet to be\nloosed and to be with Christ.\"[85] And thus doth the soul that\nfeeleth Issachar in his affection, that is to say, the joy of inward\nsweetness, the which is understanden by Issachar. It enforceth it to\nforsake this wretched life, but it may not; it coveteth to enter the\nblessed life, but it may not; it doth that it may, and yet it\ndwelleth between the terms.\n\n\n\n\nCAPITULUM VIII\n\nHOW PERFECT HATRED OF SIN RISETH IN THE AFFECTION\n\n\nAND therefore it is that after Issachar Zebulun is born, that is to\nsay, hatred of sin. And here it is to wete why that hatred of sin is\nnever perfectly felt in a man's affection, ere the time that ghostly\njoy of inward sweetness be felt in the affection, and this is the\nskill: for ere this time was never the true cause of hatred felt in\nthe affection. For the feeling of ghostly joy teacheth a man what\nsin harmeth the soul. And all after that the harm in the soul is\nfelt much or little, thereafter is the hatred measured, more or\nless, unto the harming. But when a soul, by the grace of God and\nlong travail, is come to feeling of ghostly joy in God, then it\nfeeleth that sin hath been the cause of the delaying thereof. And\nalso when he feeleth that he may not alway last in the feeling of\nthat ghostly joy, for the corruption of the flesh, of the which\ncorruption sin is the cause; then he riseth with a strong feeling of\nhatred against all sin and all kind of sin. This feeling taught\nDavid us to have, where he saith in the psalm: \"Be ye wroth and will\nye not sin\";[86] that is thus to mean: Be ye wroth with the sin, but\nnot with the kind.[87] For kind stirreth to the deed, but not to\nsin. And here it is to wete that this wrath and this hatred is not\ncontrary to charity, but charity teacheth how it shall be had both\nin a man's self and in his even Christian;[88] for a man should\n[not] hate sin [so that he destroy his kind, but so that he destroy\nthe sin and the appetite of sin] in his kind. And, as against our\neven Christian, we ought to hate sin in him, and to love him; and of\nthis hatred speaketh David in the psalm, where he saith thus: \"With\nperfect hatred I hated them.\"[89] And in another psalm he saith that\n\"he had in hatred all wicked ways.\"[90] Thus it is well proved that,\nere Zebulun was born, Judah and Issachar were both born. For but if\na man have had charity and ghostly joy in his feeling first, he may\nin no wise feel this perfect hatred of sin in his affection. For\nJudah, that is to say, charity, teacheth us how we shall hate sin in\nourself and in our brethren; and Issachar, that is to say, ghostly\nfeeling of joy in God, teacheth us why we shall hate sin in ourself\nand in our brethren. Judah biddeth us hate sin and love the kind;\nand Issachar biddeth us destroy the sin and save the kind; and thus\nit falleth for to be that the kind may be made strong in God and in\nghostly things by perfect hatred and destroying of sin. And\ntherefore is Zebulun cleped in the story \"a dwelling stead of\nstrength.\"[91] And Leah said in his birth: \"My husband shall now\ndwell with me\";[92] and so it is that God, that is the true husband\nof our soul, is dwelling in that soul, strengthening it in the\naffection with ghostly joy and sweetness in His love, that\ntravaileth busily to destroy sin in himself and in others by perfect\nhatred of the sin and all the kind of sin. And thus it is said how\nZebulun is born.\n\n\n\n\nCAPITULUM IX\n\nHOW ORDAINED SHAME RISETH AND GROWETH IN THE AFFECTION\n\n\nBUT though all that a soul through grace feel in it perfect hatred\nof sin, whether it may yet live without sin? Nay, sikerly;[93] and\ntherefore let no man presume of himself, when the Apostle saith\nthus: \"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourself, and\nsoothfastness is not in us.\"[94] And also saint Austin saith that he\ndare well say that there is no man living without sin.[95] And I\npray thee, who is he that sinneth not in ignorance? Yea, and oft\ntimes it falleth that God suffereth those men to fall full\ngrievously by the which He hath ordained other men's errors to be\nrighted, that they may learn by their own falling how merciful they\nshall be in amending of others. And for that oft times men fall\ngrievously in those same sins that they most hate, therefore, after\nhatred of sin, springeth ordained shame in a man's soul; and so it\nis that after Zebulun was Dinah born. As by Zebulun hatred of sin,\nso by Dinah is understanden ordained shame of sin. But wete thou\nwell: he that felt never Zebulun, felt never yet Dinah. Evil men\nhave a manner of shame, but it is not this ordained shame. For why,\nif they had perfect shame of sin, they should not so customably do\nit with will and advisement;[96] but they shame more with a foul\ncloth on their body, than with a foul thought in their soul. But\nwhat so thou be that weenest that thou hast gotten Dinah, think\nwhether thee would shame as much if a foul thought were in thine\nheart, as thee would if thou were made to stand naked before the\nking and all his royalme; and sikerly else wete it thou right well\nthat thou hast not yet gotten ordained shame in thy feeling, if so\nbe that thou have less shame with thy foul heart than with thy foul\nbody, and if thou think more shame with thy foul body in the sight\nof men than with thy foul heart in the sight of the King of heaven\nand of all His angels and holy saints in heaven.\n\nLo, it is now said of the seven children of Leah, by the which are\nunderstanden seven manner of affections in a man's soul, the which\nmay be now ordained and now unordained, now measured and now\nunmeasured; but when they are ordained and measured, then are they\nvirtues; and when they are unordained and unmeasured, then are they\nvices. Thus behoveth a man have children[97] that they be not only\nordained, but also measured. Then are they ordained when they are of\nthat thing that they should be, and then are they unordained when\nthey are of that thing that they should not be; and then are they\nmeasured when they are as much as they should be, and then are they\nunmeasured when they are more than they should be. For why, overmuch\ndread bringeth in despair, and overmuch sorrow casteth a man in to\nbitterness and heaviness of kind,[98] for the which he is unable to\nreceive ghostly comfort. And overmuch hope is presumption, and\noutrageous love is but flattering and faging,[99] and outrageous\ngladness is dissolution and wantonness, and untempered hatred of sin\nis woodness.[100] And on this manner, they are unordained and\nunmeasured, and thus are they turned in to vices, and then lose they\nthe name of virtues, and may not be accounted amongst the sons of\nJacob, that is to say, God: for by Jacob is understanden God, as it\nis shewed in the figure before.\n\n\n\n\nCAPITULUM X\n\nHOW DISCRETION AND CONTEMPLATION RISE IN THE REASON\n\n\nThus it seemeth that the virtue of discretion needeth to be had,\nwith the which all others may be governed; for without it all\nvirtues are turned in to vices. This is Joseph, that is the late\nborn child, but yet his father loveth him more than them all. For\nwhy, without discretion may neither goodness be gotten nor kept, and\ntherefore no wonder though that virtue be singularly loved, without\nwhich no virtue may be had nor governed. But what wonder though this\nvirtue be late gotten, when we may not win to the perfection of\ndiscretion without much custom and many travails of these other\naffections coming before? For first behoveth us to be used in each\nvirtue by itself, and get the proof of them all serely,[101] ere we\nmay have full knowing of them all, or else can deem sufficiently of\nthem all. And when we use us busily in these feelings and beholdings\nbefore said, oft times we fall and oft times we rise. Then, by our\noft falling, may we learn how much wariness us behoveth have in the\ngetting and keeping of these virtues. And thus sometime, by long\nuse, a soul is led into full discretion, and then it may joy in the\nbirth of Joseph. And before this virtue be conceived in a man's\nsoul, all that these other virtues do, it is without discretion. And\ntherefore, in as much as a man presumeth and enforceth him in any of\nthese feelings beforesaid, over his might and out of measure, in so\nmuch the fouler he falleth and faileth of his purpose. And therefore\nit is that, after them all and last, is Dinah born; for often, after\na foul fall and a failing, cometh soon shame. And thus after many\nfailings and failings, and shames following, a man learneth by the\nproof that there is nothing better than to be ruled after counsel,\nthe which is the readiest getting of discretion. For why, he that\ndoth all things with counsel, he shall never forthink[102] it; for\nbetter is a sly man than a strong man; yea, and better is list than\nlither strength,[103] and a sly man speaketh of victories. And here\nis the open skill why that neither Leah nor Zilpah nor Bilhah might\nbear such a child, but only Rachel; for, as it is said before, that\nof reason springeth right counsel, the which is very discretion,\nunderstanden by Joseph, the first son of Rachel; and then at the\nfirst bring we forth Joseph in our reason when all that we are\nstirred to do, we do it with counsel. This Joseph shall not only\nknow what sins we are most stirred unto, but also he shall know the\nweakness of our kind, and after that either asketh, so shall he do\nremedy, and seek counsel at wiser than he, and do after them, or\nelse he is not Joseph, Jacob's son born of Rachel. And also by this\nforesaid[104] Joseph a man is not only learned to eschew the deceits\nof his enemies, but also oft a man is led by him to the perfect\nknowing of himself; and all after that a man knoweth himself,\nthereafter he profiteth in the knowing of God, of whom he is the\nimage and the likeness. And therefore it is that after Joseph is\nBenjamin born. For as by Joseph discretion, so by Benjamin we\nunderstand contemplation. And both are they born of one mother, and\ngotten of one father. For through the grace of God lightening our\nreason, come we to the perfect knowing of ourself and of God, that\nis to say, after that it may be in this life. But long after Joseph\nis Benjamin born. For why, truly but if it so be that we use us\nbusily and long in ghostly travails, with the which we are learned\nto know ourself, we may not be raised in to the knowing and\ncontemplation of God. He doth for nought that lifteth up his eye to\nthe sight of God, that is not yet able to see himself. For first I\nwould that a man learned him to know the unseeable[105] things of\nhis own spirit, ere he presume to know the unseeable things of the\nspirit of God; and he that knoweth not yet himself and weeneth that\nhe hath gotten somedeal knowing of the unseeable things of God, I\ndoubt it not but that he is deceived; and therefore I rede that a\nman seek first busily for to know himself, the which is made to the\nimage and the likeness of God as in soul. And wete thou well that he\nthat desireth for to see God, him behoveth to cleanse his soul, the\nwhich is as a mirror in the which all things are clearly seen, when\nit is clean; and when the mirror is foul, then mayst thou see\nnothing clearly therein; and right so it is of thy soul, when it is\nfoul, neither thou knowest thyself nor God. As when the candle\nbrenneth, thou mayst then see the self candle[106] by the light\nthereof, and other things also; right so, when thy soul brenneth in\nthe love of God, that is, when thou feelest continually thine heart\ndesire after the love of God, then, by the light of His grace that\nHe sendeth in thy reason, thou mayst see both thine own unworthiness\nand His great goodness. And therefore cleanse thy mirror and proffer\nthy candle to the fire; and then, when thy mirror is cleansed and\nthy candle brenning, and it so be that thou wittily behold thereto,\nthen beginneth there a manner of clarity of the light of God for to\nshine in thy soul, and a manner of sunbeam that is ghostly to appear\nbefore thy ghostly sight, through the which the eye of thy soul is\nopened to behold God and godly things, heaven and heavenly things,\nand all manner of ghostly things. But this sight is but by times,\nwhen God will vouchsafe for to give it to a working[107] soul, the\nwhiles it is in the battle of this deadly life; but after this life\nit shall be everlasting. This light shone in the soul of David, when\nhe said thus in the psalm: \"Lord, the light of Thy face is marked\nupon us; Thou hast given gladness within mine heart.\"[108] The light\nof God's face is the shining of His grace, that reformeth in us His\nimage that hath been disfigured with the darkness of sin; and\ntherefore a soul that brenneth in desire of His sight,[109] if it\nhope for to have that that it desireth, wete it well it hath\nconceived Benjamin. And, therefore, what is more healfull[110] than\nthe sweetness of this sight, or what softer thing may be felt?\nSikerly, none; and that woteth Rachel full well. For why, reason\nsaith that, in comparison of this sweetness, all other sweetness is\nsorrow, and bitter as gall before honey. Nevertheless, yet may a man\nnever come to such a grace by his own slight.[111] For why, it is\nthe gift of God without desert of man. But without doubt, though it\nbe not the desert of man, yet no man may take such grace without\ngreat study and brenning desires coming before; and that woteth\nRachel full well, and therefore she multiplieth her study, and\nwhetteth her desires, seeking desire upon desire;[112] so that at\nthe last, in great abundance of brenning desires and sorrow of the\ndelaying of her desire, Benjamin is born, and his mother Rachel\ndieth;[113] for why, in what time that a soul is ravished above\nitself by abundance of desires and a great multitude of love, so\nthat it is inflamed with the light of the Godhead, sikerly then\ndieth all man's reason.\n\nAnd therefore, what so thou be that covetest to come to\ncontemplation of God, that is to say, to bring forth such a child\nthat men clepen in the story Benjamin (that is to say, sight of\nGod), then shalt thou use thee in this manner. Thou shalt call\ntogether thy thoughts and thy desires, and make thee of them a\nchurch, and learn thee therein for to love only this good word Jesu,\nso that all thy desires and all thy thoughts are only set for to\nlove Jesu, and that unceasingly as it may be here; so that thou\nfulfill that is said in the psalm: \"Lord, I shall bless Thee in\nchurches\";[114] that is, in thoughts and desires of the love of\nJesu. And then, in this church of thoughts and desires, and in this\nonehead of studies and of wills, look that all thy thoughts, and all\nthy desires, and all thy studies, and all thy wills be only set in\nthe love and the praising of this Lord Jesu, without forgetting, as\nfar forth as thou mayst by grace, and as thy frailty will suffer;\nevermore meeking thee to prayer and to counsel, patiently abiding\nthe will of our Lord, unto the time that thy mind be ravished above\nitself, to be fed with the fair food of angels in the beholding of\nGod and ghostly things:[115] so that it be fulfilled in thee that is\nwritten in the psalm: Ibi Benjamin adolesentulus in mentis\nexcessu;[116] that is: \"There is Benjamin, the young child, in\nravishing of mind.\" The grace of Jesu keep thee evermore.[117] Amen\n\nDEO GRATIAS\n\n\n\n\nII.\n\nHERE FOLLOWETH DIVERS DOCTRINES DEVOUT AND FRUITFUL, TAKEN OUT OF\nTHE LIFE OF THAT GLORIOUS VIRGIN AND SPOUSE OF OUR LORD, SAINT\nKATHERIN OF SEENES. AND FIRST THOSE WHICH OUR LORD TAUGHT AND SHEWED\nTO HERSELF, AND SITH THOSE WHICH SHE TAUGHT AND SHEWED UNTO OTHERS\n\n\nTHE first doctrine of our Lord is this:\n\n\"Knowest thou not, daughter, who thou art and who I am? If thou know\nwell these two words, thou art and shalt be blessed. Thou art she\nthat art nought; and I am He that am ought.[118] If thou have the\nvery knowledge of these two things in thy soul, thy ghostly enemy\nshall never deceive thee, but thou shalt eschew graciously all his\nmalice;[119] and thou shalt never consent to any thing that is\nagainst My commandments and precepts, but all grace, all truth, and\nall charity thou shalt win without any hardness.\"\n\nThe second doctrine of our Lord is this:\n\n\"Think on Me, and I shall think on thee.\"\n\nIn declaring of which doctrine she was wont to say that:\n\n\"A soul which is verily united to God perceiveth not, seeth not, nor\nloveth not herself, nor none other soul, nor hath no mind of no\ncreature but only on God.\"\n\nAnd these words she expoundeth more expressly, and saith thus:\n\n\"Such a soul seeth herself, that she is very nought of herself, and\nknoweth perfectly that all the goodness, with all the mights of the\nsoul, is her Maker's. She forsaketh utterly herself and all\ncreatures, and hideth herself fully in her Maker, our Lord Jesu; in\nso much that she sendeth fully and principally all her ghostly and\nbodily workings in to Him; in whom she perceiveth that she may find\nall goodness, and all perfection of blessedness. And, therefore, she\nshall have no will to go out from such inward knowledge of Him for\nnothing.[120] And of this unity of love, that is increased every day\nin such a soul, she is transformed in a manner in to our Lord, that\nshe may neither think, nor understand, nor love, nor have no mind\nbut God, or else in God. For she may not see herself, nor none other\ncreature, but only in God; nor she may not love herself, nor none\nother, but only in God; nor she may have no mind of herself nor of\nnone other, but only in God, nor she may have no mind but only of\nher Maker. And therefore,\" she said, \"we shall have none other\nbusiness but only to think how we may please Him, unto whom we have\ncommitted all our governance both in body and soul.\"\n\nThe third doctrine of our Lord is this; in obtaining of virtue and\nghostly strength:\n\n\"Daughter, if thou wilt get unto thee virtue and also ghostly\nstrength,[121] thou must follow Me. Albeit that I might by My godly\nvirtue have overcome all the power of the fiends by many manner ways\nof overcoming, yet, for to give you ensample by My manhood, I would\nnot overcome him but only by taking of death upon the Cross, that ye\nmight be taught thereby, if ye will overcome your ghostly enemies,\nfor to take the Cross as I did; the which Cross shall be to you a\ngreat refreshing in all your temptations, if ye have mind of the\npains that I suffered thereon.[122] And certainly the pains of the\nCross may well be called refreshing of temptations, for the more\npain ye suffer for My love, the more like ye be to Me. And if ye be\nso like to Me in passion, needs ye must be like to Me in joy.[123]\nTherefore for My love, daughter, suffer patiently bitter things, and\nnot sweet things; and doubt in no wise, for thou shalt be strong\nenough for to suffer all things patiently.\"\n\nThe first doctrine of this glorious virgin is this:\n\n\"A soul which is verily mete[124] to God, as much as it hath of the\nlove of God, so much it hath of the hate of her own sensuality. For\nof the love of God naturally cometh hate of sin, the which is done\nagainst God. The soul, therefore, considering that the root and\nbeginning of sin reigneth in the sensuality, and there principally\nis rooted, she is moved and stirred highly and holily with all her\nmights against her own sensuality; not utterly to destroy the root,\nfor that may not be, as long as the soul dwelleth in the body living\nin this life, but ever there shall be left a root, namely of small\nvenial sins. And because she may not utterly destroy the root of sin\nthus in her sensuality, she conceiveth a great displeasaunce against\nher sensuality, of the which displeasaunce springeth an holy hate\nand a despising of the sensuality, by the which the soul is ever\nwell kept from her ghostly enemies. There is nothing that keepeth\nthe soul so strong and so sure as doth such an holy hate. And that\nfelt well the Apostle, when he said: Cum infirmor, tonc fortior sum\net potens;[125] that is: When I am sick and feeble in my sensuality\nby hate of sin, then am I stronger and mightier in my soul. Lo, of\nsuch hate cometh virtue, of such feebleness cometh strength, and of\nsuch displeasaunce cometh pleasaunce. This holy hate maketh a man\nmeek, and to feel meek things of himself. It maketh him patient in\nadversity, temperate in prosperity, and setteth him in all honesty\nof virtue, and maketh him to be loved both of God and man. And where\nthis holy hate is not, there is inordinate love, which is the\nstinking canal of all sin, and root[126] of all evil concupiscence.\nDo therefore,\" she saith, \"your business to put away such inordinate\nlove of your own self, out of your hearts, and plant therein holy\nhate of sin. For certain that is the right way to perfection, and\namendment of all sin.\"\n\nHere is a common answer which she used to say to the fiends:\n\n\"I trust in my Lord Jesu Christ, and not in myself.\"\n\nHere is a rule how we shall behave us in time of temptation:\n\n\"When temptation,\" she saith, \"ariseth in us, we should never\ndispute nor make questions; for that is,\" she saith, \"that the fiend\nmost seeketh of us for to fall in questions with him. He trusteth so\nhighly in the great subtlety of his malice, that he should overcome\nus with his sophistical reasons. Therefore a soul should never make\nquestions, nor answer to the questions of the fiend, but rather turn\nher to devout prayer, and commend her to our Lord that she consent\nnot to his subtle demands; for by virtue of devout prayer, and\nsteadfast faith, we may overcome all the subtle temptations of the\nfiend.\"\n\nHere is a good conceit of this holy maid to eschew the temptations\nof the fiend:\n\n\"It happeneth,\" she said, \"that otherwhile[127] the devout fervour\nof a soul loving our Lord Jesu, either by some certain sin, or else\nby some new subtle temptations of the fiend, waxeth dull and slow,\nand otherwhile it is brought to very coldness;[128] in so much that\nsome unwitty folks, considering that they be destitute from the\nghostly comfort the which they were wont to have, leave[129]\ntherefore the ghostly exercise that they were wont to use of prayer,\nof meditations, of reading, of holy communications, and of penance\ndoing; whereby they be made more ready to be overcome of the fiend.\nFor he desireth nothing else of Christ's knights, but that they\nshould put away their armour by the which they were wont to overcome\ntheir enemies. A wise knight of our Lord Jesu should not do so. But\nthus, the more he feeleth[130] himself dull and slow, or cold in\ndevotion, the rather he should continue in his ghostly exercise, and\nnot for to make them less, but rather increase them.\"\n\nHere is another doctrine of this holy maid, the which she used to\nsay to herself in edifying of others:\n\n\"Thou vile and wretched creature, art thou worthy any manner of\ncomfort in this life? Why hast thou not mind of thy sins? What\nsupposest thou of thyself, wretched sinner? Is it not enough to\nthee, trowest thou not, that thou art escaped by the mercy of our\nLord from everlasting damnation? Therefore thou shouldest be well\napaid,[131] wretch, though thou suffer all the pains and darkness of\nthy soul all the days of thy life. Why art thou, then, heavy and\nsorrowful to suffer such pains, sith by God's grace thou shalt\nescape endless pains with Christ Jesu without any doubt, and be\ncomforted endlessly, if thou bear these pains patiently. Whether\nhast thou chosen to serve our Lord only for the comfort that thou\nmayst have of Him in this life? Nay, but for the comfort that thou\nshalt have of Him in the bliss of heaven. Therefore arise up now,\nand cease never of thy ghostly exercise that thou hast used, but\nrather increase to them more.\"\n\nHere is an answer by the which she had a final victory of the fiend,\nafter long threats of intolerable pains:\n\n\"I have chosen pain for my refreshing, and therefore it is not hard\nto me to suffer them, but rather delectable for the love of my\nSaviour, as long as it pleaseth His Majesty that I shall suffer\nthem.\"\n\nHere is a doctrine of the said virgin, how we should use the grace\nof our Lord:\n\n\"Who so could use the grace of our Lord, he should ever have the\nvictory of all things that falleth to him. For as often,\" she said,\n\"as any new thing falleth to a man, be it of prosperity or\nadversity, he should think in himself thus: Of this will I win\nsomewhat. For he that can do so, shall soon be rich in virtue.\"\n\nHere followeth notable doctrines of this holy maid, taken of her\nsermon which she made to her disciples before her passing, and the\nfirst was this:\n\n\"What so ever he be that cometh to the service of God, if he will\nhave God truly, it is needful to him that he make his heart naked\nfrom all sensible love, not only of certain persons but of every\ncreature what that ever he be, and then he should stretch up his\nsoul to our Lord and our Maker, simply, with all the desire of his\nheart. For an heart may not wholly be given to God, but if it be\nfree from all other love, open and simple without doubleness.\" And\nso she affirmed of herself, that it was her principal labour and\nbusiness from her young age unto that time, ever for to come to that\nperfection. Also she said that she knew well that to such a state of\nperfection, in the which all the heart is given to God, a soul may\nnot come perfectly without meditation of devout prayer, and that the\nprayer be grounded in meekness, and that it come not forth and\nproceed by any trust of any manner of virtue of him that prayeth,\nbut alway he should know himself to be right nought. For she said\nthat that was ever her business, to give herself to the exercise of\nprayer, so for to win the continual habit of prayer; for she did see\nwell that by prayer all virtues are increased, and made mighty and\nstrong; and, without prayer, they wax feeble and defail.[132]\nWherefore she induced her disciples that they should busy them to\nprayer perseverauntly; and therefore she told them of two manner of\nprayers:[133] Vocal and Mental. Vocal prayers, she said, should be\nkept certain hours in the night and in the day ordained by holy\nChurch; but mental prayer should ever be had, in act or in habit of\nthe soul. Also she said that, by the light of quick faith, she saw\nclearly and conceived in her soul that what that ever befell to her,\nor to any others, all cometh from God, not for hate but for great\nlove that He hath to His creatures; and by[134] this quick faith she\nconceived in herself a love and a readiness to obey as well to the\nprecepts of her sovereigns,[135] as to the commandments of God, ever\nthinking that their precepts should come from God, either for need\nof herself, or else for increase of virtue in her soul. Also she\nsaid, for to get and purchase purity of soul, it were right\nnecessary that a man kept himself from all manner of judgments of\nhis [neighbour, and from all idle speaking of his][136] neighbour's\ndeeds; for in every creature we should behold only the will of God.\nAnd therefore she said that in no wise men should deem[137]\ncreatures; that is, neither despise them by their doom[138] nor\ncondemn them, all be it that they see them do open sin before them;\nbut rather they should have compassion on them and pray for them,\nand despise them not, nor condemn them. Also she said that she had\ngreat hope and trust in God's providence; for, she said, she knew\nwell[139] by experience that the Divine providence was and is a\npassing great thing, for it wanteth never to them that hopeth in it.\n\nDEO GRATIS\n\n\n\n\nIII.\n\nHERE BEGINNETH A SHORT TREATISE OF CONTEMPLATION TAUGHT BY OUR LORD\nJESU CHRIST, OR TAKEN OUT OF THE BOOK OF MARGERY KEMPE, ANCRESS OF\nLYNN\n\n\nSHE desired many times that her head might be smitten off with an\naxe upon a block for the love of our Lord Jesu. Then said our Lord\nJesu in her mind: \"I thank thee, daughter, that thou wouldest die\nfor My love; for as often as thou thinkest so, thou shalt have the\nsame meed in heaven, as if thou suffredest the same death, and yet\nthere shall no man slay thee.\n\n\"I assure thee in thy mind, if it were possible for Me to suffer\npain again, as I have done before, Me were lever to suffer as much\npain as ever I did for thy soul alone, rather than thou shouldest\ndepart from Me everlastingly.\n\n\"Daughter, thou mayst no better please God, than to think\ncontinually in His love.\"\n\nThen she asked our Lord Jesu Christ, how she should best love Him.\nAnd our Lord said: \"Have mind of thy wickedness, and think on My\ngoodness.\n\n\"Daughter, if thou wear the habergeon or the hair,[140] fasting\nbread and water, and if thou saidest every day a thousand Pater\nNosters, thou shalt[141] not please Me so well as thou dost when\nthou art in silence, and suffrest Me to speak in thy soul.\n\n\"Daughter, for to bid many beads, it is good to them that can not\nbetter do, and yet it is not perfect.[142] But it is a good way\ntoward perfection. For I tell thee, daughter, they that be great\nfasters, and great doers of penance, they would that it should be\nholden the best life.[143] And they that give them unto many\ndevotions, they would have that the best life. And those that give\nmuch almesse, they would that it were holden the best life. And I\nhave often told thee, daughter, that thinking, weeping, and high\ncontemplation is the best life in earth, and thou shalt have more\nmerit in heaven for one year thinking in thy mind than for an\nhundred year of praying with thy mouth; and yet thou wilt not\nbelieve Me, for thou wilt bid many beads.[144]\n\n\"Daughter, if thou knew how sweet thy love is to Me, thou wouldest\nnever do other thing but love Me with all thine heart.\n\n\"Daughter, if thou wilt be high with Me in heaven, keep Me alway in\nthy mind as much as thou mayst, and forget not Me at thy meat; but\nthink alway that I sit in thine heart and know every thought that is\ntherein, both good and bad.\n\n\"Daughter, I have suffered many pains for thy love; therefore thou\nhast great cause to love Me right well, for I have bought thy love\nfull dear.\"\n\n\"Dear Lord,\" she said, \"I pray Thee, let me never have other joy in\nearth, but mourning and weeping for Thy love; for me thinketh, Lord,\nthough I were in hell, if I might weep there and mourn for Thy love\nas I do here, hell should not noye[145] me, but it should be a\nmanner of heaven. For Thy love putteth away all manner of dread of\nour ghostly enemy; for I had lever be there, as long as Thou\nwouldest, and please Thee, than to be in this world and displease\nThee; therefore, good Lord, as Thou wilt, so may[146] it be.\"\n\nShe had great wonder that our Lord would become man, and suffer so\ngrievous pains, for her that was so unkind a creature to Him. And\nthen, with great weeping, she asked our Lord Jesu how she might best\nplease Him; and He answered to her soul, saying: \"Daughter, have\nmind of thy wickedness, and think on My goodness.\" Then she prayed\nmany times and often these words: \"Lord, for Thy great goodness,\nhave mercy on my great wickedness, as certainly as I was never so\nwicked as Thou art good, nor never may be though I would; for Thou\nart so good, that Thou mayst no better be; and, therefore, it is\ngreat wonder that ever any man should be departed from Thee without\nend.\"\n\nWhen she saw the Crucifix, or if she saw a man had a wound, or a\nbeast, or if a man beat a child before her, or smote a horse or\nanother beast with a whip, if she might see it or hear it, she\nthought she saw our Lord beaten or wounded, like as she saw in the\nman or in the beast.\n\nThe more she increased in love and in devotion, the more she\nincreased in sorrow and contrition, in lowliness[147] and meekness,\nand in holy dread of our Lord Jesu, and in knowledge of her own\nfrailty. So that if she saw any creature be punished or sharply\nchastised, she would think that she had been more worthy to be\nchastised than that creature was, for her unkindness against God.\nThen would she weep for her own sin, and for compassion of that\ncreature.\n\nOur Lord said to her: \"In nothing that thou dost or sayest,\ndaughter, thou mayst no better please God than believe that He\nloveth thee. For, if it were possible that I might weep with thee, I\nwould weep with thee for the compassion that I have of thee.\"\n\nOur merciful Lord Jesu Christ drew this creature unto His love, and\nto the mind of His passion, that she might not endure to behold a\nleper, or another sick man, specially if he had any wounds appearing\non him. So she wept as if she had seen our Lord Jesu with His wounds\nbleeding; and so she did, in the sight of the soul; for, through the\nbeholding of the sick man, her mind was all ravished in to our Lord\nJesu, that she had great mourning and sorrowing that she might not\nkiss the leper when she met them in the way, for the love of our\nLord: which was all contrary to her disposition in the years of her\nyouth and prosperity, for then she abhorred them most.\n\nOur Lord said: \"Daughter, thou hast desired in thy mind to have many\npriests in the town of Lynn, that might sing and read night and day\nfor to serve Me, worship Me, and praise Me, and thank Me for the\ngoodness that I have done to thee in earth; and therefore, daughter,\nI promise thee that thou shalt have meed and reward in heaven for\nthe good wills and good desires, as if thou haddest done them in\ndeed.\n\n\"Daughter, thou shalt have as great meed and as great reward with Me\nin heaven, for thy good service and thy good deeds that thou hast\ndone in thy mind, as if thou haddest done the same with thy bodily\nwits withoutforth.[148]\n\n\"And, daughter, I thank thee for the charity that thou hast to all\nlecherous men and women; for thou prayest for them and weepest for\nthem many a tear, desiring that I should deliver them out of sin,\nand be as gracious to them as I was to Mary Magdalene, that they\nmight have as much grace to love Me as Mary Magdalene had; and with\nthis condition thou wouldest that everich[149] of them should have\ntwenty pounds a year to love and praise Me; and, daughter, this\ngreat charity which thou hast to them in thy prayer pleaseth Me\nright well. And, daughter, also I thank thee for the charity which\nthou hast in thy prayer, when thou prayest for all Jews and\nSaracens, and all heathen people that they should come to Christian\nfaith, that My name might be magnified in them. Furthermore,\ndaughter, I thank thee for the general charity that thou hast to all\npeople that be now in this world, and to all those that are to come\nunto the world's end; that thou wouldest be hacked as small as flesh\nto the pot for their love, so that I would by thy death save them\nall from damnation, if it pleased Me. And, therefore, daughter, for\nall these good wills and desires, thou shalt have full meed and\nreward in heaven, believe it right well and doubt never a deal.\"\n\nShe said: \"Good Lord, I would be laid naked upon an hurdle for Thy\nlove, all men to wonder on me and to cast filth and dirt on me, and\nbe drawen from town to town every day my life time, if Thou were\npleased thereby, and no man's soul hindered. Thy will be fulfilled\nand not mine.\"\n\n\"Daughter,\" He said, \"as oftentimes as thou sayest or thinkest:\nWorshipped be all the holy places in Jerusalem, where Christ\nsuffered bitter pain and passion in: thou shalt have the same pardon\nas if thou were there with thy bodily presence, both to thyself and\nto all those that thou wilt give to.[150]\n\n\"The same pardon that was granted thee aforetime, it was confirmed\non Saint Nicholas day, that is to say, playne[151] remission; and it\nis not only granted to thee, but also to all those that believe, and\nto all those that shall believe unto the world's end, that God\nloveth thee, and shall thank God for thee. If they will forsake\ntheir sin, and be in full will no more to turn again thereto, but be\nsorry and heavy for that they have done, and will do due penance\ntherefore, they shall have the same pardon that is granted to\nthyself; and that is all the pardon that is in Jerusalem,[152] as\nwas granted thee when thou were at Rafnys.\"[153]\n\nThat day that she suffered no tribulation for our Lord's sake, she\nwas not merry nor glad, as that day when she suffered tribulation.\n\nOur Lord Jesus said unto her: \"Patience is more worth than miracles\ndoing. Daughter, it is more pleasure to Me that thou suffer\ndespites, scorns, shames, reproofs, wrongs, and diseases, than if\nthine head were stricken off three times a day every day in seven\nyear.\"\n\n\"Lord,\" she said, \"for Thy great pain have mercy on my little pain.\"\n\nWhen she was in great trouble, our Lord said: \"Daughter, I must\nneeds comfort thee, for now thou hast the right way to heaven. By\nthis way came I and all My disciples; for now thou shalt know the\nbetter what sorrow and shame I suffered for thy love, and thou shalt\nhave the more compassion when thou thinkest on My passion.\"\n\n\"O my dear worthy Lord,\" said she, \"these graces Thou shouldest shew\nto religious men and to priests.\"\n\nOur Lord said to her again: \"Nay, nay, daughter, for that I love\nbest that they love not, and that is shames, reproofs, scorns, and\ndespites of the people; and therefore they shall not have this\ngrace; for, daughter, he that dreadeth the shames of this world may\nnot perfectly love God.\"\n\nHere endeth a short treatise of a devout ancress called Margery\nKempe of Lynn\n\n\n\n\nIV.\n\nHERE FOLLOWETH A DEVOUT TREATISE COMPILED BY MASTER WALTER HYLTON OF\nTHE SONG OF ANGELS\n\n\nDEAR brother in Christ, I have understanding by thine own speech,\nand also by telling of another man, that thou yearnest and desirest\ngreatly for to have more knowledge and understanding than thou hast\nof angel's song and heavenly sound; what it is, and on what wise it\nis perceived and felt in a man's soul, and how a man may be siker\nthat it is true and not feigned; and how it is made by the presence\nof the good angel, and not by the inputting of the evil angel. These\nthings thou wouldest wete of me; but, soothly, I cannot tell thee\nfor a surety the soothfastness of this matter; nevertheless\nsomewhat, as me thinketh, I shall shew thee in a short word.\n\nWete thou well that the end and the sovereignty of perfection\nstandeth in very onehead[154] of God and of a man's soul by perfect\ncharity. This onehead, then, is verily made when the mights of the\nsoul are reformed by grace to the dignity and the state of the first\ncondition; that is, when the mind is stabled sadly,[155] without\nchanging and vagation,[156] in God and ghostly things, and when the\nreason is cleared from all worldly and fleshly beholdings, and from\nall bodily imaginations, figures, and fantasies of creatures, and is\nillumined by grace to behold God and ghostly things, and when the\nwill and the affection is purified and cleansed from all fleshly,\nkindly, and worldly love, and is inflamed with brenning love of the\nHoly Ghost. This wonderful onehead may not be fulfilled[157]\nperfectly, continually, and wholly in this life, for the corruption\nof the flesh, but only in the bliss of heaven. Nevertheless, the\nnearer that a soul in this present life may come to this onehead,\nthe more perfect it is. For the more that it is reformed by grace to\nthe image and the likeness of its Creator here on this wise; the\nmore joy and bliss shall it have in heaven. Our Lord God is an\nendless being without changing, almighty without failing, sovereign\nwisdom, light, soothness without error or darkness; sovereign\ngoodness, love, peace, and sweetness. Then the more that a soul is\nunited, fastened, conformed, and joined to our Lord, the more stable\nand mighty it is, the more wise and clear, good and peaceable,\nloving and more virtuous it is, and so it is more perfect. For a\nsoul that hath by the grace of Jesu, and long travail of bodily and\nghostly exercise, overcome and destroyed concupiscences, and\npassions, and unskilful stirrings[158] within itself, and without in\nthe sensuality, and is clothed all in virtues, as in meekness and\nmildness, in patience and softness, in ghostly strength and\nrighteousness, in continence, in wisdom, in truth, hope and charity;\nthen it is made perfect, as it may be in this life. Much comfort it\nreceiveth of our Lord, not only inwardly in its own privy\nsubstance,[159] by virtue of the onehead to our Lord that lieth in\nknowing and loving of God, in light and ghostly brenning of Him, in\ntransforming of the soul in to the Godhead; but also many other\ncomforts, savours, sweetnesses, and wonderful feelings on sere[160]\nor sundry manners, after that our Lord vouchethsafe to visit His\ncreatures here in earth, and after that the soul profiteth and\nwaxeth in charity. Some soul, by virtue of charity that God giveth\nit, is so cleansed, that all creatures, and all that he heareth, or\nseeth, or feeleth by any of his wits, turneth him to comfort and\ngladness; and the sensuality receiveth new savour and sweetness in\nall creatures.[161] And right as beforetime the likings in the\nsensuality were fleshly, vain, and vicious, for the pain of the\noriginal sin; right so now they are made ghostly and clean, without\nbitterness and biting of conscience. And this is the goodness of our\nLord, that sith the soul is punished in the sensuality, and the\nflesh is partner of the pain, that afterward the soul be comforted\nin the sensuality, and the flesh be fellow of joy and comfort with\nthe soul, not fleshly, but ghostly, as he was fellow in tribulation\nand pain. This is the freedom and the lordship, the dignity, and the\nworship that a man[162] hath over all creatures, the which dignity\nhe may so recover by grace here, that every creature savour to him\nas it is. And that is, when by grace he seeth, he heareth, he\nfeeleth only God in all creatures. On this manner of wise a soul is\nmade ghostly in the sensuality by abundance of charity, that is, in\nthe substance of the soul. Also, our Lord comforteth a soul by\nangel's song. What that song is, it may not be described by no\nbodily likeness, for it is ghostly, and above all manner of\nimagination and reason. It may be felt and perceived in a soul, but\nit may not be shewed. Nevertheless, I shall speak thereof to thee as\nme thinketh. When a soul is purified by the love of God, illumined\nby wisdom, stabled by the might of God, then is the eye of the soul\nopened to behold ghostly things, as virtues and angels and holy\nsouls, and heavenly things.[163] Then is the soul able because of\ncleanness to feel the touching, the speaking of good angels. This\ntouching and speaking, it is ghostly and not bodily.[164] For when\nthe soul is lifted and ravished out of the sensuality, and out of\nmind of any earthly things, then in great fervour of love and light\n(if our Lord vouchsafe) the soul may hear and feel heavenly sound,\nmade by the presence of angels in loving of God. Not that this song\nof angels is the sovereign joy of the soul; but for the difference\nthat is between a man's soul in flesh and an angel, because of\nuncleanness, a soul may not hear it, but by ravishing in love, and\nneedeth for to be purified well clean, and fulfilled of much\ncharity, or[165] it were able for to hear heavenly sound. For the\nsovereign and the essential joy is in the love of God by Himself and\nfor Himself, and the secondary is in communing and beholding of\nangels and ghostly creatures. For right as a soul, in understanding\nof ghostly things, is often times touched and moved through bodily\nimagination by working of angels; as Ezekiel the prophet did see in\nbodily imagination the soothfastness of God's privities;[166] right\nso, in the love of God, a soul by the presence of angels is ravished\nout of mind of all earthly and fleshly things in to an heavenly joy,\nto hear angel's song and heavenly sound, after that the charity is\nmore or less.[167] Now, then, me thinketh that there may no soul\nfeel verily angel's song nor heavenly sound, but he be in perfect\ncharity; though all that are in perfect charity have not felt it,\nbut only that soul that is so purified in the fire of love that all\nearthly savour is brent out of it, and all mean letting[168] between\nthe soul and the cleanness of angels is broken and put away from it.\nThen soothly may he sing a new song, and soothly he may hear a\nblessed heavenly sound, and angel's song without deceit or feigning.\nOur Lord woteth there that soul is that, for abundance of brenning\nlove, is worthy to hear angel's song. Who so then will hear angel's\nsong, and not be deceived by feigning of himself, nor by\nimagination, nor by the illusion of the enemy, him behoveth for to\nhave perfect charity; and that is when all vain love and dread, vain\njoy and sorrow, is cast out of the heart, so that it love nothing\nbut God, nor dread nothing but God, nor joyeth, nor sorroweth\nnothing but in God, or for God. Who so might by the grace of God go\nthis way, he should not err. Nevertheless, some men are deceived by\ntheir own imagination, or by the illusion of the enemy in this\nmanner.[169] Some man, when he hath long travailed bodily and\nghostily in destroying of sins and getting of virtues, and\nperadventure hath gotten by grace a somedeal[170] rest, and a\nclarity in conscience, anon he leaveth prayers, readings of holy\nscriptures, and meditations of the passion of Christ, and the mind\nof his wretchedness; and, or[171] he be called of God, he gathereth\nhis own visits by violence to seek and to behold heavenly things, or\nhis eye be made ghostly by grace, and overtravaileth by imaginations\nhis wits, and by indiscreet travailing turneth the brains in his\nhead, and forbreaketh[172] the mights and the wits of the soul and\nof the body. And then, for feebleness of the brain, him thinketh\nthat he heareth wonderful sounds and songs; and that is nothing else\nbut a fantasy, caused of troubling of the brain; as a man that is in\na frenzy him thinketh that he heareth and seeth that none other man\ndoth; and all is but vanity and fantasies of the head, or else it is\nby working of the wicked enemy that feigneth such sounds in his\nhearing.\n\nFor if a man have any presumption in his fantasies and in his\nworkings, and thereby falleth in to indiscreet imagination, as it\nwere in a frenzy, and is not ordered nor ruled of grace, nor\ncomforted by ghostly strength, the devil entereth in, and by his\nfalse illuminations, and by his false sounds, and by his false\nsweetnesses, he deceiveth a man's soul.\n\nAnd of this false ground springeth errors, and heresies, false\nprophecies, presumptions, and false reasonings, blasphemings, and\nslanderings, and many other mischiefs. And, therefore, if thou see\nany man ghostly occupied fall in any of these sins and these\ndeceits, or in frenzies, wete thou well that he never heard nor felt\nangel's song nor heavenly sound. For, soothly, he that heareth\nverily angel's song, he is made so wise that he shall never err by\nfantasy, nor by indiscretion, nor by no slight[173] of working of\nthe devil.\n\nAlso, some men feel in their hearts as it were a ghostly sound, and\nsweet songs in divers manners; and this is commonly good, and\nsometime it may turn to deceit. This sound is felt on this wise.\nSome man setteth the thought of his heart only in the name of Jesu,\nand steadfastly holdeth it thereto, and in short time him thinketh\nthat that name turneth him to great comfort and sweetness, and him\nthinketh that the name soundeth in his heart delectably, as it were\na song; and the virtue of this liking is so mighty, that it draweth\nin all the wits of the soul thereto. Who so may feel this sound and\nthis sweetness verily in his heart, wete thou well that it is of\nGod,[174] and, as long as he is meek, he shall not be deceived. But\nthis is not angel's song; but it is a song of the soul by virtue of\nthe name and by touching of the good angel.[175] For when a soul\noffereth him to Jesu truly and meekly, putting all his trust and his\ndesire in Him, and busily keepeth Him in his mind, our Lord Jesu,\nwhen He will, pureth[176] the affection of the soul, and filleth it,\nand feedeth it with sweetness of Himself, and maketh His name in the\nfeeling of the soul[177] as honey, and as song, and as any thing\nthat is delectable; so that it liketh the soul evermore for to cry\nJesu, Jesu. And not only he hath comfort in this, but also in psalms\nand hymns, and anthems of holy Church, that the heart singeth them\nsweetly, devoutly, and freely, without any travail of the soul, or\nbitterness in the same time,[178] and notes that holy Church useth.\nThis is good, and of the gift of God, for the substance of this\nfeeling lies in the love of Jesu, which is fed and lightened[179] by\nsuch manner of songs. Nevertheless, in this manner of feeling, a\nsoul may be deceived by vain glory; not in that time that the\naffection singeth to Jesu, and loveth Jesu in sweetness of Him, but\nafterward, when it ceaseth and the heart keeleth[180] of the love of\nJesu, then entereth in vain glory. Also some man is deceived on this\nwise: he heareth well say that it is good to have Jesu in his mind,\nor any other good word of God; then he straineth his heart mightily\nto that name, and by a custom he hath it nearhand alway in his mind;\nand, nevertheless, he feeleth not thereby in his affection\nsweetness, nor light of knowing in his reason, but only a naked mind\nof God,[181] or of Jesu, or of Mary, or of any other good word. Here\nmay be deceit, not for it is evil for to have Jesu in mind on this\nwish but if he this feeling and this mind, that is only his own\nworking by custom, hold it a special visitation of our Lord,[182]\nand think it more than it is. For wete thou well that a naked mind\nor a naked imagination of Jesu, or of any ghostly thing, without\nsweetness of love in the affection, or without light of knowing in\nreason, it is but a blindness, and a way to deceit, if a man hold it\nin his own sight more than it is. Therefore I hold it siker[183]\nthat he be meek in his own feeling, and hold this mind in regard\nnought, till he may, by custom and using of this mind, feel the fire\nof love in his affection, and the light of knowing in his reason.\nLo, I have told thee in this matter a little, as me thinketh; not\naffirming that this sufficeth, nor that this is the soothfastness in\nthis matter. But if thou think it otherwise, or else any other man\nsavour by grace the contrary hereto, I leave this saying, and give\nstead to him; it sufficeth to me for to live in truth[184]\nprincipally, and not in feeling.\n\nEXPLICIT\n\n\n\n\nV.\n\nHERE AFTER FOLLOWETH A DEVOUT TREATISE CALLED THE EPISTLE OF PRAYER\n\n\nGHOSTLY friend in God, as touching thine asking of me, how thou\nshalt rule thine heart in the time of thy prayer, I answer unto thee\nthus feebly as I can. And I say that me thinketh that it should be\nfull speedful unto thee at the first beginning of thy prayer, what\nprayer so ever it be, long or short, for to make it full known unto\nthine heart, without any feigning, that thou shalt die at the end of\nthy prayer.[185] And wete thou well that this is no feigned thought\nthat I tell thee, and see why; for truly there is no man living in\nthis life that dare take upon him to say the contrary: that is to\nsay, that thou shalt live longer than thy prayer is in doing. And,\ntherefore, thou mayst think it safely, and I counsel thee to do it.\nFor, if thou do it, thou shalt see that, what for the general sight\nthat thou hast of thy wretchedness, and this special sight of the\nshortness of time of amendment, it shall bring in to thine heart a\nvery working of dread.\n\nAnd this working shalt thou feel[186] verily folden in thine heart,\nbut if it so be (the which God forbid) that thou flatter and\nfage[187] thy false fleshly blind heart with leasings[188] and\nfeigned behightings, that thou shalt longer live.[189] For though it\nmay be sooth in thee in deed that thou shalt live longer, yet it is\never in thee a false leasing for to think it before, and for to\nbehight[190] it to thine heart. For why, the soothfastness of this\nthing is only in God, and in thee is but a blind abiding of His\nwill, without certainty of one moment, the which is as little or\nless than a twinkling of an eye. And, therefore, if thou wilt pray\nwisely as the prophet biddeth when he saith in the psalm: Psallite\nsapienter;191 look that thou get thee in the beginning this very\nworking of dread. For, as the same prophet saith in another psalm:\nInitium sapientiae timor Domini;192 that is: \"The beginning of\nwisdom is the dread of our Lord God.\" But for that there is no full\nsikerness standing[193] upon dread only, for fear of sinking in to\nover much heaviness, therefore shalt thou knit to thy first thought\nthis other thought that followeth. Thou shalt think steadfastly that\nif thou may, through the grace of God, distinctly pronounce the\nwords of that prayer, and win to the end thereof, or if thou die\nbefore thou come to the end, so that thou do that in thee is, that\nthen it shall be accepted of thee unto God, as a full aseeth[194] of\nall thy recklessness from the beginning of thy life unto that\nmoment. I mean thus: standing that thou hast before time, after thy\nconning and thy conscience, lawfully amended thee after the common\nordinance of holy Church in confession; this short prayer, so little\nas it is, shall be accepted of thee unto God for thy full salvation,\nif thou then didst die, and to the great increase of thy perfection,\nif thou didst live longer. This is the goodness of God, the which,\nas the prophet saith, forsaketh none that truly trusteth in Him with\nwill of amendment;[195] and sith that all amendment standeth in\ntwo--that is, in leaving of evil and doing of good--means to get\nthese two are none readier than the ghostly working of these two\nthoughts touched before. For what reaveth from a soul[196] more\nreadily the affection of sinning, than doth a true working of dread\nof death? And what moveth a soul[197] more fervently to working of\ngood, than doth a certain hope in the mercy and the goodness of God,\nthe which is brought in by this second thought? For why, the ghostly\nfeeling of this second thought, when it is thus truly joined to the\nfirst, shall be to thee a sure staff of hope to hold thee by in all\nthy good doings. And by this staff thou mayst sikerly climb in to\nthe high mount of perfection, that is to say, to the perfect love of\nGod; though all this beginning be imperfect, as thou shalt hear\nafter. For, what for the general sight that thou hast of the mercy\nand of the goodness of God, and this special experience that thou\nfeelest of His mercy and His goodness in this acceptation of this\nlittle short service for so long recklessness, as it were in a full\naseeth of so much recklessness (as it is said before), it may not be\nbut that thou shalt feel a great stirring of love unto Him that is\nso good and so merciful unto thee--as the steps of thy staff, hope,\nplainly sheweth unto thee in the time of thy prayer, if thou do it\nduly as I have told thee before.[198] The ghostly experience of the\nproof of this working standeth all in a reverent affection that a\nman hath to God in the time of his prayer, caused of this dread in\nthe ground of this work, and of this stirring of love, the which is\nbrought in by the ghostly steps of this staff hope, touched before.\nFor why, reverence is nought else but dread and love medled together\nwith a staff of certain hope,\n\nMe thinketh that the proof of this working is devotion; for devotion\nis nought else, as saint Thomas the doctor saith, but a readiness of\nman's will to do those things that longeth to the service of\nGod.[199] Each man prove in himself, for he that doth God's service\nin this manner, he feeleth how ready that his will is thereto. Me\nthinketh that saint Bernard accordeth to this working, where he\nsaith that all things should be done swiftly and gladly. And see\nwhy: swiftly for dread, and gladly for hope, and lovely trust in His\nmercy. [And what more? Sikerly, I had lever have his meed that\nlasteth in such doing, though all he never did bodily penance in\nthis life, but only that that is enjoined to him of holy Church,\nthan of all the penance-doers that have been in this life from the\nbeginning of the world unto this day without this manner of doing. I\nsay not that the naked thinking of these two thoughts is so meedful;\nbut that reverent affection, to the which bringing in these two\nthoughts are sovereign means on man's party, that is it that is so\nmeedful as I say.[200]] And this is only it by itself, without any\nother manner of doing (as is fasting, waking, sharp wearing, and all\nthese other), the which only by itself pleaseth almighty God, and\ndeserveth to have meed of Him. And it were impossible any soul to\nhave meed of God without this, and all after the quantity of this\nshall stand the quantity of meed; for whoso hath much of this, much\nmeed shall he have, and whoso hath less of this, less meed shall he\nhave. And all these other things, as is fasting, waking, sharp\nwearing, and all these other, they are needful[201] in as much as\nthey are helply to get this, so that without this they are nought.\nAnd this without them is sometime sufficient at the full by itself,\nand it is often times full worthily had and come to of full many\nwithout any of the others. All this I say for that I would by this\nknowing that thou charged and commended each thing after that it is:\nthe more, \"the more,\" and the less, \"the less\"; for oft times\nunknowing is cause of much error. And oft times unknowing maketh men\nto charge more and commend more bodily exercise (as is fasting,\nwaking, sharp wearing, and all these others) than they do ghostly\nexercise in virtues or in this reverent affection touched before.\nAnd, therefore, in more declaration of the meed and the worthiness\nof this reverent affection, I shall say a little more than I yet\nhave said, so that, by such declaring, thou mayst be better learned\nin this working than thou yet art.\n\nAll this manner of working beforesaid of this reverent affection,\nwhen it is brought in by these two thoughts of dread and of hope\ncoming before, may well be likened to a tree that were full of\nfruit; of the which tree, dread is that party that is within in the\nearth, that is, the root. And hope is that party that is above the\nearth, that is, the body[202] with the boughs. In that that hope is\ncertain and stable, it is the body; in that it stirreth men to works\nof love, it is the boughs; but this reverent affection is evermore\nthe fruit, and then, evermore as long as the fruit is fastened to\nthe tree,[203] it hath in party a green smell of the tree; but when\nit hath been a certain time departed from the tree and is full ripe,\nthen it hath lost all the taste of the tree, and is king's meat\n[that was before but knave's meat].[204] In this time it is that\nthis reverent affection is so meedful as I said. And, therefore,\nshape thee for to depart this fruit from the tree, and for to offer\nit up by itself to the high King of heaven; and then shalt thou be\ncleped God's own child, loving Him with a chaste love for Himself,\nand not for His goods.[205] I mean thus: though all that the\ninnumerable good deeds, the which almighty God of His gracious\ngoodness hath shewed to each soul in this life, be sufficient causes\nat the full and more, to each soul to love Him for, with all his\nmind, with all his wit, and with all his will; yet if it might be,\nthat may no wise be, that a soul were as mighty, as worthy, and as\nwitty as all the saints and angels that are in heaven gathered in\none, and had never taken this worthiness of God,[206] or to whom\nthat God had never shewed kindness in this life; yet this soul,\nseeing the loveliness of God in Himself, and the abundance thereof,\nshould be ravished over his might for to love God, till the heart\nbrast; so lovely and so liking, so good and so glorious He is in\nHimself.\n\nO how wonderful a thing and how high a thing is the love of God for\nto speak of, of the which no man may speak perfectly to the\nunderstanding of the least party thereof, but by impossible\nensamples, and passing the understanding of man! And thus it is that\nI mean when I say loving Him with a chaste love for Himself, and not\nfor His goods;[207] not as if I said (though all I well said) much\nfor His goods, but without comparison more for Himself. For, if I\nshall more highly speak in declaring of my meaning of the perfection\nand of the meed of this reverent affection, I say that a soul\ntouched in affection by the sensible presence of Gods as He is in\nHimself, and in a perfect soul illumined in the reason, by the clear\nbeam of everlasting light, the which is God, for to see and for to\nfeel the loveliness[208] of God in Himself, hath for that time and\nfor that moment lost all the mind of any good deed or of any\nkindness that ever God did to him in this life--so that cause for to\nlove God for feeleth he or seeth he none in that time, other than is\nGod Himself. So that though all it may be said in speaking of the\ncommon perfection, that the great goodness and the great kindness\nthat God hath shewed to us in this life are high and worthy causes\nfor to love God for; yet having beholding to the point and the prick\nof perfection (to the which I purpose to draw thee in my meaning,\nand in the manner of this writing), a perfect lover of God, for\ndread of letting[209] of his perfection, seeketh now, that is to\nsay, in the point of perfection, none other cause for to love God\nfor, but God Himself; so that by this meaning I say, that chaste\nlove is to love God for Himself and not for His goods. And\ntherefore, following the rule of mine ensample, shape thee to depart\nthe fruit from the tree, and for to offer it up by itself unto the\nKing of heaven, that thy love be chaste; for evermore as long as\nthou offrest Him this fruit green and hanging on the tree, thou\nmayst well be likened to a woman that is not chaste, for she loveth\na man more for his goods than for himself. And see why that I liken\nthee thus; for it seemeth that dread of thy death and shortness of\ntime, with hope of forgiveness of all thy recklessness, maketh thee\nto be in God's service so reverent as thou art. And if it so be,\nsoothly then hath thy fruit a green smell of the tree; and though\nall it pleaseth God in party, nevertheless, yet it pleaseth Him not\nperfectly, and that is for thy love is not yet chaste.\n\nChaste love is that when thou askest of God neither releasing of\npain, nor increasing of meed, nor yet sweetness in His love in this\nlife; but if it be any certain time that thou covetest sweetness as\nfor a refreshing of thy ghostly mights, that they fail not in the\nway; but thou askest of God nought but Himself, and neither thou\nreckest nor lookest after whether thou shalt be in pain or in bliss,\nso that thou have Him that thou lovest--this is chaste love, this is\nperfect love.[210] And therefore shape thee for to depart the fruit\nfrom the tree; that is to say, this reverent affection from the\nthoughts of dread and of hope coming before; so that thou mayst\noffer it ripe and chaste unto God by itself, not caused of any thing\nbeneath Him, or medled with Him[211] (yea, though all it be the\nchief),[212] but only of Him, by Himself; and then it is so meedful\nas I say that it is. For it is plainly known without any doubt unto\nall those that are expert in the science of divinity and of God's\nlove, that as often as a man's affection is stirred unto God without\nmean (that is, without messenger of any thought in special causing\nthat stirring), as oft it deserveth everlasting life. And for that\nthat a soul that is thus disposed (that is to say, that offreth the\nfruit ripe, and departed from the tree) may innumerable times in one\nhour be raised in to God suddenly without mean, therefore more than\nI can say it deserveth, through the grace of God, the which is the\nchief worker, to be raised in to joy. And therefore shape thee for\nto offer the fruit ripe and departed from the tree. Nevertheless,\nthe fruit upon the tree, continually offered as man's frailty will\nsuffer, deserveth salvation; but the fruit ripe and departed from\nthe tree, suddenly offered unto God without mean, that is\nperfection. And here mayst thou see that the tree is good, though\nall that I bid thee depart the fruit therefrom, for more perfection;\nand therefore I set it in thy garden; for I would that thou should\ngather the fruit thereof, and keep it to thy Lord. And for that that\nI would that thou knew what manner of working it is that knitteth\nman's soul to God, and that maketh it one with Him in love and\naccordance of will,[213] after the word of saint Paul saying thus:\nQui adhaeret Duo unus spiritus est cum illo;214 that is to say: \"Who\nso draweth near to God,\" as it is by such a reverent affection\ntouched before, \"he is one spirit with God.\" That is, though all\nthat God and he be two and sere[215] in kind, nevertheless yet in\ngrace they are so knit together that they are but one in\nspirit;[216] and all this is for onehead of love and accordance of\nwill; and in this onehead is the marriage made between God and the\nsoul, the which shall never be broken, though all that the heat and\nthe fervour of this work cease for a time, but by a deadly sin.\n\nIn the ghostly feeling of this onehead may a loving soul both say\nand sing (if it list) this holy word that is written in the book of\nsongs in the Bible: Dilectus meus mihi et ego illi;217 that is: \"My\nloved unto me and I unto Him\"; understanden that God shall be\nknitted with the ghostly glue of grace on His party, and the lovely\nconsent in gladness of spirit on thy party.\n\nAnd therefore climb up by this tree, as I said in the beginning; and\nwhen thou comest to the fruit (that is, to the reverent affection,\nthe which ever will be in thee if thou think heartily the other two\nthoughts before, and fage[218] not thyself with no lie, as I said),\nthen shalt thou take good keep[219] of that working that is made in\nthy soul that time, and shape thee, in as much as thou mayst through\ngrace, for to meek thee under the height of thy God, so that thou\nmayst use thee in that working other times by itself, without any\nclimbing thereto by any thought. And, sikerly, this is it the which\nis so meedful as I said, and ever the longer that it is kept from\nthe tree (that is to say, from any thought), and ever the ofter that\nit is done suddenly, lustily, and likingly, without mean, the\nsweeter it smelleth, and the better it pleaseth the high King of\nheaven. And ever when thou feelest sweetness and comfort in thy\ndoing, then He breaketh this fruit and giveth thee part of thine own\npresent. And that that thou feelest is so hard, and so straitly\nstressing thine heart without comfort in the first beginning, that\nbemeaneth[220] that the greenness of the fruit hanging on the tree,\nor else newly pulled, setteth thy teeth on edge. Nevertheless yet it\nis speedful to thee. For it is no reason that thou eat the sweet\nkernel, but if thou crack first the hard shell and bite of the\nbitter bark.\n\nNevertheless, if it so be that thy teeth be weak (that is to say,\nthy ghostly mights), then it is my counsel that thou seek slights,\nfor better is list than lither strength.[221]\n\nAnother skill there is why that I set this tree in thy garden, for\nto climb up thereby. For though all it be so that God may do what He\nwill, yet, to mine understanding, it is impossible any man to attain\nto the perfection of this working without these two means, or else\nother two that are according to them coming before. And yet is the\nperfection of this work sudden, without any mean. And, therefore, I\nrede[222] thee that these be thine, not thine in propriety, for that\nis nought but sin,[223] but thine given graciously of God, and sent\nby me as a messenger though I be unworthy; for wete thou right well\nthat every thought that stirreth thee to the good,[224] whether it\ncome from within by thine angel messenger, or from without by any\nman messenger, it is but an instrument of grace given, sent and\nchosen of God Himself for to work within in thy soul. And this is\nthe skill why that I counsel thee to take these two thoughts before\nall others. For as man is a mingled thing of two substances, a\nbodily and a ghostly, so it needeth for to have two sere[225] means\nto come by to perfection;[226] sith it so is that both these\nsubstances shall be oned in undeadliness at the uprising in the last\nday; so that either substance be raised to perfection in this life,\nby a mean accordant thereto. And that is dread to bodily substance,\nand hope to the ghostly. And thus it is full seemly and according to\nbe, as me thinketh; for as there is nothing that so soon will ravish\nthe body from all affection of earthly things, as will a sensible\ndread of the death; so there is nothing that so soon nor so\nfervently will raise the affection of a sinner's soul, unto the love\nof God, as will a certain hope of forgiveness of all his\nrecklessness. And therefore have I ordained thy climbing by these\ntwo thoughts; but if it so be that thy good angel teach thee within\nthy ghostly conceit, or any other man, any other two that are more\naccording to thy disposition than thee thinketh these two be, thou\nmayst take them, and leave these safely without any blame.\nNevertheless to my conceit (till I wete more) me thinketh that these\nshould be full helply unto thee, and not much unaccording to thy\ndisposition, after that I feel in thee. And therefore, if thou think\nthat they do thee good, then thank God heartily, and for God's love\npray for me. Do then so, for I am a wretch, and thou wotest not how\nit standeth with me.\n\nNo more at this time, but God's blessing have thou and mine.\n\nRead often, and forget it not; set thee sharply to the proof; and\nflee all letting and occasion of letting, in the name of our Lord\nJesu Christ. AMEN.\n\nFINIS\n\n\n\n\nVI.\n\nHERE FOLLOWETH ALSO A VERY NECESSARY EPISTLE OF DISCRETION IN\nSTIRRINGS OF THE SOUL\n\n\nGHOSTLY friend in God, that same grace and joy that I will to\nmyself, will I to thee at God's will. Thou askest me counsel of\nsilence and of speaking, of common dieting and of singular fasting,\nof dwelling in company and only woning[227] by thyself. And thou\nsayest thou art in great were[228] what thou shalt do; for, as thou\nsayest, on the one party thou art greatly tarried with speaking,\nwith common eating, as other folk do, and with common woning in\ncompany. And, on the other party, thou dreadest to be straitly\nstill,[229] singular in fasting, and only in woning, for deeming of\nmore holiness in thee than thou hast,[230] and for many other\nperils; for oft times now these days they are deemed for most holy,\nand fall in to many perils, that most are in silence, in singular\nfasting, and in only woning. And sooth it is that they are most\nholy, if grace only be the cause of that silence, of that singular\nfasting, and of that only woning, the kind[231] but suffering and\nonly consenting; and if it be otherwise, then that is but peril on\nall sides, for it is full perilous to strain the kind to any such\nwork of devotion, as is silence or speaking, common dieting or\nsingular fasting, woning in company or in onliness.[232] I mean,\npassing the course and the common custom of kind and degree, but if\nit be led thereto by grace; and, namely, to such works the which in\nthemself are indifferent, that is to say, now good, and now evil,\nnow with thee, now against thee, now helping, and now letting. For\nit might befall that, if thou followed thy singular stirring,\nstraitly straining thee to silence, to singular fasting, or to only\nwoning, that thou shouldest oft times be still when time were to\nspeak, oft times fast when time were to eat, oft times be only when\ntime were to be in company. Or if thou give thee to speaking always\nwhen thee list, to common eating, or to companious woning,[233] then\nperadventure thou shouldest sometime speak when time[234] were to be\nstill, sometime eat when time were to fast, sometime be in company\nwhen time were to be only; and thus mightest thou lightly fall in to\nerror, in great confusion, not only of thine own soul but also of\nothers. And, therefore, in eschewing of such errors, thou askest of\nme (as I have perceived by thy letters) two things: the first is my\nconceit of thee, and thy stirring; and the other is my counsel in\nthis case, and in all such others when they come.\n\nAs to the first, I answer and I say that I dread full much in this\nmatter and such others to put forth my rude conceit, such as it is,\nfor two skills.[235] And one is this: I dare not lean to my conceit,\naffirming it for fast and true. The other is thine inward\ndisposition, and thine ableness that thou hast unto all these things\nthat thou speakest of in thy letter, which be not yet so fully known\nunto me, as it were speedful that they were, if I should give full\ncounsel in this case. For it is said of the Apostle: Nemo novit quae\nsunt hominis, nisi spiritus hominis qui in ipso est; \"No man knoweth\nwhich are the privy dispositions of man, but the spirit of the same\nman, the which is in himself\";[236] and, peradventure, thou knowest\nnot yet thine own inward disposition thyself, so fully as thou shalt\ndo hereafter, when God will let thee feel it by the proof, among\nmany failings and risings. For I knew never yet no sinner that might\ncome to the perfect knowing of himself and of his inward\ndisposition, but if he were learned of it before in the school of\nGod, by experience of many temptations, and by many failings and\nrisings; for right as among the waves and the floods and the storms\nof the sea, on the one party, and the peaceable wind and the calms\nand the soft weathers of the air on the other party, the sely[237]\nship at the last attains to the land and the haven; right so, among\nthe diversity of temptations and tribulations that falleth to a soul\nin this ebbing and flowing life (the which are ensampled by the\nstorms and the floods of the sea) on the one party, and among the\ngrace and the goodness of the Holy Ghost, the manyfold visitation,\nsweetness and comfort of spirit (the which are ensampled by the\npeaceable wind and the soft weathers of the air) on the other party,\nthe sely soul, at the likeness of a ship, attaineth at the last to\nthe land of stableness, and to the haven of health; the which is the\nclear and the soothfast knowing of himself, and of all his inward\ndispositions, through the which knowing he sitteth quietly in\nhimself, as a king crowned in his royalme, mightily, wisely, and\ngoodly governing himself and all his thoughts and stirrings, both in\nbody and in soul. Of such a man it is that the wise man saith thus:\nBeatus vir qui suffert tentationem, quoniam cum probatus fuerit,\naccipiet coronam vitae, quam repromisit Deus diligentibus se: \"He is\na blissful man that sufferingly beareth temptation; for, from he\nhave been proved, he shall take the crown of life, the which God\nhath hight to all those that love Him.\"[238] The crown of life may\nbe said on two manners. One for ghostly wisdom, for full discretion,\nand for perfection of virtue: these three knitted together may be\ncleped[239] a crown of life, the which by grace may be come to here\nin this life. On another manner the crown of life may be said, that\nit is the endless joy that each true soul shall have, after this\nlife, in the bliss of heaven, and, sikerly, neither of these two\ncrowns may a man take, but if he before have been well proved in\nsuffering of noye[240] and of temptation, as this text saith:\nQuoniam cum probatus fuerit, accipiet coronam vitae; that is: \"From\nthat he have been proved, then shall he take the crown of\nlife\";[241] as who saith (according to mine understanding touched\nbefore): But if a sinner have been proved before in divers\ntemptations, now rising, now falling, falling by frailty, rising by\ngrace, he shall never else take of God in this life ghostly wisdom\nin clear knowing of himself and of his inward dispositions, nor full\ndiscretion in counselling and teaching of others, nor yet the third,\nthe which is the perfection of virtue in loving of his God and of\nhis brethren. All these three--wisdom, discretion, and perfection of\nvirtue-are but one, and they may be cleped the crown of life.\n\nIn a crown are three things: gold is the first; precious stones are\nthe second; and the turrets of the flower-de-luce, raised up above\nthe head, those are the third. By gold, wisdom; by the precious\nstones, discretion; and by the turrets of the flower-de-luce I\nunderstand the perfection of virtue. Gold environeth the head, and\nby wisdom we govern our ghostly work on every side; precious stones\ngiveth light in beholding of men, and by discretion we teach and\ncounsel our brethren; the turrets of the flower-de-luce giveth two\nside branches spreading one to the right side and another to the\nleft, and one even up above the head, and by perfection of virtues\n(the which is charity) we give two side branches of love, the which\nare spreading, one to the right side to our friends, and one to the\nleft side to our enemies, and one even up unto God, above man's\nunderstanding, the which is the head of the soul. This is the crown\nof life the which by grace may be gotten here in this life; and,\ntherefore, bear thee low in thy battle, and suffer meekly thy\ntemptations till thou have been proved. For then shalt thou take\neither the one crown, or the other, or both, this here, and the\nother there; for who so hath this here, he may be full siker of the\nother there; and full many there are that are full graciously proved\nhere, and yet come never to this that may be had here in this life.\nThe which (if they meekly continue and patiently abide the will of\nour Lord) shall full worthily and abundantly receive the other\nthere, in the high bliss of heaven. Thee thinketh this crown fair\nthat may be had here; yea, bear thee as meekly as thou mayst by\ngrace, for in comparison of the other there, it is but as one noble\nto a world full of gold. All this I say to give thee comfort and\nevidence of strength in thy ghostly battle, the which thou hast\ntaken on hand in the trust of our Lord, and all this I say to let\nthee see how far thou art yet from the true knowing of thine inward\ndisposition, and thereafter to give thee warning, not over soon to\ngive stead[242] nor to follow the singular stirrings of thy young\nheart, for dread of deceit.\n\nAll this I say for to show unto thee my conceit that I have of thee\nand of thy stirrings, as thou hast asked of me; for I conceive of\nthee that thou art full able and full greatly disposed to such\nsudden stirrings of singular doings,[243] and full fast to cleave\nunto them when they be received; and that is full perilous. I say\nnot that this ableness and this greedy disposition in thee, or in\nany other that is disposed as thou art, though all it be perilous,\nthat it is therefore evil in itself; nay, so say I not, God forbid\nthat thou take it so; but I say that it is full good in itself, and\na full great ableness to full great perfection, yea, and to the\ngreatest perfection that may be in this life; I mean, if that a soul\nthat is so disposed will busily, night and day, meek it[244] to God\nand to good counsel, and strongly rise and martyr itself, with\ncasting down of the own wit and the own will in all such sudden and\nsingular stirrings, and say sharply that it will not follow such\nstirrings, seem they never so liking,[245] so high nor so holy, but\nif it have thereto the witness[246] and the consents of some ghostly\nteachers--I mean such as have been of long time expert in singular\nliving. Such a soul, for ghostly continuance thus in this meekness,\nmay deserve, through grace and the experience of this ghostly battle\nthus with itself, for to take the crown of life touched before. And\nas great an ableness to good as is this manner of disposition in a\nsoul that is thus meeked as I say, as perilous it is in another\nsoul, such one that will suddenly, without advisement of counsel,\nfollow the stirrings of the greedy heart, by the own wit and the own\nwill; and therefore, for God's love, beware with this ableness and\nwith this manner of disposition (that I speak of), if it be in thee\nas I say. And meek thee continually to prayer and to counsel. Break\ndown thine own wit and thy will in all such sudden and singular\nstirrings, and follow them not over lightly, till thou wete whence\nthey come, and whether they be according for thee or not.\n\nAnd as touching these stirrings of the which thou askest my conceit\nand my counsel, I say to thee that I conceive of them suspiciously,\nthat is, that[247] they should be conceived on the ape's manner. Men\nsay commonly that the ape doth as he seeth others do; forgive me if\nI err in my suspicion, I pray thee. Nevertheless, the love that I\nhave to thy soul stirreth me by evidence that I have of a ghostly\nbrother of thine and of mine, touched with those same stirrings of\nfull great[248] silence, of full singular fasting, and of full only\nwoning, on ape's manner, as he granted unto me after long communing\nwith me, and when he had proved himself and his stirrings. For, as\nhe said, he had seen a man in your country, the which man, as it is\nwell known, is evermore in great silence, in singular fasting, and\nin only dwelling; and certes, as I suppose fully, they are full true\nstirrings those that that man hath, caused all only of grace, that\nhe feeleth by experience within, and not of any sight or heard say\nthat he hath of any other man's silence without-the which cause if\nit were, it should be cleped apely, as I say in my simple meaning.\nAnd therefore beware, and prove well thy stirrings, and whence they\ncome; for how so thou art stirred, whether from within by grace, or\nfrom without on ape's manner, God wote, and I not. Nevertheless this\nmay I say thee in eschewing of perils like unto this: look that thou\nbe no ape, that is to say, look that thy stirrings to silence or to\nspeaking, to fasting or to eating, to onliness or to company,\nwhether they be come from within of abundance of love and of\ndevotion in the spirit and not from without by the windows of thy\nbodily wits, as thine ears, and thine eyes. For, as Jeremiah saith\nplainly, by such windows cometh in death: Mors intrat per\nfenestras.249 And this sufficeth, as little as it is, for answer to\nthe first, where thou askest of me, what is my conceit of thee, and\nof these stirrings that thou speakest of to me in thy letter.\n\nAnd touching the second thing, where thou askest of me my counsel in\nthis case, and in such other when they fall, I beseech almighty Jesu\n(as He is cleped the angel of great counsel) that He of His mercy be\nthy counsellor and thy comforter in all thy noye and thy nede, and\norder me with His wisdom to fulfil in party by my teaching, so\nsimple as it is, the trust of thine heart, the which thou hast unto\nme before many others--a simple lewd[250] wretch as I am, unworthy\nto teach thee or any other, for littleness of grace and for lacking\nof conning. Nevertheless, though I be lewd, yet shall I somewhat\nsay, answering to thy desire at my simple conning, with a trust in\nGod that His grace shall be learner and leader when conning of kind\nand of clergy defaileth.[251] Thou wotest right well thyself that\nsilence in itself nor speaking, also singular fasting nor common\ndieting, onliness nor company, all these nor yet any of them be not\nthe true end of our desire; but to some men (and not to all) they\nare means helping to the end, if they be done lawfully and with\ndiscretion, and else are they more letting than furthering. And\ntherefore plainly[252] to speak, nor plainly to be still, plainly to\neat, nor plainly to fast, plainly to be in company, or plainly to be\nonly, think I not to counsel thee at this time; for why, perfection\nstandeth not in them. But this counsel may I give thee generally, to\nhold thee by in these stirrings, and in all other like unto these;\nevermore where thou findest two contraries, as are these--silence\nand speaking, fasting and eating, onliness and company, common\nclothing of Christian religion and singular habits of divers and\ndevised brotherhoods, with all such other what so they be, the which\nin themself are but works of kind[253] and of men. For thou hast it\nby kind and by statute of thine outer man now for to speak and now\nfor to be still, now for to eat and now for to fast, now for to be\nin company and now to be only, now to be common in clothing and now\nto be in singular habit, ever when thee list, and when thou\nseest[254] that any of them should be speedful and helply to thee in\nnourishing of the heavenly grace working within in thy soul; but if\nit be so (which God forbid), that thou or any other be so lewd and\nso blinded in the sorrowful temptations of the midday devil, that ye\nbind you by any crooked avow to any such singularities, as it were\nunder colour of holiness feigned under such an holy thraldom,[255]\nin full and final destroying of the freedom of Christ, the which is\nthe ghostly habit of the sovereign holiness that may be in this\nlife, or in the other, by the witness of saint Paul saying thus: Ubi\nspiritus Domini, ibi libertas: \"There where the spirit of God is,\nthere is freedom.\"[256] And thereto when thou seest that all such\nworks in their use may be both good and evil; I pray thee leave them\nboth, for that is the most ease for thee for to do, if thou wilt be\nmeek, and leave the curious beholding and seeking in thy wits to\nlook whether is better. But do thou thus: set the one on the one\nhand, and the other on the other, and choose thee a thing the which\nis hid between them; the which thing, when it is had, giveth thee\nleave in freedom of spirit to begin and to cease in holding any of\nthe others at thine own full list, without any blame.\n\nBut now thou askest me, what is that thing. I shall tell thee what I\nmean that it is: It is God; for whom thou shouldest be still, if\nthou shouldest be still; and for whom thou shouldest speak if thou\nshouldest speak; and for whom thou shouldest fast, if thou shouldest\nfast; and for whom thou shouldest eat, if thou shouldest eat; and\nfor whom thou shouldest be only, if thou shouldest be only; and for\nwhom thou shouldest be in company, if thou shouldest be in company.\nAnd so forth of all the remenant, what so they be. For silence is\nnot God, nor speaking is not God; fasting is not God, nor eating is\nnot God; onliness is not God, nor company is not God; nor yet any of\nall the other such two contraries. He is hid between them, and may\nnot be found by any work of thy soul, but all only by love of thine\nheart. He may not be known by reason, He may not be gotten by\nthought, nor concluded by understanding; but He may be loved and\nchosen with the true lovely will of thine heart.[257] Choose thee\nHim, and thou art silently speaking, and speakingly silent,\nfastingly eating, and eatingly fasting, and so forth of all the\nremenant. Such a lovely choosing of God, thus wisely lesinge[258]\nand seeking Him out with the true will of a clean heart, between all\nsuch two leaving them both, when they come and proffer them to be\nthe point and the prick of our ghostly beholding, is the worthiest\ntracing and seeking of God that may be gotten or learned in this\nlife. I mean for a soul that will be contemplative; yea, though all\nthat a soul that thus seeketh see nothing that may be conceived with\nthe ghostly eye of reason; for if God be thy love and thy meaning,\nthe choice and the point of thine heart, it sufficeth to thee in\nthis life (though all thou see never more of Him with the eyes of\nthy reason all thy life time). Such a blind shot with the sharp dart\nof longing love may never fail of the prick, the which is God, as\nHimself saith in the book of love, where He speaketh to a\nlanguishing soul and a loving, saying thus: Vulnerasti cor meum,\nsoror mea, amica mea, et sponsa mea, vulnerasti cor meum, in uno\noculorum tuorum: \"Thou hast wounded mine heart, my sister, my leman,\nand my spouse, thou hast wounded mine heart in one of thine\neyes.\"[259] Eyes of the soul they are two: Reason and Love. By\nreason we may trace how mighty, how wise, and how good He is in His\ncreatures, but not in Himself; but ever when reason defaileth, then\nlist, love, live and learn, to play,[260] for by love we may feel\nHim, find Him, and hit Him, even in Himself. It is a wonderful eye,\nthis love, for of a loving soul it is only said of our Lord: \"Thou\nhast wounded mine heart in one of thine eyes\"; that is to say, in\nlove that is blind to many things, and seeth but that one thing that\nit seeketh, and therefore it findeth and feeleth, hitteth and\nwoundeth the point and the prick that it shooteth at, well sooner\nthan it should if the sight were sundry in beholding of many things,\nas it is when the reason ransacketh and seeketh among all such\nsere[261] things as are these: silence and speaking, singular\nfasting and common eating, onliness or company, and all such other;\nto look whether is better.\n\nLet be this manner of doing, I pray thee, and let as thou wist not\nthat there were any such means (I mean ordained for to get God by);\nfor truly no more there is, if thou wilt be very contemplative and\nsoon sped of thy purpose. And, therefore, I pray thee and other like\nunto thee, with the Apostle saying thus: Videte vocationem vestram,\net in ea vocatione qua vocati estis state:262 \"See your calling,\nand, in that calling that ye be called, stand stiffly and abide in\nthe name of Jesu.\" Thy calling is to be very contemplative,\nensampled by Mary Magdalene. Do then as Mary did, set the point of\nthine heart upon one thing: Porro unum est necessarium: \"For one\nthing is necessary,\"[263] the which is God. Him wouldest thou have,\nHim seekest thou, Him list thee to love, Him list thee to feel,[264]\nHim list thee hold thee by, and neither by silence nor by speaking,\nby singular fasting nor by common eating, by onliness nor by\ncompanious woning, by hard wearing nor by easy; for sometime silence\nis good, but that same time speaking were better; and againward\nsometime speaking is good, but that same time silence were better;\nand so forth of all the remenant, as is fasting, eating, onliness,\nand company; for sometime the one is good, but the other is better,\nbut neither of them is at any time the best. And, therefore, let be\ngood all that is good, and better all that is better,[265] for both\nthey will defail and have an end; and choose thee the best with\nMary, thy mirror, that never will defail: Maria (inquit optimam)\noptimam partem elegit, quae non auferetur ab ea.266 The best is\nalmighty Jesu, and He said that Mary, in ensample of all\ncontemplatives, had chosen the best, the which should never be taken\nfrom her; and therefore, I pray thee, with Mary leave the good and\nthe better, and choose thee the best.\n\nLet them be, all such things as are these: silence and speaking,\nfasting and eating, onliness and company, and all such other, and\ntake no keep to them; thou wotest not what they mean, and, I pray\nthee, covet not to wit; and if thou shall at any time think or speak\nof them, think then and say that they are so high and so worthy\nthings of perfection, for to conne[267] speak, or for to conne be\nstill, for to conne fast, and for to conne eat, for to conne be\nonly, and to conne be in company, that it were but a folly and a\nfoul presumption to such a frail wretch as thou art, for to meddle\nthee of so great perfection. For why, for to speak, and for to be\nstill, for to eat, and for to fast, for to be only, and for to be in\ncompany, ever when we will, may we have by kind; but for to conne do\nall these, we may not but by grace. And, without doubt, such grace\nis never gotten by any mean of such strait silence, of such singular\nfasting, or of such only dwelling that thou speakest of, the which\nis caused from without by occasion of hearing and of seeing of any\nother man's such singular doings. But if ever this grace shall be\ngotten, it behoveth to be learned of God from within, unto whom thou\nhast listily leaned many a day before with all the love of thine\nheart, utterly voiding from thy ghostly beholding[268] all manner of\nsight of any thing beneath Him; though all that some of those things\nthat I bid thee thus void, should seem in the sight of some men a\nfull worthy mean to get God by. Yea, say what men say will, but do\nthou as I say thee, and let the proof witness. For to him that will\nbe soon sped of his purpose ghostly, it sufficeth to him for a mean,\nand him needeth no more, but the actual mind of good God only, with\na reverent stirring of lasting love; so that mean unto God gettest\nthou none but God. If thou keep whole thy stirring of love that thou\nmayst feel by grace in thine heart, and scatter not thy ghostly\nbeholding therefrom then that same that thou feelest shall well\nconne[269] tell thee when thou shalt speak and when thou shalt be\nstill, and it shall govern thee discreetly in all thy living without\nany error, and teach thee mistily[270] how thou shalt begin and\ncease in all such doing of kind with a great and sovereign\ndiscretion. For if thou mayst by grace keep it in custom and in\ncontinual working, then, if it be needful or speedful to thee for to\nspeak, for to commonly eat, or for to bide in company, or for to do\nany such other thing that longeth to the common true custom of\nChristian men, and of kind, it shall first stir thee full softly to\nspeak or to do that other common thing of kind, what so it be. And\nthen, if thou do it not, it shall strike as sore as a prick on thine\nheart and pain thee full sore, and let thee have no peace[271] but\nif thou do it. And, on the same manner, if thou be in speaking, or\nin any such other work that is common to the course of kind, if it\nbe needful and speedful to thee to be still, and for to set thee to\nthe contrary, as is onliness to company, fasting to eating, and all\nsuch other the which are works of singular holiness, it will stir\nthee to them; so that thus, by experience of such a blind stirring\nof love unto God, a contemplative soul cometh sooner to that grace\nof discretion for to conne speak, and for to conne be still, for to\nconne eat, and for to conne fast, for to conne be in company, and\nfor to conne be only,[272] and all such other, than by any such\nsingularities as thou speakest of, taken by the stirrings of man's\nown wit and his will within in himself, or yet by the ensample of\nany other man's doing without, what so it be. For why, such strained\ndoings under the stirrings of kind, without touching[273] of grace,\nis a passing pain without any profit; but if it be to them that are\nreligious, or that have them by enjoining of penance, where profit\nriseth only because of obedience, and not by any such straitness of\ndoing without; the which is painful to all that it proveth. But\nlovely and listily to will to love[274] God is great and passing\nease, true ghostly peace, and earnest of the endless rest. And,\ntherefore, speak when thee list, and leave when thee list, eat when\nthee list, and fast when thee list, be in company when thee list,\nand be by thyself when thee list, so that[275] God and grace be thy\nleader. Let fast who fast will, and be only who will, and let hold\nsilence who so will, but hold thee by God that doth beguile no man;\nfor silence and speaking, onliness and company, fasting and eating,\nall may beguile thee. And if thou hear of any man that speaketh, or\nof any that is still, of any that eateth or of any that fasteth, or\nof any that is in company or else by himself, think thou, and say,\nif thee list, that they conne do as they should do, but if the\ncontrary shew in apert.[276] But look that thou do not as they do (I\nmean for that they do so) on ape's manner; for neither thou canst,\nnor peradventure thou art not disposed as they are. And, therefore,\nleave to work after other men's dispositions and work after thine\nown, if thou mayst know what it is. And unto the time that thou\nmayst know what it is, work after those men's counsel that know\ntheir own disposition, but not after their disposition;[277] for\nsuch men should give counsel in such cases, and else none. And this\nsufficeth for an answer to all thy letter, as me thinketh; the grace\nof God be ever more with thee, in the name of Jesu. AMEN.\n\nFINIT EPISTOLA\n\n\n\n\nVII.\n\nHERE FOLLOWETH A DEVOUT TREATISE OF DISCERNING OF SPIRITS, VERY\nNECESSARY FOR GHOSTLY LIVERS\n\n\nFOR because that there be divers kinds of spirits, therefore it is\nneedful to us discreet knowing of them; sith it so is that we be\ntaught of the apostle saint John not to believe to all spirits.[278]\nFor it might seem to some that are but little in conning, and namely\nof ghostly things, that each thought that soundeth in man's heart\nshould be the speech of none other spirit but only of man's own\nspirit. And that it is not so, both belief and witness of holy\nscripture proveth apertly; for \"I shall hear,\" saith the prophet\nDavid, \"not what I speak myself, but what my Lord God speaketh in\nme\";[279] and another prophet saith, that an angel spake in\nhim.[280] And also we be taught in the psalm that the wicked spirits\nsendeth evil thoughts in to men; and over this, that there is a\nspirit of the flesh not good, the apostle Paul sheweth apertly,\nwhere he saith, that some men are full blown or inflate with the\nspirit of their flesh.[281] And also that there is the spirit of the\nworld, he declareth plainly, where he maketh joy in God, not only\nfor himself, but also for his disciples, that they had not taken\nthat spirit of the world, but that that is sent of God, the which is\nthe Holy Ghost.[282] And these two spirits of the flesh and also of\nthe world are, as it were, servants or sergeants of that cursed\nspirit, the foul fiend of hell; so that the spirit of wickedness is\nlord of the spirit of the flesh, and also of the spirit of the\nworld. And which of these three spirits that speaketh to our spirit,\nwe should not believe them. For why, they speak never but that anon,\nby their speaking, they lead to the loss both of body and of soul.\nAnd which spirit it is that speaketh to our spirit, the speech of\nthat same spirit that speaketh shall fully declare; for ever more\nthe spirit of the flesh speaketh soft things and easy to the body;\nthe spirit of the world vain things and covetise[283] of worship;\nand the spirit of malice of the fiend speaketh fell things and\nbitter.\n\nWherefore, as oft times as any thought smiteth on our hearts of\nmeat, of drink, and of sleep, of soft clothing, of lechery, and of\nall other such things the which longeth to the business of the\nflesh, and maketh our heart for to brenne[284] as it were in a\nlonging desire after all such things; be we full siker that it is\nthe spirit of the flesh that speaketh it. And therefore put we him\naway, in as much as we goodly may by grace, for he is our adversary.\nAs oft times as any thought smiteth on our hearts of vain joy of\nthis world, kindling in us a desire to be holden fair, and to be\nfavoured, to be holden of great kin and of great conning, to be\nholden wise and worthy, or else to have great degree and high office\nin this life--such thoughts and all other the which would make a man\nto seem high and worshipful, not only in the sight of others, but\nalso in the sight of himself--no doubt but it is the spirit of the\nworld that speaketh all these, a far more perilous enemy than is the\nspirit of the flesh, and with much more business he should be put\noff. And oft times it befalleth that these two servants and\nsergeants of the foul fiend, the spirit and prince of wrath[285] and\nof wickedness, are either by grace and by ghostly slight of a soul\nstiffly put down and trodden down under foot; or else, by\nquaintise[286] of their malicious master, the foul fiend of hell,\nthey are quaintly withdrawn, for he thinketh himself for to rise\nwith great malice and wrath, as a lion running felly to assail the\nsickness of our sely souls; and this befalleth as oft as the thought\nof our heart stirreth us, not to the lust of our flesh, nor yet to\nthe vain joy of this world, but it stirreth us to murmuring, to\ngrutching,[287] to grievance, and to bitterness of soul, to pain and\nto impatience, to wrath, to melancholy, and to evil will, to hate,\nto envy, and to all such sorrows. It maketh us to bear us heavily,\nif ought be done or said unto us, not so lovely, nor so wisely[288]\nas we would it were; it raiseth in us all evil suspicion, if ought\nbe shewed in sign, in countenance, in word, or in work, that might\nby any manner be turned to malice or to heaviness of heart; it\nmaketh us as fast[289] to take it to us.\n\nTo these thoughts, and to all such that would put us out of peace\nand restfulness of heart, we should none otherwise againstand,[290]\nbut as we would the self fiend of hell, and as much we should flee\ntherefrom as from the loss of our soul. No doubt but both the other\ntwo thoughts, of the spirit of the flesh and also of the spirit of\nthe world, work and travail in all that they can to the loss of our\nsoul, but most perilously the spirit of malice; for why, he is by\nhimself, but they not without him. For if a man's soul be never so\nclean of fleshly lust, and of vain joy of this world, and if it be\ndefouled with this spirit of malice, of wrath, and of wickedness,\nnot againstanding all the other cleanness before, yet it is losable.\nAnd if a soul be never so much defouled with the lust of the flesh,\nand vain joy of the world, and it may by grace keep it in peace and\nin restfulness of heart unto the even Christian,[291] though all it\nbe full hard for to do (lasting the custom of the other two),[292]\nyet it is less losable, not againstanding all the other filth of the\nflesh and of the world touched before. And, therefore, though all\nthat our lusty[293] thoughts of our flesh be evil, for they reave\nfrom the soul the life of devotion, and though all that the vain joy\nof the world be worse, for it reaveth us from the true joy that we\nshould have in contemplation of heavenly things, ministered and\ntaught to us by the angels of heaven. For who so lustily desireth to\nbe worshipped, favoured, and served of men here in earth, they\ndeserve to forego the worship, the favour, and service of angel in\nghostly contemplation of heaven and of heavenly things, all their\nlifetime; the which contemplation is better and more worthy in\nitself than is the lust and the liking of devotion. And for this\nbitterness I clepe the spirit of malice, of wrath, and of wickedness\nthe worst spirit of them all; and why? Certes, for it reaveth us the\nbest thing of all, and that is charity, the which is God. For who so\nlacketh peace and restfulness of heart, him lacketh the lively\npresence of the lovely sight of the high peace of heaven, good\ngracious God His own dear self. This witnesseth David in the psalm,\nwhere he saith, that the place of God is made in peace, and His\ndwelling place in Sion.[294] Sion is as much to say as the sight of\npeace; the sight of the soul is the thought of that same soul; and,\ncertes, in that soul that most is occupied in thoughts of peace hath\nGod made His dwelling place.[295] And thus saith Himself by the\nprophet, when he saith: \"Upon whom shall my spirit rest, but upon\nthe meek and the restful.\"[296] And, therefore, who so will have God\ncontinually dwelling in him, and live in love and in sight of the\nhigh peace of the Godhead, the which is the highest and the best\nparty of contemplation that may be had in this life, be he busy\nnight and day to put down, when they come, the spirit of the flesh\nand the spirit of the world, but most busily the spirit of malice,\nof wrath, and of wickedness, for he is the foulest and the worst\nfilth[297] of all. And it is full needful and speedful to know his\nquaintise, and not for to unknow his doleful deceits. For sometime\nhe will, that wicked cursed wight, change his likeness in to an\nangel of light, that he may under colour of virtue do more\ndere;[298] but yet then, if we look more redely,[299] it is but seed\nof bitterness and of discord that that he sheweth, seem it never so\nholy nor never so fair at the first shewing. Full many he stirreth\nunto singular holiness passing the common statute and custom of\ntheir degree, as is fasting, sharp wearing, and many other devout\nobservances and outward doings, in open reproving of other men's\ndefaults, the which they have not of office for to do. All such and\nmany other he stirreth them for to do, and all under colour of\ndevotion and of charity; not for he is delighted in any deed of\ndevotion and of charity, but for he loveth dissension and slander,\nthe which is evermore caused by such unseemly singularities; for\nwhere so ever that any one or two are in any devout congregation,\nthe which any one or two useth any such outward singularities, then\nin the sight of fools all the remenant are slandered by them; but,\nin the sight of the wise man, they slander themselves. But for\nbecause that fools are more than wise men, therefore for favour of\nfools such singular doers ween that they be wise, when (if it were\nwisely determined) they and all their fautors[300] should be seen\napert fools, and darts shot of the devil, to slay true simple souls\nunder colour of holiness and charity. And thus many deceits can the\nfiend bring in on this manner.\n\nWho so will not consent, but meeketh him truly to prayer and to\ncounsel, shall graciously be delivered of all these deceits.[301]\nBut it is sorrow for to say, and more for to feel, that\nsometime[302] our own spirit is so overcome peradventure with each\nof these three spirits, of the flesh, of the world, and of the\nfiend, and so brought into danger, bounden in bondage, in thraldom\nand in service of them all, that sorrow it is to wit. In great\nconfusion and loss of itself, it doth now the office of each one of\nthem itself in itself. And this befalleth when, after long use, and\ncustomable consenting unto them when they come, at the last it is\nmade so fleshly, so worldly, and so malicious, so wicked, and so\nfroward, that now plainly of itself, without suggestion of any other\nspirit, it gendereth and bringeth forth in itself, not only lusty\nthoughts of the flesh, and vain thoughts of the world, but that\nworst of all these, as are bitter thoughts and wicked, in backbiting\nand deeming, and evil suspicion of others. And when it is thus with\nour spirit, then, I trow, it may not lightly be known when it is our\nown spirit that speaketh, or when it heareth any of the other three\nspirits speaking in it as it is touched before. But what maketh it\nmatter[303] who speaketh, when it is all one and the same thing that\nis spoken? What helpeth to know the person of him that speaketh,\nwhen it is siker and certain that all is evil and perilous that is\nspoken? If it be thine enemy, consent not to him, but meek thee to\nprayer and to counsel, and so mayst thou mightily withstand thine\nenemy. If it be thine own spirit, reprove him bitterly, and\nsighingly sorrow that ever thou fell in[304] so great wretchedness,\nbondage, and thraldom of the devil. Shrive thee of thy customed\nconsents, and of thine old sins, and so mayst thou come (by grace)\nto recover thy freedom again; and by the gracious freedom mayst thou\nsoon come to, wisely for to know, and soothfastly for to feel by the\nproof, when it is thine own spirit that speaketh these evils, or it\nbe these other evil spirits that speaketh them in thee. And so may\nthis knowing be a sovereign mean and help of againstanding, for\noften times unknowing is cause of much error, and, againward,\nknowing is cause of much truth; and to this manner of knowing mayst\nthou win thus as I say to thee.\n\nIf thou be in doubt or in were[305] of these evil thoughts when they\ncome, whether that they be the speech of thine own spirit, or of any\nof the others of thine enemies; look then busily by the witness of\nthy counsel and thy conscience, if thou have been shriven and\nlawfully amended after the doom[306] of thy confessor, of all the\nconsents that ever thou consented to that kind of sin, that thy\nthought is aware of. And if thou have not been shriven shrive thee\nthen, as truly as thou mayst, by grace and by counsel; and then wete\nthou right well that all the thoughts that come to thee after thy\nshrift, stirring thee oft times to the same sins, they are the words\nof other spirits than thine own (I mean some of the three touched\nbefore). And thou for none such thoughts, be they never so thick, so\nfoul, nor so many (I mean for their first coming in), but if it be\nfor recklessness of againstanding,[307] art no blame worthy. And not\nonly releasing of purgatory that thou hast deserved for the same\nsins done before, what so they be, thou mayst deserve, if thou\nstiffly againstand them, but also much grace in this life, and much\nmeed in the bliss of heaven. But all those evil thoughts coming in\nto thee, stirring thee to any sin, after that thou hast consented to\nthat same sin, and before that thou hast sorrow for that consent,\nand art in will to be shriven thereof, it is no peril to thee to\ntake them to thyself,[308] and for to shrive thee of them, as of\nthoughts of thine own spirit; but for to take to thyself all other\nthoughts, the which thou hast by very proof, as it is shewed before,\nby the speeches of other spirits than of thyself, therein lieth\ngreat peril, for so mightest thou lightly misrule thy conscience,\ncharging a thing for sin the which is none; and this were great\nerror, and a mean to the greatest peril. For if it were so that each\nevil thought and stirring to sin were the work and the speech of\nnone other spirit, but only of man's own spirit; then it would\nfollow by that that a man's own spirit were a very fiend, the which\nis apertly false and a damnable woodness;[309] for though all it be\nso that a soul may, by frailty and custom of sinning, fall in to so\nmuch wretchedness, that it taketh on itself by bondage of sin the\noffice of the devil, stirring itself to sin ever more and more,\nwithout any suggestion of any other spirit (as it is said before),\nyet it is not therefore a devil in kind, but it is a devil in\noffice, and may be cleped devilish, for it is in the doing like to\nthe devil, [that is to say, a stirrer of itself unto sin, the which\nis the office of the devil].[310] Nevertheless yet, for all this\nthraldom to sin and devilishness in office, it may by grace of\ncontrition, of shrift, and of amending, recover the freedom again,\nand be made saveable--yea, and a full special God's saint in this\nlife, that before was full damnable and full cursed in the\nliving.[311] And, therefore, as great a peril as it is a soul that\nis fallen in sin, not for to charge his conscience therewith, nor\nfor to amend him thereof, as great a peril it is, and, if it may be\nsaid, a greater, a man for to charge his conscience with each\nthought and stirring of sin that will come in him; for, by such nice\ncharging of conscience, might he lightly run in to error of\nconscience, and so be led in to despair all his life time. And the\ncause of all this is lacking of knowing of discretion of spirits,\nthe which knowing may be gotten by very experience; who so redely\nwill look soon after that a soul have been truly cleansed by\nconfession as it is said before. For fast after confession a soul\nis, as it were, a clean paper leaf, for ableness that it hath to\nreceive what that men will write thereupon. Both they do press[312]\nfor to write on the soul, when it is clean in itself made by\nconfession: God and His angel on the one party, and the fiend and\nhis angel on the other party; but it is in the free choice of the\nsoul to receive which that it will. The receipt of the soul is the\nconsent of the same soul. A new thought and a stirring to any sin,\nthe which thou hast forsaken before in thy shrift, what is it else\nbut the speech of one of the three spirits the which are thine\nenemies (touched before), proffering to write on thy soul the same\nsin again? The speech of thyself, is it not; for why, there is no\nsuch thing written in thy soul, for all it is wasted away before in\nthy shrift, and thy soul left naked and bare; nothing left\nthereupon, but a frail and a free consent, more inclining to the\nevil, for custom therein, than it is to the good, but more able to\nthe good than to the evil, for cleanness of the soul and virtue of\nthe sacrament of shrift; but, of itself, it hath nought then, where\nthrough it may think or stir itself to good or to evil; and,\ntherefore, it followeth that what thought that cometh then in it,\nwhether that it be good or evil, it is not of itself, but the\nconsent to the good or to the evil, whether that it be, that is ever\nmore the work of the same soul.\n\nAnd all after the worthiness and the wretchedness of this consent,\nthereafter it deserveth pain or bliss. If this consent be to evil,\nthen as fast it hath, by cumbrance of sin, the office of that same\nspirit that first made him suggestion of that same sin; and if it be\nto the good, then as fast it hath, by grace, the office of that same\nspirit that first made him stirring[313] to that same good. For as\noft as any healful thought cometh in our mind, as of chastity, of\nsoberness, of despising of the world, of wilful poverty, of\npatience, of meekness, and of charity, without doubt it is the\nspirit of God that speaketh, either by Himself or else by some of\nHis angels--that is to say, either His angels of this life, the\nwhich are true teachers, or else His angels of His bliss, the which\nare true stirrers and inspirers of good. And as it is said of the\nother three evil spirits, that a soul, for long use and customable\nconsenting unto them, may be made so fleshly, so worldly, and so\nmalicious, that it taketh upon it the office of them all; right so\nit is againward[314] that a soul, for long use and custom in\ngoodness, may be made so ghostly by cleanness of living and devotion\nof spirit against the spirit of the flesh, and so heavenly against\nthe spirit of the world, and so godly by peace and by charity, and\nby restfulness of heart, against the spirit of malice, of wrath, and\nof wickedness, that it hath them now of office all such good\nthoughts to think when him list, without forgetting, in as great\nperfection as the frailty of this life will suffer. And thus it may\nbe seen how that each thought that smiteth on our hearts, whether\nthat it be good or evil, it is not evermore the speech of our own\nspirit, but the consent to the thought, what so ever it be, that is\never of our own spirit. Jesu grant us His grace, to consent to the\ngood and againstand the evil. Amen.\n\nFINIS. DEO GRATIAS\n\n\n\n\nINDEX OF NAMES & SCRIPTURAL REFERENCES\n\n\nAncren Riwle, The, xx, 28 n\n\nAquinas, St. Thomas, xiii, 81, 84 n, 86 n\n\nAsher, symbolism of, 6, 16-19\n\nAugustine, St., xii, 25\n\nBenjamin, symbolism of, xvi, xvii, 6, 29-33\n\nBernard, St., xii, 81\n\nBilhah, symbolism of, 4-6, 13-16\n\nBonaventura, St., xii\n\nCatherine of Siena, St., xi, xvii-xix, xxv-xxvii, 35-47, 52 n, 107 n\n\nCaxton, xviii, xix\n\nChaucer, 17 n, 52 n, 56 n, 95 n, 120 n\n\nChauncy, Maurice, xxiv\n\nDan, symbolism of, 6, 13, 14, 18\n\nDante, xi, xii, xiii, xiv, 38 n, 88 n, 91 n\n\nDinah, symbolism of, 6, 25\n\nDionysius, xxiii, xxiv\n\nDivine Cloud of Unknowing, The, Author of, xii, xvii, xxiv, xxv,\nxxvii, 3, 32, 33, 77-132\n\nEckhart, Meister, xi\n\nExmew, William, xxiv\n\nFlete, William, xvii, xviii, 52 n\n\nGad, symbolism of, 6, 16-19\n\nGenesis, 8-11, 14-17, 20, 24, 32\n\nHawkwood, John, xvii\n\nHilton (Hylton), Walter, xi, xii, xxii-xxv, 61-73, 104 n, 124 n\n\nHugel, F. von, 84 n, 86 n\n\nHugh of St. Victor, xii\n\nImitatione Christi, De, xxiii n, 65 n\n\nIsaiah, 124\n\nIssachar, symbolism of, 6, 20-24\n\nJacob, symbolism of, 3-7, 10, 27, 29\n\nJacopone da Todi, xi\n\nJames, Dane, xviii\n\nJames, Epistle of, 98, 99\n\nJeremiah, 103, 104\n\nJohn, St., Epistles of, 25, 119\n\nJoseph, symbolism of, 6, 27-30\n\nJudah, symbolism of, 6, 10-12\n\nJuliana of Norwich, xi, xxi, 65 n, 123 n\n\nKempe, Margery, xix-xxi, 49-59\n\nLangland, Piers the Plowman, 79 n, 89 n\n\nLayamons Brut, 28 n\n\nLeah, symbolism of, 3-11, 14, 15-20, 24, 26, 29\n\nLevi, symbolism of, 6, 9, 10\n\nLuke, St., 110\n\nMargery, see Kempe\n\nMatthew, St., 8\n\nMechthild of Magdeburg, xi\n\nNaphtali, symbolism of, 6, 13-15, 18, 19\n\nPaul, St., Epistles, 21, 40, 41, 88, 97, 106, 109, 119, 120\n\nPepwell, xiv, xix\n\nProverbs, 28 n\n\nPsalms, The, xiv, xvi, xxvi, 9, 10, 11, 23, 31, 33, 78, 79, 119, 124\n\nPynson, xxii\n\nRachel, symbolism of, 3-6, 12-15, 18, 27, 32\n\nRaymund of Capua, xviii, xix\n\nReuben, symbolism of, 6, 7-9\n\nRichard of St. Victor, xii-xv, xxii, xxv, xxvi, 3, 4 n, 19 n\n\nRichard Rolle of Hampole, xi, xii, xvi, xvii, xxiii n, xxv, 71 n\n\nRobert of Brunne, Chronicle of, 124 n\n\nRuysbroeck, Jan, xi\n\nShelley, xv n\n\nSimeon, symbolism of, 6, 8, 9\n\nSong of Solomon, 88, 108\n\nSuso, Heinrich, xi\n\nTantucci, Giovanni, xvii\n\nTyrrell, George, xxi n\n\nWyclif, 16 n, 79 n, 112 n\n\nWynkyn de Worde, xviii, xix, xx, xxi, xxvii\n\nZebulun, symbolism of, 6, 22-25\n\nZechariah, 119\n\nZilpah, symbolism of, 4-6, 15-17, 20\n\n\n\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n\n[1] Dante, convivio, i. 12.\n\n[2] Cf. the Letter to Can Grande (Epist. x. 28), where Dante, like\nSt. Thomas Aquinas before him, refers to the Benjamin Major as\n\"Richardus de Sancto Victore in libro De Contemplatione.\"\n\n[3]Par. x. 131, 132.\n\n[4] Ps. lxviii. 27.\n\n[5] Benjamin Minor, cap. 73.\n\n[6] Benjamin Minor, cap. 75. Cf. Shelley, The Triumph of Life: \"Their\nlore taught them not this: to know themselves.\" This passage of\nRichard is curiously misquoted and its meaning perverted in Haureau,\nHistoire de la Philosophie Scolastique, i. pp. 513, 514, in the\nDictionary of National Biography, vol. xvi., and elsewhere.\n\n[7] Benjamin Minor, cap. 81.\n\n[8] Cf. below, pp. 32, 33.\n\n[9] Richard Rolle of Hampole and his Followers, edited by C.\nHorstman, vol. i. pp. 162-172.\n\n[10] Sene, Senis, or Seenes, \"Siena,\" from the Latin Senae\n(Catharina de Senis).\n\n[11] Cf. E. Gordon Duff, Hand-Lists of English Printers, 1501-1556,\ni. p. 24.\n\n[12] Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica p. 452.\n\n[13] Quietaclacmium Margerie filie Johannis Kempe de domibus in\nparochia de Northgate. Brit. Mus., Add MS. 25,109.\n\n[14] She was, however, apparently less strictly enclosed than was\nusual for an ancress.\n\n[15] Cf. G. Tyrrell, Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love shewed to\nMother Juliana of Norwich, Preface, p. v.\n\n[16] In the British Museum copy of Pepwell's volume, ff. 1-2 of the\nEpistle of Prayer and f. 1 of the Song of Angels are transposed.\n\n[17] Cf. C. T. Martin, in Dictionary of National Biography, vol. ix.\nFor Hilton's alleged authorship of the De Imitatione Christi, see J.\nE. G. de Montmorency, Thomas a Kempis, his Age and Book, pp.\n141-169.\n\n[18] Edited by G. G. Perry, under the title The Anehede of Godd with\nmannis saule, as the work of Richard Rolle, in English Prose\nTreatises of Richard Rolle de Hampole (Early English Text Society,\n1866), pp. 14-19; and, in two texts, by C. Horstman, op. cit., vol.\ni. pp. 175-182.\n\n[19] In the MSS. this is called: A pystyll of discrecion in knowenge\nof spirites; or: A tretis of discrescyon of spirites.\n\n[20] All in Harl. MS. 674, and other MSS. The Divine Cloud of\nUnknowing, and portions of the Epistle, Book, or Treatise, of Privy\nCounsel have been printed, in a very unsatisfactory manner, in The\nDivine Cloud with notes and a Preface by Father Augustine Baker,\nO.S.B. Edited by Henry Collins. London, 1871.\n\n[21] D. M. M'Intyre, The Cloud of Unknowing, in the Expositor,\nseries vii. vol. 4 (1907). Dr. Rufus M. Jones, Studies in Mystical\nReligion, p. 336, regards these treatises as the work of \"a school\nof mystics gathered about the writer of the Hid Divinity.\" Neither\nof these authors includes the translation of the Benjamin Minor,\nwhich, however, appears to me undoubtedly from the same hand as that\nof the Divine Cloud.\n\n[22] Benjamin Minor, cap. 78.\n\n[23] Dialogo cap. 151.\n\n[24] Benjamin Minor, cap. 72.\n\n[25] The MSS. have: \"men clepen.\"\n\n[26] So the MSS., which agrees with the Latin, ordinati affectus\n(Benjamin Minor, cap. 3); Pepwell has \"ardent feelings.\"\n\n[27] So Pepwell, which accords with the Latin: cum tante\nimportunitate. The MSS. read: \"unconningly,\" i.e. ignorantly.\n\n[28] So Harl. MS. 674 and Pepwell; Harl. MS. 1022, ed. Horstman,\nreads: \"forthe,\" i.e. offer. The Latin is: \"Et Zelphae quidem sitim\ndominae suae copia tanta omnino extinguere non potest\" (Benjamin\nMinor, cap. 6).\n\n[29] The Latin has simply: \"vinum quod Zelpha sitit, gaudium est\nvoluptatis\" (ibid.).\n\n[30] Harl. MS. 1022, ed. Horstman, reads: \"in our soul.\"\n\n[31] Pepwell gives the modern equivalent, \"ordinate\" and\n\"inordinate,\" for \"ordained\" and \"unordained,\" throughout.\n\n[32] Ps. cxi. 10 (Vulgate cx.).\n\n[33] Pepwell adds: \"and high Judge.\"\n\n[34] Filius visionis.\n\n[35] Gen. xxix. 32 (Vidit Dominus humilitatem meam, Vulgate).\n\n[36] Gen. xxix. 33.\n\n[37] Exauditio.\n\n[38] Matt. v. 4.\n\n[39] Ezek. xxxiii. 14.\n\n[40] Made humble.\n\n[41] Ps. li. 17 (Vulgate l.).\n\n[42] Additus, vel Additio.\n\n[43] Added. Cf. Gen. xxix. 34.\n\n[44] Ps. xciv. 19 (Vulgate xciii.).\n\n[45] Gen. xxix. 34.\n\n[46] Gen. xxix. 35 (Vulgate): Modo confitebor Domino.\n\n[47] Confitens.\n\n[48] Learning.\n\n[49] Ps. cvi. 1, cvii. 1 (cv., cvi., Vulgate).\n\n[50] Pepwell reads: \"the true goodness of God.\"\n\n[51] Pepwell reads: \"conning.\"\n\n[52] Latin Invisibilium: Pepwell has \"unseasable.\"\n\n[53] Pepwell has \"feble.\"\n\n[54] Reasons.\n\n[55] Because.\n\n[56] Judicium (Pepwell adds: \"or judgment\").\n\n[57] Gen. xlix. 16: \"Dan shall judge his people.\"\n\n[58] Gen. xxx. 6.\n\n[59] Gen. xxx. 8: \"Comparavit me Deus cum sorore mea, et invalui\"\n(Vulgate).\n\n[60] In the Latin, \"Comparalio vel conversio.\"\n\n[61] Gen. xlix. 21: \"Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly\nwords\" (Nephthali cervus emissus at dams eloquia pulchritudinis,\nVulgate).\n\n[62] Harl. MS. 1022, ed. Horstman, reads: \"full.\"\n\n[63] Underloute, participle of Underluten (O.E. Underlutan), \"to\nstoop beneath,\" or \"submit to.\" Cf. Wycliffe's Bible, Gen. xxxvii.\n8: \"Whether thow shalt be oure kyng, oither we shal be undirloute to\nthi bidding?\"\n\n[64] Discomfort.\n\n[65] Dixit: Feliciter. Gen. xxx. 11 (Vulgate).\n\n[66] Felicitas. Harl. MS. 674 adds: \"whether thou wilt.\"\n\n[67] The MSS. have: \"selyness.\"\n\n[68] Gen. xxx. 13 (Vulgate): Hoc pro beatitudine mea.\n\n[69] Beatus.\n\n[70] Natural.\n\n[71] Murmurs, complains. Cf. Chaucer, The Persones Tale, ed. Skeat\nSS 30: \"After bakbyting cometh grucching or murmuracion; and somtyme\nit springeth of impacience agayns God, and somtyme agayns man.\nAgayns God it is, whan a man gruccheth agayn the peynes of helle, or\nagayns poverte, or los of catel or agayn reyn or tempest; or elles\ngruccheth that shrewes han prosperitee, or elles for that goode men\nhan adversitee.\"\n\n[72] Pepwell adds: at the least willingly.\n\n[73] Pepwell reads: \"put down.\"\n\n[74] Watches.\n\n[75] Promises. Latin: fovet promissis.\n\n[76] A curious mistranslation: \"Sed Aser hosti suo facile illudit\ndum partem quam tuetur, alta patientiae rupe munitam conspicit\"\n(Benjamin Minor, cap. 33).\n\n[77] Dwelling-place.\n\n[78] Pacified. Harl. MS. 1022, ed. Horstman, reads: \"the cite of\nconscience is made pesebule.\"\n\n[79] Merces.\n\n[80] So Harl. MS. 674; omitted in Harl, MS. 1022 and by Pepwell.\n\n[81] Gen. xxx. 18.\n\n[82] The MSS. read: \"erles.\"\n\n[83] Gen. xlix, 14: \"Issachar asinus fortis accubans interterminos\"\n(Vulgate).\n\n[84] Rom. vii. 24.\n\n[85] Phil. i. 23.\n\n[86] Ps iv. 5. Harl. MS. 674 has: \"Wraththes and willeth not synne,\nor thus: Beeth wrothe and synnith not.\"\n\n[87] Human nature in our fellow-man.\n\n[88] Fellow-Christian. The words in square brackets are omitted in\nHarl. MS. 674.\n\n[89] Ps. cxxxix. (Vulgate cxxxviii. ) 21.\n\n[90] Ps. cxix. (Vulgate cxviii.) 104.\n\n[91] Habitaculum fortitudinis.\n\n[92] Gen. xxx. 20.\n\n[93] Assuredly. Pepwell sometimes modernises this word, but not\ninvariably.\n\n[94] 1 John i. 8.\n\n[95] Cf. St. Augustine's various writings against the Pelagians,\ne.g. Epist. clvii. (Opera, ed. Migne, tom. ii. coll. 374 et seq.),\nAd Hilarium.\n\n[96] Deliberate intention.\n\n[97] Warnes in the MSS.\n\n[98] Disposition.\n\n[99] Coaxing, beguiling. Harl. MS. 674 reads: \"glosing.\"\n\n[100] Madness.\n\n[101] In particular. Pepwell has: \"surely.\"\n\n[102] Regret.\n\n[103] Better is art than evil strength. A proverbial expression. Cf.\nLayamons Brut, 17210 (ed Madden, ii. p. 297); Ancren Riwle (ed.\nMorton), p. 268 (where it is rendered: \"Skilful prudence is better\nthan rude force\"). Cf. Prov. xxi. 22.\n\n[104] The MSS. have: \"ilke.\"\n\n[105] Invisibilia.\n\n[106] So Pepwell and Harl. MS. 674. Harl. MS. 1022, ed. Horstman,\nreads: \"see thiself and the candell.\"\n\n[107] Pepwell reads: \"waking.\"\n\n[108] Ps. iv. 6-7.\n\n[109] Harl. MS. 674 reads: \"light.\"\n\n[110] Salutary.\n\n[111] Skill.\n\n[112] So Pepwell. Harl. MS. 674 reads: \"each desire on desire.\"\nHarl. MS. 1022, ed. Horstman, has: \"hekand desire unto desire.\"\n\n[113] Gen. xxxv. 18.\n\n[114] Ps. xxvi. (Vulgate xxv.) 12.\n\n[115] So Harl. MSS. 1022 and 2373; Pepwell and harl. MS. 674 read:\n\"godly.\"\n\n[116] Ps. lxviii. 27 (Vulgate lxvii. 28).\n\n[117] So Harl. MS. 2373; omitted in Harl. MS. 674. Pepwell has\ninstead: \"To the which us bring our blessed Benjamin, Christ Jesu,\nAmen.\" Harl. MS. 1022 ends: \"Jesus Jesu, Mercy, Jesu, grant Mercy,\nJesu.\" The whole of this concluding paragraph, which is an addition\nof the translator, differs considerably in Pepwell.\n\n[118]So Pepwell and MS. Reg. 17 D.V.; Caxton has: \"Thou art she that\nart not, and I am he that am\"; which is nearer to the Latin.\n\n[119]Caxton reads: \"I escape gracyously all his snares.\"\n\n[120]Cf. Dante, Par. xxxiii. 100-105:--\n\n  \"A quella luce cotal si diventa,\n  Che volgersi da lei per altro aspetto,\n  E impossibil che mai si consenta;\n  Pero che il ben, ch'e del volere obbietto,\n  Tutto s'accoglie in lei, e fuor di quella\n  E difettivo cio che li e perfetto.\"\n\n\"Such at that light does one become, that it were impossible ever\nto consent to turn from it for sight of ought else, For the good,\nthat is the object of the will, is wholly gathered therein, and\noutside it that is defective which there is perfect.\"\n\n[121]So Pepwell: Caxton has: \"yf thou wilt gete the vertu of\nghostely strength.\"\n\n[122]Pepwell and the MS. add: \"and temptations\" (Caxton: \"of\ntemptacyons\"); which is clearly out of place. Cf. Legenda, SS 104\n(Acta Sanctorum, Aprilis, tom. iii.).\n\n[123]2 Cor. i. 7.\n\n[124]Mated. Caxton has: \"vertuously y-mette.\" Cf. Legenda, SS 101:\n\"Talis anima sic Deo conjuncta.\"\n\n[125]2 Cor. xii. 10.\n\n[126] \"And the cause and the rote\" (Caxton).\n\n[127]Sometimes.\n\n[128]Caxton has: \"It happed she sayde that other whyle deuoute\nferuour of a sowle leuyng oure lorde Jhesu other by somme certeyne\nsynne, or ellys by newe sotyll temptacyons of the fende wexyth dull\nand slowe, and other whyle it is y-brought to veray coldenesse.\"\nPepwell and the MS. are entirely corrupt: \"It happeneth (she sayth)\nthat otherwhyle a synner whiche is leuynge our Lord Jhesu by some\ncerteyn synne, or ellys by some certeyn temptacyons of the fende,\"\n&c. The original of the passage runs thus: \"Frequenter enim (ut\ninquiebat) contingit animae Deum amanti quod fervor mentalis, vel ex\ndivina providentia, vel ex aliquali culpa, vel ex haustis\nadinventionibus inimici, tepescit, et quandoque quasi ad\nfrigiditatem usque deducitur\" (Legenda SS 107).\n\n[129]So Caxton; Pepwell has: \"leaving.\"\n\n[130]Caxton has: \"seeth\"; the Latin text: quantumcumque videat seu\nsentiat.\n\n[131]Requited.\n\n[132]So the MS.; Pepwell reads: \"were feble and fayle\"; and Caxton:\n\"wexed feble and defayled.\"\n\n[133]Caxton reads: \"prayng\" (praying).\n\n[134]So Caxton: Pepwell and MS. have: \"in.\"\n\n[135]Latin, Praelatorum suorum (i.e. of her ecclesiastical\nsuperiors), Legenda, SS 361.\n\n[136]Omitted in Pepwell and in MS.\n\n[137]Judge. Cf. above, p. 14.\n\n[138]Judgment.\n\n[139] \"Also she sayd that she hadde alwaye grete hope and truste in\nGoddes prouydence, and to this same truste she endured her dysciples\nseyng unto theym that she founde and knewe\" (Caxton).\n\n[140]The habergeon or the hair-shirt, the former term being applied\nto an instrument of penance as well as to a piece of armour. Cf.\nChaucer, The Persones Tale (ed. Skeat, SS 97): \"Thanne shaltow\nunderstonde, that bodily peyne stant in disciplyne or techinge, by\nword or by wrytinge, or in ensample. Also in weringe of heyres or of\nstamin, or of haubergeons on hir naked flesh, for Cristes sake, and\nswiche manere penances. But war thee wel that swiche manere penances\non thy flesh ne make nat thyn herte bitter or angry or anoyed of\nthy-self; for bettre is to caste awey thyn heyre, than for to caste\naway the sikernesse of Jesu Crist. And therfore seith seint Paul:\n'Clothe yow, as they that been chosen of God, in herte of\nmisericorde, debonairetee, suffraunce, and swich manere of\nclothinge'; of whiche Jesu Crist is more apayed than of heyres, or\nhaubergeons, or hauberkes.\"\n\n[141]Wynkyn de Worde has: \"sholde.\"\n\n[142]Wynkyn de Worde has: \"profyte.\"\n\n[143]Cf. St. Catherine of Siena, Letter to William Flete (ed. Gigli,\n124): \"There are some who give themselves perfectly to chastising\ntheir body, doing very great and bitter penance, in order that the\nsensuality may not rebel against the reason. They have set all their\ndesire more in mortifying the body than in slaying their own will.\nThese are fed at the table of penance, and are good and perfect, but\nunless they have great humility, and compel themselves to consider\nthe will of God and not that of men, they oft times mar their\nperfection by making themselves judges of those who are not going by\nthe same way that they are going.\"\n\n[144]Perhaps, simply, \"say many prayers\"--without any special\nreference to the rosary.\n\n[145]Annoy.\n\n[146]Wynkyn de Worde has: \"mote.\"\n\n[147]Wynkyn de Worde has: \"lownesse.\"\n\n[148]With-out-forth=outwardly. Cf. Chaucer, The Persones Tale, (ed.\nSkeat, SS 10): \"And with-inne the hertes of folk shal be the bytinge\nconscience, and with-oute-forth shal be the world al brenninge.\"\n\n[149]Everyche=each one.\n\n[150]According to the legend, certain \"indulgences,\" to be gained by\nall who visited the Holy Places at Jerusalem, were first granted by\nPope St. Sylvester at the petition of Constantine and St. Helena.\nThere seems no evidence as to the real date at which these special\nindulgences were instituted. Cf. Amort, De origine, progressu,\nvalore, ac frauctu Indulgentiarum, Augsburg, 1735, pars i. pp. 217\net seq.\n\n[151]Plenary.\n\n[152]All the indulgences attached to the Holy Places.\n\n[153]Probably Racheness in the parish of South Acre, where \"there\nwas a leper hospital, with church or chapel dedicated to St.\nBartholomew, of early foundation\" (Victoria History of the County of\nNorfolk, ii. p. 450).\n\n[154]In true union.\n\n[155]Established firmly.\n\n[156]Wandering.\n\n[157]So Horstman. Pepwell reads: \"With this wonderful onehede ne may\nnone be fuifilled.\"\n\n[158]Unreasonable impulses.\n\n[159]Secret nature. Cf. Mother Juliana, Revelations of Divine Love,\nxiv. cap. 46: \"And our kindly substance is now blessedfully in God.\"\n\n[160]Divers.\n\n[161]Cf. De Imitatione Christi, ii. 4: \"If thine heart were right,\nthen every creature would be a mirror of life, and a book of holy\ndoctrine. There is no creature so small and vile, as not to\nrepresent the goodness of God.\"\n\n[162]Horstman reads: \"a mans saule.\"\n\n[163]So Horstman: Pepwell reads: \"as virtues in angels and in holy\nsouls and in heavenly things.\"\n\n[164]Pepwell omits the \"not.\"\n\n[165]Before.\n\n[166]The truth of God's hidden mysteries.\n\n[167]According to the measure of its love.\n\n[168]All intervening hindrance.\n\n[169]Horstman reads: \"matter.\"\n\n[170]A little.\n\n[171]Before.\n\n[172]Overtaxes.\n\n[173]Craft.\n\n[174]Horstman reads: \"wete he wele.\"\n\n[175]This passage is defective in Pepwell.\n\n[176]MS. Dd. v. 55, ed. Horstman, has: \"purges.\"\n\n[177]Pepwell has: \"in feeling of the sound.\"\n\n[178]MS. Dd. v. 55, ed. Horstman, reads: \"toune\" (i.e. tone).\n\n[179]Illumined.\n\n[180]Cools down grows cold. Also construed with \"from.\" Cf. Richard\nRolle Psalter (ed. H. R. Bramley, p. 156): \"He gars sa many kele fra\ngodis luf.\"\n\n[181]A mere abstract thought of God.\n\n[182]Construe: \"But if he hold this feeling and this mind (that is\nonly his own working by custom) to be a special visitation.\"\n\n[183]Surer, safer.\n\n[184]Pepwell adds \"and in faith.\"\n\n[185]The MSS. add: \"And bot if thou spede thee the rather or thou\ncome to the ende of thy prayer.\"\n\n[186]Pepwell reads: \"find.\"\n\n[187]Coax, beguile.\n\n[188]Falsehoods.\n\n[189]The MSS. read: \"behetynges of lenger leuyng.\"\n\n[190]Promise.\n\n191Ps. xlvi. 8 (Vulgate), xlvii. 7 (A.V.): \"Sing ye praises with\nunderstanding.\"\n\n192Ps. cxi. 10 (cx. 10 Vulgate).\n\n[193]So Pepwell; Harl. MS. 674 reads: \"Bot forthi that there is no\nsekir stonding.\"\n\n[194]Pepwell adds in explanation: \"or amends\"; i.e. satisfaction.\nCf. Langland, Piers the Plowman, B. xvii. 237: \"And if it suffice\nnoughte for assetz\"; and Wyclif, Pistil on Cristemasse Day (Select\nEnglish Works, ed. T. Arnold, ii. p. 237): \"And thus, sith aseeth\nmuste be maad for Adams synne.\"\n\n[195]Ps. xxxiv. 22 (Vulgate xxxiii. 23).\n\n[196]The MSS. read: \"fro a lyf.\"\n\n[197]The MSS. read: \"a lyf.\"\n\n[198]So Harl. MS. 674. Pepwell reads: \"Also the steps of thy staff\nHope plainly will shew unto thee if thou do it duly, as I have told\nthee before, or not.\"\n\n[199]Summa Theologica, II.-ii. Q. 82, A. I: \"Devotio nihil aliud\nesse videtur, quam voluntas quaedam prompte tradendi se ad ea, quae\npertinent ad Dei famulatum.\"\n\n[200]The whole passage included in square brackets is omitted in\nPepwell, but is identical in the two MSS.\n\n[201]So Harl. MS. 2373; Harl. MS. 674 reads: \"medeful.\"\n\n[202]The trunk.\n\n[203]Pepwell inserts: \"it is but churl's meat, for.\"\n\n[204]Not in Pepwell.\n\n[205]Pepwell reads: \"and for nothing else.\"\n\n[206]Had never received it from Him.\n\n[207]Pure Love, or Charity, which \"attains to God Himself, that it\nmay abide in Him, not that any advantage may accrue to us from Him\"\n(St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II.-ii. Q. 23, A. 6). For the\nwhole doctrine of \"Pure Love or Disinterested Religion,\" cf. F. von\nHugel, The Mystical Element of Religion, ii. pp. 152-181.\n\n[208]So both MSS.; Pepwell reads: \"blessedness.\"\n\n[209]Hindering or marring.\n\n[210]Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II.-ii. Q. 27, A. 3;\nand F. von Hugel, op. cit., ii. p. 167.\n\n[211]In the Divine Essence.\n\n[212]So Harl. MS. 674, I take \"it\" as the beatitude of man which is\nGod Himself.\n\n[213]Cf. Dante, Par. xxxiii, 143-145:--\n\n\"Ma gia volgeva il mio disiro e il velle,\nSi come rota ch' egualmente e mossa,\nL'Amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle.\"\n\n\"But already my desire and will, even as a wheel that is equally\nmoved, were being turned by the Love that moves the sun and the\nother stars.\"\n\n[214]1 Cor. vi. 17.\n\n[215]Pepwell adds: \"or sundry.\"\n\n[216]So Pepwell and Harl. MS. 2373; Harl. MS, 674 reads: \"they ben\none spirit.\"\n\n[217]Cant. ii. 16.\n\n[218]Harl. MS. 674 reads: \"glose.\" Pepwell adds: \"or flatter.\"\n\n[219]Heed.\n\n[220]Pepwell adds: \"or betokeneth.\" Cf. Langland, Piers the Plowman,\nA. i. 1: \"What this mountein bemeneth.\"\n\n[221]Cf. above, p. 28 note.\n\n[222]Pepwell adds: \"or counsel.\"\n\n[223]Of thyself thou hast nought but sin.\n\n[224]So the MSS.: Pepwell has: \"to God.\"\n\n[225]Pepwell changes to \"divers.\"\n\n[226]Cf. Dante, De Monarchia, iii. 16: \"Man alone of beings holds a\nmid-place between corruptible and incorruptible; wherefore he is\nrightly likened by the philosophers to the horizon which is between\ntwo hemispheres. For man, if considered after either essential part,\nto wit soul and body is corruptible if considered only after the\none, to wit the body, but if after the other, to wit the soul, he is\nincorruptible. . . . If man then, is a kind of mean between\ncorruptible and incorruptible things, since every mean savours of\nthe nature of the extremes, it is necessary that man should savour\nof either nature. And since every nature is ordained to a certain\nend, it follows that there must be a twofold end of man, so that\nlike as he alone amongst all beings partakes of corruptibility and\nincorruptibilty, so he alone amongst all beings should be ordained\nfor two final goals of which the one should be his goal as a\ncorruptible being, and the other as an incorruptible\" (P. H.\nWicksteed's translation).\n\n[227]Pepwell modernises this throughout to \"dwelling alone.\"\n\n[228]Pepwell substitutes \"doubt.\" Cf. Chaucer, Legend of Good Women,\n2686: \"Thryes doun she fil in swiche a were.\"\n\n[229]Pepwell adds: \"in keeping of silence.\"\n\n[230]Harl. MS. 674 reads: \"more holiness than thou art worthy.\"\n\n[231]Nature.\n\n[232]Solitude.\n\n[233]Pepwell has: \"company.\"\n\n[234]Pepwell reads: \"better.\"\n\n[235]Causes.\n\n[236]1 Cor. ii. 11.\n\n[237]Simple.\n\n[238]Jas. i. 12.\n\n[239]The MSS. usually read \"cleped\" for \"called.\"\n\n[240]Pepwell modernizes to \"trouble.\"\n\n[241]Jas. i. 12.\n\n[242]To give place to.\n\n[243]Such impulses to exceptional practices.\n\n[244]Humble itself.\n\n[245]Pleasant.\n\n[246]Pepwell reads: \"wits.\"\n\n[247]Lest.\n\n[248]Pepwell reads: \"strait.\"\n\n[249]Jer. ix. 21: \"Quia ascendit mors per fenestras nostras\"\n(Vulgate). Pepwell reads: \"as saint Jerome saith\"! Cf. Walter\nHilton, The Ladder of Perfection, I. pt. iii. cap 9: \"Lift up thy\nlanthorn, and thou shalt see in this image five windows, by which\nsin cometh into thy soul, as the Prophet saith: Death cometh in by\nour windows. These are the five senses by which thy soul goeth out\nof herself, and fetcheth her delight and seeketh her feeding in\nearthly things, contrary to the nobility of her own nature. As by\nthe eye to see curious and fair things and so of the other senses.\nBy the unskilful using of these senses willingly to vanities, thy\nsoul is much letted from the sweetness of the spiritual senses\nwithin; and therefore it behoveth thee to stop these windows, and\nshut them, but only when need requireth to open them\" (ed.\nDalgairns, p. 115).\n\n[250]Ignorant.\n\n[251]Where natural and acquired knowledge alike fall shorts.\n\n[252]Fully.\n\n[253]Nature.\n\n[254]Pepwell has: \"when thou dost feel.\"\n\n[255]Pepwell inserts: \"I mean except the solemn vows of holy\nreligion.\"\n\n[256]2 Cor. iii. 17.\n\n[257]Cf. St. Catherine of Siena, Letter 308 (ed. Gigli): \"Love\nharmonises the three powers of our soul, and binds them together.\nThe will moves the understanding to see, when it wishes to love;\nwhen the understanding perceives that the will would fain love, if\nit is a rational will, it places before it as object the ineffable\nlove of the eternal Father, who has given us the Word, His own son,\nand the obedience and humility of the son, who endured torments,\ninuries, mockeries, and insults with meekness and with such great\nlove. And thus the will, with ineffable love, follows what the eye\nof the understanding has beheld; and with its strong hand, it stores\nup in the memory the treasure that it draws from this love.\"\n\n[258]Losing.\n\n[259]Cant. iv. 9.\n\n[260]To exercise love.\n\n[261]Divers.\n\n[262]1 Cor. i. 26, vii. 20; Eph. iv. 1.\n\n[263]Luke x. 42.\n\n[264]Pepwell inserts \"Him list thee to see, and.\"\n\n[265]Pepwell reads: \"Let be good and all that is good, and better\nwith all that is better.\"\n\n[266]Luke x. 42.\n\n[267]To know how to speak, etc.\n\n[268]Banishing from thy soul's vision.\n\n[269]Be able to.\n\n[270]Pepwell reads: \"privily.\" Cf. Wyclif (Select English Works, ed.\ncit., i. p. 149): \"And after seith Crist to his apostles, that thes\nthingis he seide bifore to hem in proverbis and mystily.\"\n\n[271]Pepwell reads: \"rest.\"\n\n[272]Pepwell modernises \"conne\" to \"learn to\" throughout this\npassage.\n\n[273]Harl. MS. 674 reads: \"stirring\"; the other MS, as Pepwell.\n\n[274]Harl. MS. 674 reads: \"have.\"\n\n[275]Pepwell reads: \"else.\"\n\n[276]Manifestly, i.e. unless they clearly show that they do not know\nhow to act as they should. Pepwell has: \"in a part.\"\n\n[277]i.e. take their advice, but do not simply imitate them. I\nfollow the MSS. in preference to Pepwell, who reads: \"Work after no\nmen's counsel, but sith that know well their own disposition; for\nsuch men should,\" etc.\n\n[278]1 John iv. 1-6.\n\n[279]Ps. lxxxv. 8 (Vulgate lxxxiv. 9).\n\n[280]Zech. i. 9-19.\n\n[281]Col. ii. 18.\n\n[282]1 Thess. i. 2-9.\n\n[283]Pepwell adds: \"or ambition.\" Cf. Chaucer, The Persones Tale,\ned. Skeat, SS 18: \"and coveitise of hynesse by pryde of herte.\"\n\n[284]Burns.\n\n[285]So Harl. MS. 674; Pepwell has: \"war.\"\n\n[286]Crafty device.\n\n[287]Cf. above, p. 17 note.\n\n[288]Pepwell has: \"gladly.\"\n\n[289]Pepwell reads \"ever ready.\"\n\n[290]Withstand, resist.\n\n[291]Cf. Mother Juliana, Revelations of Divine Love, i. cap. 9: \"In\ngeneral I am, I hope, in onehead of charity with all my even\nChristian, for in this onehead standeth the life of all mankind that\nshall be saved.\"\n\n[292]If it is still guilty of the other two.\n\n[293]Pepwell adds: \"and voluptuous.\"\n\n[294]Ps. cxxxii. (Vulgate cxxxi. ) 13.\n\n[295]Cf. Walter Hilton, The Ladder of Perfection, II. pt. ii. cap.\n3: \"Jerusalem is, as much as to say, a sight of peace, and\nbetokeneth contemplation in perfect love of God; for contemplation\nis nothing else but a sight of God, which is very peace.\"\n\n[296]Probably Isa. lvii. 15.\n\n[297]Pepwell reads: \"most folly.\"\n\n[298]Pepwell adds: \"or harm.\" Cf. The Chronicle of Robert of Brunne,\n8905-6: \"Now may ye lyghtly bere the stones to schip wythouten\ndere.\"\n\n[299]Advisedly.\n\n[300]Partisans, abettors.\n\n[301]The MSS. read: \"doles.\"\n\n[302]Pepwell reads: \"But it is more sorrow to feel of our own\nspirit's deceits. For sometime our own spirit.\"\n\n[303]The MSS. read: \"Bot what thar reche\"; what need to care.\n\n[304]Pepwell reads: \"didst feel in there.\"\n\n[305]Cf. above, p. 95, note.\n\n[306]Pepwell adds: \"and judgment.\"\n\n[307]Unless because of carelessness in resisting them when they\nfirst come.\n\n[308]To regard thyself as responsible.\n\n[309]Madness.\n\n[310]Not in Harl. MS. 674.\n\n[311]Pepwell reads: \"a full damnable and a full cursed fiend in his\nliving.\"\n\n[312]Pepwell adds: \"and desire much.\"\n\n[313]Pepwell reads: \"suggestion.\"\n\n[314]On the other hand.","title":"The Cell of Self-Knowledge : seven early English mystical treatises printed by Henry Pepwell in 1521","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":34044}